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These are profit-seeking enterprises, not political activist organizations. I don't know why more people confuse the two. This is a rabbit hole companies need t

These are profit-seeking enterprises, not political activist organizations. I don't know why more people confuse the two. This is a rabbit hole companies need to be very careful about going down. Besides, this whole thing is irony of the highest order. We scream bloody murder about Saudi Arabia explicitly censoring a comedian, meanwhile in the US we have an arguably worse form of implicit censorship where if you make an offensive (and harmless) joke, a bunch of noisy leftist maniacs go into high gear to end your career.

pbhjpbhj 8y ago
They're only exclusively profit seeking if owners/controllers agree for it to be so. To me it seems extremely strange to put financial profit above humanity, or above morality. It's not confusion, it's choice.
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zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC 8y ago
> These are profit-seeking enterprises, not political activist organizations. I don't know why more people confuse the two. There is no confusion. Some people simply are of the opinion that declaring profit as your purpose is not sufficient to justify hurting other people.
oaiey 8y ago
As a country you can apply standards to companies which are operating in your legal framework. Germany for example prosecutes (German and probably foreign) companies which bribe in other countries. Siemens was a big example in the 90s. Same applies to free speech. The US could apply a law to their companies but they do not (because free unbound capitalism). I ignore anything related to national security in this argument :).
stupidcar 8y ago
We expect individuals to behave morally. Companies are richer, more powerful, more organised and more capable than individuals, so why should we hold them to a lower standard of behaviour? Human society of any sort is only possible because our species evolved beyond purely selfish behaviour to co-operate for the greater good. Modern civilisation is reliant on the majority of individuals following moral codes, instilled by cultural, religious and familial institutions and enforced by community action. We do not allow "profit-seeking" as a pass for acting immorally. If companies want to enjoy the rights given to individuals within our societies, such as freedom to operate, equal treatment and protection under the law, etc. Then they also need to be bound by the same moral codes that allows successful co-operation between individual people. Allowing companies to have full legal rights while exempting them from moral responsibility is just as unfair and dangerous as it is to give a certain class of human the freedom to ignore moral norms without consequence.

pbhjpbhj 8y ago

They're only exclusively profit seeking if owners/controllers agree for it to be so. To me it seems extremely strange to put financial profit above humanity, or above morality. It's not confusion, it's choice.

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zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC 8y ago

> These are profit-seeking enterprises, not political activist organizations. I don't know why more people confuse the two. There is no confusion. Some people simply are of the opinion that declaring profit as your purpose is not sufficient to justify hurting other people.

oaiey 8y ago

As a country you can apply standards to companies which are operating in your legal framework. Germany for example prosecutes (German and probably foreign) companies which bribe in other countries. Siemens was a big example in the 90s. Same applies to free speech. The US could apply a law to their companies but they do not (because free unbound capitalism). I ignore anything related to national security in this argument :).

stupidcar 8y ago

We expect individuals to behave morally. Companies are richer, more powerful, more organised and more capable than individuals, so why should we hold them to a lower standard of behaviour? Human society of any sort is only possible because our species evolved beyond purely selfish behaviour to co-operate for the greater good. Modern civilisation is reliant on the majority of individuals following moral codes, instilled by cultural, religious and familial institutions and enforced by community action. We do not allow "profit-seeking" as a pass for acting immorally. If companies want to enjoy the rights given to individuals within our societies, such as freedom to operate, equal treatment and protection under the law, etc. Then they also need to be bound by the same moral codes that allows successful co-operation between individual people. Allowing companies to have full legal rights while exempting them from moral responsibility is just as unfair and dangerous as it is to give a certain class of human the freedom to ignore moral norms without consequence.