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Leaked Amazon memo details plan to smear fired warehouse organizer

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Re: Leaked Amazon memo details plan to smear fired warehouse organizer

#121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Unfortunately this is the low bar set by a lot of modern journalism. We need a way out of it back to neutral, factual reporting. Creating fact focused journalism is a laudible goal but I'd be curious of what specific time in history you think that this was generally the case?

Not OP, but it was my impression that quality journalism was generally the case in the 1980s (in the US at least). What I was reading then certainly seemed to be. Separation of church and state was taken very seriously. These days, you can't start with the assumption that a story is written to J standards. Rather, you need to start with the assumption that it's pushing narrative, and hope to be surprised.

There never was such a thing as neutral, factual reporting.

Case in point: The Economist. Certainly one of the historically and currently most respected publications.

The Econsomist never claimed not to be biased. In fact they proudly produce opinion journalism.

The point, however, is that their reporting is fair and considers the other side of the argument and that the're absolutely open about where they stand.

Foreign Policy is another good example coming to mind.

News is produced by humans and humans have biases and always will have.

What's new is massive lying on an industrial scale and the fact that facts seem very relative nowadays, depending on the news medium.

Re: Leaked Amazon memo details plan to smear fired warehouse organizer

#122

Amazon really could be just as big as they are without going down the Walmart route of being actively shitty / evil. It sucks that they're choosing not to do that.

It’s why I cancelled my prime a few months back

It's why I never shopped at Amazon and don't plan to ever do it.

The exception was in the very beginning a few books. After they apruptly changed their privacy policy that did it for me.

Re: Leaked Amazon memo details plan to smear fired warehouse organizer

#123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I could afford it, and if it really work, I'd be a vampire, too. Pay some young people to donate a bit of their blood to a facility, get a transfusion, and you might retain your youth for longer, with a longer quantity of life and longer + higher quality of life? I'm below 30 now, but I'd sign up for such a thing without hesitation even if it bankrupted me - if it truly works and is safe. Of course it'll be many y…

Wait, is this real? It seems deeply weird to me. I think they have a carve out for plasma, but surely selling your literal blood is illegal? If not, why can't people sell organs? I think this just introduces a sort of inequality that even American society can't stomach.

Yes, it's real. And yes, it's plasma, not blood. (It's just more sensationalistic to call it blood because then you get the vampire analogies and "blood boys" from the Silicon Valley show. I find it amusing, personally.)

Obviously giving away an organ is far more health-adverse than giving away a small amount of plasma. Unfortunately, lots of people already do donate plasma in exchange for money because they desperately need the money, and that's just for plasma that goes to sick people. In my opinion, if rich people are offering those same plasma donors 10x or more than the amount they'd get from donating to a typical blood bank, then it's at least a big improvement over the current situation. And hopefully they put limits and ID checks in place to ensure people never donate above a certain amount of plasma per day/week/month and risk their health.

Hopefully we'll one day be able to grow or synthesize the youth-preserving compounds in the plasma without requiring the donors.

Re: Leaked Amazon memo details plan to smear fired warehouse organizer

#124
post #5

I know that that's the title of the article but I read the article and came away mostly thinking nothing was all that bad. Is it because the notes said the organizer isn't eloquent or smart that there is reason to be upset?

Mm got the same feeling as well. You could even argue that amazon holds a function that is critical to society. Postal workers elsewhere still would have to work as well as Police officers. If say Postal workers in Finland who does basically the same work wanted to organize a strike, the laws of how and when you can have a strike would work against them.

Re: Leaked Amazon memo details plan to smear fired warehouse organizer

#125

This article's title is sensationalist. Based on the article's content itself, there doesn't seem to be anything in here about "smearing" at all. Definition from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/smear... : "to publicly accuse someone of something unpleasant, unreasonable, or unlikely to be true in order to harm their reputation" Second definition from https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/sm…

well put

Re: Leaked Amazon memo details plan to smear fired warehouse organizer

#126
post #14

The definition of smear: "to damage the reputation of (someone) by false accusations; slander." Where is the 'smear ' here? Amazon has not made, or planned to make, false accusations against this worker.

I listened to an interview with Smalls. He seemed perfectly intelligent and articulate to me. Demonstrably more than these people or his bosses, who put his coworkers in danger, while he’s trying to protect them. It’s thus hard not to see attempts to frame him as “not smart” or “ not articulate” as classist and racist dog whistles intended to discredit a courageous man.

Racist dog whistle give me a break. All of this paranoia about hidden racists is just mind blowing. To me it seems as you have a problem with other "races", if you hear "not smart" or "not articulate" and immediately starts thinking of the color of someones skin.

not a term that is scientifically accepted when discussing humans

Re: Leaked Amazon memo details plan to smear fired warehouse organizer

#127
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you show a few of those memes from back then?

I dug through my hdd and for the life of my I could not find the ones I was thinking of ( maybe it is time to finally tag my stuff properly ). I looked online and I was only able to find one example of what I was thinking of ( https://awwmemes.com/i/spreads-message-of-anti-capitalism-fr... ). The one I remember was equally silly along the lines of "hates banks, uses money = hypocrite". I will keep digging, because I…

Those are extremely lazy and I don't understand how someone takes them seriously.

It's like saying:

"Kidnapped victim runs away by shooting the captor's knee...

with the captor's gun, hypocrite much?!"

Re: Leaked Amazon memo details plan to smear fired warehouse organizer

#129
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you show a few of those memes from back then?

I dug through my hdd and for the life of my I could not find the ones I was thinking of ( maybe it is time to finally tag my stuff properly ). I looked online and I was only able to find one example of what I was thinking of ( https://awwmemes.com/i/spreads-message-of-anti-capitalism-fr... ). The one I remember was equally silly along the lines of "hates banks, uses money = hypocrite". I will keep digging, because I…

Wait, are you saying this meme that you posted comes from the banks during the height of the Occupy movement? Or if not, how did their talking points / PR reach the undiscriminating masses and become this? I remember this meme, but always assumed it came from Apple-haters or unsophisticated Fox News types.

Re: Leaked Amazon memo details plan to smear fired warehouse organizer

#130
post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I listened to an interview with Smalls. He seemed perfectly intelligent and articulate to me. Demonstrably more than these people or his bosses, who put his coworkers in danger, while he’s trying to protect them. It’s thus hard not to see attempts to frame him as “not smart” or “ not articulate” as classist and racist dog whistles intended to discredit a courageous man.

Racist dog whistle give me a break. All of this paranoia about hidden racists is just mind blowing. To me it seems as you have a problem with other "races" , if you hear "not smart" or "not articulate" and immediately starts thinking of the color of someones skin. not a term that is scientifically accepted when discussing humans

Referring to the way working class people talk (and especially working class black people) in this way is something the rich and powerful have always done to discredit them. Go read all the blood spilt by right-wing hacks about the “legitimacy” of AAVE, for example.

If you want to be a credulous dupe and think that the richest man in the world and his highly-paid PR team don’t understand this history and context, be my guest.

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