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by ipaddr 1596 days ago
Companies hold different core values. Google, Facebook, Yahoo, etc all share(d) west coast left leaning values that shaped the internet so it was more open than society. The do not evil motto fit the times. Today these companies are much bigger and global but part of their culture is still intact.

Liberals in 2022 are more like conservatives in 1970/1980 when it comes to nudity, community and free speech.

1 comments

A large number of companies, whether this seems ethical to you or not, still mostly follow the Friedman Doctrine[1] any political leanings they appear to have are adopted solely to increase their expected revenue. Some companies do violate this by altruistically acting to improve the world, but, honestly, these companies get a lot of crap from a lot of free-marketers for going against the natural market and "wasting resources on inefficiencies". A lot of companies may choose to support charities or offer employees volunteering hours, but these can also be viewed cynically as maneuvers to maximize PR and goodwill and avoid taxation.

At a really basic level I think it's important to remember that corporations are not people (not just in the citizens united manner) - anthropomorphizing them is dangerous since (except when wholly controlled by a single unimpeachable entity like a founder or single person business) their actions are dictated by consensus and consensus decision making is incompatible with human morality.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedman_doctrine