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> made up of people People making meaningful decisions at mega corporations aren’t a random sample of the population, they are self selected to care a great de
by Retric 2y ago
> made up of people
People making meaningful decisions at mega corporations aren’t a random sample of the population, they are self selected to care a great deal about money and or power.
Honestly if you wanted to filter the general population to quietly discover who was evil I’d have a hard time finding something more effective. It doesn’t guarantee everyone is actually evil, but actually putting your kids first is a definite hindrance.
The morality of the average employee on the other hand is mostly irrelevant. They aren’t setting policies and if they dislike something they just get replaced.
- ericmay 2y agoYou'd never figure out who was "evil" because it's just based on your own interpretation of what evil is. Unless of course you want to join me as a moral objectivist? I don't think Google doing military work with the US government is evil. On the other and I think the influence and destruction caused by advertising algorithms is. Who gets to decide what is evil? I take issue with "don't blame the employees". You need people to run these organizations. If you consider the organization to be evil you don't get to then say well the people who are making the thing run aren't evil, they're just following orders or they don't know better. BS. And they'd be replaced if they left? Is that really the best argument we have against "being evil"? Sorry I'd be less evil but if I gave up my position as an evil henchman someone else would do it! And all that says anyway is that those replacing those who leave are just evil too. If you work at one of these companies or buy their products and you literally think they are evil you are either lying to yourself, or actively being complicit in their evil actions. There's just no way around that. Take personal responsibility. Make tough decisions. Stop abstracting your problems away.
- Retric 2y agoIf your defense is trying to argue about what’s evil, you’ve already lost. Putting money before other considerations is what’s evil. What’s “possible” expands based on your morality it doesn’t contract. If being polite makes a sale you’re going to find a lot of polite sales people, but how much are they willing to push that expended warrantee? > Sorry I'd be less evil but if I gave up my position as an evil henchman someone else would do it! I’ve constrained what I’m willing to do and who I’m willing to work for based on my morality, have you? And if not, consider what that say about you…
- ericmay 2y ago> Putting money before other considerations is what’s evil. Depends on the considerations and what you consider to be evil. My point wasn't to argue about what's evil, of course there is probably a few hundred years of philosophy to overcome in that discussion, but to point out that if you truly think an organization is evil it's not useful to only care about the legal fiction or the CEO or the board that you won't have any impact on - you have to blame the workers who make the evil possible too, and stop using the products. Otherwise you're just deceiving yourself into feeling like you are doing something.
- Retric 2y agoAgain, you say that as if I am using the products of companies I consider evil. The fact you assume people are going to do things they believe to be morally reprehensible is troubling to me. I don’t assume people need to be evil to work at such companies because I don’t assume they notice the same things I do.
- ericmay 2y agoI was writing about the general case. I apologize if that wasn't clear from the start. I don't know anything about you personally though I'm sure we'd have some great conversations over a glass of wine (or coffee or whatever :) )! > The fact you assume people are going to do things they believe to be morally reprehensible is troubling to me. This seems to be very common behavior in my experience. Perhaps the rhetoric doesn't match the true beliefs. I'm not sure.