> Pichai was asked, in a question that was highly rated by staffers on Google’s internal Dory system, why the company is “nickel-and-diming employees” by slashing travel and swag budgets at a time when “Google has record profits and huge cash reserves,” as it did coming out of the pandemic.
I find it hard to believe that workers of Google caliber can't fathom the golden rule of capitalism.
The whole better off trope has been popularized by people like Hans Rosling in books like Factfulness. You can read reviews from experts to figure out what's wrong with it. But I've often seen these arguments in the context of 'everything is going great, there's nothing to worry about' with arguments such as 'we had the most people lifted out of poverty ever in history'. In my view that's just capitalist koolaid to keep the middle class workers content, optimistic and most importantly, compacent. 'Don't look up' style.
All these arguments explicitly ignore the many elephants in the room, like the global fucking pandemic we've been mishandling for the past two years or the climate disaster which is already making itself felt by westerners.
The outcome is actually pretty grim if you read between the lines. You don't have to monitor the news or social media to figure out that we're not in the best place right now when it comes to a lot of global metrics. We can pick and chose a couple and make ourselves feel good and go about our business being productive little bees in the capitalist machine, but we're just fooling ourselves.
My personal assessment is that the effects of climate change will zero out a lot of those measures for which we're doing better than our forefathers.
> Speaking of naive realism, what evidence? I'm not even asking what evidence was provided, but what could be provided at all.
The onus is on the accuser to come up with evidence. Until then, the countless observers, the sheer number of people involved in coordinating their local election infrastructure, the voting machines audit trails, the numerous recounts, the actual cases of fraud which pointed to republican voters, all are evidence that the election was not 'stolen'.
But it doesn't matter when you're dealing with 'crony beliefs'. Unless Jesus Christ himself appears, walks on water, does the whole water/wine thing again, calls Trump a moron and tells everyone the holy spirit handled the election, it's not going to change anyone's mind. And even then, the mental gymnastics of the rightwing propaganda machine will figure out a way to spin this.
If you want examples of actual stolen election, look no further than https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_v._Gore. Actually, I would say that any election in which a president does not win by popular vote is by definition stolen, even if the voting process is 100% ironclad.
> In 1962, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic decriminalized same-sex sexual intercourse after scientific research from Kurt Freund led to the conclusion that homosexual orientation cannot be changed.
Meanwhile, in USA:
> In 1962 Illinois adopted the recommendations of the Model Penal Code and thus became the first state to remove criminal penalties for consensual sodomy from its criminal code,[7] almost a decade before any other state.
There is an abysmal record of gay rights across all parts of the political spectrum, including using sexual orientation as a political tool of oppression. There's nothing special about communism.
There are only 31 countries in the world that respect marriage equality. The fact that Cuba is going to be 32, in front of half of continental Europe is a good thing for Cuba.
> This is the same communist party that put gay people in concentration camps in the 1960s.
There are still parents in the USA who are currently sending their kids to gay conversion camps. I don't understand your point.
It's literally hearsay. Quite literally. Again, is there any treaty, any memorandum, any pact or anything about NATO not expanding eastwards? Any trade agreement, any signed piece of paper between heads of state and representatives of NATO or NATO members about this?
Because again, there is a 1994 Memorandum about Ukraine's borders and nuclear weapons which someone is deliberately ignoring.
I find it both troubling and disingenuous for people to beat the dead horse about the NATO expansion myth while completely ignoring Russia breaking both the 1994 Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances and the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. Those weren't hearsay, they were actual agreements which were negotiated and signed.
But sure, 'you can't trust the west'. I'm coming from a former communist country and to be honest, the west never invaded. The Russians did, repeatedly. Across history, the Russians were the only constant invaders. And this is actually why my country joined NATO the first chance it got.
So, if someone is to blame for NATO expansion, it's actually Russia. Actually, this invasion we're witnessing is one of the best advertisements for NATO in history. So, fuck Putin, fuck Russia and their expansionist ambitions. I hope I live to see Putin's head on a pike.
That's straight up Russian propaganda, so beware. In his ideas, a sovereign nation signing a treaty is an 'existential threat' for Russia, which of course, makes any problem in Ukraine the 'west's fault'. NATO expansion is not western imperialism, it is the result of 50 years of communist oppression and present-day anxiety of not ending up like Ukraine is right now. So, as someone who grew up in the eastern bloc, fuck Mearsheimer.
They're not being naive. This is a deliberate effort to downplay the events. Always keep in mind that a war is often fought with different types of weapons, including information.
This whole recent 'staff engineer' bs is just a made-up concept to get some conference slots, write a book or two and basically talk about talking about working? I mean We've had 'staff' level engineers since forever and now someone comes along and tries to create like this aura around it and formalize what it actually 'means' to be be a staff engineer. You get to read interviews from other 'staff' engineers telling you how to properly 'staff engineer'. I mean get over yourself, you're a senior individual contributor with more responsibility. But you know, if you're not a 'staff' engineer, what are you doing with your life, right? Are you working hard enough? Do you even care about your potential? Buy my book to unlock your true 'staff' potential.
"The system was most useful in October 1972, when about 40,000 striking truck drivers blocked the access streets that converged towards Santiago. The strike was supported by the Patria y Libertad group and at least partly funded by private donors who had received money from the CIA.[5] According to Gustavo Silva (executive secretary of energy in CORFO), the system's telex machines helped organize the transport of resources into the city with only about 200 trucks driven by strike-breakers, lessening the potential damage caused by the 40,000 striking truck drivers"
So much doubt peddling, and disinformation spewed on these types of posts is astounding. I think we should permanently flag topics like these as they lead to repeated circular arguments about whether or not jan 6 was a big deal or if burning down a planned parenthood constitutes terrorism, everything is fine domestically, all terrorists are outside (or not fine, depending on which TV station your mind is plugged into), BLM AntifaCommunists China HunterBiden and other stupid bullshit.
I find it so stupid that the people of a country with one of the most oppressive law enforcement legislations on the planet is getting triggered by a bureaucratic change because a 'protest went out of hand'. You have a problem with this? Go out and vote, write to your representative, run for office. Where the fuck were you when the Patriot Act passed?
> When evaluating data from VAERS, it is important to note that for any reported event, no cause-and-effect relationship has been established. Reports of all possible associations between vaccines and adverse events (possible side effects) are filed in VAERS. Therefore, VAERS collects data on any adverse event following vaccination, be it coincidental or truly caused by a vaccine. The report of an adverse event to VAERS is not documentation that a vaccine caused the event.
What data supports what claim? You are also aware that anyone can submit reports to VAERS, right?
Until someone actively investigates the case and finds it was indeed caused by the vaccine, the VAERS data does not show anything. Using VAERS as your 'data' in a rhetoric is highly unscientific.
Let's also not forget how the raw VAERS data was used during the autism-vaccine link litigation. We should know better.
I find it hard to believe that workers of Google caliber can't fathom the golden rule of capitalism.