Careless People by Sarah Wynne-Williams

I read a review for this memoir of a New Zealander's time at Facebook that characterized it as darkly funny and genuinely shocking to be a fairly good one sentence summation. It comes long after the revelations of Frances Haugen, and I have read it in the wake of the 2.0 version of the Revenge Presidency, and still it unsettles me to to the point that I am not sure where we are heading and what the end of the road holds. This is an insider account of Facebook, which she says was run by status-hungry and self-absorbed leaders, who chafed at the burdens of responsibility and became ever feckless as Facebook became a vector for disinformation campaigns and cozied up to authoritarian regimes. Including the one that was seeking re-election in the United States at the time--all of which has come to fruition in an astoundingly inhumane, areligious, and profit driven manner. The bottom line, the summation of all that is wrong with the tech bros was a conversation that she had with Zuckerberg about the United States president that he most admires is Andrew Jackson. Jackson is more nuanced as a person than is oft remembered, but the bottom line is that he is responsible for the Trail of Tears. Unforgivable imposition of human suffering and Zuckerberg admires him, despite that or because of it, it matters not in the end. We are all screwed.

Boycott Option

I am not one to rush into a political discussion, and I do not follow politics beyond reading articles. I don't have a politics blog that I prefer, and I walk away from discussions that get too heated for my taste. That said, I have been reading and thinking about democracy and what can threaten it. Certainly the insurrection in Washington, DC on January 6th this year, incited by the loser of the election and our president at the time, is something to reckon with. Any politician who supported such a blatant attempt to overthrow a democratically elected government is suspect, and any corporation that supports such a policitian is potentially problematic. Toyota gave $55,000 to 37 GOP objectors this year, and that is definitely a problem for me, even though it is not a lot of money when you think about the huge sums of money in politics. Why? That is a quarter of the bloc that voted to nullify President Biden's win after the Capitol siege. Toyota gave more than twice as much — and to nearly five times as many members of Congress — as the No. 2 company on the list, Cubic Corp., a San Diego-based defense contractor. The Japanese automaker's donations this year included a February contribution to Rep. Andy Biggs, an Arizona Republican who has been one of several vocal election conspiracy theorists. A Toyota spokesperson said in a statement emailed to Axios: "We do not believe it is appropriate to judge members of Congress solely based on their votes on the electoral certification." Why not? Seriously, why not? That is a litmus test for your belief in our form of government.