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That disagrees with the Twitter thread you linked to, which claims: > Robert Moses weaponized Civil Engineering and Urban Planning to suppress marginalized com

by kgu 9y ago

That disagrees with the Twitter thread you linked to, which claims: > Robert Moses weaponized Civil Engineering and Urban Planning to suppress marginalized communities. Engineering is always political. Words like "weaponized" and "suppress" suggest that Emily thinks Moses was ill-intentioned, not merely an ambitious guy who in his monomania happened to overlook some of the more sinister side-effects of his work.

tptacek 9y ago
I don't entirely agree with the Twitter thread, but it's also possible to "weaponize" and "suppress" because you think it's the right thing to do. Overly-influential people exerting their power to harm others in the interest of what they believe to be "right" is something that bothers me a lot about the power structure of our industry today. I don't think the comparison is at all unwarranted.
- dragonwriter 9y ago
  > I don't entirely agree with the Twitter thread, but it's also possible to "weaponize" and "suppress" because you think it's the right thing to do. Everyone thinks what they do is right. Ill-intentioned refers to whether the characterizer thinks it was right, not the actor.
- ryanwaggoner 9y ago
  it's also possible to "weaponize" and "suppress" because you think it's the right thing to do How does that have anything to do with whether he was horrible? In general, people think they're doing the right thing. That doesn't mean they're not horrible.
- Malice 9y ago
  In what ways, specifically, is Elon exerting his power to harm others? Or have I misunderstood your comments?
smacktoward 9y ago
The entire point of The Power Broker is that Moses was ill-intentioned. He deliberately built his projects in ways that froze NYC's minorities out from being able to benefit from them, destroyed healthy neighborhoods when they tried to stop him, and bankrupted the city building highways it didn't need because every new highway project increased his personal political power.

by kgu 9y ago

tptacek 9y ago

I don't entirely agree with the Twitter thread, but it's also possible to "weaponize" and "suppress" because you think it's the right thing to do. Overly-influential people exerting their power to harm others in the interest of what they believe to be "right" is something that bothers me a lot about the power structure of our industry today. I don't think the comparison is at all unwarranted.

dragonwriter 9y ago
> I don't entirely agree with the Twitter thread, but it's also possible to "weaponize" and "suppress" because you think it's the right thing to do. Everyone thinks what they do is right. Ill-intentioned refers to whether the characterizer thinks it was right, not the actor.
ryanwaggoner 9y ago
it's also possible to "weaponize" and "suppress" because you think it's the right thing to do How does that have anything to do with whether he was horrible? In general, people think they're doing the right thing. That doesn't mean they're not horrible.
Malice 9y ago
In what ways, specifically, is Elon exerting his power to harm others? Or have I misunderstood your comments?

smacktoward 9y ago

The entire point of The Power Broker is that Moses was ill-intentioned. He deliberately built his projects in ways that froze NYC's minorities out from being able to benefit from them, destroyed healthy neighborhoods when they tried to stop him, and bankrupted the city building highways it didn't need because every new highway project increased his personal political power.