I don't understand all these protests against defence contracts, China, CBP work. Guess what? These needs to be done by someone and if its not Google, it would be Palantir or Microsoft or Oracle or IBM. Google is not what used but at least they have better ethics than the most other companies who would jump to do whatever was asked of them. At least they could steer towards less evil. The era of no evil has ended, if there was one.
Google fires activist Rebecca Rivers and 3 others
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Re: Google fires activist Rebecca Rivers and 3 others
#32I don't understand all these protests against defence contracts, China, CBP work. Guess what? These needs to be done by someone and if its not Google, it would be Palantir or Microsoft or Oracle or IBM. Google is not what used but at least they have better ethics than the most other companies who would jump to do whatever was asked of them. At least they could steer towards less evil . The era of no evil has ended, i…
This is such a stupid argument.
You can literally justify everything and anything with this. It's low effort and just a tactic to make one's self feel better about the world.
Re: Google fires activist Rebecca Rivers and 3 others
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
also, the core problem is that treating workers well is not in "alignment with leadership"
honestly using diaeresis (things that look like umlauts) while typing stuff out about how people who don't want to work for an evil company are being controlled by other forces just gives off the biggest wannabe top hat monopoly capitalist vibe imaginable.
More like just following the New Yorker style guide, which are decidedly not top hat monopoly capitalists: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-curse-of-...
Re: Google fires activist Rebecca Rivers and 3 others
#34I don't understand all these protests against defence contracts, China, CBP work. Guess what? These needs to be done by someone and if its not Google, it would be Palantir or Microsoft or Oracle or IBM. Google is not what used but at least they have better ethics than the most other companies who would jump to do whatever was asked of them. At least they could steer towards less evil . The era of no evil has ended, i…
This is such a stupid argument. You can literally justify everything and anything with this. It's low effort and just a tactic to make one's self feel better about the world.
While I agree with you in general, it must be somewhat difficult to draw the line between what's a "good" defense contract, and what a "bad" one is. Surely we need _some_ defense contracts? Once you need some defense contracts, then I assume you want an ethical company handling them.
Re: Google fires activist Rebecca Rivers and 3 others
#35Does firing employees for trying to unionize count as "being evil"?
Yes, but that's no longer their motto, remember? It's now 'do good', and 'doing good' does not mean you also can't be an asshole on the side.
Re: Google fires activist Rebecca Rivers and 3 others
#36Google did this to themselves when they invited and fostered this culture. It had its naive merits. But like many such attempts, what happens is these groups with good intentions get coöpted and controlled by others with bigger agendas-agendas which often are not in alignment with leadership. When the PLA got too strong Mao devised the Red Guards. He didn’t want another Menshevik - Bolshevik-like episode. Nor do comp…
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Re: Google fires activist Rebecca Rivers and 3 others
#37Google did this to themselves when they invited and fostered this culture. It had its naive merits. But like many such attempts, what happens is these groups with good intentions get coöpted and controlled by others with bigger agendas-agendas which often are not in alignment with leadership. When the PLA got too strong Mao devised the Red Guards. He didn’t want another Menshevik - Bolshevik-like episode. Nor do comp…
lol this is absurd, they're fighting against rampant sexual harassment and a variety of other real workplace problems, not being mind controlled by nefarious bolsheviks
What they're doing is running a political campaign.
Re: Google fires activist Rebecca Rivers and 3 others
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think they really meant it. It was the antithesis to the Microsoft of the early aughts. But now they have other, broader goals to work for. Arguably they have become more borg-ish than MS of the 00's. But they’ve come to realize that at a certain point in size idealism doesn’t scale (coöperatives, hippie communes, etc) and others will eat your lunch if you encumber yourself with idealism (which can also go in the n…
Sort of like how Jobs founded Apple as the antithesis is IBM, at least that’s how the origin story goes, and now they’re arguably closer to the latter than their original incarnation.
No, Jobs didn't "found Apple as the antithesis of IBM". Woz and Jobs started Apple because Woz wouldn't/couldn't be bothered with all the sales/admin etc involved in running a company. All the rest is Jobs BS.
Re: Google fires activist Rebecca Rivers and 3 others
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is such a stupid argument. You can literally justify everything and anything with this. It's low effort and just a tactic to make one's self feel better about the world.
While I agree with you in general, it must be somewhat difficult to draw the line between what's a "good" defense contract, and what a "bad" one is. Surely we need _some_ defense contracts? Once you need some defense contracts, then I assume you want an ethical company handling them.
We keep them separate and for good reason. A threat from an enemy doesn't usually involve additional security for every Disney employee because Disney animatronics is AFAIK not a legitimate military target. Boeing primarily is a legitimate target. Where does Google want to be in that equation?
Re: Google fires activist Rebecca Rivers and 3 others
#40I don't understand all these protests against defence contracts, China, CBP work. Guess what? These needs to be done by someone and if its not Google, it would be Palantir or Microsoft or Oracle or IBM. Google is not what used but at least they have better ethics than the most other companies who would jump to do whatever was asked of them. At least they could steer towards less evil . The era of no evil has ended, i…
They can still choose not to want to work on it. I'd imagine it slowly eats at you.
If they believe that they are the best engineering org in the world, which may be true, then whatever other company does it might do a worse job.
Google also has insane margins already - it's not really a convincing argument to anyone other than shareholders that Google needs more revenue whatever the cost.
I do get your side of the argument, however.