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This comment section is full of people criticising the tone, the writing style and the "injection of personal politics" to avoid facing their compliciteness in

This comment section is full of people criticising the tone, the writing style and the "injection of personal politics" to avoid facing their compliciteness in fundamentally unethical businesses.

tw1010 7y ago
How would you suggest we work on improving technology without having it be useful in "evil" ways? Or are you suggesting all of us not take data jobs (or even work on any generalizable tech) at the risk that it somehow in a tangential way could be used for evil purposes? I understand what you're saying, and actually kind of agree with you (that people are commenting minutiae to avoid an elephant in the room), I just don't know if there's a solution.
- cyborgx7 7y ago
  I sadly have no solution to offer. I'm not even saying the people making these comments should all solve the problem or immediately quit their jobs. But at least acknowledging the problem would be a start.
BiasRegularizer 7y ago
One can report facts about unethical businesses without asserting personal beliefs, otherwise it's just bad journalism. If the background and evidence are sufficient, the readers can draw their own conclusions. There is no need to tell the readers what is evil and what is not. In this case, the author emphasized too much on his/her own belief, which erodes into the integrity of the valuable facts he provided. His/her personal opinions turned an exposé into an editorial.
- cyborgx7 7y ago
  This is hyperindividulaism driven to an absurd degree. Activism is a good thing. We shouldn't all be limited to apolitically spout facts at eachother, hoping enough people will independently come to the right conclusion and spontanously solve the problem. Convincing people and trying to organize are essential in affecting change.
- yqx 7y ago
  You're criticizing this article for failing to meet standards it never purports to uphold. This is an essay / personal account of events, not journalism. For an essay, in my opinion, it stays in rather neutral territory, making some uncontroversial observations that climate change is bad, that big oil plays a major role it, and expressing some enthusiasm for standing up against partnerships with big oil, but not otherwise making strong claims about what should be done.

This comment section is full of people criticising the tone, the writing style and the "injection of personal politics" to avoid facing their compliciteness in fundamentally unethical businesses.

tw1010 7y ago

How would you suggest we work on improving technology without having it be useful in "evil" ways? Or are you suggesting all of us not take data jobs (or even work on any generalizable tech) at the risk that it somehow in a tangential way could be used for evil purposes? I understand what you're saying, and actually kind of agree with you (that people are commenting minutiae to avoid an elephant in the room), I just don't know if there's a solution.

cyborgx7 7y ago
I sadly have no solution to offer. I'm not even saying the people making these comments should all solve the problem or immediately quit their jobs. But at least acknowledging the problem would be a start.

BiasRegularizer 7y ago

One can report facts about unethical businesses without asserting personal beliefs, otherwise it's just bad journalism. If the background and evidence are sufficient, the readers can draw their own conclusions. There is no need to tell the readers what is evil and what is not. In this case, the author emphasized too much on his/her own belief, which erodes into the integrity of the valuable facts he provided. His/her personal opinions turned an exposé into an editorial.

cyborgx7 7y ago
This is hyperindividulaism driven to an absurd degree. Activism is a good thing. We shouldn't all be limited to apolitically spout facts at eachother, hoping enough people will independently come to the right conclusion and spontanously solve the problem. Convincing people and trying to organize are essential in affecting change.
yqx 7y ago
You're criticizing this article for failing to meet standards it never purports to uphold. This is an essay / personal account of events, not journalism. For an essay, in my opinion, it stays in rather neutral territory, making some uncontroversial observations that climate change is bad, that big oil plays a major role it, and expressing some enthusiasm for standing up against partnerships with big oil, but not otherwise making strong claims about what should be done.