Amazon

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I'm neither advocate nor foe of Amazon. They are a company, that's doing their best to adapt to changing market demands. Some things they do, like offering me better selection at lower prices, is great. Other things they do, like censorship or partisan politics, is annoying. A company isn't made up of any one act or person, but the aggregate of all of them. This article is a list of different Amazon related topics/articles that touch on the Amazon Gestalt. While I have individual opinions on individual acts, I'm perfectly fine leaving it to readers to make up their own minds on those micro-acts, or the macro-organization and personalities.


Here's a few of the sub-articles on Amazon that combine to create a rich and nuanced view of an aggressive company that is helping revolutionize distribution, enabling virtual suppliers, and ruining some bigger and slower brick-and-mortar stores for not keeping up with technological break-neck advancements.


2017.09.01 Amazon, Confederacy and Antifa - Bezos doesn't seem to mind selling hate on Amazon. Well, left wing hate. They blocked history and the confederate flag as "too controversial" (a historical event that happened) -- but antifa stuff was sold well after they proved themselves to be a domestic terrorist organization.

Alexa's Listening -
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Who doesn't want an always on, listening device in their home? 1984 (Orwell) creeped us out by the idea of TV's that listened and Governments that monitored for political correctness -- Amazon marketed it. The problem is without regulation, and little trust of Amazon protecting our privacy, there's valid concerns about what MIGHT be done.

Amazon Book Burning - The gay mafia created and signed a petition on change.org asking Amazon to stop selling books because of their content, and Amazon did the Feirenheit 451thing and pulled them. The crime? They were autobiographies from gay people, or medical texts that talked about reparative Therapy, psychological research, and addiction recovery... but from how they dealt with same sex attractions. Amazon claimed this was “conversion therapy" (it wasn't), and that it could lead to suicides, which is why they pulled them. While they left at least 10 books that are openly pro-suicide (and teach people how to do it) on their shelves, because that's how they roll.

Amazon Employee Outrage - Amazon employees outraged that the company’s facial recognition contracts with the U.S. government and police, could lead to more of the “immoral U.S. policy” around arresting felons, illegal aliens, and catching/killing terrorists or other threats to the U.S.

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Amazon HQ2 pullout - Amazon wanted to put a HQ in Queens, NY and trade $27B in new tax revenues for $3B in tax breaks (at the cities suggestion). But the NYC snowflakes (like AOC) threw enough of a stink that Amazon decided to go somewhere else: Social Justice Victory: now New York loses these jobs / tax revenue to somewhere else. Woot!

Amazon Key -
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Amazon decided if you were giving access to your shopping, always on wiretap in your homes (Alexa), why not give them access to your home and to circumvent the 4th Amendment (if it's by choice, it doesn't count)? And thus, Amazon Key: giving them the key to your homes. The delivery guy just unlocks your door, fights off your dog, throws the package in, and locks the door behind them - what's more convenient that home-invasion delivery?

Amazon and Antifa - Bezos doesn't seem to mind selling hate on Amazon. Well, left wing hate. They blocked history and the confederate flag as too controversial -- but Antifa stuff was sold well after they proved themselves to be a domestic terrorist organization. Which means they aren't taking a position against hate speech, just against anything that the snowflake left doesn't like.

Bookstore killer! - Amazon gets blamed for being too damn good and putting Borders or other booksellers out of business (and the struggles of Barnes and Noble). This is of course garbage: a well run company that adapted to the changing market-space would not have gone out of business. Proof is that many smaller bookstores have thrived in spite of Amazon. While some big box bookstores were poorly positioned for the changing landscape, and they didn't adapt fast enough. That's not Amazon's fault, and if it hadn't of been for Amazon, someone else might have eaten their lunch. Blame Barnes and Nobles for not being Amazon and disrupting themselves before Amazon did.

Ricky Gervais - At the 2020 Golden Globes, Ricky Gervais did a monologue that finally told the self-important Hollywood elites how the rest of the country (and world) see them and their sanctimonious speeches at masturbatory award shows. It was the best award monologue ever. He trashed Apple, Amazon, Disney (perhaps unfairly), and the Hollywood elites sanctimony (completely deserved). It took a while to get to the punchline, but the whole thing had its moments, especially watching the Hollywood elites being uncomfortable with finally seeing themselves in the mirror. It almost made me regret not watching the rest of the show.

Washington Post - A once great paper, now a liberal fake news rag that looks more like Bezos Blog (or the DNC's blog) than an objective Newspaper. To be fair, WaPo was always walking in the Grey Lady's (NYT's) shadow, and Jeff Bezos acquisition didn't change much... now that the NYT in the mud, it's no surprise that WaPo is crawling in the sewer. Here is a partial list of falsehoods, embarrassments, and mistakes.

Whole Foods -
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Amazon acquired WholeFoods, which sounds like an unusual purchase, until you think about the demographics and location of their stores: high density, urban, affluent. This is where Amazon would want to start if they're doing distribution from the most profitable and highest density places first.

Conclusion

I keep wondering if they ever field test this stuff before thinking up these ideas. Are we really beyond redemption, or are they?