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A ‘Grass-Roots’ Campaign to Take Down Amazon Is Funded By Its Biggest Rivals

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Re: A ‘Grass-Roots’ Campaign to Take Down Amazon Is Funded By Its Biggest Rivals

#151

Post by logicprog »

kerkeslager wrote: post #138
logicprog wrote: post #93

Okay so wait, we have corporations trying to turn the public against a competitor for being "too successful," in the hopes that it will let them use the apparatus of government to hobble said competitor in any way without repercussions, and no one is upset about this? Instead, we just go along with this fake-grassroots idea of "oh yeah Amazon is an evil empire"? This doesn't process for me. I mean seriously, Amazon i…

> Okay so wait, we have corporations trying to turn the public against a competitor for being "too successful," in the hopes that it will let them use the apparatus of government to hobble said competitor in any way without repercussions, and no one is upset about this? Instead, we just go along with this fake-grassroots idea of "oh yeah Amazon is an evil empire"? This doesn't process for me. Amazon can be an evil em…

In addition to my other comment, I wanted to point out that you make it seem as though Amazon being the first to market (which they weren't) would be somehow something that wasn't due to their merit. If they had actually been first to market, that would have been because they were good at what they did, and the benefits that came with that (if they were significant at all), would have been warranted.

You also make it seem like all the infrastructure that they use very efficiently to their advantage is something that they just found in the woods one day. They built all that, and are using the advantages gained from that, which are, again, earned and a part of Amazon's merit.

And further, I don't think explaining away a corporation's dominance by using monopolistic practices is very convincing when they rose to power so recently: how did Amazon get so big in the first place? Also, most of the monopolistic practices, of the kind that would allow a company to maintain dominance in spite of merit, are things Amazon is not doing. It's monopolistic practices are limited to it's own platform.

Re: A ‘Grass-Roots’ Campaign to Take Down Amazon Is Funded By Its Biggest Rivals

#152

Post by TheCoelacanth »

WillPostForFood wrote: post #81
flixic wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being from EU with decent contact to EU parliament... EU officials really don’t need much encouragement. The passion to regulate everything burns deeply.

Like with law enforcement, it is a target rich environment. There are many more possible cases to litigate than time or personnel to do it. So cases get chosen for a variety of reasons. Public good, self promotion, lobbying by competitors, etc...

As the 28th largest company in the world, there are not very many targets larger than Amazon, and most of them have also been targeted by the EU over something.

Re: A ‘Grass-Roots’ Campaign to Take Down Amazon Is Funded By Its Biggest Rivals

#153

Post by Apocryphon »

guerrilla wrote: post #150
Porthos9K wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Preaching to the choir.

I suppose the second columnist was more right:

https://www.theonion.com/the-future-will-be-a-totalitarian-g...

Re: A ‘Grass-Roots’ Campaign to Take Down Amazon Is Funded By Its Biggest Rivals

#154

Post by kerkeslager »

logicprog wrote: post #140
kerkeslager wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Okay so wait, we have corporations trying to turn the public against a competitor for being "too successful," in the hopes that it will let them use the apparatus of government to hobble said competitor in any way without repercussions, and no one is upset about this? Instead, we just go along with this fake-grassroots idea of "oh yeah Amazon is an evil empire"? This doesn't process for me. Amazon can be an evil em…

> Amazon can be an evil empire, AND their opposition can also be evil corporations that do evil things like organize fake grassroots campaigns. These are not mutually exclusive ideas. I'm perfectly aware of that. The point is that everybody is echoing with the message, and not really worried about the delivery at all. Furthermore, if the delivery is suspect here I'm trying to suggest we should examine why we hate Ama…

> I'm perfectly aware of that. The point is that everybody is echoing with the message, and not really worried about the delivery at all. Furthermore, if the delivery is suspect here I'm trying to suggest we should examine why we hate Amazon so much, and whether it's justified.

So examine it. Your post certainly has done nothing to challenge whatever assumptions you think people are making.

> Not right now, obviously. But where does the government's power to enforce things come from? Violence. That's the nature of the beast. That's also why I qualified it with "institutionalized", which you seem to have conveniently ignored. The government represents an implied threat of violence used to back the power of an institution that abstract actual violence away (most of the time). This is why people often can't see the violence; and because of that I find it helpful to point it out more explicitly.

So you're saying, "All regulation is insitutionalized violence." Okay...

> I know what the government defines as a monopoly, and would say Amazon skirts that line VERY closely. But I'm trying to get people from just saying, "it's a monopoly" and leaving it at that. That lets the connotation of the word do all the legwork, when we should be examining exactly what the real behavior is and whether it's actually wrong and something we should be attacking them for. It's all well and good to talk about the Law, but sometimes we have to talk about ethics and rights, too.

So examine it. Your post certainly has done nothing to challenge whatever assumptions you think people are making.

Re: A ‘Grass-Roots’ Campaign to Take Down Amazon Is Funded By Its Biggest Rivals

#155

Post by memmcgee »

hollerith wrote: post #103
guerrilla wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It could just as well mke them better by raising the standards.

Even if the standards get raised across the warehouse industry, the restrictions might harm low-skilled workers more than it helps them. E.g., they might make it economically rational for Amazon to automate the jobs away. E.g., Amazon might be forced to pass on their higher costs to consumers, causing a transfer of spending from Amazon.com to brick-and-mortar outlets where the jobs for available to low-skilled worker…

>they might make it economically rational for Amazon to automate the jobs away

Any jobs that can be automated will be regardless.

Re: A ‘Grass-Roots’ Campaign to Take Down Amazon Is Funded By Its Biggest Rivals

#156

Post by toofy »

seph-reed wrote: post #84
wongarsu wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This world truly is a boring dystopia.

Amazing quote. I love the concept of "Boring Dystopia." Might have to name a song that.

There’s a good subreddit which focuses on the boring dystopian subject. Highly recommended if it’s your type of subject matter.

Re: A ‘Grass-Roots’ Campaign to Take Down Amazon Is Funded By Its Biggest Rivals

#157

Post by dredmorbius »

Porthos9K wrote: post #22

I'm surprised more cyberpunk authors didn't anticipate that wars between corporations wouldn't be fought using hackers or "street samurai", but with teams of propagandists competing to do a better job of bullshitting the general public. Yes, I'm calling marketers and advertisers propagandists. As far as I'm concerned, marketing and advertising are nothing but private-sector psyops.

Oh, Brave New World, that has such creatures in't!

(Ok, not corps, but definitely psyops.)

Some Stephenson gets close, most especially the Snowcrash / Diamond Age arc.

(Which I'd like to see him continue.)

Re: A ‘Grass-Roots’ Campaign to Take Down Amazon Is Funded By Its Biggest Rivals

#158

Post by dredmorbius »

seph-reed wrote: post #84
wongarsu wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This world truly is a boring dystopia.

Amazing quote. I love the concept of "Boring Dystopia." Might have to name a song that.

Echos of "banality of evil".

Re: A ‘Grass-Roots’ Campaign to Take Down Amazon Is Funded By Its Biggest Rivals

#159

Post by dredmorbius »

mikelyons wrote: post #110
high_5 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what postmodern era is. End of belief. IMO that's the fruit of scepticism as a way of life which has become well entrenched in the modern, well educated societies. As if we're in another stage of consequences of eating the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge (as a society).

The big problem is that it's not true skepticism, it's false skepticism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kzZdps9PG4

Actualised really needs to distill its message to 10-20 minutes max.

I see 1h 16m and close tab.

I've tried watching in the past: tediously repetitious.

Re: A ‘Grass-Roots’ Campaign to Take Down Amazon Is Funded By Its Biggest Rivals

#160

Post by mikelyons »

dredmorbius wrote: post #159
mikelyons wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The big problem is that it's not true skepticism, it's false skepticism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kzZdps9PG4

Actualised really needs to distill its message to 10-20 minutes max. I see 1h 16m and close tab. I've tried watching in the past: tediously repetitious.

This attitude that dumbed-down, 10 second sound-bytes can suffice to examine and grok the nuance and existential dimensionality of the deep topics that he covers is what has lead to such pervading pollution of the information ecology. I would posit to you that you don't have time for shorter videos on these topics, and if you believe that, you will waste your life at a very low-level of communication and awareness around these topics in your attempts at a shortcut to wisdom. Does that sound wise? If it seems repetitious I would see if you can find the subtle differences between what occurs to you as mere repetition.

Or am I just witnessing the damage to attention-span of modern living?

There's lots wrong with this attitude IMHO, even though I am guilty of it in many ways I think that you should be able to see the quality of the messages and place them higher than a lot of other information sources that are blasting at you.

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