Re:We are Google employees – Google must drop Dragonfly
by colordrops on Tuesday November 27, 2018 @10:38PM
(#18549113)
There's a difference between boycotting products made in China and protesting against building technologies that enable dictatorial regimes. They do not deserve to be conflated.
Re:We are Google employees – Google must drop Dragonfly
by derangedHorse on Wednesday November 28, 2018 @08:04AM
(#18551108)
They're not "enabling" a dictatorial regime, they're just following the laws of a foreign government. Making a censored search engine isn't "supporting" the government, it's just abiding by it.
Re:We are Google employees – Google must drop Dragonfly
by PeterisP on Wednesday November 28, 2018 @11:15AM
(#18552672)
A censored search engine is a direct instrument of oppression.
Contracting to build a censored search engine is the moral equivalent of contracting to build a barbed wire fence around a concentration camp.
You're being an active participant that directly assists in making that oppression happen by building tools required for the actual act of oppression, as opposed to building something that merely done in the same country.
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Re:We are Google employees – Google must drop Dragonfly
by colordrops on Wednesday November 28, 2018 @12:26AM
(#18549490)
There are over a billion innocent people in China. The products themselves are mostly innocent and the people who build them make their livelihoods manufacturing them. That the government takes a cut is incidental. It's simply not comparable to a product specifically built to support dictatorship.
Over 5 trillion in US tax money has been used to prosecute unjust war in the middle East resulting in 100s of thousands of deaths. Is boycotting Disney movies that support the government through taxes the same as boycotting predator drones?
Re:We are Google employees – Google must drop Dragonfly
by sullyj3 on Wednesday November 28, 2018 @01:32AM
(#18549681)
"You're not allowed to do anything good ever if you're not already a maximally good person. That would make you a hypocrite, which is way worse than someone who doesn't do anything to help in the first place."
Re:We are Google employees – Google must drop Dragonfly
by derangedHorse on Wednesday November 28, 2018 @08:10AM
(#18551134)
I don't understand the context in which you're posting this quote. pompousprick's argument was that we shouldn't morally prosecute these companies as supporting dictatorships just because they do business in China.
1. Give up their Chinese-Manufactured iPhones/Android Phones? Tablets? Laptops and workstations??
2. Give up watching movies/shows on their Chinese-manufactured TVs??
3. Stop wearing Chinese-made iwatches/fitbits/etc.??
4. Boycott silicon valley startups that have accepted chinese investments?
5. Boycott every product by US/Foreign company (Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Samsung, GE, Disney, Chevron, Exxon, Shell, etc.) doing business in China?