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I'm am guessing you do not live in Hungary, Poland, Brazil or Turkey either. Everything in the US is political now: face masks, 5G networks, vaccines, mail. Fa

I'm am guessing you do not live in Hungary, Poland, Brazil or Turkey either. Everything in the US is political now: face masks, 5G networks, vaccines, mail. Facebook dominates people's lives yet is an endless spam of politics. Google search is facing anti-trust because it is "liberal", while the ISPs and other monopolies are strangely un-molested. Every tech company, apolitical or not, is automatically suspected by half of the country mostly because of their address. But just for clarity, the major US debate is whether the election was fraudulent or not which is considerably higher stakes than a contest of identity. You can hedge your corporate bets by having no opinion on the mater but necessarily one of those parties is directly subverting the democracy. For anyone ok with that, then silence is undoubtedly a profitable path: why cut your business in half and alienate half of potential customers/employees over mere democracy?

adnzzzzZ 6y ago
Even if what you described about current American elections was actually the case (it isn't), it's not the purpose of a business to defend democracy. If you were a businessman in Germany during WW2 you would not have been a brave warrior fighting to preserve democracy, you'd just have moved on with your life and kept running your business, as would have (and as did) most people. Also, what does Brazil have to do with this? I live here. Are you under the impression that Brazil is under the rule of a dictator or something?
- TomMckenny 6y ago
  >Even if what you described about current American elections was actually the case (it isn't) https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1330137267680186371 https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/13301372676801863... https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1330487246236028935 https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/13304872462360289... https://twitter.com/LizRNC/status/1330186217355350020 https://twitter.com/LizRNC/status/1330186217355350020 https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1330367988621594625 https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/13303679886215946... https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1330555645213483016 https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/13305556452134830... https://twitter.com/TeamTrump https://twitter.com/TeamTrump > If you were a businessman in Germany during WW2 you would not have been a brave warrior fighting to preserve democracy, you'd just have moved on with your life and kept running your business, as would have (and as did) most people. Different people have different opinions about right and wrong. A different set behaviors by a large number of people would bring about a different outcome. Left unchecked, the luxury of dissent becomes more and more painful for company and individual.
  - makeworld 6y ago
    None of those tweets are evidence.
- dmingod666 6y ago
  How long does the US need to stop thinking that they are still fighting WW2..? it seems the only way they can interpret politics is in the context of Allies vs the Axis powers..
- ojbyrne 6y ago
  I believe a significant number of people would answer “yes” to your final question, or at least complain that your leadership shows authoritarian tendencies, much like Victor Orban, Donald Trump, Rodrigo Duterte, etc. On your first paragraph it seems to me a reasonable argument that if all the chemical companies in Germany dragged their feet, obfuscated, and ideally just outright refused to supply the government with poisonous gases, once it became clear they were being used on people, less people would have died.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - adnzzzzZ 6y ago
    >I believe a significant number of people would answer “yes” to your final question, or at least complain that your leadership shows authoritarian tendencies, much like Victor Orban, Donald Trump, Rodrigo Duterte, etc. Someone showing authoritarian tendencies does not mean the country is under authoritarian rule. I don't like Bolsonaro but he is very far from having any real power in the country. And I would say the same of Trump. I don't know anything about the others. >On your first paragraph it seems to me a reasonable argument that if all the chemical companies in Germany Why would they do that? Hitler was popular because he actually fixed a lot of problems in Germany at the time. Either way, my argument is still that businesses shouldn't support or not support any particular politician. They should just move on with their business impartially, even if "democracy" is being threatened or if their product is being used for evil. It's not your job to judge how people use your technology.
    - ojbyrne 6y ago
      I really enjoyed and would recommend the Third Reich Trilogy [1], especially to anyone who thinks Hitler was “popular because he actually fixed a lot of problems in Germany at the time.” Hitler was never popular, he just appeared that way because he suppressed all opposition. 1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Reich_Trilogy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Reich_Trilogy
dane-pgp 6y ago
> why cut your business in half and alienate half of potential customers/employees over mere democracy? I can foresee a near future where this becomes a very pertinent question. Suppose that, due to some underhanded dealings of the Electoral College (and/or SCOTUS), the current President were to be granted a second term. Further suppose that 70% of the country saw this process as illegitimate, but wanted to avoid any direct violent conflict. My question is: Would big tech companies (or key employees within them) work together to implement a digital General Strike across the country? This would be an extreme and probably criminal form of civil disobedience, although I imagine the perpetrators could be motivated by an expectation of receiving a presidential pardon if they were successful. I'm sure that someone in the contingency planning departments of these big companies someone has gamed out what would happen if Apple and Google and Microsoft all pushed software updates to devices and online services which blocked certain activities (e.g. use by fossil fuel companies?) while controlling the media narrative by promoting messages from their side.

adnzzzzZ 6y ago

Even if what you described about current American elections was actually the case (it isn't), it's not the purpose of a business to defend democracy. If you were a businessman in Germany during WW2 you would not have been a brave warrior fighting to preserve democracy, you'd just have moved on with your life and kept running your business, as would have (and as did) most people. Also, what does Brazil have to do with this? I live here. Are you under the impression that Brazil is under the rule of a dictator or something?

TomMckenny 6y ago
>Even if what you described about current American elections was actually the case (it isn't) https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1330137267680186371 https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/13301372676801863... https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1330487246236028935 https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/13304872462360289... https://twitter.com/LizRNC/status/1330186217355350020 https://twitter.com/LizRNC/status/1330186217355350020 https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1330367988621594625 https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/13303679886215946... https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1330555645213483016 https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/13305556452134830... https://twitter.com/TeamTrump https://twitter.com/TeamTrump > If you were a businessman in Germany during WW2 you would not have been a brave warrior fighting to preserve democracy, you'd just have moved on with your life and kept running your business, as would have (and as did) most people. Different people have different opinions about right and wrong. A different set behaviors by a large number of people would bring about a different outcome. Left unchecked, the luxury of dissent becomes more and more painful for company and individual.
- makeworld 6y ago
  None of those tweets are evidence.
dmingod666 6y ago
How long does the US need to stop thinking that they are still fighting WW2..? it seems the only way they can interpret politics is in the context of Allies vs the Axis powers..
ojbyrne 6y ago
I believe a significant number of people would answer “yes” to your final question, or at least complain that your leadership shows authoritarian tendencies, much like Victor Orban, Donald Trump, Rodrigo Duterte, etc. On your first paragraph it seems to me a reasonable argument that if all the chemical companies in Germany dragged their feet, obfuscated, and ideally just outright refused to supply the government with poisonous gases, once it became clear they were being used on people, less people would have died.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- adnzzzzZ 6y ago
  >I believe a significant number of people would answer “yes” to your final question, or at least complain that your leadership shows authoritarian tendencies, much like Victor Orban, Donald Trump, Rodrigo Duterte, etc. Someone showing authoritarian tendencies does not mean the country is under authoritarian rule. I don't like Bolsonaro but he is very far from having any real power in the country. And I would say the same of Trump. I don't know anything about the others. >On your first paragraph it seems to me a reasonable argument that if all the chemical companies in Germany Why would they do that? Hitler was popular because he actually fixed a lot of problems in Germany at the time. Either way, my argument is still that businesses shouldn't support or not support any particular politician. They should just move on with their business impartially, even if "democracy" is being threatened or if their product is being used for evil. It's not your job to judge how people use your technology.
  - ojbyrne 6y ago
    I really enjoyed and would recommend the Third Reich Trilogy [1], especially to anyone who thinks Hitler was “popular because he actually fixed a lot of problems in Germany at the time.” Hitler was never popular, he just appeared that way because he suppressed all opposition. 1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Reich_Trilogy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Reich_Trilogy

dane-pgp 6y ago

> why cut your business in half and alienate half of potential customers/employees over mere democracy? I can foresee a near future where this becomes a very pertinent question. Suppose that, due to some underhanded dealings of the Electoral College (and/or SCOTUS), the current President were to be granted a second term. Further suppose that 70% of the country saw this process as illegitimate, but wanted to avoid any direct violent conflict. My question is: Would big tech companies (or key employees within them) work together to implement a digital General Strike across the country? This would be an extreme and probably criminal form of civil disobedience, although I imagine the perpetrators could be motivated by an expectation of receiving a presidential pardon if they were successful. I'm sure that someone in the contingency planning departments of these big companies someone has gamed out what would happen if Apple and Google and Microsoft all pushed software updates to devices and online services which blocked certain activities (e.g. use by fossil fuel companies?) while controlling the media narrative by promoting messages from their side.