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This attitude makes me so off the charts angry, I struggle to put it into words. I think Jews in Germany in the 1920s didn't think they were doing anything wron

This attitude makes me so off the charts angry, I struggle to put it into words. I think Jews in Germany in the 1920s didn't think they were doing anything wrong, or feel a need to actively hide it.

tossaccount123 8y ago
It's fascinating how obviously smart people can rationalize their actions. Schmidt and Google claim to be "progressive" but that kind of rationale of "nothing to hide" would mean that every progressive movement would have been shut down in its early stages had this kind of tech and surveillance been available at the time because it went against what was currently judged as right by the people in power
- jimmy1 8y ago
  What was the point of you pointing out Eric's claim to a particular political ideology after a statement of his intelligence? Are you somehow implying one is more virtuous / intelligent than another? If we changed that to conservatism does that your meaning or what you were trying to convey?
  - tossaccount123 8y ago
    I was more pointing out how either side can hypocritically rationalize things that run counter to their supposed beliefs because they make money off being hypocrites. Nobody thinks they're evil, people can rationalize all sorts of crazy behavior.
    - pdkl95 8y ago
      > Nobody thinks they're evil, I do, because evil is banal. Rationalizing crazy behavior is what evil usually looks like. Larger evils occur when "trivial" problems are ignored, allowing the deviant behavior to be normalized. Intentions are not relevant, because it's easy to rationalize away the craziest of behaviors. "No one involved in an extralegal activity thinks of themselves as nefarious. I'm a businessman, okay?" - Quark, DS9 S6E25
  - zepto 8y ago
    Seems pretty clear that the comment was meant to show a conflict between Schmidt’s statement and his political leanings. I don’t see how this implies anything about a particular political ideology being more virtuous. Why would you even think that?
  - _underfl0w_ 8y ago
    I sense some projecting happening here. You may want to re-read the parent, but without assuming that their tone is one of condescension.
- balls187 8y ago
  > It's fascinating how obviously smart people can rationalize their actions. It's the classic dilemma: "People ask 'Can we do this?' and rarely ask 'Should we do this?'"
itronitron 8y ago
Schmidt's attitude shows just how much Google thinks it owns the internet. There is so much data out there that people can live in relative anonymity online (95% of bloggers) however Google crawls and indexes so much that many things become quite easy to find. All the tracking and linking and indexing that is done without a person's informed consent makes that person's intentional behavior a warped spotlight back on them.
- PavlovsCat 8y ago
  > All the tracking and linking and indexing that is done without a person's informed consent makes that person's intentional behavior a warped spotlight back on them. Sure, but only in the minds of people who don't even know themselves, and can't make a coherent argument to save their lifes. They confuse the "data" they have on things with the things themselves, not to mention people -- same noobs doing the same shit, different day.
- mda 8y ago
  I think he was merely pointing out that All US companies are bound by US laws and when government asks them to dance they would eventually, reluctantly, dance.
ionised 8y ago
Eric Schmidt is a horrible human being. Nothing surprises me coming from him.
- dang 8y ago
  Please don't post unsubstantive comments here.
Raphmedia 8y ago
These kinds of practices are still going on right now. See the Anti-gay purges in Chechnya that happened in 2017. "The Chechen police and military have conducted entrapment schemes, in which a victim is lured on a date, beaten and humiliated". According to some sources, those entrapment schemes where using online dating apps. Eric Schmidt's concept of privacy is so focused on the sort term where we live in free countries. Who knows what the future holds in store? Imagine if in 50-100 years the political situation gets really bad in the US and they decide to pass such a law. That hypothetical future government could simply get all the data from companies like Google and pinpoint their targets with scary accuracy. Imagine being jailed for web searches that you have done decades prior. As a trans person, that's the kind of things that keep me up at night. Especially since the ads that Google are presenting to me recently shifted and my shadow profile is clearly tagged as "trans" now.
- sneakernets 8y ago
  Same here, I noticed an odd shift to weird adverts when it started sending me random things that were shots in the dark, from makeup to house paint.

This attitude makes me so off the charts angry, I struggle to put it into words. I think Jews in Germany in the 1920s didn't think they were doing anything wrong, or feel a need to actively hide it.

tossaccount123 8y ago

It's fascinating how obviously smart people can rationalize their actions. Schmidt and Google claim to be "progressive" but that kind of rationale of "nothing to hide" would mean that every progressive movement would have been shut down in its early stages had this kind of tech and surveillance been available at the time because it went against what was currently judged as right by the people in power

jimmy1 8y ago
What was the point of you pointing out Eric's claim to a particular political ideology after a statement of his intelligence? Are you somehow implying one is more virtuous / intelligent than another? If we changed that to conservatism does that your meaning or what you were trying to convey?
- tossaccount123 8y ago
  I was more pointing out how either side can hypocritically rationalize things that run counter to their supposed beliefs because they make money off being hypocrites. Nobody thinks they're evil, people can rationalize all sorts of crazy behavior.
  - pdkl95 8y ago
    > Nobody thinks they're evil, I do, because evil is banal. Rationalizing crazy behavior is what evil usually looks like. Larger evils occur when "trivial" problems are ignored, allowing the deviant behavior to be normalized. Intentions are not relevant, because it's easy to rationalize away the craziest of behaviors. "No one involved in an extralegal activity thinks of themselves as nefarious. I'm a businessman, okay?" - Quark, DS9 S6E25
- zepto 8y ago
  Seems pretty clear that the comment was meant to show a conflict between Schmidt’s statement and his political leanings. I don’t see how this implies anything about a particular political ideology being more virtuous. Why would you even think that?
- _underfl0w_ 8y ago
  I sense some projecting happening here. You may want to re-read the parent, but without assuming that their tone is one of condescension.
balls187 8y ago
> It's fascinating how obviously smart people can rationalize their actions. It's the classic dilemma: "People ask 'Can we do this?' and rarely ask 'Should we do this?'"

itronitron 8y ago

Schmidt's attitude shows just how much Google thinks it owns the internet. There is so much data out there that people can live in relative anonymity online (95% of bloggers) however Google crawls and indexes so much that many things become quite easy to find. All the tracking and linking and indexing that is done without a person's informed consent makes that person's intentional behavior a warped spotlight back on them.

PavlovsCat 8y ago
> All the tracking and linking and indexing that is done without a person's informed consent makes that person's intentional behavior a warped spotlight back on them. Sure, but only in the minds of people who don't even know themselves, and can't make a coherent argument to save their lifes. They confuse the "data" they have on things with the things themselves, not to mention people -- same noobs doing the same shit, different day.
mda 8y ago
I think he was merely pointing out that All US companies are bound by US laws and when government asks them to dance they would eventually, reluctantly, dance.

ionised 8y ago

Eric Schmidt is a horrible human being. Nothing surprises me coming from him.

dang 8y ago
Please don't post unsubstantive comments here.

Raphmedia 8y ago

These kinds of practices are still going on right now. See the Anti-gay purges in Chechnya that happened in 2017. "The Chechen police and military have conducted entrapment schemes, in which a victim is lured on a date, beaten and humiliated". According to some sources, those entrapment schemes where using online dating apps. Eric Schmidt's concept of privacy is so focused on the sort term where we live in free countries. Who knows what the future holds in store? Imagine if in 50-100 years the political situation gets really bad in the US and they decide to pass such a law. That hypothetical future government could simply get all the data from companies like Google and pinpoint their targets with scary accuracy. Imagine being jailed for web searches that you have done decades prior. As a trans person, that's the kind of things that keep me up at night. Especially since the ads that Google are presenting to me recently shifted and my shadow profile is clearly tagged as "trans" now.

sneakernets 8y ago
Same here, I noticed an odd shift to weird adverts when it started sending me random things that were shots in the dark, from makeup to house paint.