5 ms·

I think out of the group you named at least Zuckerberg and Bezos have sold their souls to the devil

by chipgap98 6y ago

lostapathy 6y ago
And in the 90's, many were convinced Gates was the devil.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- sky_rw 6y ago
  Many of us still are
zarkov99 6y ago
I am conflicted about Zuckerberg, I think I understand where you are coming from, but Zuckerberg contributes heavily to charity and perhaps might not have realized the monster he was creating in Facebook. Similarly Dorsey. I do not get the Bezos hate.
- meowface 6y ago
  One of the big issues with Zuckerberg's optics are the circumstances around Facebook's creation. An app to rate people's attractiveness, laughing in chat logs that people would trust him with their personal information, etc. Combined with the externalities and immense power they now have, it's not a great look. However, I agree that he's probably a better person than most give him credit for, and I think he's really stuck between a rock and a hard place on a lot of these issues. Especially things relating to politics, mis/disinformation, and free speech. I consider the proliferation of non-paid online services (who therefore can only survive by making money in other ways) the true bane of humanity; not any particular executive. (That said, I'm also not going to let anyone off the hook once they deliberately choose to create such a service.) I had a high opinion of Bezos until the disclosure of Amazon's poor working conditions. His making the minimum wage for workers $15/hour is a good step, but I think they're going to need to do a lot more before that reputation changes. Other than that, I admire him. Dorsey seems to be the least hated of the bunch, and I like him, personally. He seems like he still has a kind of hacker mindset, and I believe he genuinely wants to make Twitter a force for good in the world. I'm not sure if he'll be able to accomplish it, though.
- stretchcat 6y ago
  Doesn't Zuckerberg still have a controlling interest in Facebook? Seems to me, that makes him more culpable than most of the rest.
- lancesells 6y ago
  I'm just looking at what Wikipedia says Zuckerberg is worth but it's $69B. Looking at what Forbes said his charity (which does not mean 100% his money) they donated $410 million in 2018. That's ~0.006% of his wealth meaning it's not even giving away a penny out of $100. It's close to half a penny out of $100. I understand net worth of $69B is on paper but none of these guys are philanthropic.
  - oh_sigh 6y ago
    You're off by a factor of 100.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - holbrad 6y ago
    Are you sure it's not 0.594% of his networth as opposed to 0.0006?
  - lancesells 6y ago
    Edit: My math was off. Thanks to those correcting me.
desireco42 6y ago
I would separate here, Bezos is evil because he is just amassing wealth, avoids taxes and pretty much is focused only on himself. Contrast that with Cuban who is also amassing wealth, but also is trying to do what is good for the community.
- meowface 6y ago
  Bezos has donated a lot to charity, including $10 billion to fight climate change and $100 million to food banks in 2020. Sure, he could donate more, but % wise that's probably more than many people reading this have donated in 2020. And I don't want to start a debate over it, but I do believe that the primary intention behind Blue Origin is to benefit humanity. The main issue with Bezos is worker conditions at Amazon, I think.
  - desireco42 6y ago
    These are mostly tax moves, not genuine concern, in my view. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-18/jeff-bezos-donating-10-billion-barely-dents-his-surging-fortune https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-18/jeff-bezo...

I think out of the group you named at least Zuckerberg and Bezos have sold their souls to the devil

lostapathy 6y ago

And in the 90's, many were convinced Gates was the devil.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
sky_rw 6y ago
Many of us still are

zarkov99 6y ago

I am conflicted about Zuckerberg, I think I understand where you are coming from, but Zuckerberg contributes heavily to charity and perhaps might not have realized the monster he was creating in Facebook. Similarly Dorsey. I do not get the Bezos hate.

meowface 6y ago
One of the big issues with Zuckerberg's optics are the circumstances around Facebook's creation. An app to rate people's attractiveness, laughing in chat logs that people would trust him with their personal information, etc. Combined with the externalities and immense power they now have, it's not a great look. However, I agree that he's probably a better person than most give him credit for, and I think he's really stuck between a rock and a hard place on a lot of these issues. Especially things relating to politics, mis/disinformation, and free speech. I consider the proliferation of non-paid online services (who therefore can only survive by making money in other ways) the true bane of humanity; not any particular executive. (That said, I'm also not going to let anyone off the hook once they deliberately choose to create such a service.) I had a high opinion of Bezos until the disclosure of Amazon's poor working conditions. His making the minimum wage for workers $15/hour is a good step, but I think they're going to need to do a lot more before that reputation changes. Other than that, I admire him. Dorsey seems to be the least hated of the bunch, and I like him, personally. He seems like he still has a kind of hacker mindset, and I believe he genuinely wants to make Twitter a force for good in the world. I'm not sure if he'll be able to accomplish it, though.
stretchcat 6y ago
Doesn't Zuckerberg still have a controlling interest in Facebook? Seems to me, that makes him more culpable than most of the rest.
lancesells 6y ago
I'm just looking at what Wikipedia says Zuckerberg is worth but it's $69B. Looking at what Forbes said his charity (which does not mean 100% his money) they donated $410 million in 2018. That's ~0.006% of his wealth meaning it's not even giving away a penny out of $100. It's close to half a penny out of $100. I understand net worth of $69B is on paper but none of these guys are philanthropic.
- oh_sigh 6y ago
  You're off by a factor of 100.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- holbrad 6y ago
  Are you sure it's not 0.594% of his networth as opposed to 0.0006?
- lancesells 6y ago
  Edit: My math was off. Thanks to those correcting me.

desireco42 6y ago

I would separate here, Bezos is evil because he is just amassing wealth, avoids taxes and pretty much is focused only on himself. Contrast that with Cuban who is also amassing wealth, but also is trying to do what is good for the community.

meowface 6y ago
Bezos has donated a lot to charity, including $10 billion to fight climate change and $100 million to food banks in 2020. Sure, he could donate more, but % wise that's probably more than many people reading this have donated in 2020. And I don't want to start a debate over it, but I do believe that the primary intention behind Blue Origin is to benefit humanity. The main issue with Bezos is worker conditions at Amazon, I think.
- desireco42 6y ago
  These are mostly tax moves, not genuine concern, in my view. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-18/jeff-bezos-donating-10-billion-barely-dents-his-surging-fortune https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-18/jeff-bezo...