We've all noticed and complained about issues with the leftists in charge of current tech. YouTube, Google, Patreon, PayPal and Facebook have all been guilty of censorship of opposing ideas. We leave/boycott some platforms, use others grudgingly or try to ignore the politics of the whole thing and just use them freely. I guess it depends on how much we need to use the service.

My question is why hasn't some liberty-minded individual or group started competing services? Is it because lefty tech teams up against competitors? In other words, if someone were to start up a Patreon competitor, PayPal and Google would work against them to see them fail? Would the solution be to start up a group of services that compete with all of lefty tech in toto?

Why hasn't this happened? Just wondering?

As someone who used to work in Silly Valley and considered taking a job (with the same company) based in Phoenix, one of the considerations was what other tech jobs are available there. Yes, there are some tech jobs in Phoenix, but it is hard to throw a rock without hitting a tech company in Silicon Valley (call it San Jose, Milpitas, Saratoga, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Palo Alto). If you are an engineer looking for a tech job, this is an area with a plethora of employers. If you are a tech employer, there are a plethora of employees there. It also happens to be an area with a generally Leftist bias. There are conservatives around, but it is probably a lot like Hollywierd - those who are different don’t go out of their way to advertise it, hoping to fit in and hold onto their jobs.

I don’t know what Research Triangle Park or Raleigh, NC or other tech hubs (are there others?) are like, but that’s my sense of Silly Valley.

Another possible factor is that most techies will have gone to college, which lately is pure Leftist indoctrination in most places.

And, again from my dated perspective (left the last tech company in ‘03 for full time self employment farming), most of the folks that I worked with didn’t seem to Give A Darn about politics. It was all about driving the company forward, making those stock options worth something, and maybe if lucky, striking it rich. Nobody except the executives had time to GAS about politics.

I’d guess that the vast majority of the folks who have the energy and drive to start a new company are going to look for niches in the market that they can dominate, own, and monetize, rather than try to compete with massive companies that already own their market, but have the wrong political views. That would be a really hard sell to recruit into as well.

Having a different, or no, political bias probably isn’t enough of a differentiator to build a competing platform. There would need to be a better business or notably more consumer appeal to go with the political stance. As mentioned, there are conservatives at those tech companies, just not a majority, and not necessarily in upper management.

Didn’t they give Jack Dorsey shit for not toeing the line during the election?

- Bret

Is it possible? Yes.

But, we are so far behind the 8-ball, it'd take 30 years to make up the difference.

So, just don't bother? Easy enough.

Liberty minded people want to live and let live.

Leftist tech wants to find out everything about everyone else and sell it to the highest bidder.

A lot depends on how one looks at the situation or perhaps the lens through which one looks at it. We complain how the big firms use their power to censor our thoughts, but they seem to feel they have the right to do that to try to level the playing field. For instance, there's an article on Vox (a decidedly SJW platform) about "Why Conservatives Are Winning the Internet."

Here are a few paragraphs from the article:

Jen Schradie: ....But I was researching digital activism in 2014 and it was already apparent to me, despite what a lot of people thought, that conservatives and authoritarian powers were seizing control of the digital space.

Sean Illing: Why is that? Is there something inherent to conservatism that makes it more effective in the digital sphere? Or is the gap simply about resource disparities?

Jen Schradie: The simple answer is that conservatives are more likely to have more resources and to take advantage of that. The other is that they’re more likely to have hierarchical infrastructures that make it easier to engage the digital labor that’s needed to promote online activism. In other words, they tend to have more top-down organizations, and that’s just a more efficient way to distribute labor and get the message out.

In terms of the actual ideology itself, I do think there’s something about the nature of conservatism that makes it easier to promote online. Conservatives tend to focus on simple, clear messages around freedom in particular. The left tends to focus on this general idea of fairness.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and...ctivism-jen-schradie

quote:

My question is why hasn't some liberty-minded individual or group started competing services?

You don't just start something like this in your kitchen or garage.
It takes mega, mega (and Maga ) amount of planning and even more money to get started to compete.
Not going to happen overnight, not going to dethrone the Media Cartel without some divine intervention from dare I say the Government and of course God.

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:

quote:

My question is why hasn't some liberty-minded individual or group started competing services?

You don't just start something like this in your kitchen or garage.
It takes mega, mega (and Maga ) amount of planning and even more money to get started to compete.
Not going to happen overnight, not going to dethrone the Media Cartel without some divine intervention from dare I say the Government and of course God.

So, maybe as much money as the NRA gets in a year?
Not a slam on them, but seems like green backs come and go in large quantities already - just not in the direction mentioned in the OP.

Or maybe we just see everything through a gloomy lens as mentioned earlier.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:

Excellent.

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
You don't just start something like this in your kitchen or garage.
It takes mega, mega (and Maga ) amount of planning and even more money to get started to compete.
Not going to happen overnight, not going to dethrone the Media Cartel without some divine intervention from dare I say the Government and of course God.

Why can't this be started in a kitchen or garage? I'm not even talking about unseating a media giant. I just want to have somewhere to go. Like going to a mom & pop instead of WalMart.

Why can't someone just offer a credit processing service that doesn't care if I'm selling guns to law-aiding citizens? Why can't Peterson, Crowder, et al. start a Patreon/YouTube service and offer the platform to others? So you don't compete for 30 years? Where will we be in 30 years if it never starts?

quote:

Originally posted by apprentice:
So, maybe as much money as the NRA gets in a year?
Not a slam on them, but seems like green backs come and go in large quantities already - just not in the direction mentioned in the OP.

Or maybe we just see everything through a gloomy lens as mentioned earlier.

That's what I'm talking about! I'd be glad to make a monthly contribution to something like this.

quote:

Originally posted by mark123:

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
You don't just start something like this in your kitchen or garage.
It takes mega, mega (and Maga ) amount of planning and even more money to get started to compete.
Not going to happen overnight, not going to dethrone the Media Cartel without some divine intervention from dare I say the Government and of course God.

Why can't this be started in a kitchen or garage? I'm not even talking about unseating a media giant. I just want to have somewhere to go. Like going to a mom & pop instead of WalMart.

Why can't someone just offer a credit processing service that doesn't care if I'm selling guns to law-aiding citizens? Why can't Peterson, Crowder, et al. start a Patreon/YouTube service and offer the platform to others? So you don't compete for 30 years? Where will we be in 30 years if it never starts?

There are PLENTY of kitchen-started Content Creators but building a platform that will compete with the Cartel (YouTube, FaceBook, Twatter, etc) is a monumental task.
I suppose a grassroots version can grow but it will still take a lot of help to really compete.
As long as the Cartel have the monopoly they are free to do as they please.

So Sigforum isn't techy enough for y'all?

I'm not talking about competing. It's unnecessary.

quote:

Originally posted by 220-9er:
So Sigforum isn't techy enough for y'all?

Where's the credit processing gateway?

I think it starts with baby steps and weening yourself off the crap these companies offer. Get off FB if you can, or don't use it any more than necessary. Reduce your Amazon purchases. Don't use Youtube or PayPal or Ebay. It can be done but it takes effort. I use some of these apps but I'm getting myself off of using Amazon and FB asap. Shop locally as much as you can! Think farmer's markets, mom and pop stores (they still exist!) and such. Speak up and make it known in your circles.

It really bothers me people think they have no recourse. It's tough but we do and it starts with your pocketbook. We feed these assholes every time we buy or use their products. I think very few people care about the level of ads they're exposed to nowadays and it's quite scary to realize the level of brainwashing that is being done. I'm so glad I don't watch much TV at all, but think of all the folks that sit around and watch tv all day. We all know someone, a parent, grandparent, whomever that sits all day listening to the tube. Think of all the nasty shit that permeates into their brain all day...

And we wonder why people are sucked into all this bs...well...we have it all around us.

Start by taking as much of it out of your life as possible!

What? Amazon, too? What now?

They might be the most evil of them all. Think of all the years of corporate losses for Amazon yet investor dollars kept going in. One reason, because they knew in the end Amazon was going to be one of the only players left in the game. Their successful web services (AWS) have allowed them to continue their take over and destruction of retail. That's not good imho.

To me, Amazon has kind of turned into Zorg corp from the Fifth Element. Lol.

quote:

Originally posted by bigeinkcmo:
They might be the most evil of them all. Think of all the years of corporate losses for Amazon yet investor dollars kept going in. One reason, because they knew in the end Amazon was going to be one of the only players left in the game. Their successful web services (AWS) have allowed them to continue their take over and destruction of retail. That's not good imho.

To me, Amazon has kind of turned into Zorg corp from the Fifth Element. Lol.

I've never made it through that horrible movie, so, that is lost on me.

I don't think the destruction of retail is bad. It's an outdated idea and it's time has come. How is buying direct from China worse than having a retail establishment buy from China, mark up the price 1000% and then you buying from them?