5 ms·
Playing the devil's advocate here a little bit. We dont know the whole story. Perhaps he was not good at the job GM hired him for, perhaps he didnt get along wi
by chengiz 7y ago
Playing the devil's advocate here a little bit. We dont know the whole story. Perhaps he was not good at the job GM hired him for, perhaps he didnt get along with people, perhaps it was just as GM says, a blind restructuring. Things like this happen all the time. The only difference here is the VW scandal, for which all we know is he did good experimental work as part of a team that turned out to be groundbreaking. If the emissions had amounted to nothing, he'd be like any other experimental researcher. Was he instrumental in opening the results to the public in any way? As in he strived against the odds and backlash etc, playing a whistleblower of sorts? The article doesnt say so I assume not. So I cant say the article has convinced me that he deserves special treatment because of his role in the VW scandal.
- AnthonBerg 7y agoI agree that we don’t know the reasons he was let go. But!: Of course he deserves special treatment for his role in the VW scandal, because of course we desperately want and need to build a society that always actively encourages and never discourages actions like those he took. – But: Of course the car industry cannot be relied on to give him that special treatment. And we haven’t yet built the kind of society that does. So it is incumbent on us here and now to give him that special treatment. Not least to give the signal that we will help you if you help us. Keep you safe. To remove doubt of that. As it stands, that doubt has increased, and the expectation that the auto industry will retaliate has increased, so on the table there is less apparent safety to do what he did.
- barry-cotter 7y agoThat’s not how this world works. Whistleblowers have their lives ruined, almost uniformly. Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning, William Binney, Jesselyn Radack, Frank Ford, Joe Darby. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_whistleblowers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_whistleblowers
- dsfyu404ed 7y agoHe's not a whistle-blower though. He exposed the VW fraud as part of his prior job studying emissions
- AnthonBerg 7y agoMay I ask you to compare your comment with this quote from my comment: “And we haven’t yet built the kind of society that does”. Would you agree that there are indications that you did read too fast? – The necessity of world-building and world-shaping is the core of what I was attempting to convey. So we actually agree ;)
- barry-cotter 7y agoYou have hope for change in this regard. I don’t. I’m not just saying that we don’t live in that society, but that we never will. People don’t like those who hold to their principles over their fellows and people aren’t changing.
- AnthonBerg 7y agoSincere thanks for an excellent reply. It’s better than I deserve for how snarky and pseudo-clever my reply was. I don’t always have hope. I think I’ll go for “or die trying”. Build that world or die trying. Those people won’t change. 100% agree. The others can learn and adapt and curb risks and manage and mitigate and unify. Communicate. It’s possible to build small altruistic groups. I think I’m willing to expend effort on increasing the size limits.
- Aeolun 7y agoForget all the rest. He has been in the US for 17! years as a contributing member of society. What business do we have sending him back to India?
- good_guy 7y agoHello shill!