[ExI] Just say no to Google

[John Clark]

On Fri, Nov 14, 2025 at 6:25 PM John Klos via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:


> *> You missed answering the one thing that makes Google a definite no go:
> what do you do when you need to communicate with an actual human at Google?*
>

*As I've said I never had a problem with Google groups but if I did I'd go
to https://support.google.com/ <https://support.google.com/> or call their
customer support line at 650-253-0000. Actually just a few days ago I did
need to call them when I was having a little trouble logging into my
YouTube (a Google company) account with my brand new iPhone. They were
polite and knowledgeable and the problem was soon fixed. *

*>> To avoid a monoculture is it necessary that competing book
>> publishers use printing presses that are made by different manufacturers?*
>
>
> * > This is a really poor analogy. Printing presses don't press new
> and different pages every day.*


*They do, or at least they did, if they are printing newspapers, and paper
books have not yet gone completely extinct, and they still print lots of
very different books every day.  *


* >>  I am a militant capitalist and I like for-profit corporate entities,
>> I like them a lot, they sure beat the hell out of no profit
>> corporate entities. And I especially like Google, I certainly don't think
>> it or any of the high-tech companies as being one of the bad guys. At one
>> time most members of this list felt the same way I did about that,
>> but apparently not now.*
>
>
> * > Good for you, but being a fan of capitalism doesn't change the fact
> that Google is a shitty, evil company that does shitty and evil things.*


*Google started small but it is now large and powerful. Can you think of
any powerful nation or corporation or person or ANYTHING that has not done
shitty and evil things? I can't. However if you added up all the evil that
corporations have done over the last century it would amount to little more
than naughtiness compared with the monstrous astronomically huge evil that
came from nation states. Google has never stuffed people into ovens, nation
states cannot say the same thing.   *


> > *I was a fan of Google ages ago* [...] *but **there are many, many good
> reasons for feeling differently about Google* *now than perhaps twenty
> years ago.*


*You were a fan 20 years ago because back then Google was not large and
powerful. In general I think large powerful things are inherently less
lovable than small helpless things. However it is a fact of reality that
large powerful things are going to exist, and I would prefer that those
things be corporations rather than nation states. *

*> People who care about security and privacy don't parse HTML nor load web
> links in email. *


*Huh? You included a web link in the very email that I am responding to. *

* > The point is that a problem might never happen to a billion Google
> users, but the people who are affected aren't going to be swayed by
> others saying, "it never happened to me".*
>

*There is a non-zero probability that a meteorite will crash through the
roof of your house and hit you on the head. So does that mean you should
always wear a football helmet inside your house?  *

>
*> You've never been an accident that has killed or almost killed you,
> so that means you can dismiss people who've been in bad accidents?*


*No, but it does mean you should pay attention to how the laws of
probability work. *

*>>You can read the stuff off the web or on any computer that is capable of
>> reading emails. And who has a computer that is incapable of reading emails
>> or doesn't have a web browser?*
>
>

*> This is no different than saying that because 95% of the world
> does something (like, for instance, running Windows twenty years ago),
> you don't know where anyone would get the idea that everyone can't do a
> thing that can only be done by 95% of the world.*


*Unless you resort to snail mail, regardless of if you use Google groups or
not you will simply be unable to send a post to somebody who doesn't have a
web browser of some sort and who doesn't have some way to read emails.  *

*> >They sound like harmless imbeciles to me, and I'm sure people at
>> Google get even more ridiculous threats than you do, but those letters
>> written by nincompoops haven't affected the way you administer this list.
>> and it hasn't affected the good people at Google either.*
>
>
> > *OF COURSE those letters haven't affected the way I administer this
> list.*


*Interesting.*

*John K Clark    See what's on my new list at  Extropolis
<https://groups.google.com/g/extropolis>*

mxx
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