Things that don't make me feel better about something:

"No it's actually ok, facebook also does it."

I most definitely wasn't endorsing them. I know their historical reputation. I was just suggesting it's interesting that FB use them also.

Perhaps you are unaware that the Pinkertons have a long history of union busting behavior. The most infamous being their involvement in the 1892 Homestead Steel Strike.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_strike

Thanks I've spent more than a decade working with civil society groups including union organising. The comment was made to highlight that Pinkerton are working with Facebook (amongst others) thus Facebook may also be concerned about union organising. Esp with Pinkertons past record.

Love how all these people rushed to tell you who Pinkerton are and what they do.

In case you’re not aware, Pinkerton was a prominent security company which gained a reputation for literally murdering labor organizers. For context.

Thanks I've spent more than a decade working with civil society groups including labour organising ones. The comment was made to highlight that Pinkerton are working with Facebook (amongst others) thus Facebook may also be concerned about union organising. Esp with Pinkertons past record.

And one with a long, long history of violent union busting.

Pinkerton is the union-busting company of choice for Amazon. Amazon has its own very expansive security apparatus.

There are a lot of security companies that have a less storied past than Pinkerton that they could have chosen, particularly in the area of unions.

I think moderators should have responded to the replies here, this is why "assume good intent" or however it's called is in HN rules.

Yes that's what I meant. Unfort people take it another way.

I wonder why multiple people read his comment as pro Pinkertons (pro AMZN etc.)

I read it as "Yep and Amazon are not the only large company that use them, so watch out! If Facebook employees ever want to unionize, Pinkertons might/will be sent after them too".

People read what they want to hear. I’ve posted comments that make it clear I support stuff, but because I (essentially) argued devil’s advocate, I was downvoted. I can only assume it’s because I’m supposedly showing sympathy to the other side (even if I’m not).

Ugh. Yes, that sucks. Benefit of the doubt, patience/curiosity to understand, and fair view are rare as supermodels with PhD's flying jet aircraft these days.

Up/down vote I think is too ambiguous: there ought to be an agree/disagree metric and a relevant-interesting/irrelevant-uninteresting one too. Maybe even get rid of displayed karma and simply vote on multiple properties (insightful, agreed, brave, well-reasoned, informative, primary source anecdote)

The HN bubble is real and as biased as any other internet community.

To somebody who believes in a black and white “with us or against us” world, “sympathy" and “support” are the same thing :(

No, not pro-Pinkerton; not appreciating the historical infamy of the Pinkerton's. They are like lobbyists - true scum: tools of the rich harming people for money.

> I wonder why multiple people read his comment as pro Pinkertons (pro AMZN etc.)

Because "this is common practice" is often used as an argument that "this is reasonable."

The comment was made to highlight that Pinkerton are working with Facebook (amongst others) thus Facebook may also be concerned about union organising. So watch out if you are trying. Esp with Pinkertons past record.

Yes, exactly.

Interestingly: McDonald's has their own internal surveillance apparatus that functions much like their own Pinkerton's.

> Pinkerton are the corporate security company of choice for a lot of organisations...including Facebook

> I wonder why multiple people read his comment as pro Pinkertons

It was stated as a whataboutism, which is a defensive tactic.

If the point was to indicate that the Pinkertons are not unusual, then that would be the subject. Instead, it reads as "this is not unusual", which is incorrect, regardless of intent.

Author of comment here. No it wasn't stated as whataboutism. It was stated with the intent to highlight that Facebook uses Pinkerton so perhaps Facebook also has very deep concerns about union organising also. Especially as Pinkerton is historically well known for this sort of counter activity.