4 ms·

Nobody is restricting Google from doing anything. They are expressing--in a way that is part of, and frankly should be expected of being a member of, one of tho

Nobody is restricting Google from doing anything. They are expressing--in a way that is part of, and frankly should be expected of being a member of, one of those "free societies" you mention--that Google is unwelcome, and no, nobody is obligated to make you feel welcome. There are cases where not making somebody welcome kinda makes you an asshole, but that does not, frankly, apply to anybody who's got a stock ticker symbol. This is "you piss in the pool wherever you go, please stay away from our pool." This isn't NIMBY in any meaningful way and the comparison is downright mendacious.

bko 8y ago
> Nobody is restricting Google from doing anything From the article: In September activists occupied the building it was to be located in for several hours. That seems like the activists were preventing them > This is "you piss in the pool wherever you go, please stay away from our pool." This isn't NIMBY in any meaningful way and the comparison is downright mendacious. Saying you do [something I don't like] and I don't want you to do [thing I don't like] in my neighborhood is exactly NIMBY
- eropple 8y ago
  You realize that Google has billions upon billions of dollars and effectively unlimited weight to throw around, yes? A few protestors hanging out in a building does not prevent them from doing anything they want to. They have run the numbers and presumably realized that having your neighbors not want you there is not worth the PR hit of doing it--but literally nobody is stopping it from happening. This poor-benighted-Google thing is gross. These companies are not on anyone's side.
- mehrdadn 8y ago
  > Saying you do [something I don't like] and I don't want you to do [thing I don't like] in my neighborhood is exactly NIMBY No, that's most definitely not NIMBY. NIMBY means you support something when it's farther away but oppose it happening close to you. It stands for "not in my backyard", not "not in any backyard".
  - eropple 8y ago
    Exactly. The "my" part is operative here. If I had to guess, a lot of those protestors probably don't care if Google ever opens an office anywhere--but, not being billion-dollar panopticons-as-a-service, they are constrained to act locally rather than globally.
  - bko 8y ago
    Presumably the residents there use Google services. They likely want Google to exist, but just not in their back yard
    - eropple 8y ago
      "You use the services that have functionally become required for daily life regardless of whether you like them or not, so it is in some way hand-flappingly hypocritical not to let them step on your community too" is not really the winning argument here.
      - eyeinthepyramid 8y ago
        What Google services are required for daily life? Don't they all have competitors?
        eiaoa 8y ago
        > What Google services are required for daily life? Don't they all have competitors? Not really. It's sort of like RMS with open-source hardware: yes there are a handful of modern computers that can be made to work without binary blobs, but it's a lot of trouble and only a few people will actually do that out of principle. It's practically requred to run proprietary binary blobs. Similarly, Bing, Duckduckgo, and OpenStreetMap exist, but Google services are practically required for modern daily life. For an illustration: a typical local shop is going put the effort into making sure its information is correct on Google Maps and that their website is indexed on Google; but it's going to put zero effort into updating its info on OpenStreetMap or making sure it's indexed by Bing. If you want info about that shop, you're probably going to have to use Google.
C1sc0cat 8y ago
Well your not welcome (google in this case) but that doesn't give you the right to deny others who might want to move to berlin and work for google - that sound s like UKip policy in the uk. And what does having a stock ticker matter presumably you took advantage of the German miracle and the rise of VW and others.
- chobeat 8y ago
  This would go against the interests of the locals, that, frankly, in a community should come before the interests of some programmer that would find a job somewhere else.
  - C1sc0cat 8y ago
    Er freedom of movement of labour is one of the core principles of the EU. So its all right for Germany to benefit from freetrade but not allow freedom of movement - that is what the Brexit and UKip want. So comrade when did you start colluding with the boss class
    - chobeat 8y ago
      It's complicated: if your freedom of movement harms somebody else, is it ethical? As an emigrant I can value the freedom of labour and movement but I can also see that this harms people if it becomes too extreme like in Berlin. That's why here lot of leftists are criticizing open borders and free immigration: mass migrations are a product of capitalism and we should solve the problem at the root, not just cope with the symptom.
- detaro 8y ago
  They aren't denying Google and it's employees the right to move to Berlin, there's tons of areas in Berlin for tech companies to be, some tolerant of them, some actively trying to get more companies to move in. (and of course Google legally would have been free to move in despite the protests, but choose not to). That's needlessly over-the-top rhetoric for a localized protest.
heroyang 8y ago
Next time I see the junky tattooed white garbage that passes for "counter-cultural creative types" I am going to make them feel very unwelcome. Why do these so called artists(heroin addicts) think they can dictate anything to anyone? Tear down the squats and build a parking lot, it would be an improvement.
manfredo 8y ago
> This is "you piss in the pool wherever you go, please stay away from our pool." This isn't NIMBY in any meaningful way and the comparison is downright mendacious It's also the same line of thinking behind Trump's wall and hostility to immigration in general: "people I don't like should stay out."
ajmurmann 8y ago
"you piss in the pool wherever you go, please stay away from our pool." Several people mentioned something to this effect. Nobody makes clear what they are referring to. Is this just about gentrification?

bko 8y ago

> Nobody is restricting Google from doing anything From the article: In September activists occupied the building it was to be located in for several hours. That seems like the activists were preventing them > This is "you piss in the pool wherever you go, please stay away from our pool." This isn't NIMBY in any meaningful way and the comparison is downright mendacious. Saying you do [something I don't like] and I don't want you to do [thing I don't like] in my neighborhood is exactly NIMBY

eropple 8y ago
You realize that Google has billions upon billions of dollars and effectively unlimited weight to throw around, yes? A few protestors hanging out in a building does not prevent them from doing anything they want to. They have run the numbers and presumably realized that having your neighbors not want you there is not worth the PR hit of doing it--but literally nobody is stopping it from happening. This poor-benighted-Google thing is gross. These companies are not on anyone's side.
mehrdadn 8y ago
> Saying you do [something I don't like] and I don't want you to do [thing I don't like] in my neighborhood is exactly NIMBY No, that's most definitely not NIMBY. NIMBY means you support something when it's farther away but oppose it happening close to you. It stands for "not in my backyard", not "not in any backyard".
- eropple 8y ago
  Exactly. The "my" part is operative here. If I had to guess, a lot of those protestors probably don't care if Google ever opens an office anywhere--but, not being billion-dollar panopticons-as-a-service, they are constrained to act locally rather than globally.
- bko 8y ago
  Presumably the residents there use Google services. They likely want Google to exist, but just not in their back yard
  - eropple 8y ago
    "You use the services that have functionally become required for daily life regardless of whether you like them or not, so it is in some way hand-flappingly hypocritical not to let them step on your community too" is not really the winning argument here.
    - eyeinthepyramid 8y ago
      What Google services are required for daily life? Don't they all have competitors?
      - eiaoa 8y ago
        > What Google services are required for daily life? Don't they all have competitors? Not really. It's sort of like RMS with open-source hardware: yes there are a handful of modern computers that can be made to work without binary blobs, but it's a lot of trouble and only a few people will actually do that out of principle. It's practically requred to run proprietary binary blobs. Similarly, Bing, Duckduckgo, and OpenStreetMap exist, but Google services are practically required for modern daily life. For an illustration: a typical local shop is going put the effort into making sure its information is correct on Google Maps and that their website is indexed on Google; but it's going to put zero effort into updating its info on OpenStreetMap or making sure it's indexed by Bing. If you want info about that shop, you're probably going to have to use Google.

C1sc0cat 8y ago

Well your not welcome (google in this case) but that doesn't give you the right to deny others who might want to move to berlin and work for google - that sound s like UKip policy in the uk. And what does having a stock ticker matter presumably you took advantage of the German miracle and the rise of VW and others.

chobeat 8y ago
This would go against the interests of the locals, that, frankly, in a community should come before the interests of some programmer that would find a job somewhere else.
- C1sc0cat 8y ago
  Er freedom of movement of labour is one of the core principles of the EU. So its all right for Germany to benefit from freetrade but not allow freedom of movement - that is what the Brexit and UKip want. So comrade when did you start colluding with the boss class
  - chobeat 8y ago
    It's complicated: if your freedom of movement harms somebody else, is it ethical? As an emigrant I can value the freedom of labour and movement but I can also see that this harms people if it becomes too extreme like in Berlin. That's why here lot of leftists are criticizing open borders and free immigration: mass migrations are a product of capitalism and we should solve the problem at the root, not just cope with the symptom.
detaro 8y ago
They aren't denying Google and it's employees the right to move to Berlin, there's tons of areas in Berlin for tech companies to be, some tolerant of them, some actively trying to get more companies to move in. (and of course Google legally would have been free to move in despite the protests, but choose not to). That's needlessly over-the-top rhetoric for a localized protest.

heroyang 8y ago

Next time I see the junky tattooed white garbage that passes for "counter-cultural creative types" I am going to make them feel very unwelcome. Why do these so called artists(heroin addicts) think they can dictate anything to anyone? Tear down the squats and build a parking lot, it would be an improvement.

manfredo 8y ago

> This is "you piss in the pool wherever you go, please stay away from our pool." This isn't NIMBY in any meaningful way and the comparison is downright mendacious It's also the same line of thinking behind Trump's wall and hostility to immigration in general: "people I don't like should stay out."

ajmurmann 8y ago

"you piss in the pool wherever you go, please stay away from our pool." Several people mentioned something to this effect. Nobody makes clear what they are referring to. Is this just about gentrification?