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Author of "Careless People" banned from saying anything negative about Meta

thetimes.com

441–450 of 615 posts

Re: Author of "Careless People" banned from saying anything negative about Meta

#441
post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unlike an elected government, who the common people at least in theory have a chance to replace via elections, the public pretty much has no say in what these companies and their leadership are allowed to do. Nobody voted for Meta. Nobody voted for Palantir. Nobody voted for Philip Morris. You can say that someone "voted with their wallet," but that doesn't point to a viable solution. "Not voting with your wallet" es…

> Nobody voted for Meta. Of course they did - they “voted” for them every time they signed on to Facebook or Instagram or used WhatsApp, and they doubled down every time they let their children use them. They vote for them every time they elect grifters and spineless toadies to office. These companies don’t have users by default. They have users because shitty people use shitty services made by even shittier people b…

You're on HN; a platform where the founders and CEO are big cheerleaders of DOGE. Where talk of many third rail topics is quietly flagged into oblivion, and discussions on the flagging processes are explicitly banned.

YC were best buds with Peter Thiel... And literally had Sam "scan everyone's eyeballs" Altman as Pres for 5 years. They are actively seeking out "defense" tech to invest in; even during a US sponsored genocide, and now-daily war crimes.

The users here aren't tech-clueless like a lot of Facebookers would be. In theory we're better educated, better informed, more tech savvy, and higher paid. As a group, we're far more deeply connected and complicit with the tech bros than Whatsappers and Instagrammers.

So, we have that much less of an excuse to be "shitty people [who] use shitty services made by even shittier people because they need their little hits of dopamine."

I despise Meta. I also use their services sometimes. Maybe it's not simply a matter of voting for Zuckerberg, but there are network effects and captured systems and manipulation of addictive behaviors. Maybe things aren't as vanta-black and ultra-white as you're insisting.

I'll put it like this - what you're doing with that comment above is a lot like blaming smokers for feeding the tobacco companies. Despite all the lies and ads and manipulation, despite all the dirty tricks, despite the hard-core science used to get people hooked from every possible angle. Despite the cancer, the lung disease, the heart problems suffered by the victims.

Punch up dude.

Re: Author of "Careless People" banned from saying anything negative about Meta

#442

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the author was complicit and only complained once FB stopped paying her. It was weird how the author claimed not to know how facebook targeted ads worked until 2016/2017 after she had made millions.

So what? If we need unscrupulous people to tell us what other unscrupulous people do, so what?

That pretty much describes confidential informants (used by the police, all the time). Many of these CIs are risking a lot more than just getting sued, and they are seldom angels. Many of them do it, so they won't go down with the ship, or because the cops have real leverage over them.

Re: Author of "Careless People" banned from saying anything negative about Meta

#443
post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok and? Let's say she's bitter, not principled. Now what? What's different now?

I'd suspect bitter people who embellish and tell falsehoods in an attempt to smear the thing they're bitter against. At least, more so than a principled person would.

Eh, all the same to me in the end. I think if you try to avoid all bitterness in life there won't be much left.

Re: Author of "Careless People" banned from saying anything negative about Meta

#444
post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a good reaction to have. Thankfully she wrote the book so we know about all these bad deeds.

I don’t think the book revealed anything new about FB’s bad deeds, though. Was there novel info? I think its just more exposure for already bad things. Had she had a trove of emails or something, I might thing differently. This is quite different from the recent lawsuits that produced novel material and evidence.

Knowing something is happening and reading detailed descriptions of them actually occurring is different, IMO. I learned things I didn't know while reading it, at least.

Re: Author of "Careless People" banned from saying anything negative about Meta

#445
post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Cheryl Sandberg inviting the author of the book to sleep in her bed next to her on the company jet, and the petulent and vindictive behavior when the author said 'no'. Considering the timing... does that mean MeToo doesn't apply if the predator is also a woman? Sexual advances from a position of power are simply not okay. (Weirdly as a society we appear to have accepted that an older woman predating younger men is…

Age gaps in relationships is not inherently negative. Being a cougar is not a bad thing. The issue here was that Sandberg was the author's manager. Age isn't an issue when all parties are adults.

>Age isn't an issue when all parties are adults.

there's exceptions to every rule but as a general statement that's about as false as it gets. With increasing age gap between partners divorce and breakup rates go up significantly. Cultures with strong aversion to age gaps, East Asia for example, have both low divorce rates and out-of-wedlock births.

The reason isn't extremely difficult to see, where someone is in life, what priorities they have and how responsible they are is significantly influenced by age, the rom-com industrial complex might have convinced people that relationships are about butterflies in the stomach, but in reality compatibility matters.

Re: Author of "Careless People" banned from saying anything negative about Meta

#446
post #23

Having listened to the book on Audible, I'm both shocked at the behavior of the executive team, and not surprised all at the same time. What bothers me about all of this is what it says about us. It says we're willing to give rich and powerful people a pass just because they make overtures towards something we care about. We wouldn't give our children a pass like this, nor would we teach our children to act this way,…

By allowing powerful adults to act this way, we are in a sense teaching our children to act this way too.

Well absolutely. Half the times we're tough on kids is in hopes they don't permanently turn into adults their behavior reminds of

And as kids learning from adults (although the subject matter is different) is exemplified in To Kill a Mockingbird.

As of today I am periodically embarrassed to be an American. Periodic in the sense that every once in a while the shameless behavior of elites feels like I ok'd in the presence of foreigners. Today's climate reminds that in our society i guess as always the suck-ups, butt kisserers, and hustle at all costs is alive and well in the top 10% of society.

Relatedly, this is ultimately why European courts went they way of the dodo. Moody kings, palace intrigue, the maneuvering for kinship to power, the gossip, the scandals whilst spending stupid money so aggravated people we quit.

I seriously dislike this current environment. And I can report not everybody is that way. They're still a few classy lads and ladies out there... but gosh the players are no longer afraid of sunlight at the same time

Re: Author of "Careless People" banned from saying anything negative about Meta

#447
post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Age isn't an issue when all parties are adults. I wouldn’t fully agree. All parties being adults doesn’t inherently remove the advantage very large age and experience gaps can give to one party over the other, especially when one is barely adult. 18 or 21 is just an arbitrary number, and one doesn’t suddenly become smart about these things just because the law says they are now legally full citizens, responsible fo…

There's some issues with someone that has very little experience being an adult. Once they have a couple years out of school and a couple years of being able to drink (if relevant), it's basically all the same.

With how fast the world is moving (especially in non-US, recently-ish westernized countries that had a lot of catching up to do over the last twenty-forty years, think former eastern bloc), things aren't so clear-cut.

There's a difference between a person who grew up watching video cassettes on their neighbor's VCR, and a person who (barely) watched recaps over 1MB/s DSL. Two completely different childhoods, two completely different cultural experiences, less than 15 years of age difference, both people have had "a couple years out of school and a couple years of being able to drink."

It's not unworkable, but it's quite like a relationship with somebody from a far-away foreign country, maybe without the language barrier.

Re: Author of "Careless People" banned from saying anything negative about Meta

#448
post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Cheryl Sandberg inviting the author of the book to sleep in her bed next to her on the company jet, and the petulent and vindictive behavior when the author said 'no'. Considering the timing... does that mean MeToo doesn't apply if the predator is also a woman? Sexual advances from a position of power are simply not okay. (Weirdly as a society we appear to have accepted that an older woman predating younger men is…

Age gaps in relationships is not inherently negative. Being a cougar is not a bad thing. The issue here was that Sandberg was the author's manager. Age isn't an issue when all parties are adults.

People in the C Suite should not be asking any employee to join them in bed whether they're that person's manager or not.

Re: Author of "Careless People" banned from saying anything negative about Meta

#450

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By allowing powerful adults to act this way, we are in a sense teaching our children to act this way too.

Getting rich has been the American dream for a very long time. Unfortunately, many Americans only pretend to care that it matters how you get rich.

America doesn't own greed. Hardly.

But like the movie American Psycho the American presentation of greed is starkly in your face ... it's something horrifying to see

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