4 ms·

Holy shit, I can't believe this is happening in the 21st century.

by pault 8y ago

not_a_cop 8y ago
Technology only gives you gadgetry, not morals. Hasn't anyone in Silicon Valley realized this yet? They're building a huge technological cage to control the masses.
- klyrs 8y ago
  A coworker literally said this in response to me raising objections over Saudi investment: "I believe Chomsky remarked that socially responsible investing is a contradiction in terms." And I must say, the logic is impeccable: money is incompatible with morals, therefore morals are worthless.
maxerickson 8y ago
Have you just not been paying attention or something?
- pault 8y ago
  I am aware of the repression of women in SA but I didn't realize they weren't even allowed to leave the country. The addition of real time tracking technology just makes it that much more horrifying. Imagine being a woman trying to escape domestic abuse and being returned to your abuser when you try to flee.
  - maxerickson 8y ago
    I was referring more to your faux astonishment that it is going on. Did you know that genital mutilation is still common in parts of the world? There's global slave traffic. Etc., etc., etc. Of course we are doing a lot better than history if you look at things in a statistical sense, but it takes a pretty insular world view to act astonished that there's shitty stuff going on.
    - pault 8y ago
      > faux astonishment > insular world view Is it cold up there on your high horse? I've lived in five countries on three continents. I don't follow Saudi Arabian social issues and was outraged by this particular bit of news. Nothing faux about it. I am aware that sometimes bad things happen to good people. Next time I'll be more jaded and condescending so everyone on the internet will know how worldly I am.
  - cazum 8y ago
    At risk of going well off topic here: The exact situation that you described happens a lot closer to home than you may think.
    - cimmanom 8y ago
      But without government-sanctioned apps to track the victims and prevent their escape.
  - maxerickson 8y ago
    Pointing out that your use of language is dismissive is pretty much the opposite of jaded. I guess it's probably moderately condescending, but it's hard to do that sort of thing well. Do note that I said "act astonished" and didn't really insist that you must be ignorant.
    - pault 8y ago
      I'll assume you're referring to your comment that was flagged to death and accept your apology.
      - maxerickson 8y ago
        I'm not apologizing for anything, just to clarify for you. The idea that flags here are sensible is hilarious. Anyway, time to move on.
rjf72 8y ago
There's far more egregious things. For instance in Western Africa there remains massive child slavery. The reason this is relevant, as if it wasn't by itself, is that that slavery is then facilitated in bringing you your tasty chocolate treats from companies such as Nestle, Hersheys, Mars, and more. This has been going on for decades and has been brought to court multiple times - the companies always win with generally negligible media coverage. Lack of media coverage notwithstanding, AP did run a new piece on it... 3 days ago. [1] Seafood is another huge industry where you see lots of slavery in its harvesting and production. Incidentally, Nestle also shows up there with their Purina brand. This is not a 'what about chocolate or seafood' but a general frustration I have with people today. They (and this is not directed at you) are grossly misinformed on the state of the world, even though the information is more readily available than ever before. They protest completely inane stuff like it's the end of the world, while completely ignoring the tremendous human rights abuses throughout the world that continue to this very day. If people shined a light on these 24/7 it's possible that something could happen. Even back to Saudi Arabia, not only is there their treatment of women but they still literally crucify people, still literally execute people for "witchcraft and sorcery", and much more. These stories do receive one off coverage, but nothing compared to e.g. a scientist who wore a shirt with some scantily clad girls. Makes all of 'social media justice' look like little more than a bunch of useful idiots. [2] [1] - https://www.apnews.com/571f1acc466f4f89866d31ae094f1601 https://www.apnews.com/571f1acc466f4f89866d31ae094f1601 [2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Useful_idiot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Useful_idiot
- rjf72 8y ago
  In an ironic coincidence it seems that AP has now removed that article from their site with no notice or explanation. It is still available in Google's cache -- swap to text-only or disable scripts to avoid AP's script from killing it on load. This [1] seems to be the same article. That link is also available on archive.org [2] should it be the case that the articles are facing legal threats from the chocolate industry. [1] - https://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/commentary/article/Child-slave-labor-rampant-in-chocolate-supply-13602395.php https://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/commentary/article/Chil... [2] - https://web.archive.org/web/20190209104955/https://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/commentary/article/Child-slave-labor-rampant-in-chocolate-supply-13602395.php https://web.archive.org/web/20190209104955/https://www.mysan...
int_19h 8y ago
This is a country that literally crucifies, beheads, and stones people to death as a form of judicially sanctioned execution. A country where sorcery is a crime on the books (actively enforced, too), and atheists are officially designated to be terrorists. This is a country that simply should not exist.

Holy shit, I can't believe this is happening in the 21st century.

by pault 8y ago

Holy shit, I can't believe this is happening in the 21st century.

Technology only gives you gadgetry, not morals. Hasn't anyone in Silicon Valley realized this yet? They're building a huge technological cage to control the masses.

klyrs 8y ago
A coworker literally said this in response to me raising objections over Saudi investment: "I believe Chomsky remarked that socially responsible investing is a contradiction in terms." And I must say, the logic is impeccable: money is incompatible with morals, therefore morals are worthless.

maxerickson 8y ago

Have you just not been paying attention or something?

pault 8y ago
I am aware of the repression of women in SA but I didn't realize they weren't even allowed to leave the country. The addition of real time tracking technology just makes it that much more horrifying. Imagine being a woman trying to escape domestic abuse and being returned to your abuser when you try to flee.
- maxerickson 8y ago
  I was referring more to your faux astonishment that it is going on. Did you know that genital mutilation is still common in parts of the world? There's global slave traffic. Etc., etc., etc. Of course we are doing a lot better than history if you look at things in a statistical sense, but it takes a pretty insular world view to act astonished that there's shitty stuff going on.
  - pault 8y ago
    > faux astonishment > insular world view Is it cold up there on your high horse? I've lived in five countries on three continents. I don't follow Saudi Arabian social issues and was outraged by this particular bit of news. Nothing faux about it. I am aware that sometimes bad things happen to good people. Next time I'll be more jaded and condescending so everyone on the internet will know how worldly I am.
- cazum 8y ago
  At risk of going well off topic here: The exact situation that you described happens a lot closer to home than you may think.
  - cimmanom 8y ago
    But without government-sanctioned apps to track the victims and prevent their escape.
- maxerickson 8y ago
  Pointing out that your use of language is dismissive is pretty much the opposite of jaded. I guess it's probably moderately condescending, but it's hard to do that sort of thing well. Do note that I said "act astonished" and didn't really insist that you must be ignorant.
  - pault 8y ago
    I'll assume you're referring to your comment that was flagged to death and accept your apology.
    - maxerickson 8y ago
      I'm not apologizing for anything, just to clarify for you. The idea that flags here are sensible is hilarious. Anyway, time to move on.

rjf72 8y ago

There's far more egregious things. For instance in Western Africa there remains massive child slavery. The reason this is relevant, as if it wasn't by itself, is that that slavery is then facilitated in bringing you your tasty chocolate treats from companies such as Nestle, Hersheys, Mars, and more. This has been going on for decades and has been brought to court multiple times - the companies always win with generally negligible media coverage. Lack of media coverage notwithstanding, AP did run a new piece on it... 3 days ago. [1] Seafood is another huge industry where you see lots of slavery in its harvesting and production. Incidentally, Nestle also shows up there with their Purina brand. This is not a 'what about chocolate or seafood' but a general frustration I have with people today. They (and this is not directed at you) are grossly misinformed on the state of the world, even though the information is more readily available than ever before. They protest completely inane stuff like it's the end of the world, while completely ignoring the tremendous human rights abuses throughout the world that continue to this very day. If people shined a light on these 24/7 it's possible that something could happen. Even back to Saudi Arabia, not only is there their treatment of women but they still literally crucify people, still literally execute people for "witchcraft and sorcery", and much more. These stories do receive one off coverage, but nothing compared to e.g. a scientist who wore a shirt with some scantily clad girls. Makes all of 'social media justice' look like little more than a bunch of useful idiots. [2] [1] - https://www.apnews.com/571f1acc466f4f89866d31ae094f1601 https://www.apnews.com/571f1acc466f4f89866d31ae094f1601 [2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Useful_idiot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Useful_idiot

rjf72 8y ago
In an ironic coincidence it seems that AP has now removed that article from their site with no notice or explanation. It is still available in Google's cache -- swap to text-only or disable scripts to avoid AP's script from killing it on load. This [1] seems to be the same article. That link is also available on archive.org [2] should it be the case that the articles are facing legal threats from the chocolate industry. [1] - https://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/commentary/article/Child-slave-labor-rampant-in-chocolate-supply-13602395.php https://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/commentary/article/Chil... [2] - https://web.archive.org/web/20190209104955/https://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/commentary/article/Child-slave-labor-rampant-in-chocolate-supply-13602395.php https://web.archive.org/web/20190209104955/https://www.mysan...

int_19h 8y ago

This is a country that literally crucifies, beheads, and stones people to death as a form of judicially sanctioned execution. A country where sorcery is a crime on the books (actively enforced, too), and atheists are officially designated to be terrorists. This is a country that simply should not exist.