I'm so old I remember when Jeff #Bezos seemed like sort of a good guy who chose books as the focus of his clever new internet store.
Now he will always be remembered as the toady who paid tens of millions in tribute to the Trumps while ruthlessly destroying one of history's great newspapers.
Not only destroying the post but also shoving the money saved there up Trumps bum by having the "Melania" movie done.
@gleick he started his career in a hedge fund. This already primed to see humanity via the distorted lens of financial data and having an "edge". Surveillance capitalism did not happen by accident, it is the programme of frontrunning and exploiting society by monitoring all its activities the way financiers could only do within the confine of financial markets.
Bezos, the Googlers, Zuckerberg etc. are evil in the deepest sense: they conceived and scaled a modern era dehumanization for profit.
@gleick is Bill Gates the only one of the tech billionares who seemingly aged quite well?
@gleick from the beginning, Bezos seemed to me like a disgusting janitor who secretly watches young girls
@gleick Their remembrance don't matter to them. They have gotten rid of any shame, ethics or scruples. Their wealth is poisoning our world. They destroy so much. #TaxBillionaires - their billions are toxic. Let's detox those ugly rich.
@gleick I remember when Amazon and Chapters launched, and one of the founders (I'm forgetting which) talked openly about how the publishing industry and the system of book store returns ran more or less on an honour system and was ripe for exploitation.
They were never good guys.
@gleick Imagine unironically calling an imperialist rag like WaPo one of history's "greatest" newspapers. 💀
@blueorchestra It was. I gather that you have a short time horizon and don’t know much about, well, anything really.
@gleick I'm so old I remember when Bill Gates... oh, no, he was always a complete and utter c**t, right from the start.
@gleick I started an online retail venture at about the same time as Bezos -- it wasn't hard to see the possibilities. (Unfortunately, I had no money and no investors; writing all the code yourself only goes so far.)
The Bill Gates reality-distortion field is a persistent one, his PR people are very good at what they do.
I keep getting warm fuzzies about him every now and again. He keeps recreating himself, like a rock-star re-stying.
Then a memory or new fact drops, and I remember he's a greedy, ruthless, devious, self-serving thug.
Hey I've been sucked in by both the Steve Jobs and Elon Musk reality-distortion fields, and I used to be a pagan!
Hmm, maybe I should be more forgiving to Jonathan Blow for supporting Trump initially ...
@gleick
He deserves more credit than that.
He also destroyed independent shops, department stores, the publishing industry, and more!
@gleick aye
‘Yes #Bezos,
https://www.yesmagazine.org/opinion/2017/02/21/to-billionaire-doomsday-preppers-your-wealth-wont-save-you #Yes - -
To Billionaire Doomsday Preppers: Your Wealth Won’t Save You
#music #TaxTheRich #FeedThePoor #TillThereAreNoRichNoMore #ArtMusic #TenYearsAfterTenYearsAfter
@gleick It's amazingly poor judgment to jump on the Trump train when it's already falling apart. Most people are distancing themselves from him now.
@gleick
Sorry, as an European he never was a good guy.
Amazon was convenient and still is, for buying foreign language books, but convenience does not make it ethical.
And me personal I was always sceptical of concentration benefits. As these bluntly lead to monopoly and that leads to extortion games to the disadvantage of the consumers, that's a given natural law, like apples fall from trees downwards.
@yacc143 I didn’t say he was. We all know what Amazon did and what it became. What I said was that—unlike you, apparently—I’m old enough to remember when that hadn’t happened yet. And didn’t have to happen.
@gleick I said just a few days ago that I thought Jeff Bezos represented chaotic neutral. It's sad how regularly these billionaires slide off neutral .. to the wrong side.
@gleick yep. Pathetic weasel.
@gleick May he be exiled to an island of hungry, vengeful Amazon women.
