Friday, June 1, 2018

Tech Hate in the People's Republic of San Francisco



Protesters in San Francisco's Mission District blocked tech buses for nearly an hour Thursday morning in San Francisco, tossing scooters into the street.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the activists set off smoke bombs, chanted “we are unstoppable, another world is possible,” and carried signs that read “Techsploitation Is Toxic,” and “Sweep Tech Not Tents.” The last chant directed against the removal of homeless sleeping in tents on sidewalks, thus suggesting a total lack of understanding of how urban development helps all  (See: What the Gentrification Haters Don't Get)

The anti-tech protest was coordinated by technology aided apps and social media. Think about that for a nanosecond.

-RW  

8 comments:

  1. If the money flooding the tech sector is a product of the not-at-all-free-market activities of the fed, and these people are upset about all the money the techies have to throw around.... have these lefties stumbled backwards into a pro-market position? Leftists instinctively know that the rich and powerful are screwing people over, they just don't understand the mechanism. Libertarians miss many opportunities to have productive conversations with leftists because they get thrown off by goofy cultural differences or distracted by pointless arguments about men with boobs and chicks with dicks.

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    1. Re: Dixon,

      --- Libertarians miss many opportunities to have productive conversations with leftists ---

      D, believe me, we try. But in the end leftists dismiss our sound arguments by accusing us of shilling for the oligarchy or wanting people to be "free to starve" or of worshipping the market as a gawd...

      Do those attacks sound familiar? Yes, they're very similar to the attacks and Non Sequiturs thrown by Trumpistas against you or me and fellow libertarians: you worship the Market (I'm not kidding: Tucker Carlson threw this insinuation on his show); you shill for oligarchs or you're a "globalist"; you want American Workers® to be substituted by brown dirt from sh't-hole countries, etc.

      Unfortunately each camp, Team Blue and Team Red, retreated to their own heavily-fortified intellectual compounds where they can continue to dwell on their paranoid fantasies. You can thank king Obama I "The Handsome" and the Big Orange Man In The Sky for that.

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    2. Stop whining and try harder.

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    3. For a libertarian to reach a leftist that leftist must already harbor some hate for the state and generally want to be left alone and leave others alone. Many leftists do not hate the state, they love the state. They want to control their neighbors. They want to use the power of the state. The later cannot be reached. The former is quite easy to get along with. You'll find the former is often self-supporting as well.

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    4. Incorrect, they love what they think the state is, not what it actually is. Most leftists experience their political ideas as compassion for the downtrodden. The task of the libertarian is to embrace and cultivate that sentiment then showing them that they are being played for fools.

      No leftist cares what you know until he knows how much you care. They think with their feelings, and they're not going to stop. Quit whining about it and adjust your approach.

      Whatever they feel strongly about, embrace their feelings. If they are worried about the environment, explain to them how the regulatory paradigm actually insulates polluters from torts that would force them to change their approach in PPS. If they are worried about poor people, explain to them how the monetary system systematically robs the poor and enriches the powerful. If they are worried about racism, talk about the war on drugs. If they are worried about trans-rights, talk about self-ownership. Whatever ridiculous goofy hippie nonsense comes out of their mouths, stand your ground, don't roll your eyes and make a new friend.

      Treat it like a life and death problem. That's what it is.

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    5. I would say 40% of the leftists I meet love the state so long as they or their team controls it. They very much want to tell you how to live and what you must care about. The libertarian idea of caring about people does not register with them, caring _IS_ intervention to them.

      Whining? I get along with the other half or so of leftists just fine because they have some hatred of the state. I do just fine pointing out the corporatist system and so on. Those whom I discuss topics with more than half the time they sound libertarian now. Even the ones that love the state I can get fleeting moments of libertarianism out of them.

      But that second 40% or so. To get them to understand that what they are ranting against is the state and not onald trump or whatever non-team member they are blaming. no they can't see power corrupts because they believe in power. Just the right people with just the right amount of violence.

      But ultimately there is no reaching someone who straight up says they have no issue using violence against you and anyone else who doesn't accept their order of things. And a small number of that 40% will come right out and say that if you properly argue them into a corner where they have to openly embrace violence or discard collectivism. Most will go silence or insults but a few, they'll openly show their embrace of violence.

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  2. It would be a kindness for the tech companies to disable their accounts. I'm sure that is what they want in their heart of hearts.

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  3. Robert, I've been looking at the Share Econ scooter business and I think there is a calid point people forward that justifies their criticism of these new ride sharing businesses, and what they point to is the way people misuse the property they're renting, leaving scooters in wherever place they please and riding without careful regard for the rules of the road, even when riding on the sidewalk. This is a problem that is very obvious with ride sharing businesses that rent bicycles, as many users end up leaving discarded bicycles in places where retrieval is uneconomical or even dangerous. It looks like the business model still needs a little more tweaking to rwsolve these issues and help the business gain more support. For instance, Uber and Lyft are now part of day by day use and conversation, because the business model is tried and perfected.

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