Good talk. I still have my paypal account but am wary now. You talked me into a paid subscription, but be forwarned that it will only be a few months. I cannot possibly support all my favourite people. It was interesting to hear your personal story. Like yourself I was raised in a socialist household, though never Marxist and not activist. I have never voted anything but NDP, except Green one year when the riding was solidly Reform and a protest vote was possible. My only dilemma was was always NDP or Green? If an election were held tomorrow, the dilemma would be Poilièvre or spoil my vote?
Great interview, Meghan. I received the same user agreement email from PayPal, although at the time I’m a little embarrassed to say I wasn’t aware of this issue. The email seems sinister now in retrospect.
I’ve come to think that companies like FB, T, and now PayPal who are so big that they can deny service to anyone for political reasons are way too big to be “of service.” This means that, although they started as traditional businesses, their influence, catalyzed by the amazing reach of the internet and the spectacle of mass participation, makes them traditional businesses no longer. Traditional, private businesses fight for and work to satisfy customers; they don’t have the luxury of deleting the ones they don’t like.
So FB, T, PayPal, and the others are something different. Perhaps a new category of activist company somewhere between public and private. And the question that no one wants to ask, which is what to do with them since their tech remains necessary for most but their politics restricts access to only the favored, needs to be answered soon. It’s repulsive in my view to censor all but the most clear and immediately threatening speech. But it’s an entirely new and advanced stage of tyranny to restrict financial determination only to those sycophants who do PayPal’s bidding.
The only answer for now is to expose them, and to put the above question on the table. These elite and untouchable “companies” need to shrink in power. I’m no fan of government as the fix, but perhaps exposing their hypocrisy irony that anyone could be a customer while they were growing, but now some customers just won’t do.
Good talk. I still have my paypal account but am wary now. You talked me into a paid subscription, but be forwarned that it will only be a few months. I cannot possibly support all my favourite people. It was interesting to hear your personal story. Like yourself I was raised in a socialist household, though never Marxist and not activist. I have never voted anything but NDP, except Green one year when the riding was solidly Reform and a protest vote was possible. My only dilemma was was always NDP or Green? If an election were held tomorrow, the dilemma would be Poilièvre or spoil my vote?
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Great interview, Meghan. I received the same user agreement email from PayPal, although at the time I’m a little embarrassed to say I wasn’t aware of this issue. The email seems sinister now in retrospect.
I’ve come to think that companies like FB, T, and now PayPal who are so big that they can deny service to anyone for political reasons are way too big to be “of service.” This means that, although they started as traditional businesses, their influence, catalyzed by the amazing reach of the internet and the spectacle of mass participation, makes them traditional businesses no longer. Traditional, private businesses fight for and work to satisfy customers; they don’t have the luxury of deleting the ones they don’t like.
So FB, T, PayPal, and the others are something different. Perhaps a new category of activist company somewhere between public and private. And the question that no one wants to ask, which is what to do with them since their tech remains necessary for most but their politics restricts access to only the favored, needs to be answered soon. It’s repulsive in my view to censor all but the most clear and immediately threatening speech. But it’s an entirely new and advanced stage of tyranny to restrict financial determination only to those sycophants who do PayPal’s bidding.
The only answer for now is to expose them, and to put the above question on the table. These elite and untouchable “companies” need to shrink in power. I’m no fan of government as the fix, but perhaps exposing their hypocrisy irony that anyone could be a customer while they were growing, but now some customers just won’t do.