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Comment by gdhkgdhkvff | Hacker News Reader

This is a naive take on this. Do you think it stops with just metamates(lmao that’s what they call themselves) being surveilled? Nope. This is the exact type of thing that software IC’s should reject in solidarity. Being happy with BadCompanyX trampling employee expectations directly allows for GoodCompanyY to enact the same policies.

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I'm happy to see the metamates (lol) receiving the same pain they inflict on others. Maybe it will teach them a lesson in solidarity.

You can't have solidarity about a bad thing with the people who are doing the bad thing! They have to stop doing the bad thing first! That's how solidarity works!

Don't expect any solidarity to come from such people, they literally sold out humanity for slightly higher salaries. They made their beds, least they can do is feel bad.

Why do you think they don't fully know what they are doing, they are smart folks. Now we all know how everybody needs to be the hero of their story, but self-lying only gets you so far in life, sub-consciousness will give you shit.

Don't put some mystery where simple greed is perfect enough explanation and there is little worry about others, some could use the word 'selfish' too. US society at large seems to me structured that way - there is no social net for the unlucky, healthcare also varies a lot based on disposable cash/job, good education is only for rich.

I've lived long enough to know that "smart" folks can be extremely dumb.

There are people who are naturally gifted and intelligent. These people can just pick up and learn different things on their own.

There are also people who do well at certain tasks and their life allowed them to obtain a higher education.

For example, I used to assume doctors were smart. However, the reality is that a small number of doctors are smart/intelligent people. Others are just going by the book, you throw them a curve ball and they fold. This applies to people at Meta, Google, NASA, and any organization.

I would argue smart/intelligent people see the negative impact of things BEFORE it affects THEM directly, there were people whistleblowing the real impact of smoking, fossil fuels before the information became public and well known.

> This is the exact type of thing that software IC’s should reject in solidarity.

Yes. Which includes quitting, en masse, from any company that does this.

Meta ought to find it impossible to employ anyone with a policy like this.

Maybe in 2010 or 2015, but in 2026? Nobody is quitting their high paying job when the job market is this rough. A bubble has burst and there just are not the tech jobs out there that there used to be.

And employers know this, so they are enacting all kinds of draconian policies because they know employees know that they can't just leave the job and also keep their families fed.

job market is 2019 levels this rhetoric is nice, but doesn't stack up. yes it's not 2021 levels which is where they over hired and hired a bunch of people they would not have hired before then.

The tech job market was about 2019 levels a year ago. It's materially worse now.

We are at 2001 dot-com bubble burst levels now, as far as I'm concerned.

This really depends on where you are. In the Bay Area it may be 2019 levels, in other parts of the country it is way worse than 2019.

If only there was some way where workers in this profession could form some type of JOIN(but like a vertical version?) between different sets of workers, even crossing company boundaries, so that workers could coordinate to ensure that everyone would be quitting at once, and therefore have any power at all to block anti-worker edicts.

So, like an intersection of workers?

I thought mass quitting in solidarity would happen when programmers realize how their work is used to train AI and replace them. How many quit because of that? Doesn't seem like many.

Apparently, money wins over principles for 99% of us. How is this different and how are we better than Meta employees?

I don't think the two things are comparable. While it would be inconvenient for me personally if I was replaced by AI, it would be an enormous social good as the resources saved could go somewhere else. The same could not be said about everyone under constant surveillance by some megacorp or the government.

Are you so sure that replacing humans is "enormous social good"? For whom is it good, exactly?

Also, capturing keystrokes and mouse movements only when at work and on work computer isn't really constant surveillance. Capturing all our code, text, photo and video (made at work or at home) seems worse and we don't bat an eye.

I work in a non-profit sector, if they could save money by replacing me they could use the money elsewhere where they desperately need money. So lots of people would benefit. That same principle wouldn't apply if I worked for some mega corp of course.

But the discussion was about Meta employees in general. They're heavily involved in the second type of surveillance that you alude to.

They are somewhat involved but when AI is mentioned Meta's thing is far down the list...

They could help more people but by replacing you they might just create another person who may also need help.

> it would be an enormous social good as the resources saved could go somewhere else

they can, will and are going directly into like 9 sociopath's pockets at your peril.

This shit's why the industry should have unionized when times were good.

It's not just for pay, it's for pushing back on inhumane horse crap.

More like Metamites amirite?! Annoying af call an exterminator

> metamates

It was metaapes, iirc.

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