I can't speak for executives of the companies, but a lot of techies are near-anarchist libertarians and legitimately believe in free speech.
That's why James Damore was such big news. It suddenly became clear that tech companies don't support free speech, and that was a shock to a lot of tech types.
Ultimately Reddit is in charge of Reddit. The only way to escape that power is to post somewhere Reddit doesn't control.
The loss of "red-pilling libs" is sad. We can still do that here. I agree we could do it better at Reddit, but Reddit didn't like that.
Which is why it's so great that we have this place where we can post without hassles. THANK YOU, creators of thedonald.win!
When we're deep in a recession, remember where all the money went.
The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.
Ayn Rand
They're angry when the democratically elected president waits for information before taking action, then they're angry when he takes decisive action, then they're angry when people follow his orders.
It's almost like they're the enemy of the people or something.
But it will slow the spread, hopefully enough that hospitals can deal with the newly infected who need critical care. See Italy for a counter-example.
The closures are annoying, and worse than annoying for those whose jobs are deemed non-critical. But there is pretty solid justification.
Insanity in the media is nothing new: The case for letting North Korea keep its nukes
Quoting anonymous coward on SoylentNews:
Outside the coastal cities, people prefer normal American values. They want constitutional carry (no permit needed to carry a gun; the right is presumed), stand-your-ground (the right to self-defense with deadly force, without a duty to retreat), removal of illegals, low taxes, etc. Inside the coastal cities, people abhor that kind of freedom. They hate America; they are fake Americans.
I'm not sure I fully agree with the city/rural split, but the sentiment is correct. America's values are enshrined in our constitution and bill of rights. One group of people thinks that's great.
When the coronavirus news first started I was very much "it's the flu, just deal with it, stop panicking."
But Italy took that approach, and now they're facing down overflowing hospitals and people dying for lack of care. So I was wrong and the worriers were right.
I sincerely hope America's response is an overreaction. But it may well turn a real problem into something manageable.
The Y2K bug was similar: huge, HUGE media panic, fizzled out to nothing because everyone took it seriously and took big steps to solve the problem before things exploded.
COVID-19 is not fatal to most people who get it. If you're under 50 and don't have complicating conditions you shouldn't worry too much.
The bigger concern is health care. If (say) 5% of those infected actually need hospitalization, that's a LOT of sick people all at once. The goal is to slow the spread so hospitals can keep up.
To me the current response feels like an overreaction. But there's also some justification.
"Everyone needs a college degree" was always a dumb idea. One of the guys in my high school was all about shop class and gym. He started his own construction business. He's doing better than me now! College would not have helped him in any way.
Democrats will get out and vote. Orange Man Bad is a powerful motivator.
It's critical that Trump supporters vote in November. Whether those votes will be counted is another discussion, but it definitely got results in 2016!
I remember when companies were in the business of making stuff people wanted so people would buy it. Those were good times.
They love to be smug about "not believing in climate change" like it makes you a flat earther.
The problem is, they attack a strawman version of their opponent's arguments. Most people I've heard from that don't buy man-made climate change (including me) have reasons to not get hysterical:
- The climate is warming, but it's not (mainly) due to people/carbon monoxide
- The climate is warming, but it's difficult to use that to predict what happens in the future 2a. . . .especially that "hockey stick" curve that keeps getting pushed back by decades 2b. Some of us remember the decades of "global cooling" scares, and aren't impressed this time either
- Even if carbon monoxide is a problem, other countries are make more of it than the U.S., and they're not likely to reduce their output, so there's no reason to cripple our economy
- Carbon monoxide may not be worse than the other environmental pollutants we produce trying to avoid it
- People claim environmental concerns, but the suggested remedies always involve lots of government money and line the pockets of a few rich people
- . . . and so on
But instead, they just assume, "You must not believe the data! You're willfully ignorant!" It's an interesting step to take, especially considering how many aggressive "climate change" moralists are in academia.
It explains a lot. "We tried everyone, EVERYONE. Hillary was just more popular!" ¯_(ツ)_/
We're at a tipping point. The walls are closing in.