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Florida governor to investigate GoFundMe over Canada trucker donations

reuters.com

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Re: Florida governor to investigate GoFundMe over Canada trucker donations

#501

Post by unethical_ban »

nitrogen wrote: post #213
unethical_ban wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>In a free society, businesses shouldn’t be able to suppress or punish customers for their political views. >We just need to make political viewpoint a protected class as well. I have not gasped at the outlandishness of an HN post in some time. GoFundMe is not a grocer, or a transit provider. It isn't a power company. It is a luxury service in a free market with low capital requirements. Under no circumstance should…

> >We just need to make political viewpoint a protected class as well. > I have not gasped at the outlandishness of an HN post in some time. How else can a democratic republic preserve the diversity of viewpoints required for such a society to function? This really shouldn't be a controversial idea. Differences of opinion are not only okay, they are essential! Should a conservative landlord be able to evict anyone wh…

Should a conservative landlord be able to evict anyone who voted for a progressive? Or deny renting in the first place?

No, but housing is already protected. How can you possibly think GoFundMe and housing/food are the same thing?

I simply struggle to understand why a decent person should have to serve someone who wants to kill minorities, or who wants to end democratic government in this country.

Furthermore, you act like if you don't enact this protection you're defending, no one will serve people of different political opinions. The truth is you're making a mountain out of an anthill. Most places serve people of differing political views. I go to a bar with a "Fuck Greg Abbott" sign at the front of the bar, and they'll happily serve a Conservative as long as they aren't being hateful. I happen to go to a bar owned by a Trumpian, anti-worker, anti-vax conservative (I happen to respect some of the bartenders, and the food is good). I am allowed to eat there despite the lack of your proposed legislation.

P.S.

>How else can a democratic republic preserve the diversity of viewpoints required for such a society to function?

It's functioned for close to 250 years, and the more I read American history, the more I realize that the current tumult and animosity is actually the norm, and the "peace" of the postwar period was the outlier.

Re: Florida governor to investigate GoFundMe over Canada trucker donations

#502

Post by throwaway4aday »

tandymodel100 wrote: post #119
Mikeb85 wrote: post #27

Also keep in mind that in the backdrop of all this is the fact that our Prime Minister has called the protesters racists and misogynists. Probably inspiring someone who ran over some protesters in Winnipeg. Canadian news and politicians are desperately trying to denounce the protesters while ignoring the fact that Canada has some of the harshest Covid restrictions in the world at the moment, while the US has hardly a…

> protesters racists and misogynists That's probably because of the Nazi and Confederate flags people are waving. In my opinion, they should cry it out or quit given Canada's 1 dose vaccination rate is in the 80% range.

Last I heard, the convoy organizers put a bounty on the Nazi flag guy for any information leading to his identification. There is also video of protesters calling out the confederate flag guy and telling him to leave. Two assholes showing up to a protest don't represent the agenda of the entire group. The BLM riots had a much higher asshole ratio last time I checked.

Re: Florida governor to investigate GoFundMe over Canada trucker donations

#503

Post by polski-g »

SECProto wrote: post #285
blast wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's obviously a peaceful protest*. The word "occupation" here is already spin from the side that wants to shut it down and is trying to build a case for doing so. Peaceful protest involves physically assembling and making noise. That is no doubt unpleasant both for those who disagree with the protestors and those who live in the neighborhood, but the right to do this in public is fundamental and vital in democratic…

A friend was shoved into a snowbank by a protester because she wore a mask. I was verbally assaulted for the same while skating on the canal. They're not peaceful.

No post body was provided.

Re: Florida governor to investigate GoFundMe over Canada trucker donations

#504

Post by bdowling »

PierceJoy wrote: post #447
blast wrote: post #397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you've effectively conceded the point here. Losing one's job is generally understood to be a catastrophic outcome for people in our society, especially when someone has been doing that job for a long time (and perhaps also doesn't have the educational level to get another job at anything close to the same compensation). It follows that "do X or you're fired" is a form of force or coercion. In fact that's so o…

> Losing one's job is generally understood to be a catastrophic outcome for people in our society, especially when someone has been doing that job for a long time (and perhaps also doesn't have the educational level to get another job at anything close to the same compensation) I haven't seen any mass protests about at-will employment. Why not? > It follows that "do X or you're fired" is a form of force or coercion.…

> I haven't seen any mass protests about at-will employment. Why not?

The cases are not comparable because if an at-will employee loses a job with one employer, the employee can often find a job with another employer.

> Vaccines have been required in other jobs, tests have been required for jobs, and yet no mass protests. Why not?

The cases are not comparable because, as far as I know, there is no testing option in the Canadian regulation. Also, as far as I know, there is no exception made to the 14-day quarantine period for those who cannot be vaccinated because of either a negative reaction to a prior vaccine or deeply held religious convictions.

Re: Florida governor to investigate GoFundMe over Canada trucker donations

#505

Post by dang »

pl0x wrote: post #333
coryrc wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's always like this on the weekend.

Quoted post unavailable.

"Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community." It's reliably a marker of bad comments and worse threads.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Edit: you've been posting a ton of unsubstantive and flamebait comments lately. Would you please stop that? We ban accounts that keep doing it, for what ought to be obvious reasons. Not liking HN, if that's how you're feeling, is not an ok reason to break the rules here.

Re: Florida governor to investigate GoFundMe over Canada trucker donations

#506

Post by version_five »

throwaway4aday wrote: post #487
PierceJoy wrote: post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have attacked police. They have had dance parties on war memorials. They threw human shit at a home with a pride flag in the window. They assaulted people for wearing masks. Healthcare workers are now told to remove any indications that they work at a hospital for their own safety.

> Healthcare workers are now told to remove any indications that they work at a hospital for their own safety. This seems like a really weird narrative. Why would people who are protesting vaccine mandates be against healthcare workers? They aren't the ones keeping the mandate in place. There's a tenuous connection with them being the ones to administer a vaccine if someone decides to get vaccinated but it's not like…

From what I've seen it's just spin. They (the CBC et al) have taken the worst examples, real, imagined, or completely out of context, and acted like this is what the protest is all about.

The war memorial is a good example. This is something that's at the site of the protest because it's in downtown ottawa. Pretending it's being "disrespected" is some nonsense you could level at any group protesting downtown. In this case its particularly silly because the demographic that is protesting is overall very supportive or Canada's military, and is literally there protesting for freedom.

Re: Florida governor to investigate GoFundMe over Canada trucker donations

#507

Post by throwaway4aday »

folio8768473 wrote: post #414
Mikeb85 wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're protesting against mandates. Which most of the world is lifting... And I'm not on the truckers' side per se... But the response from the government has been shocking and I'm sure as hell not on the government's side. For the record, I'm vaccinated. Not an anti-vaxxer. Literally just went to Europe and came back. Getting out of and back into Canada was the most onerous part of the trip.

Just to be clear, the government of Canada doesn't mandate vaccination of truckers, what it mandates is for non-vaccinated individuals (which includes truckers) that are entering Canada through the border that they must get tested and quarantine on entry. So if you can't prove vaccination on entry, you need to have a proof of negative test and quarantine a few days. I just want to point that out, because it seems the…

That requirement is equivalent to barring them from their profession. It's also an absurd requirement for someone who spends the majority of their working time alone. If it's such a sensible requirement then why aren't we mandating that all grocery store workers be vaccinated or be required to self-isolate for 2 weeks after each shift? Why not mandate it for all professions that involve face to face contact?

Re: Florida governor to investigate GoFundMe over Canada trucker donations

#508

Post by dang »

mistercheph wrote: post #320
mindslight wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone complaining about some big "left" collusion is essentially bashing a straw man. The actual truth is that there are more than two groups of political interests. Corporate interests are biased towards corporate interests , period. They're basically indifferent on social issues, and so from the right they appear "left" because they echo the broadest appeal as a marketing technique. Shoehorning everything that you…

Okay, so you are the first person to discover that corporations are not politically motivated but only financially motivated, and they manufacture the appearance of political concern to pursue their financial interests. Nice, cool. Now explain to me what is wrong with political factions publicly criticizing corporations under the guise of wanting political and moral change at the corporation, when in reality, they ar…

Please omit personal swipes from your comments here. You can make your substantive points without that.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Florida governor to investigate GoFundMe over Canada trucker donations

#509

Post by pseudo0 »

kube-system wrote: post #471
pessimizer wrote: post #338

I'm completely unsympathetic (or rather hostile) to the protests, but I find it shocking that there's any legal framework under which Gofundme could shut down the page, seize all of the donations, and force people to basically file paperwork to get them back. There's something deeply asymmetrical in the way we treat white-collar crime as opposed to street crime. It's bizarre that they even though they could get away…

Refusing to provide a service and giving people a refund is broadly legal in most of the western world for most reasons except for isolated cases like protected classes, etc.

GoFundMe's original plan was to force each donor to file a claim for a refund, with the remainder going to unspecified charities instead of the original cause. They amended this to automatic refunds after a massive backlash.

Re: Florida governor to investigate GoFundMe over Canada trucker donations

#510

Post by throwaway4aday »

culi wrote: post #242
olliej wrote: post #105

I hate both the protest group and desantis but honestly he’s right. The only reason gofundme (or any org with similar practices) do this is because they know that some people will miss the deadline, and the it becomes pure profit.

GoFundMe almost immediately changed their policy and instead directly refunded everyone If this was a matter of politics, I think their politics would actually push them to make this decision more because the alternative was to make the organization that organized it choose another charity to give it to. That charity would likely be something that does not align with the politics of the average GFM employee

They changed their policy after it kicked off a massive internet shitstorm. It's no excuse for their initial, blatantly antipathic announcement.
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