4 ms·

Whoa - either I expressed myself really poorly, or you are just bent on applying Godwin's law as fast as you can.

meiraleal 2y ago
Not really (I really like most if not all of your comments, this is the first time I recall disagreeing). Working for a company that brings such a net negative to society is not a matter of "most corporations are evil at some level". Facebook/Instagram/Meta (and Google) have such a negative influence in the minds of billions of people that honestly, they both already rival or might surpass how big and influential Nazi Germany ever was. If Meta was a company like others, this kind of Ask HN wouldn't be so common.
- drstewart 2y ago
  That's funny, because I think the same about companies that work on AI, which will be 10x worse than social media ever was. So, what do you do?
  - meiraleal 2y ago
    I will hope for you to put up a fight against them, then. I don't think a hypothetical bigger evil in the future is worse than current big evil tho and what's going to come from AI is still up to grab, at least much more than social media or search.
muzani 2y ago
Nazis are a simple evil everyone agrees on. The reality is most of the biggest tech companies work with defense. Some of it is actually defense. I think we should come up with a "Are we the baddies?" checklist. 1. Do we justify killing 10 innocents to save one life? 2. Are the enemies not given proper burials, i.e. are body parts kept as trophies or mounted on sticks? Mass graves and cremations are still okay. 3. Do our commanders show joy at killing an unarmed civilian? 4. Do we perform experiments on live prisoners? 5. Do we rape or kill anyone under the age of 9? 6. Do we use starvation as a weapon? Most of the cruelest societies would be around 5/6. Something like Holodomor was cruel, but only about 1/6. WW2 Allies would be around 3/6, but well, they were fighting the ones who were at 5/6. So maybe it was justified if you're defending against a bigger threat? Scale probably counts too, but it's simpler to measure intent and cruelty. I would wager that no tech company scores anywhere near 5 like Nazis. But some may be complicit on at least 1, like human trafficking or enabling serial killers.

Not really (I really like most if not all of your comments, this is the first time I recall disagreeing). Working for a company that brings such a net negative to society is not a matter of "most corporations are evil at some level". Facebook/Instagram/Meta (and Google) have such a negative influence in the minds of billions of people that honestly, they both already rival or might surpass how big and influential Nazi Germany ever was. If Meta was a company like others, this kind of Ask HN wouldn't be so common.

drstewart 2y ago
That's funny, because I think the same about companies that work on AI, which will be 10x worse than social media ever was. So, what do you do?
- meiraleal 2y ago
  I will hope for you to put up a fight against them, then. I don't think a hypothetical bigger evil in the future is worse than current big evil tho and what's going to come from AI is still up to grab, at least much more than social media or search.

muzani 2y ago

Nazis are a simple evil everyone agrees on. The reality is most of the biggest tech companies work with defense. Some of it is actually defense. I think we should come up with a "Are we the baddies?" checklist. 1. Do we justify killing 10 innocents to save one life? 2. Are the enemies not given proper burials, i.e. are body parts kept as trophies or mounted on sticks? Mass graves and cremations are still okay. 3. Do our commanders show joy at killing an unarmed civilian? 4. Do we perform experiments on live prisoners? 5. Do we rape or kill anyone under the age of 9? 6. Do we use starvation as a weapon? Most of the cruelest societies would be around 5/6. Something like Holodomor was cruel, but only about 1/6. WW2 Allies would be around 3/6, but well, they were fighting the ones who were at 5/6. So maybe it was justified if you're defending against a bigger threat? Scale probably counts too, but it's simpler to measure intent and cruelty. I would wager that no tech company scores anywhere near 5 like Nazis. But some may be complicit on at least 1, like human trafficking or enabling serial killers.