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617 points jbegley | 2 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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a_shovel ◴[] No.42938313[source]
I initially thought that this was an announcement for a new pledge and thought, "they're going to forget about this the moment it's convenient." Then I read the article and realized, "Oh, it's already convenient."

Google is a megacorp, and while megacorps aren't fundamentally "evil" (for some definitions of evil), they are fundamentally unconcerned with goodness or morality, and any appearance that they are is purely a marketing exercise.

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ninetyninenine ◴[] No.42943178[source]
A megacorp is made up of people. So it's people who are fundamentally evil.

The main thing here I think is anonymity through numbers and complexity. You and thousands of others just want to see the numbers go up. And that desire is what ultimately influences decisions like this.

If google stock dropped because of this then google wouldn't do it. But it is the actions of humans in aggregate that keeps it up.

Megacorporations are scapegoats when in actuality they are just a set of democratic rules. The corporation is just a window into the true nature of humanity.

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1. Barrin92 ◴[] No.42943244[source]
>A megacorp is made up of people. So it's people who are fundamentally evil.

That is to make a mistake of composition. An entity can have properties that none of its parts have. A cube made out of bricks is round, but none of the bricks are round. You might be evil, your cells aren't evil.

It's often the case that institutions are out of alignment with its members. It can even be the case that all participants of an organization are evil, but the system still functions well. (usually one of the arguments for markets, which is one such system). When creating an organization that is effectively the most basic task, how to structure it such that even when its individual members are up to no good, the functioning of the organization is improved.

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2. ninetyninenine ◴[] No.42943381[source]
But people are aware companies are evil. Why don't they sell the stock? Why do people still buy the stock?

Obviously because they don't give a shit.