Hi, we’re a tech startup run by libertarian Silicon Valley tech bros.
We’re not a newspaper, we’re a content portal.
We’re not a taxi service, we’re a ride sharing app.
We’re not a pay TV service, we’re a streaming platform.
We’re not a department store, we’re an e-commerce marketplace.
We’re not a financial services firm, we’re crypto.
We’re not a space agency, we’re a group of visionaries who are totally going to Mars next year.
We’re not a copywriting and graphic design agency, we’re a large language model generative AI platform.
Oh sure, we compete against those established businesses. We basically provide the same goods and services.
But we’re totally not those things. At least from a legal and PR standpoint.
And that means all the laws and regulations that have built up over the decades around those industries don’t apply to us.
Things like consumer protections, privacy protections, minimum wage laws, local content requirements, safety regulations, environmental protections… They totally don’t apply to us.
Even copyright laws — as long as we’re talking about everyone else’s intellectual property.
We’re going to move fast and break things — and then externalise the costs of the things we break.
We’ve also raised several billion in VC funding, and we’ll sell our products below cost — even give them away for free for a time — until we run our competition out of the market.
Once we have a near monopoly, we’ll enshitify the hell out of our service and jack up prices.
You won’t believe what you agreed to in our terms of service agreement.
We may also be secretly hoarding your personal information. We know who you are, we know where you work, we know where you live. But you can trust us.
By the time the regulators and the general public catch on to what we’re doing, we will have well and truly moved on to our next grift.
By the way, don’t forget to check out our latest innovation. It’s the Uber of toothpaste!
This post is bitching about “late stage capitalism” while passive aggressively mentioning the occasional technology in parallel to their issues with the two things combined.
It’s not really technology focused at all, sorry if I wasn’t clear, I thought I was, I’m simply asking if anyone here is here because they LIKE technology, and if they happen to know a place that better represents those feelings.
Like, literally you can go almost anywhere and COMPLAIN on the internet, I was hoping this place would be a little better and optimistic for the things I enjoy.
Keep in mind before you guys decide to be hateful assholes, I’m fine with this place being however YOU guys want it, I’m not here to change ALL OF YOU for just me, I’m simply asking if there is a place you can recommend that is more in line with positive technology news, so that I can leave and we can all enjoy these places more.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with either of us looking for something we like, and having personal opinions/preferences, that was supposed to be one of the listed strengths of this place!
This impotent cynism changes nothing.
Use the technology you feel safe with, or try try to build if it does not exist.
The echo chamber is making everyone deaf.
Vote with your dollars, don’t complain?
Genuinely asking, is that what you’re trying to say?
I’m guessing the market will just sort it all out, right?
Vote with action. Capitalism is the shit we are in, but everyone acts as if we are in a death march.
Maybe we are? Maybe nothing matters?
Or it does matter, and we need to be smarter about how we make changes in the world besides urging people to use technology that does not match half of what they are used to.
There is a concept called nudge that can work here. It is easier to change behavior by making the “right thing” the default. Make it easy for people to switch off the big corporate tech. Yelling never did anything.
In the meantime, yes, vote with your dollars. Don’t give money to the things you hate.
