I remember when I was growing up, tech industry has so many people that were admirable, and you wanted to aspire to be in life. Bill Gates, founders of Google Larry Page, Sergey brin, Steve Jobs (wasn’t perfect but on a surface level, he was still at least a pretty decent guy), basically everyone involved in gaming from Xbox to PlayStation and so on, Tom from MySpace… So many admirable people who were actually really great…

Now, people are just trash. Look at Mark Zuckerberg who leads Facebook. Dude is a lizard man, anytime you think he has shown some character growth he does something truly horrible and illegal that he should be thrown in prison for. For example, he’s been buying up properties in Hawaii and basically stealing them from the locals. He’s basically committing human rights violations by violating the culture of Hawaiian natives and their land deeds that are passed down from generation to generation. He has been systematically stealing them and building a wall on Hawaii, basically a f*cking colonizer. That’s what the guy is. I thought he was a good upstanding person until I learned all these things about him

Current CEO of Google is peak dirtbag. Dude has no interest in the company or it’s success at all, his only concern is patting his pockets while he is there as CEO, and appeasing the shareholders. He has zero interest in helping or making anyone’s life pleasant at the company. Truly a dirtbag in every way.

Current CEO of Home Depot, which I now consider a tech company because they have moved out of retail and into the online space and they are rapidly restructuring their entire business around online sales, that dude is a total piece of work conservative racist. I remember working for this company, This dude’s entire focus is eliminating as many people as feasibly possible from working in the store, making their life living heck, does not see people as human beings at all. Just wants to eliminate anyone and everyone they possibly can, think they are a slave labor force

Elon musk, we all know about him, don’t need to really say much. Every time you think he’s doing something good for society, he proves you wrong And does the worst thing he can possibly do in that situation. It’s like he’s specifically trying to make the world the worst place possible everyday

Like, damn. What the heck happened to the world? You know? I thought the tech industry was supposed to be filled with these brilliant genius people who are really good for the world…

  • Deceptichum@quokk.auEnglish
    2·
    3 months ago

    Bill Gates was a huge piece of shit in his heyday, rivalling the Zuckerberg and Musks of today, and Jobs was an abusive narcissist shitcunt on a surface level.

    Tom and Zuckerberg both came from the same time. Zuck was shit since day 1, today has nothing to do with it.

    I think you just have some very rose tinted glasses.

    • Neuromancer@lemm.eeEnglish
      1·
      3 months ago

      I think it’s easier to name the people who have been decent in tech. Woz seems like a decent guy.

      Ted Waite all in all was decent. Not perfect but decent.

        • Neuromancer@lemm.eeEnglish
          1·
          3 months ago

          Stallman is a notable figure in the industry but he was never the leader of a large tech company. That’s probably why he’s a decent guy

          • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            3 months ago

            He was a big defender of paedophilia, necrophilia, incest, and bestiality. He thinks people should have the right to fuck their pets and their children. Not to mention the reports on his creepy behaviour with women.

            Stallman is an incredible steward of FOSS, and he’s been very prescient in predicting the absolute nightmare of proprietary software, but he is not a decent guy overall IMO.

            It hurt me to find that out, because I looked up to him. But I guess it’s another sobering reminder of why celebrity worship is bad. I see way too many people try to bury or deny his scummy side, just because they worship him as a FOSS celebrity figure.

              • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.worldEnglish
                0·
                3 months ago

                Yeah, for me too. Because I love practically everything he says when it comes to software.

                “The nominee is quoted as saying that if the choice of a sexual partner were protected by the Constitution, ‘prostitution, adultery, necrophilia, bestiality, possession of child pornography, and even incest and pedophilia’ also would be. He is probably mistaken, legally–but that is unfortunate. All of these acts should be legal as long as no one is coerced. They are illegal only because of prejudice and narrowmindedness.”

                RMS on June 28th, 2003

                “I am skeptical of the claim that voluntarily pedophilia harms children. The arguments that it causes harm seem to be based on cases which aren’t voluntary, which are then stretched by parents who are horrified by the idea that their little baby is maturing.”

                RMS on June 5th, 2006

                "There is little evidence to justify the widespread assumption that willing participation in pedophilia hurts children.

                RMS on Jan 4th, 2013

                In the interest of fairness, he did claim to have changed his mind on some of this, although that only happened 2 days after his job became on the line after making strange comments about Epstein/Epstein clients/Epstein victims, particularly in presenting Epstein’s underage sex workers as being willing.

                For me, suddenly having a change of heart on a decades-held (and publicly-championed) opinion, only to suddenly change your mind the second it threatens your job seems a bit too convenient, so I’m unwilling to believe it.

                • rottingleaf@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  1·
                  3 months ago

                  as long as no one is coerced

                  Well, the opinion that a child can consent is technically acceptable, because the line at 12,13,14,16,18,21 years is arbitrarily drawn which is why it differs in various countries.

                  But in practice he should have used common sense and at least drawn his own line.

                  “I am skeptical of the claim that voluntarily pedophilia harms children. The arguments that it causes harm seem to be based on cases which aren’t voluntary, which are then stretched by parents who are horrified by the idea that their little baby is maturing.”

                  That’s scary, but I’m not sure how really wrong he is. The issue is again with child’s consent being less certain, affected more easily by various distractions.

                  so I’m unwilling to believe it.

                  So am I, the question is whether he has internal consistency or not in his views. If yes, it’s still better than, well, just being a jerk and proud of it.

            • rottingleaf@lemmy.worldEnglish
              1·
              3 months ago

              Let’s note that necrophilia with mutual agreement (pre-mortem, and same with cannibalism) and incest with mutual agreement (between adults) are fucked up, but should be defended. Animals can’t consent, children can’t consent, so not that.

              Not to mention the reports on his creepy behaviour with women.

              That - yeah.

              But I guess it’s another sobering reminder of why celebrity worship is bad. I see way too many people try to bury or deny his scummy side, just because they worship him as a FOSS celebrity figure.

              Believing in discourses and narratives without understanding that they are never real is bad.

              You can believe only in what you see with your own eyes since inception and till death.

    • roofuskit@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      3 months ago

      It’s hard to beat ignoring doctors and not treating your very treatable form of cancer, then using your wealth to get a liver transplant and then dying anyway. Dude committed manslaughter because of his own arrogance.

    • This is fine🔥🐶☕🔥@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      3 months ago

      Bill Gates was a huge piece of shit in his heyday, rivalling the Zuckerberg and Musks of today,

      Bill Gates was a ruthless businessman destroying competition but as far as I know he didn’t support fascists or facilitate pogroms.

      Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter has done far more harm to our societies than whatever shady tactics Bill Gates used.

      • uzay@infosec.pubEnglish
        1·
        3 months ago

        Not to take away from Zuckerberg, Musk, and the less-known people in tech like Thiel, but Bill Gates was and is a huge piece of shit who harmed more than just his competitors. Among other things he convinced the world that we need IP and patents for covid vaccines instead of sharing them freely, which alone cost countless lives around the world. I don’t even want to know what other ills his “philanthropy” has and will cause. https://newrepublic.com/article/162000/bill-gates-impeded-global-access-covid-vaccines

  • Cyborganism@lemmy.caEnglish
    1·
    3 months ago

    I don’t ever remember Bill Gates or Steve Jobs being good people. Or Jeff Bezos, trying to kill bookstores.

    The guys behind Google seemed okay at first and I think they really wanted to do good. But the way the company culture was built was toxic.

    But in the end it’s all about the greed. As soon as a company becomes public and whose stocks become available on the market, it turns to shit.

    Look at how Steam is going well and actually helping personal computing progress. Gabe Newell is doing a great job because he loves that he does and ensures the people who work for him do too.

    • Ashtear@lemm.eeEnglish
      1·
      3 months ago

      Newell also has overseen Valve as one of the pioneers of the most predatory monetization in the video game industry (lootboxes, etc.).

      There are no saints at this level.

      • GiveMemes@jlai.luEnglish
        0·
        3 months ago

        I mean their unwillingness to do anything about the market abuse and rampant child-gambling aside, the lootboxes for purely cosmetic items are one of the least predatory ways to do microtransactions. It’s not like EA where the only way to unlock entire characters in some games is to grind for hundreds of hours or pay, or like COD where they took the lootbox idea and made it actually affect (multiplayer) gameplay

        • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          3 months ago

          the least predatory ways to do microtransactions

          Damning with faint praise.

      • This is fine🔥🐶☕🔥@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        3 months ago

        TBF to Valve, their lootboxes were limited to cosmetic items in a free to play multiplayer games. You can ignore those and it wouldn’t change the gameplay at all.

  • partial_accumen@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    3 months ago

    I remember when I was growing up, tech industry has so many people that were admirable

    Perhaps you were too young to understand who these people were:

    • Bill Gates dominated the PC world with aggressive business tactics and vendor lock in.
    • Larry Ellison bought up his competitors and jack up prices on databsae products owning the industry for more than a decade.
    • Steve Jobs lied and cheated his investors, his family, and his closest friends to benefit himself.

    Tom was a good guy, but possibly because he took his fortune and left tech. There were very few admirable leaders.

    • kfchan@fedia.io
      0·
      3 months ago

      Steve Jobs decided to kill himself by being an idiot.

      So…there was a redemption arc there.

        • roofuskit@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          3 months ago

          Yes but Steve Jobs also bought himself a pointless liver transplant that someone else didn’t get. One he would have never needed if he had listened to doctors instead of trying to treat a very treatable kind of cancer with a diet. So while he did the world a favor, he also took someone with him on the way out.

  • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    bill gates was like, one of the worst of the worst. Dude literally broke the law, and then settled to avoid paying for acquiring fees.

    They have never been good.

    • lud@lemm.eeEnglish
      0·
      3 months ago

      Dude literally broke the law, and then settled to avoid paying for acquiring fees.

      That sounds really tame compared to nowadays.

      • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        0·
        3 months ago

        it’s tame, except we’re talking like, literally stealing a piece of software or it’s design blatantly, settling, and then acquiring the rights in the settlement for much cheaper than they would at market rates.

        • lud@lemm.eeEnglish
          0·
          3 months ago

          It’s not his problem that they settled for so little though.

          • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
            0·
            3 months ago

            he shouldn’t have broken the law in the first place, but that’s not the problem of the small business.

            I mean there are literally three options here, purchase it from the business legally. Which costs shit tons of money, or steal it. And then deal with it after the fact, which is what they did, and it saved MS lots of money, while probably fucking yeeting the small business.

            • lud@lemm.eeEnglish
              1·
              3 months ago

              Well duh. I’m just saying it’s really tame compared to nowadays.

              Also I personally don’t really care too much about copyright.

    • Bacano@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      3 months ago

      To add to this, there’s been evidence that as an individual accrues more wealth, their empathy response lessens over time.

      My arm chair psychologist hypothesis is that: as the individual sees their quality of life increase, they look at other human beings in deplorable conditions, and their empathy response atrophies in order to avoid cognitive dissonance.

      There’s a concept in the study of wealthy individuals which goes over their desire to hide impoverishment from their view.

  • mightyfoolish@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    You haven’t named a decent person in your post.

    The Google founders are simply more secretive in their lifestyles compared to Musk. They dropped the “Don’t Be Evil” motto a long time ago.

    • SoJB@lemmy.mlEnglish
      02·
      3 months ago

      Bill Gates, a decent person? LMAO is OP literally a kid or something.

      Americans are the most propagandized people in the world and simultaneously genuinely believe they are not propagandized, it’s incredible.

  • untorquer@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    They all have a story like this. They are all terrible.

    I think Gareth Reynolds said it or was it Jordan from knowledge fight? But once you reach a billion you should get a medal saying you won capitalism then be 100% taxed the rest of your life.