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Google fires more workers after CEO says workplace isn’t for politics

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Re: Google fires more workers after CEO says workplace isn’t for politics

#231

Post by meiraleal »

edanm wrote: post #212
meiraleal wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people in whole or in part That's exactly what Israel is doing from the POV of the whole world but they disagree.

That's not the pov of the whole world. It's actually contrary to the views of all the major Democratic countries like the us, UK and France. The countries that claim Israel is committing genocide are mostly authoritarian countries.

That's the POV of most human beings, authoritarian technocrats ruling the West are the few exceptions.

Re: Google fires more workers after CEO says workplace isn’t for politics

#232

Post by FooBarBizBazz »

listless wrote: post #202
bell-cot wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Bring your whole selves to the office" can work pretty darn well (at least from the C-suite PoV) when the company is a (relative) plucky little startup, and you're trying to get the drones to work 80+ hour weeks for crap pay. But when you're a corporate behemoth, with a "keep turning crank to keep making $billions" business model...then not so much.

The “bring your whole/authentic self to work” is a terrible thing to tell people. Precisely because companies have cultural values they are giving you at the same time. They are literally telling you who you should be at work and then telling you to be your “authentic self” out of the other side of their mouth. Those of us who are older know what they mean. We know they don’t want us to actually be ourselves. But I t…

There is no conflict, if your complete authentic self is a manifestation of the corporate values -- the Word Made Flesh, Google incarnate. You are Google in the boardroom and Google in the bedroom. Ungoogly thoughts are unrepresentable within your mind.

Re: Google fires more workers after CEO says workplace isn’t for politics

#233

Post by waihtis »

spacechild1 wrote: post #227
waihtis wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

no I think its extremely infantile behaviour to use light sarcasm when discussing serious matters

I wouldn't agree. Here the sarcasm isn't used to belittle the victims but to mock and shame the perpetrators.

Yeah I bet the Qatar monarchy is absolutely red with shame because someone offhandedly made a sarcastic comment about them on the interwebs

Re: Google fires more workers after CEO says workplace isn’t for politics

#234

Post by disgruntledphd2 »

ninininino wrote: post #172
spencerflem wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US Government is not actively paying for and using UN Vetos to continue the Darfur Genocide, so there's a lot less we can directly do about it.

The US government could stop giving aid to Israel six months ago and it would have done nothing to discourage or stop Israel from doing what its done in Gaza since Oct 7, because its neither contingent on US funding nor US or UN approval. First of all the military conflict in Gaza is asymmetric warfare, unlike Ukraine - Israel does not need any more money or weapons than it already has to destroy buildings. They alre…

Ok, I disagree that this is just happening because (many, not all) Israelis would be classified as white. The diversity on the streets of Tel Aviv is phenomenal, but I digress.

Fundamentally the reason that I hold Israel to a higher standard is because of the Holocaust, and all the pogroms that occurred before, all of which were incredibly morally wrong.

And here we are 80 years later, and they are acting in ways that are very very similar to the ways that their oppressors acted. Like, Gaza is equivalent to a ghetto, the West Bank is basically occupied territory, and there are many Palestinians who have their rights violated in ways that simply would not happen to Israeli citizens.

It's profoundly disappointing and depressing, that if even the Jewish people haven't learned from all of the terrible historical things that have happened to them, then what hope for the rest of the species?

Thats why I, at least care more about what's happening in Gaza right now.

Re: Google fires more workers after CEO says workplace isn’t for politics

#235

Post by Fluorescence »

waihtis wrote: post #226
spacechild1 wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think your sarcasm antennas need some adjustment.

no I think its extremely infantile behaviour to use light sarcasm when discussing serious matters

Sarcasm, irony and euphemism are modes indirectness, like gallows humour, to help us talk about the horrific without the equivalent of burning our eyes out staring at the sun. It's a coping mechanism.

Sincere and explicit statements of horror have paradoxical outcomes because such words wear thin. They are overused by the disengenuous to wound others. The sincere are forced onto a semantic treadmill seeking different ways to express themselves.

Re: Google fires more workers after CEO says workplace isn’t for politics

#236

Post by jolj »

racional wrote: post #132
gedy wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But afaik Lavender is an Israeli internal tool, not Google developed. I'm not arguing for Google or Israel here, just that people passionate about this aren't straightforward either.

"Developed by Israel, but with infrastructure and support from Google" is probably how they would put it. Sounds perfectly straightforward actually.

Do you have any proof this is running on infrastructure and support of Google? I have to say I would be extremely surprised if Israel hosts intelligence data on GCP. Extremely surprised to a level I'd suspect high negligence on their part.

Re: Google fires more workers after CEO says workplace isn’t for politics

#237

Post by woooooo »

dragonmost wrote: post #210
phantompeace wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

30,000 Uyghur women and children weren’t indiscriminately bombed to death via advanced drones, nor were hundreds of innocent civilians massacred at hospitals in China and buried in mass graves. It’s happening in Palestine as we type.

Instead over 1 million of them are sent to concentration camps, abused and killed to harvest their organs. It's genocide eitherway. The issue isn't covered is really the difference here.

A million killed to harvest their organs? You sure about that? Or was that a rhetorical thing.

Re: Google fires more workers after CEO says workplace isn’t for politics

#238

Post by jolj »

Things I think this discussion constantly misses:

1. One of Google's largest engineering office is in Israel, so it has thousands of employees directly affected by the war. Obviously seeing fellow employees protest against their own country at work is at least a huge distraction. A Google employee entire family was kidnapped to Gaza, by the way.

2. Project Nimbus is a way to get cloud regions in Israel in exchange for government budgets. Although the IDF will get its share, it's naturally going to be extremely limited. There isn't going to be some killer AI running on GCP simply because you don't run classified data/software on public clouds. The fact Israel does not even have a government cloud region means the defensive nature of the workloads are going to be extremely limited, and even if it had, intelligence would not be there.

3. The fact that you are sure Israel is a reincarnation of nazi germany, apartheid south africa and scare word, scare word, genocide, doesn't make it is so or also does not mean it is a popular opinion outside your twitter echo chamber. This might also not be a common opinion in your work place, even though people around you rather keep quiet.

Re: Google fires more workers after CEO says workplace isn’t for politics

#239

Post by skissane »

edanm wrote: post #223
jhp123 wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I'm referring to is that Israel is both "in charge" and "not in charge" of Gaza. They control Gaza's borders and move their troops into Gaza at will. On the other hand of course Gazans do not enjoy Israel's constitutional protections, etc.

Israel didn't "move their troops into Gaza at will", not until this current war. After Israel's disengagement from Gaza, it had no soldiers in Gaza at all. It also doesn't "control Gaza's borders" alone, fwiw. > On the other hand of course Gazans do not enjoy Israel's constitutional protections, etc. Not sure what this is "on the other hand" of exactly. Palestinian's want self-determination, Gaza was an incomplete, o…

> who currently live in a place and culture in which homosexuals are ilterally thrown off rooftops

You seem to be confusing Hamas with ISIS; yes, ISIS did that in Iraq and Syria; not aware that’s happened in Gaza, although there have been false claims to that effect - https://www.reuters.com/fact-check/video-people-thrown-roof-...

Not denying that bad stuff happens to gay people in Gaza (such as extrajudicial honour killings) but not aware that it happens like that

Re: Google fires more workers after CEO says workplace isn’t for politics

#240

Post by racional »

jolj wrote: post #236
racional wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Developed by Israel, but with infrastructure and support from Google" is probably how they would put it. Sounds perfectly straightforward actually.

Do you have any proof this is running on infrastructure and support of Google? I have to say I would be extremely surprised if Israel hosts intelligence data on GCP. Extremely surprised to a level I'd suspect high negligence on their part.

"High negligence" seems to has characterized the IDF response to the situation in Gaza at nearly every turn since Oct 7th.

The point the protesters are making is not that there is hard proof in hand about any specific projects at this point - but that there is ample ground, their view, to demand positive clarification from these companies that these tools aren't being used to cause harm in the occupied territories.

Given the magnitude of the crimes we are seeing on the ground, after all. And that thousands upon thousands of lives -- of persons who are unambiguously noncombatants -- have already been extinguished on far lower standards of proof. In the most gruesome circumstances imaginable.

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