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The naivete of people in situations like this drives me nuts. This person discovered that a company they frequent has done something that offends their sensibil

The naivete of people in situations like this drives me nuts. This person discovered that a company they frequent has done something that offends their sensibilities. Now they going to Do Something About It! And we should all join them! This aggression cannot stand! This is arbitrary offense-taking. I'm not taking a stand on whether or not Delta has done something egregious. I don't care about the underlying issue. What I can't stand is people who become aware of something like this and act like they've uncovered a crime against humanity that we're all ignoring. I guarantee that the author wrote that blog post while wearing clothes manufactured in a sweatshop, on an electronic device manufactured in many sweatshops, with a stomach full of food picked by disadvantaged illegal immigrants, after driving home from work in a vehicle powered by oil from an unsavory country. They're proud of the million miles they've flown, with a carbon footprint that's big enough to sink a continent. To be fair, the author acknowledges much of this in the post, which makes it all the more inane. This one company crossed some arbitrary ethical line in the sand, and the author wants everyone else to jump on board. The world is a messy place full of suffering and wrongness. By all means, pick the occasional battle and take a stand once in a while, if that's your thing. I'll find something better to get bent out of shape about.

anigbrowl 7y ago
Did you skip over the bit where he mentioned his experience as a CEO whose workforce unionized during his tenure?
caymanjim 7y ago
And now the link to the article I was commenting on has been swapped out and replaced with a Washington Post article. I don't know who did that, but it completely removes the context.
norgie 7y ago
Very true, we should never criticize anything bad because we can't criticize everything bad. We do live in a society after all.
- bkuhn 7y ago
  I realize sarcasm is the "way of expressing things on HN", and I did some of it myself in a post upthread, but to get serious on norgie's point for a moment: I picked this specific issue to speak out on for two reasons: (a) as a regular traveler [0] and speaker at FOSS events, this was a great opportunity to draw attention to the problems with airlines, as all of us use them to attend these events and my blog is well read among FOSS folks and (b) as someone who is a frequent traveler, and recognized by Delta as a "good customer", I have a louder voice then most in this debate. There are indeed a lot of issues that we should be speaking up on, and it can be exhausting to speak up on all of them. I try to target moments when my voice can get a bit more attention than usual for some reason and pounce on the opportunity to make a difference. I think it's a good approach. (Again, I'm the poster of the ebb.org blog post that was the original article linked to in this thread; as others have mentioned, this article was changed to be about the Washington Post news story that inspired my blog post). [0] and yes, the fossil fuel impact of that does bother me and I've spoken about that too at FOSS conferences)
burnt0951 7y ago
Ah yes, how dare anyone be offended by anything you personally don't give a shit about. I share your outrage.
- caymanjim 7y ago
  I'm aware of the hypocrisy of my inane whining about someone else's inane whining.
bkuhn 7y ago
I go to great lengths to buy clothes not made in sweatshops, actually. I admit I have some clothes probably made in sweatshops that I go second-hand. BTW, I've often been the only one at FOSS conferences raising the issue that t-shirts given out and/or sold were made by sweatshop labor. Yes, the X200 I'm typing this on was probably made in a sweatshop, as was the Nexus One I still use as a mobile device. But, I use every piece of hardware I have until it breaks in an unfixable way, and I also only buy used hardware. I've purchased a newly made electronic device since the late 1990s. As I mentioned in the original post, I've only worked for charities dedicated to causes I support. I'm curious to know which causes you spend your time getting "bent out of shape" to work on. Perhaps making up facts about authors of posts that get HN coverage is your cause? Is that your day job, or just a hobby cause? :) Oh, and as for commuting, I work from home, which means I don't drive home from work any day. The last day I "drove home from work" was circa early 1997. Did you happen to research and were speaking about the commuting I did in the 1990s? I wonder how the rest of HN readers cash in on this "guarantee" you gave them about the facts of my life which I can easily disprove you were wrong about.

anigbrowl 7y ago

Did you skip over the bit where he mentioned his experience as a CEO whose workforce unionized during his tenure?

caymanjim 7y ago

And now the link to the article I was commenting on has been swapped out and replaced with a Washington Post article. I don't know who did that, but it completely removes the context.

norgie 7y ago

Very true, we should never criticize anything bad because we can't criticize everything bad. We do live in a society after all.

bkuhn 7y ago
I realize sarcasm is the "way of expressing things on HN", and I did some of it myself in a post upthread, but to get serious on norgie's point for a moment: I picked this specific issue to speak out on for two reasons: (a) as a regular traveler [0] and speaker at FOSS events, this was a great opportunity to draw attention to the problems with airlines, as all of us use them to attend these events and my blog is well read among FOSS folks and (b) as someone who is a frequent traveler, and recognized by Delta as a "good customer", I have a louder voice then most in this debate. There are indeed a lot of issues that we should be speaking up on, and it can be exhausting to speak up on all of them. I try to target moments when my voice can get a bit more attention than usual for some reason and pounce on the opportunity to make a difference. I think it's a good approach. (Again, I'm the poster of the ebb.org blog post that was the original article linked to in this thread; as others have mentioned, this article was changed to be about the Washington Post news story that inspired my blog post). [0] and yes, the fossil fuel impact of that does bother me and I've spoken about that too at FOSS conferences)

burnt0951 7y ago

Ah yes, how dare anyone be offended by anything you personally don't give a shit about. I share your outrage.

caymanjim 7y ago
I'm aware of the hypocrisy of my inane whining about someone else's inane whining.

bkuhn 7y ago

I go to great lengths to buy clothes not made in sweatshops, actually. I admit I have some clothes probably made in sweatshops that I go second-hand. BTW, I've often been the only one at FOSS conferences raising the issue that t-shirts given out and/or sold were made by sweatshop labor. Yes, the X200 I'm typing this on was probably made in a sweatshop, as was the Nexus One I still use as a mobile device. But, I use every piece of hardware I have until it breaks in an unfixable way, and I also only buy used hardware. I've purchased a newly made electronic device since the late 1990s. As I mentioned in the original post, I've only worked for charities dedicated to causes I support. I'm curious to know which causes you spend your time getting "bent out of shape" to work on. Perhaps making up facts about authors of posts that get HN coverage is your cause? Is that your day job, or just a hobby cause? :) Oh, and as for commuting, I work from home, which means I don't drive home from work any day. The last day I "drove home from work" was circa early 1997. Did you happen to research and were speaking about the commuting I did in the 1990s? I wonder how the rest of HN readers cash in on this "guarantee" you gave them about the facts of my life which I can easily disprove you were wrong about.