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When are we as a society going to tire of company executives feigning stupidity and ignorance when it comes to these very deliberate actions? All these executiv

When are we as a society going to tire of company executives feigning stupidity and ignorance when it comes to these very deliberate actions? All these executives--and likely all the developers, too--know exactly why these business model and app changes were made. The reasons given in the article are completely accurate. It can be boiled down to this: Money > People.

aangjie 10y ago
It's called Hanlon's Dodge, built on the Hanlon's razor principle. it'll keep happening as long as there's a popular belief in Hanlon's razor.
vinceguidry 10y ago
I have been reading a lot about Russia and China recently, and I'm struck by just how much more realistic their citizenry is compared to America. I think it ultimately boils down to how real power operates in the countries. The average Russian or Chinese citizen is way less powerful than the average American citizen. If they have a grievance to make, whether it's against a local or national policy, Russians and Chinese have way way fewer options. Whereas Americans, if they feel aggrieved at the state of their world, can turn to any one of many many many political organizations that exist solely to collect and distribute that outrage and drive results. We may not be completely 100% satisfied with those results, but it's better than relying on the legal process. This network of civic participation has mostly replaced the usual role of electoral politics and Americans believe in their system, secure in the realization that if some bullshit is going down, outrage will be generated and justice will be served. The last election threw that whole system into critical disarray. It got yoked into the service of Donald Trump and the Republicans because liberal Americans trusted the system enough to stop looking to see how it was being used. Trump realized he could game the system to get elected and did exactly that. The critical insight here is that Americans are not stupid, and they are not ignorant, they just believe in the power of systems and institutions and want to just be able to rely on them to drive better results over time. We shift public attention gradually away from everything, and slowly onto the parts of the system that aren't working. In Russia and China, public arms of policy-making are non-existent. Citizens must therefore be extremely careful about picking their battles.
- jquery 10y ago
  > outrage will be generated and justice will be served. Trump is the personification of the outrage over illegal immigration, crime, bad trade deals, and the Neocon (globalist) wing of the Republican party. > liberal Americans trusted the system enough to stop looking to see how it was being used Umm, what? For over a year, liberal Americans were aghast at the rise of Literally Hitler and made no bones about sharing their opinion on the matter.
  - vinceguidry 10y ago
    > Trump is the personification of the outrage over illegal immigration, crime, bad trade deals, and the Neocon (globalist) wing of the Republican party. Exactly, it's the system working for the other side of the country. They didn't have nearly as good of a grassroots outreach mechanism, they finally built one. The two sides cannot agree on what justice means. That's ultimately a national question and so it had to be settled in the election. It's the Republicans now that get to decide what justice means, and liberals get to lick their wounds and retrench. The direction the world is moving in is liberalism. So this can only be a minor setback. > Umm, what? For over a year, liberal Americans were aghast at the rise of Literally Hitler and made no bones about sharing their opinion on the matter. Right, they pressed the outrage button thinking it was going to fix the problem, like it usually does. It didn't because Trump outmaneuvered them.
    - marknutter 10y ago
      I'm curious as to why you think the world is moving towards liberalism.
      - vinceguidry 10y ago
        Ultimately it's because of the Internet. Sharing of ideas, remixing them, iterating on them, that's all the province of liberalism. Holding on to tradition, resisting modernization, that's conservatism. Liberalism is the rising tide raising all boats. It's always happening, everywhere, behind the scenes, in people's minds. Even the most conservative person has liberal ideas. Liberalism is imperative, conservatism only impairs. You can have individuals, groups, communities, industries, cities, provinces, countries, even whole blocs of countries espousing conservatism, but the natural trend is towards idea evolution and that's liberalism. It might take a long, circuitous route to get there, but when you take the totality of the whole world, and the logic of ideation, that's where it's going.
solidsnack9000 10y ago
"If only the Czar knew!"
throwaway360181 10y ago
> the developers No, blame management. Not until programmers have a union masquerading as a professional association that backs us up, like the AMA or the ABA, and we enjoy much greater autonomy and a much stronger position from which to say "no," should we be made to shoulder the blame along side management.

aangjie 10y ago

It's called Hanlon's Dodge, built on the Hanlon's razor principle. it'll keep happening as long as there's a popular belief in Hanlon's razor.

vinceguidry 10y ago

I have been reading a lot about Russia and China recently, and I'm struck by just how much more realistic their citizenry is compared to America. I think it ultimately boils down to how real power operates in the countries. The average Russian or Chinese citizen is way less powerful than the average American citizen. If they have a grievance to make, whether it's against a local or national policy, Russians and Chinese have way way fewer options. Whereas Americans, if they feel aggrieved at the state of their world, can turn to any one of many many many political organizations that exist solely to collect and distribute that outrage and drive results. We may not be completely 100% satisfied with those results, but it's better than relying on the legal process. This network of civic participation has mostly replaced the usual role of electoral politics and Americans believe in their system, secure in the realization that if some bullshit is going down, outrage will be generated and justice will be served. The last election threw that whole system into critical disarray. It got yoked into the service of Donald Trump and the Republicans because liberal Americans trusted the system enough to stop looking to see how it was being used. Trump realized he could game the system to get elected and did exactly that. The critical insight here is that Americans are not stupid, and they are not ignorant, they just believe in the power of systems and institutions and want to just be able to rely on them to drive better results over time. We shift public attention gradually away from everything, and slowly onto the parts of the system that aren't working. In Russia and China, public arms of policy-making are non-existent. Citizens must therefore be extremely careful about picking their battles.

jquery 10y ago
> outrage will be generated and justice will be served. Trump is the personification of the outrage over illegal immigration, crime, bad trade deals, and the Neocon (globalist) wing of the Republican party. > liberal Americans trusted the system enough to stop looking to see how it was being used Umm, what? For over a year, liberal Americans were aghast at the rise of Literally Hitler and made no bones about sharing their opinion on the matter.
- vinceguidry 10y ago
  > Trump is the personification of the outrage over illegal immigration, crime, bad trade deals, and the Neocon (globalist) wing of the Republican party. Exactly, it's the system working for the other side of the country. They didn't have nearly as good of a grassroots outreach mechanism, they finally built one. The two sides cannot agree on what justice means. That's ultimately a national question and so it had to be settled in the election. It's the Republicans now that get to decide what justice means, and liberals get to lick their wounds and retrench. The direction the world is moving in is liberalism. So this can only be a minor setback. > Umm, what? For over a year, liberal Americans were aghast at the rise of Literally Hitler and made no bones about sharing their opinion on the matter. Right, they pressed the outrage button thinking it was going to fix the problem, like it usually does. It didn't because Trump outmaneuvered them.
  - marknutter 10y ago
    I'm curious as to why you think the world is moving towards liberalism.
    - vinceguidry 10y ago
      Ultimately it's because of the Internet. Sharing of ideas, remixing them, iterating on them, that's all the province of liberalism. Holding on to tradition, resisting modernization, that's conservatism. Liberalism is the rising tide raising all boats. It's always happening, everywhere, behind the scenes, in people's minds. Even the most conservative person has liberal ideas. Liberalism is imperative, conservatism only impairs. You can have individuals, groups, communities, industries, cities, provinces, countries, even whole blocs of countries espousing conservatism, but the natural trend is towards idea evolution and that's liberalism. It might take a long, circuitous route to get there, but when you take the totality of the whole world, and the logic of ideation, that's where it's going.

solidsnack9000 10y ago

"If only the Czar knew!"

throwaway360181 10y ago

> the developers No, blame management. Not until programmers have a union masquerading as a professional association that backs us up, like the AMA or the ABA, and we enjoy much greater autonomy and a much stronger position from which to say "no," should we be made to shoulder the blame along side management.