How is this ill-defined? They are bringing up a very well-defined issue that has a real world effect on their and others lives. Just because it doesn’t impact you, doesn’t mean it’s not real or ill-defined.
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Union organizer 1 - “We have a problem. No one is actually espousing the viewpoints we want to protest.”
Union organizer 2 - “Not a problem! We’ll just get someone to say what we want to hear and attribute it to google!”
Yeah, this was a complete and total failure on so many levels.
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Look, most people will probably agree that getting more cars off the road is a good thing. Where this gets emotional is in the perception that a small percentage of the population is rapidly becoming completely insulated from the real problems that afflict the majority of people in this city, those of us who work and contribute but do not enjoy the benefits of corporate or personal wealth. These large companies receive huge tax incentives and other advantages that allow them to create private and exclusive systems that are not accessible to most people. So, for example, instead of paying taxes to help enhance public transit for all citizens, they purchase a fleet of luxury buses to pamper a small group of individuals. Yes, yes, this is how capitalism works, etc etc., but what we’re finding is that ordinary people can become resentful and angry if they feel that the advantaged are using their wealth and status to create private enclaves and members-only services. Especially when the city cannot provide improved services for the people who lack privilege and status. Angry Tech Guy’s ranting reveals some of the contempt that the privileged have for people who dare to interrupt the illusion that wealth can provide a separate reality for those who can afford it–for Angry Tech Guy the inconvenience may last for one slightly complicated morning where he has to use Uber instead of the Google bus, but for the rest of us, the challenges of getting by are a daily struggle, unrelieved by free back massages, paid lunches, and the other perks bestowed upon a fortunate few.
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I’ve lived in this city for a long time. I can’t really afford it, but I’ll be here long after Strawman Tech Worker and this Blocking Traffic So Google Buys a Bus Stop Mob will be long gone. Every decade it seems, someone gets all bent out of shape about newcomers living in San Francisco wrong.
There are so many actual things wrong with the housing and rental market in San Francisco. People looking for work here is not one of them.
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Boy, now you are going to catch it. How dare you articulate the fundamental issue here!!! Don’t you know that some people’s workdays are more important than those of others? This is great theatre because it was so true to real world experience.
Alas.
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[quote=“Thecorrectline, post:44, topic:16003”]No one is actually espousing the viewpoints we want to protest.
[/quote]People are going to pretend that a few hours of tech dudes defending this guy before he was exposed as fake never happened, aren’t they?
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Wait, this guy who, and how do you know the supporters are tech folks?
Also, let’s remember that civil disobedience is traditionally applied in confrontations with state actors, not towards private citizens going about their lives. This is why bankers continue to go about their dirty doings and nothing ever changes - vigilante protesters defining their arrogant and selfish feel-good protests (that hurt people that really can’t do anything about the state of affairs) as “civil disobedience” when it’s really just being d*bags. And people that have a platform and misuse it to self-congratulatorily lap up this crap, clapping about staged efforts to create “a more symbolic issue to talk about”.
How about encouraging people to change the system from inside, to become bankers/real estate owners/politicians and do things better instead of doing “symbolic” things? Oh no, wait, it’s easier to pat yourself on the back because you’ve staged an (entirely plausible) harassment on a sock puppet of what you believe arrogant tech pricks are like. Good job! You’re definitely part of the precipitate…
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(& @Mindysan33) - What are the goals of this protest? What are the specific problems and the proposed solutions? (Sorry, there is nothing linked here that points me in that direction…)
Not trying to pick a fight here…but…
I recall quite a few civil disobedience actions aimed explicitly at impacting the daily lives and routines of “ordinary citizens.” I recall them because they are the ones that actually broke through the indifference of “state actors” and brought about change. We can argue about the ethics of said actions, of course, but they were quite effective as I recall.
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[quote=“phk12, post:49, topic:16003”]How about encouraging people to change the system from inside, to become bankers/real estate owners/politicians and do things better instead of doing “symbolic” things?
[/quote]People should just become bankers and real estate owners to fix income inequality and gentrification? Yeah, OK dude.
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So it basically sounds like the Google bus system is just a new battleground for the same wealth-and-status-inequality that has been a source of conflict since at least the French Revolution.
I’m not familiar with the Google bus system at all (I’m an East-Coaster), but it sounds similar to the busing system used by many midsize and large universities in which students and faculty - but not staff workers - have access to a private shuttle system to transport them from campus to various parts of the closest city. I tried to educate myself a little on the problem in SF and came across this article: http://kalw.org/post/regulating-google-buses-sfmtas-plan-private-shuttles . It looks like Google isn’t the first employer to have a private shuttle system, but it is the largest? What is interesting to me - and what certainly appears to be the grossest example of favorable treatment - is that it is against municipal code for these shuttles to use the bus stops, and despite complaints to the gov’t (or quasi-gov’t agency), law enforcement turns a blind eye to the issue.
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Gentrification is not an inherently bad thing.
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True. But I don’t think gentrification is the real issue here.
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Civil disobedience in the modern era is not quite just about state actors, actually. Retailers and businesses, both local and national, were also a target for such actions.
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[quote=“Thecorrectline, post:44, topic:16003, full:true”]
Union organizer 1 - “We have a problem. No one is actually espousing the viewpoints we want to protest.”[/quote]
More likely: “People have said some nasty things to us, it would be nice to get it on film so that we could expose that elitism to the rest of the world, but we never get the camera there on time, there’s all those privacy issues, and besides, everybody starts acting all nice when there’s a camera in their face”
"Well, we could just film it with you, we’ll just ask people to send you some stuff that they’ve been told, and we’ll do a video like that. Who’s gonna know?
This is true. No matter how legitimate their gripes are, they’ve screwed themselves.
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I know a lot of “tech workers” (how very vague…) and none of them are like this.
“Facebook status”
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Except these buses only help a certain, small, VERY SMALL, percentage of the population of the city.
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I dunno about that. Cellphones with cameras are pretty ubiquitous, and people who are genuinely in the middle of a screaming hissy fit are often not self-aware enough to reign it in as soon as someone pulls out a camera
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I had no idea this was evening happening until this post. The protesting? It’s working exactly as intended. For the record, protests shouldn’t be the only thing utilized while trying to change something, but they can bey very, very handy when you want your cause to be paid attention to. (Not always, of course.)
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