Bonum Certa Men Certa

Crocodiles Can Only Ever Fake Empathy

Or shed a tear...

Crocodile



Summary: Greenwashing, pinkwashing, openwashing and abduction of various authentic civil rights movements (centered around gender, race, and sometimes economic issues) is very easy and cheap relative to the depths of corporate pockets; the problem is, those things help distract the 'masses' from objectively immoral and universally unacceptable acts

THE saying about the massive reptiles, remnants of an ancient era of dinosaurs, is mostly sarcastic in nature. Crocodiles don't shed tears, they just eat their prey heartlessly. No sympathy. This is what they do. There's also that old parable about "reptilian brains" -- something that became a lot less comical because some nuts and cranks take this more literally and imply that some humans are reptiles in disguise (not metaphorically).



A lot of the corporations we deal with pretend to value women, to value ethnic minorities and so on. IBM issued not one but several puff pieces and press releases to that effect yesterday. We put those in Daily Links, filed under "IBM". In reality, as is widely known, those corporations care about nothing but profit. In the case of IBM, we're talking about almost exclusively white men. Their recent choices of CEOs (female, then Indian) are motivated by the need to shed off a stigma -- not an elusive/outdated one but a persistent and ongoing one (it's still justified).

"Some people out there can distinguish/tell apart facts from marketing and recognise the value of what's objectively true."Techrights is being slandered for all sorts of things. Moments ago in Twitter I saw full-time Microsoft staff trying to incite Free software people against the site. That's hardly the first time; they do that a lot in Reddit as well. Techrights annoys them because it tells them what's true about their paymaster; in their eyes, it puts at risk their salary and job security.

Longtime readers of Techrights know that we don't treat unfairly or favour one corporation over another for arbitrary reasons. Techrights is highly respected among staff of the European Patent Office (EPO). A few of them even donated to us over the years, not because they were asked but because they wanted to. These fine minds, the hard-working examiners, understand that the real enemy isn't truth but liars such as António Campinos and Benoît Battistelli, who force them to grant software patents in Europe in defiance of the law. Some people out there can distinguish/tell apart facts from marketing and recognise the value of what's objectively true. Even when it's not always convenient. Embracing politically-correct and corporate-friendly views is risk-free and easy; it at least feels like everyone out there already agrees with you (many of the rest are censored or are self-censoring) and the media spikes stories/opinions. Blogs like IP Kat nowadays delete comments. For inaccuracy? No. The blog 'owners' (the new ones) don't always agree with commenters, so they believe they 'help' us by eliminating particular viewpoints. They also sweep under the rug anything which speaks of EPO misconduct. That's a dangerous thing to do and it makes IP Kat complicit. This morning/last night when they wrote about Munich they started with: "IP Tech Summit 2020 is taking place in Munich from 3 to 4 December 2020 within Microsoft's premises!"

So criminals who bribed officials in Munich (to derail GNU/Linux) are still trying to set the tone there. Microsoft still does this all around the world, but who cares when there's patent money to be made, right? Even patents that are patently bogus, more so after 35 U.S.C. ۤ 101/Alice.

Corporations lack complex feelings. They're like reptiles. Instinct for prey. Public institutions that are devoured by such 'corporate reptiles' become the same. There's nothing public about them anymore. Nowadays the Linux Foundation "loves Linux" like Microsoft does.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Professor Eben Moglen on How Social Control Media Metabolises Humans and Constrains Freedom of Thought
Nothing of value would be lost if all these data-harvesting giants (profiling people) vanished overnight
Debian Left Twitter (MElon "X"), We Think the Free Software Foundation (FSF) Should Do the Same
What would the FSF really lose if it stopped posting there?
Tons of Anti-Linux 'Articles' Published by Bots (LLMs), Maybe Microsoft's
Upon closer inspection, all this FUD turned out to be LLM garbage
Ubuntu Desktop Director of Engineering Has Only One Blog Post. It Promotes Microsoft Windows.
Remember that even 15 years ago (more or less, maybe 16 years ago) Canonical appointed a a 'former' Microsoft manager (Spencer) to lead Ubuntu on the desktop
 
Gemini Links 07/02/2025: Mid-level Details and Simple Code
Links for the day
Links 07/02/2025: US 'Demolition Crew', e-ID Loopholes, and Sanctions
Links for the day
Social Control Media is Narcissism
Nowadays there's a lot more literature and even press coverage explaining the harms of Social Control Media
statCounter Sees GNU/Linux Share Doubling in China Over the Past Year
It'll be interesting to see what data in the coming months shows
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, February 06, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, February 06, 2025
Richard Stallman (RMS) Confirms Next Week's Talk in Europe
He gave at least 2 talks in Europe last month
Nationalism As A Service (NaaS) by Microsoft Azure, Gutting the US Government for Profit
Will Microsoft be receiving bailouts as a reward for all this?
Rumours of IBM Layoffs Apparently Confirmed Yesterday, IBM Canada Consulting Impacted (as Rumoured)
when IBM has layoffs we must also read it as Red Hat layoffs
Gemini Links 06/02/2025: Voicemail Sucks and Night of Lights
Links for the day
Links 06/02/2025: YouTube Takedowns Out of Control, 'DOGE' Breaking Laws
Links for the day
IBM Red Hat on "era of cloud computing", pushing "hey hi" (AI) hype in Microsoft Azure
LLM slop might actually be more benign than Microsoft promotion
Corruption and Rule-Breaking Prevail at the European Patent Office (EPO), Europe's Second-Largest Institution
The law does not really exist at the EPO; it can be perceived as merely a "recommendation"
statCounter: More Countries Where Windows is Around 1% "Market Share" (People Have Moved to Android/Linux)
in some nations Windows is already 1% or less
404 Media Says "Workers at NASA Told to Drop Everything to Scrub Mentions of Indigenous People, Women from Its Websites" But There's Also Accessibility in the Firing Line
In the case of abandoning accessibility, everyone stands to be hurt and proprietary software can be brought in to replace standards
When BetaNews Writes Real Articles About "Linux" They Promote Windows
The Web is in a bad state. We need to at least try to correct this.
Gemini Links 06/02/2025: Cynicism and "Real Magic on the C64"
Links for the day
Links 06/02/2025: New Sanctions, Layoffs, and Executive Orders
Links for the day
Distros and Desktop Environments, Devices
GNU/Linux focused
New Rumours of IBM Layoffs in 2025, IBM Consulting Still Struggles, Based on Management
"Hey hi" (AI) has been a common excuse for business failure
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, February 05, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, February 05, 2025
Links 05/02/2025: Kessler Syndrome and News Online
Links for the day
statCounter: Monaco Now 7% GNU/Linux ("Proper")
GNU/Linux, not counting Chromebooks, is on the rise
Many Parts of Google Lose Money
It's quite apparent that many parts of Google - even some that rely on ad revenue or push ads - aren't profiting
European Internet Forum (EIF) is Dominated by American Corporations and Microsoft Lobbyists, Staff Take the Lead
Should the officials over here or the European Parliament pay attention to these people?
Links 05/02/2025: Connection without Connectivity and Unionised Grocery Workers
Links for the day
Just Because People on Top of the Microsoft Pyramid Made a Lot of Money Doesn't Mean Microsoft is Wealthy
The bigger they are the harder they fall
Gemini Links 05/02/2025: Learning, Madman Ruling a Mad Country, Back in Geminispace
Links for the day
statCounter Shows "WIntel" Chasing a Dying Market
Microsoft acts as if it's running out of money
Free Software Foundation, Inc. (FSF) Still Raising Money, Richard Stallman Contributes
total exceeding $430k
A Lot of Stuff About "Linux" in Google News is LLM Slop, Fake 'Articles'
It seems to be getting worse
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, February 04, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, February 04, 2025