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You know, I sometimes get my tail in the air about
what Proctor & Gamble is up to or don't like AT&T's
new employee policies, but I'm not going to curtail my
use of their services. In some cases, I can't avoid
using the services of a company I feel fundamentally
undermines my sense of personal values and priorities.
However, I do choose competitors that can satisfy my
needs and try to avoid anything which offends my sense
of how the world shall run.
That said, I can't direct how the world "shall" run
and I've learned to find alternate means to satisfy my
needs. In some cases, one has to simply settle for the
best the field has to offer, even if that means to
actively ignore what may offend you.
When I was in high school, we were so excited to have
an internet linkup that merely provided "obscene"
ACSII images. But I didn't give up on the internet,
and obviously you haven't. I may be going a bit far,
but the "Framers of the Internet" used whatever tools
available, and if the appeal of porn fueled that
development, so be it. What was intended to be a new
field of communication became a new field of
commercialism, and the fact is that porn sells. Yahoo
is not the first firm (internet or otherwise) to
employ that angle to keep itself afloat. Doug Bailey
noted that it's not like their hands were "clean" to
begin with.
And no business is. The internet has evolved from an
idealistic venture to a capitalist machine, and
nothing can turn that back. That may be because the
internet has basis in an essentially capitalist
concept.
Before I turn into a Marxist revolutionary (and oddly
I'm not, despite my message), I'll add that there are
many free search engines out there that satisfy the
needs of many people, tech writers included.
Why should a tech writer need to remain brand-loyal to
one engine? Yahoo! Is not the last vestige of decent
morality; or was it ever?
Furthermore, why is this a tech writing concern?
(Sorry, Eric, but I couldn't hold my tongue on this one).
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