[xienze]

> and that he believes he should use Google and his wealth to intentionally seek to manipulate modern culture. It's a disturbing notion and I've never understood why people weren't more concerned about it.

Because they're pushing the progressive agenda, so who in the media, government, or academia is going to stand in their way? As far as those parties are concerned, Google is doing what corporations "should" do.

[sangnoir]

> Because they're pushing the progressive agenda

I would say Shmidt's agenda is more neo-liberal than progressive. Not that I endorse it, but corporations pushing an agenda is not new[1] and not limited to the left[2][3], so not even conservative media will stand in their way either since that has been happening for a long time on the right.

1. http://www.prwatch.org/news/2013/12/12338/shilling-profit-ca...

2. http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/hobby-lobby-wins-contraceptiv...

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chick-fil-A_same-sex_marriage_...

[WillPostForFood]

Hobby Lobby and Chick-fil-A aren't out sending hundreds of millions financing think tanks and lobbyists in Washington, they are just trying to run their own business with their own agenda. And the scale of the companies are orders of magnitude smaller than Google, both are medium sized family owned businesses.

[root_axis]

> Hobby Lobby and Chick-fil-A aren't out sending hundreds of millions financing think tanks and lobbyists in Washington

Why would they? Washington is already controlled by people who share their ideology.

[r00fus]

Clearly this is just "business" [1].

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/oct/28/hobby-lobby-...

[WillPostForFood]

It is ok not to like Hobby Lobby or their owners, but explain how you think that is relevant to "corporations pushing an agenda."

[DerekL]

Chick-fil-A is much smaller than Google, but they were funding think tanks and lobbyists, until boycotts convinced them to stop.

[drewbuschhorn]

Where are these praise Google for its liberalism stories? Prior to Trumpism and the breakdown of modern politics, the only time I really heard people talking about how wonderful it was that Google was liberal was the occasional fluff piece about their solar programs.

So where are the stories of senators saying, "those guys at Google, they're what we should be striving for." As opposed to senators raking them over the coals (rightly) for tax avoidance.

[quickben]

What's so progressive about censorship and why are you glorifying it?

[WillPostForFood]

I wouldn't ask what's so progressive about censorship, but why have progressives seemingly embraced it? or at least distanced themselves from a more firm defense of free speech.

[frgtpsswrdlame]

Which progressives have embraced censorship?

[WillPostForFood]

https://qz.com/1053957/charlottesville-neo-nazis-and-the-cas...

I think this article is a good encapsulation of the progressive ambivalence on free speech, which has provided a rationale for violence against speakers like Charles Murray (https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/03/middleb...), the violent protests that have followed Milo Yiannopoulos, and "safe spaces" on college campuses.

[zzzeek]

parent poster is likely referring to the right to sit in your office all day spouting pseduoscientific essays on why 20% of your coworkers probably should not be working in the job they have.

[hueving]

Or antifa which is keen on violence to make nazis stop spreading their ideology.

[abiox]

> Because they're pushing the progressive agenda, so who in the media, government, or academia is going to stand in their way?

Well, the media largely only cares for agendas that fit their advertiser's preferences. Their advertiser's preferences are dictated by what they think will help their business... they're not particularly concerned with the nature of any particular agenda, only whether an agenda benefits them.

The government is the largely similar, but rather than advertisers it's political parties balancing appeal to their donors, lobbyists and other powers. To a minor degree also to their base, but hand-waving and obscurantism tends to limit this need.

Academia increasingly does seem pretty screwed up (STEM isn't free of issues, but the really nutty stuff is mostly in the 'humanities'). I suspect firing Damore will probably sate their blood-lust for a while.