this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2024
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You could say the same about eating meat or any other cause. What's the difference, the animal is already dead anyway, right? Well, it's not that simple.
Thanks to the growing number of people who eat less or no meat at all, meat production is decreasing. If all of them kept saying that one man boycott makes no difference, the change would not come.
If you can't find a better job - fine, work for the evil FAANG or whatever. We live in capitalism and it's clear we need to work somewhere. But at least be honest and don't look away from inconvenient truth. There's still something good you could do while keeping the job at
$evil_company. For example, you can support financially those who haven't got nice jobs in IT.Yeah, I do worry someone will read the "work for a FAANG" part, and ignore the other two things listed. It's absolutely not enough to go "welp, I'm just a little cog following orders".
Maybe a one-man boycott is the wrong way to put it. Multi-person boycotts are obviously built from individual people. I guess my real point is that there's not a one-size-fits-all solution; you actually have to look at the world, look at how you want it to be, and figure out how you can help make that happen from your place in it.
I'm not ignoring the other two things listed, I'm realistic.
You described it like it was something rare for FAANG to do bad things. Or like it was bad only when it required whistleblowing... Think how many things got crushed by EEE tactics, and it's only one class of examples of why big tech is inherently bad.
I mean, a lot of companies do stuff like that, and yet you still need money to live. Just working there doesn't necessarily make it your fault; by that logic it would be a sin to work checkout at Walmart, because you'll have the same blood on your hands as the Waltons.
I don't really like talking about capitalism as if it's a well defined concept, but, no ethical consumption under.
I didn't mean you, FYI. I mean someone who does work for a FAANG and is looking for more justification to do nothing for the common good.