I don’t work for Google, and you’re not wrong, but I am not sure they’re totally wrong either. I honestly believe that a majority of companies around today are making the world worse, at least, for most companies there’s an argument that can be made. I’m having some difficulty thinking of an exception right now.
Comment on [deleted]
jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 20 hours ago
I think a good step would be if people could admit the companies they work for are making the world worse. I’ve met some people who work for Google who do some backflips about how no the company is good and definitely they’re good people and it’s not the $300k salary talking.
frog_brawler@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 19 hours ago
I’m sure there are companies that are at least more good than bad. Teachers pay teachers. Meetup. Bandcamp before they sold. That’s all I have off the top of my head. But even so capitalism invites cruelty, and the best intentions can easily wither under the pressure to make more money.
I work for a very large company involved in medicine. They make machines to do like blood work. That’s fine. People need that. But they treat many of their workers like trash. I don’t get paid for holidays and get the legal minimum sick leave per year. Their mission isn’t especially evil , but their behavior sucks.
frog_brawler@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
I’m really only familiar with Meetup from that list, and yea, I agree. I think they inherently aren’t intending to do harm as a company, but what if domestic terrorists / cultists were to use meetup to find other likeminded individuals. Meetup may be in part responsible for getting harmful people together and they may never be aware of it. Sure, it’s a hypothetical, but not entirely outside the realm of possibility.
IMO, mistreating and underpaying people does make the world worse. It’s not the company mission, but yea… the whole capitalist machine thing. It’s hard to escape the output, which tends to harm at least someone.
mlg@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
Seriously for all the protests and walkouts over Gaza last year, my main thought was “didn’t you know MSFT/Google/Meta is literally evil?”
I can’t blame anyone for wanting a stable income, but you might as well be working for Lockheed Martin. There’s a reason why these megacorps stay in an oligopoly at the top, and it has nothing to do with talent or quality solutions.
boonhet@sopuli.xyz 19 hours ago
15 years ago Google was a cool tech company that open sourced a lot of their projects.
That was no longer the case long before Gaza though
moonshadow@slrpnk.net 16 hours ago
15 years ago you were naive enough to believe their bullshit and public perception was still important to their success. “Embrace, extend, extinguish” isn’t healthy participation in open source. Think M$ was the one who actually stated things that way, but google was absolutely playing the same game