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Re:Google’s Secret China Project “Effectively Ended” After I... by jo2ie on Monday December 17, 2018 @09:17PM (#18704044)
Well the depressing part for me is I have seen good friends, extremely smart people who have no sane reason to be working on shady shit, fall down the rabbit hole. And I really haven't found effective ways to do anything about it...

There are two issues at play

1. Not everyone is prepared mentally to turn down big payouts. I have seen this happening up and down the food chain. You only understand how hard this is after you have been in that position. And these day some of the cheques that get waved in your face are insane.

2. People get sucked into a certain kind of "lifestyle" that they get insecure about loosing. And will do whatever it takes to maintain that lifestyle. Once they get "trapped" they are part of this global mega machine of similar folk. Sometimes it feels like watching ants in an anthill. All on autopilot.

The thing is they know they are trapped and convincing them to give it up is not simple.

Re:Google’s Secret China Project “Effectively Ended” After I... by tinus_hn on Tuesday December 18, 2018 @06:11AM (#18705740)
It’s not just about the money. Some people can just be really persuasive and in reality most things are not really that black and white.
Re:Google’s Secret China Project “Effectively Ended” After I... by ethbro on Tuesday December 18, 2018 @06:41AM (#18705845)
It's funny how things tend to get less black and white as more money is offered.
Re:Google’s Secret China Project “Effectively Ended” After I... by tinus_hn on Tuesday December 18, 2018 @12:59PM (#18708787)
It’s funny how things tend to get less black and white if you actually look at pros and cons and listen to arguments. The fact that there actually are pros and cons to most things means they are not black and white.
Re:Google’s Secret China Project “Effectively Ended” After I... by ethbro on Tuesday December 18, 2018 @11:32PM (#18713025)
Show me evil that cannot be justified with enough words, and I'll show you an uncreative salesperson.
Re:Google’s Secret China Project “Effectively Ended” After I... by tinus_hn on Wednesday December 19, 2018 @02:30AM (#18713860)
Sounds so deep, yet means absolutely nothing. A great piece of marijuana ‘wisdom’.
Re:Google’s Secret China Project “Effectively Ended” After I... by ethbro on Wednesday December 19, 2018 @09:39PM (#18722059)
To elaborate for you, I was saying that with enough words anything can be justified.

Ergo, in response to your previous post, one of two things is true. (1) There is no true evil in the world. Or (2) one should be suspicious of elaborate arguments, because they're often coming from people paid to defend profitable evil.

The counterargument to (2) would be "Well, 'good' has PR too." But I think it's objectively demonstrable that evil pays much better.

Re:Google’s Secret China Project “Effectively Ended” After I... by lugg on Tuesday December 18, 2018 @01:55AM (#18704983)
> Not everyone is prepared mentally to turn down big payouts

Nobody is prepared for racial profiling and genocide either.

Re:Google’s Secret China Project “Effectively Ended” After I... by grey-area on Tuesday December 18, 2018 @04:39AM (#18705477)
I think the OP is explaining, not attempting to justify.
Re:Google’s Secret China Project “Effectively Ended” After I... by jacobush on Tuesday December 18, 2018 @05:12AM (#18705576)
Yep - difference between empathy (explaining) and sympathy (justifying).
Re:Google’s Secret China Project “Effectively Ended” After I... by lugg on Tuesday December 18, 2018 @10:13AM (#18706952)
The only reason one would share their empathy for these people is to garner sympathy. That is what I took issue with.

Let's try this again,

You said you haven't found effective ways to do anything about it.

How about you stop calling them friends for a start.

Secondly, say something. You're literally the only one who can.

Don't just sit there and try to justify their shitty actions so you can let yourself off the hook as if you tried but couldn't do anything because you know, what about their lifestyles.