“Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it”. [unknown, often attributed to Twain]
Yeah watching these old rich white guys stumble about was extremely painful. It was very clear they weren’t interested in the actual answers to their questions, but just wanted to make fanciful claims about the big bad meanies in Silicon Valley making republicans look bad. Pathetic.
Enough with the “old... white guys” racism. Skin color has nothing to do with any of this.
Yeah, it's frightening. Almost as frightening as standing up your own personal email server and conducting classified business on it.
That no one can prove was ever hacked and most techie boyz keep pretending never happened before. (BTW, only three emails were ultimately considered classified, but don't let salient facts get in the way of this tired, played out and lonely talking point.)
The irony of the original post is that tech guys, as evidenced by the quoted individual, belong to a culture that gives in to very anti-democratic impulses and selective standards (called "situational morality" back in the day). You sneer at politicians who "don't get it" yet you won't participate in any meaningful way to elect those who do. And when having a great a deal of power in terms of how information is distributed, tech culture has completely failed in any social obligations, preferring to pawn that off on aforementioned politicos who "don't get it."
Tech culture is successful at theft, damage and insult. It can't offer any solutions because it can't be *bothered* to do so.
What on earth are you talking about? Are you expecting Silicon Valley to eliminate our crappy two-party system, which is based on "first past the post" voting? Tech is tech, tech isn't here to re-write our form of government. It has done wonderful things in educating people via sites like Wikipedia and YouTube, as well as keeping government honest via instant mass communications like web, twitter, etc.
Here you go -- use tech to learn why the US voting system rewards the two-party and its "lesser of two evils" results:
Yeah watching these old rich white guys stumble about was extremely painful. It was very clear they weren’t interested in the actual answers to their questions, but just wanted to make fanciful claims about the big bad meanies in Silicon Valley making republicans look bad. Pathetic.
Enough with the “old... white guys” racism. Skin color has nothing to do with any of this.
But it does. The socio-economic status and impact of rich old white guys is important, and you simply cannot ignore it or pretend it wasn't the case simply because you're also an old white guy. OWGs are still the ruling class in the US, which is simply a fact in the senate & congress. This despite some very obvious failings, which are exposed in events such as these hearings.
Awkward article. It states 'ignorance on our leaders and politicians' but nowhere does it mention what has been ignored. I presume the authors mean Pichai's reply "the iPhone is not a Google product" or some such, and therefore tag our leaders as ignorant.
Is this what was meant? If so, I wouldn't call that ignorant. Let's call a spade a spade here. Someone using an iPhone, opening Safari, going to google dot com, searching for something...the results would indeed be a Google (or Alphabet) 'product'.
Watch all of it, or at least the highlights. These dudes are about as ignorant about tech as one can get.
Yeah watching these old rich white guys stumble about was extremely painful. It was very clear they weren’t interested in the actual answers to their questions, but just wanted to make fanciful claims about the big bad meanies in Silicon Valley making republicans look bad. Pathetic.
Enough with the “old... white guys” racism. Skin color has nothing to do with any of this.
Nor does age.
Nor does gender
Congratulations -- putting your claims together, you have now stated there is no such thing as a power imbalance and that old, white, men are not, in fact, the de facto ruling class, despite what centuries of power consolidation and roll call in the capitol says.
Yeah watching these old rich white guys stumble about was extremely painful. It was very clear they weren’t interested in the actual answers to their questions, but just wanted to make fanciful claims about the big bad meanies in Silicon Valley making republicans look bad. Pathetic.
Enough with the “old... white guys” racism. Skin color has nothing to do with any of this.
Nor does age.
Nor does gender
Congratulations -- putting your claims together, you have now stated there is no such thing as a power imbalance and that old, white, men are not, in fact, the de facto ruling class, despite what centuries of power consolidation and roll call in the capitol says.
Yeah watching these old rich white guys stumble about was extremely painful. It was very clear they weren’t interested in the actual answers to their questions, but just wanted to make fanciful claims about the big bad meanies in Silicon Valley making republicans look bad. Pathetic.
Enough with the “old... white guys” racism. Skin color has nothing to do with any of this.
Yeah watching these old rich white guys stumble about was extremely painful. It was very clear they weren’t interested in the actual answers to their questions, but just wanted to make fanciful claims about the big bad meanies in Silicon Valley making republicans look bad. Pathetic.
Enough with the “old... white guys” racism. Skin color has nothing to do with any of this.
lol. But ageism is fine.
To be accurate, neither does the “rich” part matter. That’s “classism”.
Yeah watching these old rich white guys stumble about was extremely painful. It was very clear they weren’t interested in the actual answers to their questions, but just wanted to make fanciful claims about the big bad meanies in Silicon Valley making republicans look bad. Pathetic.
Enough with the “old... white guys” racism. Skin color has nothing to do with any of this.
Nor does age.
Nor does gender
Congratulations -- putting your claims together, you have now stated there is no such thing as a power imbalance and that old, white, men are not, in fact, the de facto ruling class, despite what centuries of power consolidation and roll call in the capitol says.
And how would you insult the members of the Chinese Communist Party if you were Chinese and living in China?
Yeah watching these old rich white guys stumble about was extremely painful. It was very clear they weren’t interested in the actual answers to their questions, but just wanted to make fanciful claims about the big bad meanies in Silicon Valley making republicans look bad. Pathetic.
Enough with the “old... white guys” racism. Skin color has nothing to do with any of this.
Nor does age.
Nor does gender
Congratulations -- putting your claims together, you have now stated there is no such thing as a power imbalance and that old, white, men are not, in fact, the de facto ruling class, despite what centuries of power consolidation and roll call in the capitol says.
And how would you insult the members of the Chinese Communist Party if you were Chinese and living in China?
The racism, classism and ageism are lazy slurs.
Old rich asian guys? Is it an insult or an observation of reality?
The fact remains that despite a few outliers the demographic of the senate is far more homogeneous than the general population.
Term limits would be a great thing. At least then you'd not have an 80 year old Speaker of the House and equally old Senate Majority Leader. Along with the rest of the geriatric unit that is the Congress.
No idea why term limits have been ruled unconstitutional for Congress while the President is term limited.
Not an ageist, I just think they'd be happier out shopping, whittling, annoying others with photos of their grandkids...
Because the 22nd Amendment to the US Constitution specifically places a term limit on the presidency. You would have to have a similar amendment that was specifically applicable to Congress. That would have to be passed by the US Congress itself which isn’t likely going to put constraints on itself.
I’m pretty sure that Paul Ryan isn’t 80 years old yet unless that P90X workout works really really well.
“Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it”. [unknown, often attributed to Twain]
Well here in the US it is being run by those the voters elected. So if the people in charge are imbeciles it is best to blame the voters who themselves.
I remember a Congressman once describing the internet as a system of tubes but I always envisioned it as a box with a bird in it that when you opened it made a deadpan wisecrack like “It’s a living.” like in the Flintstones.
Yeah watching these old rich white guys stumble about was extremely painful. It was very clear they weren’t interested in the actual answers to their questions, but just wanted to make fanciful claims about the big bad meanies in Silicon Valley making republicans look bad. Pathetic.
Enough with the “old... white guys” racism. Skin color has nothing to do with any of this.
But it does. The socio-economic status and impact of rich old white guys is important, and you simply cannot ignore it or pretend it wasn't the case simply because you're also an old white guy. OWGs are still the ruling class in the US, which is simply a fact in the senate & congress. This despite some very obvious failings, which are exposed in events such as these hearings.
It was an old white guy who passed the Civil Rights bill and another who passed the Americans with Disabilities Act. As he and others have pointed out: Age, skin color and gender have nothing to do it.
Awkward article. It states 'ignorance on our leaders and politicians' but nowhere does it mention what has been ignored. I presume the authors mean Pichai's reply "the iPhone is not a Google product" or some such, and therefore tag our leaders as ignorant.
Is this what was meant? If so, I wouldn't call that ignorant. Let's call a spade a spade here. Someone using an iPhone, opening Safari, going to google dot com, searching for something...the results would indeed be a Google (or Alphabet) 'product'.
Ignorance of the meaning of the word ignorance. That’s starting at square one. The problem also falls upon the shoulders of those who elect our elected officials.
Yeah watching these old rich white guys stumble about was extremely painful. It was very clear they weren’t interested in the actual answers to their questions, but just wanted to make fanciful claims about the big bad meanies in Silicon Valley making republicans look bad. Pathetic.
Enough with the “old... white guys” racism. Skin color has nothing to do with any of this.
Nor does age.
Nor does gender
Congratulations -- putting your claims together, you have now stated there is no such thing as a power imbalance and that old, white, men are not, in fact, the de facto ruling class, despite what centuries of power consolidation and roll call in the capitol says.
And how would you insult the members of the Chinese Communist Party if you were Chinese and living in China?
The racism, classism and ageism are lazy slurs.
Old rich asian guys? Is it an insult or an observation of reality?
The fact remains that despite a few outliers the demographic of the senate is far more homogeneous than the general population.
I think the point is that there’s nothing inherent in being an old rich white guy that suggests ignorance or intellectual ‘fumbling about.’ Warren Buffett is an old rich white guy, one who happens to read for several hours each day in an effort to continue his own lifetime habit of educating himself, and thereby keeping ignorance at bay.
The problem I think we’re facing here is one of self-selection in the political sphere. You don’t find there to be a significant representation in Congress of scientists, engineers, and others knowledgeable in technical subjects for the reason that such people typically have little passion or aptitude for the political process. That leaves a subset of the populous who have such interest and aptitude occupying those positions.
Comments
“Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it”. [unknown, often attributed to Twain]
Here you go -- use tech to learn why the US voting system rewards the two-party and its "lesser of two evils" results:
But it does. The socio-economic status and impact of rich old white guys is important, and you simply cannot ignore it or pretend it wasn't the case simply because you're also an old white guy. OWGs are still the ruling class in the US, which is simply a fact in the senate & congress. This despite some very obvious failings, which are exposed in events such as these hearings.
Watch all of it, or at least the highlights. These dudes are about as ignorant about tech as one can get.
And how would you insult the members of the Chinese Communist Party if you were Chinese and living in China?
The racism, classism and ageism are lazy slurs.
The fact remains that despite a few outliers the demographic of the senate is far more homogeneous than the general population.
I’m pretty sure that Paul Ryan isn’t 80 years old yet unless that P90X workout works really really well.
The problem I think we’re facing here is one of self-selection in the political sphere. You don’t find there to be a significant representation in Congress of scientists, engineers, and others knowledgeable in technical subjects for the reason that such people typically have little passion or aptitude for the political process. That leaves a subset of the populous who have such interest and aptitude occupying those positions.