51–60 of 84 posts
It's my understanding that bodegas (gas stations in car towns) make their money from "unsavory" things: nicotine, alcohol, and lottery tickets.
Unless Bodega is planning on stocking vending machines with this stuff (they can't; it's generally illegal), corner stores will be fine.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> if here in Italy you opened an activity with real or supposed insert your favourite heritage here style, no one would ever care I bet many people would care, but they would not persistently & vocally voice their discomfort for fear of retribution/confrontation. > how should we Italians feel about being always portrayed as "pizza, mafia, gobbledygook mamma mia"? In popular media? Complain to the broadcaster/studio/p…
I think your comment perfectly proves GP's point. > I bet many people would care, but they would not persistently & vocally voice their discomfort for fear of retribution/confrontation. How about: because they have better things to do with their time? The perception of oppression of any group you can name is mostly just manufactured. > Because you think that the stereotypes unfairly prejudice Italians who may be deni…
> This is not a normal state.
I think you underestimate how systemically racist most countries are.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The article is not centered around the choice of name, it's an example. The offensiveness, to the author, comes from more than that.
It's the idea that "offensiveness" even is a reasonable critical descriptor of a startup idea that i see as a problem. This is such a fluid term which lacks any clear, objective boundaries. Everybody has their own view on what's offensive (apart from some areas in which somewhat of a consensus exists about offensiveness, mostly regarding pejorative expressions). Some people have a thick skin and find nothing offensiv…
This is basically a fancy vending machine, so I'm not really clear on why this got funded, but on the other hand vending machines are a thing. They don't actually seem to be trying to displacement bodegas from the get go, but rather putting their machines in upscale places like lobbies and gyms, but I'm still a bit confused by this whole thing, is the premise that these places are more likely to accept a pretty vendi…
"Imagine if Facebook was vending machine. There are over 7 Billion people in the world today who could potentially use a vending machine! And if we can capture just half that market and convince them to spent just a dollar a day each that's over 1 Trillion Dollars a Year! We will Disrupt the whole vending machine industry by using cutting edge Cloud Technology, Deep Learning, State Of The Art Facial Recognition and Advanced Social Graphs to make sure that each of our vending machines has a uniquely curated selection of the best Locally Produced, Organic products. And of course all of these features will be tightly integrated with our Truly Amazing App. This will be the perfect companion for the Digital Nomad Generation of the Future!"
This is basically a fancy vending machine, so I'm not really clear on why this got funded, but on the other hand vending machines are a thing. They don't actually seem to be trying to displacement bodegas from the get go, but rather putting their machines in upscale places like lobbies and gyms, but I'm still a bit confused by this whole thing, is the premise that these places are more likely to accept a pretty vendi…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> if here in Italy you opened an activity with real or supposed insert your favourite heritage here style, no one would ever care I bet many people would care, but they would not persistently & vocally voice their discomfort for fear of retribution/confrontation. > how should we Italians feel about being always portrayed as "pizza, mafia, gobbledygook mamma mia"? In popular media? Complain to the broadcaster/studio/p…
Look, if I were to believe I was being denied opportunities in the US because of the portrayal Olive Garden (and the like) was doing about Italy and Italian, I think I wouldn't deserve the job in first place. Culture is important, you must know yours and others, but I really believe people on certain echo chamber aren't getting their priorities straight. Or, if you let me, they have life SO good, they have run out of…
This is my perception of things. Or, as I sometimes put it in person, "people haven't experienced a war in a long time so they're going batshit with priorities now".
Also: it's not that we run out of issues to solve, it's that most of the actually important ones - like energy security, climate change, stabilizing agriculture and healthcare, developing - are hard and don't lend themselves into us-vs-them thinking. Even figuring out how one can contribute to that is difficult, and it's easier to find some proxy irrelevant non-issue to bitch about instead. And media only amplifies that.
EDIT:
Also, and this is probably a very controversial opinion: I think that the ongoing talk about a lot of those proxy-issues is strongly, actively harmful. The number one focus of the world right now should be stabilizing what we have. The technological civilization is very fragile, and at the point in which if it collapses, it won't rebuild itself for millennias, because all the easily obtainable high-density energy sources have been used up. And with the death of technological civilization, all the dreams of freedom, equality, long and healthy life, will die too.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's the idea that "offensiveness" even is a reasonable critical descriptor of a startup idea that i see as a problem. This is such a fluid term which lacks any clear, objective boundaries. Everybody has their own view on what's offensive (apart from some areas in which somewhat of a consensus exists about offensiveness, mostly regarding pejorative expressions). Some people have a thick skin and find nothing offensiv…
If offensiveness is a fully subjective concept, as you say, then "expanding the scope of offensiveness" is an oxymoron, since everyone has their scope.
This is similar to what Nassim Taleb described in his essay "The Dictatorship of the small Minority". Essentially, the most easily offended person will win, as everyone is expected to adhere to his/her requirements (as most people would, despite disagreeing with the claim, still feel morally forced to oblige, as they don't like to hurt someone else's feelings - so all power is concentrated on the person with the offended "feelings" - the more sensible he/she is, the more everyone else needs to comply. If this person cannot handle any kind of different point of viewpoint or idea, everyone else would have to avoid expressing viewpoints and ideas. This is the extreme scenario of course, but what's stopping us to end up there?) https://medium.com/incerto/the-most-intolerant-wins-the-dict...
> Can you imagine handing your bank details to these clowns? On the whole this is an informative and well written explanation of the reaction to Bodega, but I don't think commentary like this is helpful.
Could you imagine the point-of-view of someone who did find this helpful? And then, the opinion of this hypothetical reader would hold of the Bodega clowns? To me, the commentary helps call out how insincere and non-genuine the quoted text is.
Who would this "bank details" comment help, and how, and why does someone's point of view affect whether it's helpful?
> To me, the commentary helps call out how insincere and non-genuine the quoted text is.
There's plenty to discuss on the branding, commercial model, and social implications without attempting to smear them with vague implications of either technical incompetence/negligence or some kind of fraud/ethical risk.
Perhaps I've misunderstood it and there's an interpretation of this "bank details" line that's grounded in some evidence rather than being an unnecessary smear.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
When you say that a company is trying to do something that: 1) They've explicitly said they aren't trying to do. 2) Given their product, would be a ridiculous thing to try to do in the first place. It's a lie.
The title & OP don't claim that this company want to eliminate bodegas… it's about cultural insensitivity. Are you arguing against the linked FastCompany article?
> People who shop at the same Bay Area corner stores that Bodega wants to eliminate, like me, aren't worried about any problem the startup wants to solve.
You said:
> the linked FastCompany article?
Did the link change? Right now it's to an inflammatory engadget article that slurs tech workers as subhuman "things":
> "It's almost like someone said "Siri, show me why everyone hates and fears the things wearing human suits known as techies."
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Look, if I were to believe I was being denied opportunities in the US because of the portrayal Olive Garden (and the like) was doing about Italy and Italian, I think I wouldn't deserve the job in first place. Culture is important, you must know yours and others, but I really believe people on certain echo chamber aren't getting their priorities straight. Or, if you let me, they have life SO good, they have run out of…
> Or, if you let me, they have life SO good, they have run out of good things to complain about. This is my perception of things. Or, as I sometimes put it in person, "people haven't experienced a war in a long time so they're going batshit with priorities now". Also: it's not that we run out of issues to solve, it's that most of the actually important ones - like energy security, climate change, stabilizing agricult…
Serious: we are definitely not ready.