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Comment by red_admiral | Hacker News Reader

This is what being a capital-A Ally looks like. I take my hat off to you, sir.

He's just somebody with FY money in the bank so he can do whatever he wants in a larger scope than others. I'll keep my hat on; this is nothing special in his position.

Excuse me? How many people with FY money do what he did? What he did IS the exception and henceforth noteworthy.

I think it's worth mentioning that this blog was shared and lauded on HN instead of a ground floor worker's narrative. So yes, it's not really attempting an impact on this audience.

@scollet [below]: he does a prety good job of linking to ground floor worker's narratives in his post - using his increased exposure and prestige to "signal boost" them, as a millenial would say. Or am I reading that wrong?

Do you think he would feel safe speaking up about this (or any) injustice if he weren't financially secure? That's sort of his entire point, imo, since the people Amazon fired certainly don't have that luxury.

No, I don't think so. This is why you don't see others doing what he did. He said it will cost him "a million pre tax dollars".

He worked there 5 years, I'd imagine he already made one or more millions.

with the emphasis on Capital (his millions)

The joke being "ally" is a term used by those fighting against the injustices of capitalism, and this dude has millions from literally being the Boss and accrued from exploitation. Of course that doesn't matter as he's now a good guy speaking up for the oppressed. It's quite amusing if you believe in anti-capitalism.

Don't let perfect be the enemy of good. It often takes a while for us to internalize and accept how some hard things and maybe he spent years trying to make sense of this problem and finally reached a breaking point.

I really don't see Tim Bray as coming out as an anti capitalist here. That's why this is amusing.

To clarify, it's not bad what he did, he is the good guy now. To put him up as an example of anti capitalism in its own right (even discounting the fact that the warehouse workers who were sacked are not) is hilarious.

Edits - As most comments in the thread suggest, most people are not seeing this as a form of anti-capitalism at all.

Upvoted as I don't see why you deserve the downvotes. We might not agree, but you made a defensible and coherent point.

literally in the article, in his own words:

>At the end of the day, the big problem isn’t the specifics of Covid-19 response,” ... “It’s that Amazon treats the humans in the warehouses as fungible units of pick-and-pack potential. Only that’s not just Amazon, it’s how 21st-century capitalism is done.

how is it "hilarious" to take this sentiment as anti-capitalist? how could this be interpreted another way?

Not "us".

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