I'm Getting Real Down On Elizabeth Warren

[AFTT47]

Thank you, everybody for all the well-reasoned and rational responses.

I can't say I'm not still very wary of Warren but I have a better understanding now of the the counter argument.

[Rev. Rye]

"BIG' anything creates problems globally. 

She isn't out to end the private sector. But just like big tobacco lied about it's products, and just like the fossil fuel industry has lied about it's products for the past century, she doesn't want big "tech" to become so much of a global monopoly that it hurts consumers. Big Pharma created our opiate addiction. 

The problem with mega corporations regardless of industry, is that there is this false utopia that only shareholders and CEOs matter and that a giant corporation can expand forever. The problem in reality is that is literally physically impossible because the planet is not an indefinite flat service where you can get bigger and bigger forever.

And just so we're clear, this isn't just Brian being alarmist about a hypothetical scenario. This is fucking happening. Facebook is complicit in an actual genocide, Amazon is killing the retail market and reserves the right to delete legally-purchased content from its users' devices without consent, Google's censoring a lot of the world (not just China, but it has been working with the PRC), and Apple's including a chip in their devices that can brick them if they're repaired by a third party. And they can accumulate terabytes' worth of data on you even if you don't use their platforms.

I've talked about Mr. Enter's documentary Technocracy and here's a video of the entire series. Warning, this is longer than Return of the King and is paced a hell of a lot better (his talking so fast and going over a LOT of topics certainly helps) and the information contained herein can be fucking terrifying.





There are eight parts:

• YouTube (0:01:30), wherein we see what happens with a company and its users when it contains a stranglehold on its market.
  
• Facebook (0:20:15), wherein we witness how much data a company can collect on its users, and how powerful a private company can be.
  
• Twitter (0:34:06), wherein we discover the consequences of giving anyone and their mums a platform, making the political discourse throughout the world a hell of a lot more toxic. 
  
• Tumblr (1:03:50), wherein the need to police the Internet is discussed, and the sheer futility of any attempt at policing it, whether through human mods, algorithms, or laws.
  
• Digital Distributors (1:32:54), wherein it turns out that just because you purchase something, that doesn't mean you actually own it. 
  
• Payment Processors (1:53:12), wherein we find out that their power over us and our wallets goes to the level of potentially denying people the right to make a living or even SPEND MONEY. And the buck stops well beyond these tech companies.
  
• Google (2:17:22), wherein it turns out a company whose motto used to be "Don't Be Evil" can only live up to that former motto because the bar for tech companies doing evil is actually set by...
  
• Sesame Credit (2:44:36), wherein we see the worst-case scenario of how much damage a company can do, and it's basically the ratings system from Nosedive, except it's actually fucking happening in China. Contains an epilogue containing a potential list of demands and potential means for alternatives starting at 3:08:45.
  

Well, that was horrifying. Let's take a lighter look into what happens when a company decides to build their business model on MOAR PROPERTIES FOR US TO OWN!





Make no mistake, breaking up the big tech companies should, if anything, bolster the free market, because, if nothing else, it actually helps create some healthy level of competition that doesn't really exist anymore.

[The Valkyrie]

Never go down on a politician...

[EgoDeath]

My perception remains that Warren is a fucking nut who is massively over-reacting.

Maybe not considering that Mark Zuckerberg had private meetings with conservative pundits

https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/14...ngs-046663


Btw did you see Ron Reagan's ad during the debates?

I really enjoyed seeing this ad on television the other day; it makes it known that normal, respectable people are atheists.

[TaraJo]

I've seen a lot of focus on breaking up facebook.  Meh.  I really don't think facebook is enough of a monopoly that it needs to be broken up.  There's still plenty of other social networking out there be it twitter or instigram or tumblr or reddit or whatever.  Not to mention, when you boil it down, social media is just entertainment and it's not like we're lacking in other forms of entertainment.  If facebook ceased to exist tomorrow, I'd miss it, but I'd still be able to keep myself occupied.

If you want to worry about companies squeezing out competition and becoming monopolies, there are bigger fish to fry.  Disney might be a place to start.  Amazon could stand to be broken up.  Or even Walmart.  The banks have needed to be broken up a long time ago and breaking up the big airlines and food producers would help people out, too.  But when it comes to big tech, I think the only tech industry that even gets close to being so big they're dangerous is Amazon (microsoft could get there, but Bill Gates seems more laid back than that).

[Chad32]

It's kind of crazy that the banks didn't get broken up after the recession in 2008, honestly. Too big to fail is too big to exist. If we're supposed to be capitalists, that means when a business fails, you're supposed to just let it crash and burn. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps, and all that.

[onlinebiker]

Never go down on a politician...

Can ya imagine the poor sod who made that mistake with Hillary?


How embarrasing would it be to die of hypothermia of the tongue?

[TaraJo]

It's kind of crazy that the banks didn't get broken up after the recession in 2008, honestly. Too big to fail is too big to exist. If we're supposed to be capitalists, that means when a business fails, you're supposed to just let it crash and burn. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps, and all that.

That's the kind of political power money will buy you in Washington nowadays: finance all of the elected officials on both sides of the isle and nobody will dare pass any kind of legislation that will reduce you in either power or money.  It's basically legalized bribes.