[keidian]

Is this serious or supposed to be satire or something? Cause it reads like something a deranged person would write to me... Making comments about how Google employees automatically bring police, "All of Google's employees should be prevented from getting to work", etc. Yeah they do bring police.. to deal with nutjobs that decide to randomly show up at their houses and stop them from working, stop a bus in the middle of the street and cause a disruption, etc.

[calibraxis]

Just read the PDF, and it's an interesting and reasonable perspective on tech. Probably sounds blasphemous to an audience excited about investments/acquisitions of $15M, $30M and $1.54 billion (from HN's current front page), but I think techies are due for a reasonable backlash for their usual servility to power, by people concerned about their society.

[matthewmacleod]

With respect, you are wrong. It's neither interesting nor reasonable, and indeed is barely coherent.

Gentrification is a real problem, with inequality at it's roots. I think most people would agree with that. And I'd also agree that it's easy for some in the tech community to lose touch with the relative privilege that they often live in. But this is not a "reasonable backlash" – it's a bunch of incoherent knee-jerk harassment by people who should really be doing something better with their time.

The proper channel for dealing with housing issues is local government; for NSA issues, national government; in neither is the correct channel the harassment of individual employees of a company which may (or may not be) the cause of those issues.

[michaelt]

A while ago I was talking to an extremely cynical person in line to inherit a british aristocratic title.

He told me something his grandfather taught him: People who are protesting against you will almost certainly disagree with you about what an "acceptable backlash" is. Specifically you will prefer ineffective protests and those that that don't inconvenience you, while they will prefer effective protests and those that are spiteful.

[WettowelReactor]

Gentrification is a really complex problem that is superficially bandied about. While it involves changes they are not all negative and the net impact on existing residents is very situation.

http://www.npr.org/2014/01/22/264528139/long-a-dirty-word-ge...

[msquared]

This PDF is so far from reasonable. This is a group of people that seem to be angry about anything and everything tech related - from exploitative production labor all the way through to not paying enough attention to your family. The PDF reads like an anti-technology manifesto and anti-government war cry more than anything else to me.

[diydsp]

Your perspective on "usual servility" is underrated.

I read the flyer, too. Kind of a PITA to rotate it, but:

It's just their perspective, mostly PR-style publicl-available history of projects for that particular developr. It's worthwhile to read, to remind ourselves to be respectful of the larger scene, rather than just the dollar signs.

Still, it's hyperbolic in places. I think their view would be more persuasive if they talked about "the kind of world we want to live in" rather than leaping to "evil." It would also be more persuasive if they discussed more ways everyday people can avoid giving power to their "opponents." Mom and Pop are much more likely to starve Google by switching to DuckDuckGo than to "take down surveillance cameras."

However, I don't think it's utter crap. Both sides in this issue have some large, philosophical questions to consider.

[brohee]

About as reasonable as Kaczynski's Manifesto.

[hack_edu]

Political theatre, for its own sake, is a very effective way of attracting press coverage and staying in the news. Has been a go-to in the radical playbook for nearly a century now.

[Houshalter]

Yes but it's not good coverage.

[giarc]

I think these people don't understand the irony of their claims about google employees bringing police to their neighbourhoods.

[aaronem]

Of course not. Instead, they blame Google, and its employees, for the police presence which they themselves necessitate.