Discussion
Pluralistic: Ad-tech is fascist tech (10 Mar 2026)
nickff: This piece is a polemic screed against ad-tech, which seems to conflate fascism and the police state. The majority of citations are either themselves or other polemics.
hananova: This comment is dismissing a thoughtful and factual article by the character of the writer rather than the truth of their words. Interesting.
sharkjacobs: Would you be assuaged if it was titled "Ad-tech is police state tech"?
krunck: "...Google execs all work for their shareholders, in a psychotic "market system" in which the myth of "fiduciary duty" is said to require companies to hurt us right up to the point where the harms they inflict on the world cost them more than the additional profits those harms deliver"Nailed it.
tptacek: Not really. The idea that "fiduciary duty" requires companies to maximize shareholder value is a pernicious Internet myth.
fsflover: And yet this is exactly how every single megacorp works.
leptons: I worked for an ad-tech company for 3 months. I could not wait to get out of there.It became clear to me quickly that the data these people wanted to collect on anyone and everyone could be used against me should they want to - not that I was doing anything questionable, but it was just creepy as F**.The final straw for me was when they got some kind of contract with a major hotel chain and were all-too-giddy to listen in on the smart TVs in every room. I did not want to help them further any of their agendas, so I bailed on that place. Fortunately this was many years ago when dev jobs were easy to come by, I had 3 offers in a week.
xyclonbee: Today on "anything I don't like is literally hitler"...
topaz0: Why is this flagged?
drcongo: I didn't flag it because it might be the first original thought that blog has had in years, but I totally understand the impulse to flag pluralistic without even reading it.
fsflover: What are you talking about? This blog has many good, not flagged submission here.
mindslight: [delayed]
topaz0: That myth long predates the internet version of it I think. Pernicious, yes.But note that the quote does call it out as a myth.
tptacek: Fiduciary duty isn't a myth! It just doesn't mean what people claim it means.
lo_zamoyski: Word use is important. We have allowed thumos (and epithumia) to rule over nous.It has become acceptable to misuse words, like "fascist" or "communist" in political contexts, to the detriment of rational and fruitful discourse. Often a false equivalence is drawn between denying something is "fascist" or "communist" and denying something is bad. This is false. Something can be bad without being fascist or communist.There is plenty to be critical about in American politics and in tech, but calling everything you don't like "fascist" or "communist" isn't helpful. These seem to be go-to words used by those "defending" what is now a crumbling postwar liberal democratic order, i.e., anything that seems at odds with this order is reflexively called one of these two terms, depending on which faction of the American uniparty you align with.
mindslight: [delayed]
