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January 25, 2006
Saints with Clay Feet: Google and the People’s Republic of China
There is a widely accepted meme amongst some in the West to the effect that free enterprise must necessarily result in greater liberty. Something along the lines of what Bastiat meant when he opined that "when goods, services, and capital crisscross borders, troops don't."
Other more realistic, (and dare I say?) cynical observers note that businesses are just as willingly happy though to make profits from catering to repressive totalitarian regimes by helping them build better police states. Objectively this is true. After all someone had to market and sell the Zyclon-B gas and the barbed wire for use at Auschwitz, right? That supreme cynic V.I. Lenin called such businessmen "rope sellers".
And now comes word from /. that Google, whose corporate motto ("Don't be evil."), is actively helping the Communist government of China prevent free speech, censor, spy on, and otherwise deny the human rights of the Chinese people. And for a profit too no doubt.
Go figger that eh?
Posted by Ali Massoud at January 25, 2006 11:10 AM
Comments
This is the same Google which refuses, and rightly so, to give out its search records to the U.S. government so that Uncle Sam can ostensibly crack down on child porn. As bad as the U.S. government is, I still think we have less to fear from it than Chinese citizens have to fear from their government, and yet Google is more than willing to cave in to the Chinese government's demands. One could be forgiven for thinking that Google is run by left-wing nuts who are resisting our government's power grab merely because the guy in charge of the government is a Republican. (The fact that he is very liberal cannot overcome the association of "Republican" and "conservative" in most people's minds, as witness the MSNBC article you linked on today's STR home page vis a vis partisanship and brain activity.)
Posted by: Mike Tennant ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.strike-the-root.com/blog/nav-commenters.gif){kind=small}
at January 25, 2006 11:40 AM
Given the opportunity for profit even with the resulting repression and tyranny associated with it the "Don't be evil" corporation is just as callow and shady as the corps the Lefties condemn. Google is morally no better than Enron. Prolly worse cuz they're hypocrites too.
Posted by: Ali_Massoud at January 28, 2006 09:54 AM
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