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Facebook’s top execs ‘make tobacco executives look like Mr. Rogers’

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11–20 of 83 posts

Re: Facebook’s top execs ‘make tobacco executives look like Mr. Rogers’

#11
post #8

Are you f-ing kidding me? Until 90%+ of FB users start dropping dead because of lung cancer then that statement is complete garbage. EDIT: a lot of people are taking my statement as meaning not to criticize Facebook. That is not it at all! It just means not to lose perspective. At least I still consider tobacco to be far worse, directly causing ~7M deaths annually with no visible benefit. EDIT 2: Genuine question: ha…

I see what you're saying, but it's also true that cigarettes didn't fundamentally weaken the structure of democratic societies. The long-term consequences of that (heck, even short-term) could be much more severe.

Re: Facebook’s top execs ‘make tobacco executives look like Mr. Rogers’

#12
post #8

Are you f-ing kidding me? Until 90%+ of FB users start dropping dead because of lung cancer then that statement is complete garbage. EDIT: a lot of people are taking my statement as meaning not to criticize Facebook. That is not it at all! It just means not to lose perspective. At least I still consider tobacco to be far worse, directly causing ~7M deaths annually with no visible benefit. EDIT 2: Genuine question: ha…

How about genocide? Would that work for you?

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/technology/myanmar-facebo...

Re: Facebook’s top execs ‘make tobacco executives look like Mr. Rogers’

#13
post #8

Are you f-ing kidding me? Until 90%+ of FB users start dropping dead because of lung cancer then that statement is complete garbage. EDIT: a lot of people are taking my statement as meaning not to criticize Facebook. That is not it at all! It just means not to lose perspective. At least I still consider tobacco to be far worse, directly causing ~7M deaths annually with no visible benefit. EDIT 2: Genuine question: ha…

People are dying because of Facebook and even one death is one too many...

Re: Facebook’s top execs ‘make tobacco executives look like Mr. Rogers’

#14
I think this makes light of the fact that lung cancer is one of the leading causes of death in the world. Every year millions of people die. Millions. And this is just one way cigarettes have negative impact. I’ve heard doctors say that we would need far fewer hospitals in the U.S if it wasn’t for all the negative effects of smoking.

Re: Facebook’s top execs ‘make tobacco executives look like Mr. Rogers’

#15
post #6

perhaps this is an incendiary comment, but i really do wonder what all of the HN facebook employees are telling themselves to deal with the cognitive dissonance caused by this latest scandal wherein facebook paid for smear campaigns to distract from their own dirty laundry. every time i have encountered these people on HN, they've portrayed a cultlike naivety regarding their organization's actions. they always allude…

I wondered about this too. I'm someone who won't work in any adtech at all for ethical reasons.

I asked my friend who works at FB, and he said, "I don't know about all that. I just want to work on cool tech."

I think that's how most humans feel about their role in orgs like Facebook, so I don't judge him at all.

Re: Facebook’s top execs ‘make tobacco executives look like Mr. Rogers’

#16
post #8

Are you f-ing kidding me? Until 90%+ of FB users start dropping dead because of lung cancer then that statement is complete garbage. EDIT: a lot of people are taking my statement as meaning not to criticize Facebook. That is not it at all! It just means not to lose perspective. At least I still consider tobacco to be far worse, directly causing ~7M deaths annually with no visible benefit. EDIT 2: Genuine question: ha…

How about genocide? Would that work for you? https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/technology/myanmar-facebo...

How about electing a fascist dictator that wants to genocide the left in his country, and deforest the rainforest by opening it to western companies?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/18/brazil-jair-bo...

Re: Facebook’s top execs ‘make tobacco executives look like Mr. Rogers’

#17

I wish other companies could get the same kind of scrutiny as Facebook. For some reason while most scandals are pushed down and quickly forgotten, Facebook is being dragged around for all its worth. Maybe they weren't planting enough stories.

I feel the same way. It regularly frustrates me to see the magnitude of corporate misdeeds that just go unmentioned. Equifax resulted in little to no real action despite, what is in my mind, a far more powerful and privacy-sensitive position. (nearly-mandatory access to my spending habits will tell you MUCH more about my life than a social site or tracking cookie that I can realistically avoid.) And this not even mentioning the passing fancies we get for everything from medical billing abuses to undischargable student debt without showing nearly the level of tenacity we do with FB.

Hell, just comparing them to what the tobacco execs did in terms of physical harm and outright mortality-causing misdirection for almost half a century shows how skewed the comparison is to my eyes. It's like the talking heads on the news who compared to Hitler. Sure it may be a bad thing but you've just lost all sense of relativism.

Additionally, the complaint that facebook is somehow the threat to democracy (and to our credit, other topics have come and gone to question "how'd we get here" but FB is really the recurring theme) has always sounded to me far too much like a "let's find a scapegoat for an outcome we don't want to blame ourselves for" (Trump) especially given that when many articles have risen to the top showing how _our own executive_ may be taking part in truly criminal action (far beyond just "we're slimy corporate executives") this doesn't even make the front page, but we'll beat the dead horse of FB all day long.

Re: Facebook’s top execs ‘make tobacco executives look like Mr. Rogers’

#18

Clickbait. I think the actual story was already posted a few days back. I'm pretty sure tabbaco has killed a few more people than Facebook, so this is a ridiculous comparison. Facebook does a lot for which it should be criticized, but it feels like we're just beating on a dead horse. It's also hilarious that someone would be so critical of Facebook all while including their share button in the same article. Apparentl…

It's a link to a commentary podcast, not sure which "actual story" you're referencing but there have been several negative stories about Facebook which they talk through and that's kind of the point of the podcast.

Re: Facebook’s top execs ‘make tobacco executives look like Mr. Rogers’

#19
post #8

Are you f-ing kidding me? Until 90%+ of FB users start dropping dead because of lung cancer then that statement is complete garbage. EDIT: a lot of people are taking my statement as meaning not to criticize Facebook. That is not it at all! It just means not to lose perspective. At least I still consider tobacco to be far worse, directly causing ~7M deaths annually with no visible benefit. EDIT 2: Genuine question: ha…

Well you know, that whole enabling genocide thing is arguably as bad as poisoning people. Should we just not criticize corporations until the death count gets to a certain threshold?

Re: Facebook’s top execs ‘make tobacco executives look like Mr. Rogers’

#20
post #11
post #8

Are you f-ing kidding me? Until 90%+ of FB users start dropping dead because of lung cancer then that statement is complete garbage. EDIT: a lot of people are taking my statement as meaning not to criticize Facebook. That is not it at all! It just means not to lose perspective. At least I still consider tobacco to be far worse, directly causing ~7M deaths annually with no visible benefit. EDIT 2: Genuine question: ha…

I see what you're saying, but it's also true that cigarettes didn't fundamentally weaken the structure of democratic societies. The long-term consequences of that (heck, even short-term) could be much more severe.

This is one thing I don’t get about this narrative. At this point how do we know how permanent what you’re talking about is? And how much is due to Facebook vs. just generally the unexpected terrible combination of it becoming very easy to distribute information + the fact that humans seek out information that tells them what they want to believe.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t criticize Facebook, or that they shouldn’t be the ones to solve this problem. But I think it’s important to frame it as a problem to be solved instead of growing extremely cynical and saying Facebook is pure evil.

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