Winter Rant

(Posted originally here: https://post.news/article/2I0vhDmRMmfBWo3ZjEIDCOGqap2)

I saw this tweet this morning by Elon, and I was immediately reminded of the part in Harry Potter, where there was a mass breakout of Deatheaters from Azkaban just as Voldemort was coming back to power publicly.

That analogy has interesting parallels for anyone following Twitter’s latest happenings. You can fill in the blanks for who best fits the role of Voldermort, Malfoy, Belatrix, or Kreacher the house-elf.

But in all those parallels, there was no Hogwarts. There is no institution, or organization, or place that has the same feeling and sense as, “Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who seek it.”

In this time of layoffs and funding/hiring freezes, it has become clear that tech and especially the Bay Area, for all its warm-and-fuzziness, is a cold, dark capitalistic place that is driven by money and little to no humanity.

Twitter will likely survive, and social media companies will limp on — although with stiffer competition. 

But Twitter’s survival will embolden tech CEOs in the Valley/Bay to adopt Twitter-like cruelty towards their employees. 

But more importantly: if Twitter succeeds financially, it will teach the bright-eyed optimists of Silicon Valley that playing to the darkest parts of the internet and the basest bits of humanity is a good way to make money. 

I won’t be surprised if advertisers return to Twitter because there are enough buyers who are happy to see product ads next to (I don’t know…) porn or anti-semitism.

I won’t be surprised if more leaders in tech will be comfortable with anti-vaxers spewing their nonsense — if it makes money for them.

I won’t be surprised if more companies will be comfortable with websites selling merchandise on the backs of gun violence. Shopify, a Canadian company, is already doing it — in the aftermath of a mass shooting at Colorado. It seems like this problem is migrating beyond the Bay.

There is a real possibility that the internet will turn into a marketplace of malevolence, as long as it makes leaders in Silicon Valley (and tech, in general) a lot of money.

Where would anyone turn to in the face of such capitalistic forces? I am not asking this as a pessimist. But for a moment, I want to consider a thought experiment that plays out the worst case scenario: What happens when commerce on the internet is fine with ill-intent … because it is making too much money? What regulations or laws or forces will stand in the way of such trends? I don’t see very many.

And so yeah, I have to say … there is no Hogwarts in tech.

— vijay, baking some vegan chocolate cookies on this day of Thanks.

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PS: Just after posting my thoughts above on Post.News, I ran into the re-tweet below. Someone else called it bizarre (see below). But I think this entire episode is emboldening a lot of tech-bro CEOs who think they are above all else, and consider employees as liabilities and a drag on their dreams. It is really pathetic, but also very real.