Back and forth, still

[roadrunnertwice]

On the other hand, check THIS shit out. (via yeloson.)

Comments

[gyladia.livejournal.com]

Wait. My initial reaction of "huh" is been amended to "Whuh?" Where is Amazon based out of, I thought Corporate was in Seattle, and don't we have anti-discrimination laws now? Why are they just complaining about this on the internet?

[roadrunnertwice]

You know, I have no idea what legal action could be brought on this sort of thing, or how that court case would go. (Wish I did know.)

I mean, in this case, complaining on the internet seems to be getting shit done. And it's certainly cheaper than lawyering up.

---

One of the reasons I keep posting about this thing is that I don't entirely understand it. It's fuckin' weird.

Technology doesn't want me talking smack.

[gyladia.livejournal.com]

It's certainly getting more weird. I sort of loved Amazon, but I'm beginning to not know what to think.
I don't really know how lawsuits for this would work either, but it seems like that person at least has a case for some sort of long term discrimination.
But it is hard to say that it wasn't some sort of computer type glitch- but who really understands all that?

Sometimes technology is scary, and the only thing more terrifying is lawmakers who don't understand it. I was watching dateline with my parents last night and this cop randomly said that his younger partner taught him how to use email in 2006, and the case was solved partly through the younger girl using online databases to find people who moved out of town in the 80s. It got me thinking about how old most of the people who work in government are- not just congressmen but judges and while not all "old" people are technologically challenged, how much do they really understand? Hasn't the world changed?

I didn't mean to be sort of flippant the other day with "Well, Amazon isn't Walmart" because I do get it, the idea that a company, or anyone, can set a system in place and use it, almost like a weapon is a little creepy. And it might have been only a few people. Maybe a manager makes a comment to their tech support about "can you do this" and someone tries it.

And I think in a group of people, all it takes is really one bad, loud mouthed, powerful person to sort of sway underlings. And I'm not sure how that can be changed. I think it's sort of human nature (remember that Stanley Milgram thing?). It's just easier with the technology we have to push agendas quickly and quietly, and even though I think with sites like twitter we might be more connected that we've ever been, it's still a separate world from the one that lawmakers live in.

I read (http://www.boingboing.net/2006/09/15/amazon-unbox-to-cust.html) a long time ago, and it's true. Almost three years later I remember "No sane person will agree to this" but we sign away our rights and privacy all the time. I couldn't count the times I've clicked "I agree" after barely skimming something, for how many years? Almost half my life? There is probably a core group of people on the internet that see how much we've given away in the name of technology, and the rest of us think about it sometimes, before searching up something funny on youtube to chase away the fear.

Re: Technology doesn't want me talking smack.

[roadrunnertwice]

Yeah.

People talk a lot of crap about "mob mentality" and stuff when we see mass outrage like in #amazonfail, but... it's really really hard to have a learned and soberly-considered opinion about every moral issue that you're involved in. It's practically a full-time job, and if you try to do all that work yourself, you'll inevitably stay five jumps behind all the people trying to screw you and your cohort over. Sometimes we just have to share the work of knowing the world, and freak out when the people we trust freak out. There are obvious problems with this, but I don't think we've found any other good way to push back against that sort of constant omnidirectional authoritarian onslaught. :/