THE HEART of a corporation is metaphorical at best. Corporations are not people and they have no bodies. If corporations are really people, does that mean that people too are corporations? What the heck does that even mean?
"If corporations are really people, does that mean that people too are corporations? What the heck does that even mean?"Humans are technically or biologically animals, but they're not corporations.
Enter corporate marketing. Moments ago I saw IBM flaunting and speaking of "developer relations with empathy and compassion" (link intentionally omitted; it'll be in our next batch of Daily Links). IBM has done lots of that nonsense lately and sent PR people to target me. IBM is trying to change its image and bury its past. It portrays itself as an ally of blacks (whom it helped purge) and sends out women to act as the company's spokespeople (never mind scandals like these).
One need not be right (wing) leaning to believe that legitimate civil/human rights issues are being subjugated/coerced if not hijacked by rich oligarchs (usually white and male, obviously). It's very easily provable and we're anything but right-leaning (some would accuse us of being 'too far' to the left). This isn't even a 'wing' thing. It's about a certain concern about popular movements being co-opted by the rich and powerful, masquerading their for-profit agenda as community interests. Call them out on it and soon they'll paint you -- indirectly or by proxy inter alia -- as racist or sexist or at best an obstacle in the face of justice.
"One need not be right (wing) leaning to believe that legitimate civil/human rights issues are being subjugated/coerced if not hijacked by rich oligarchs (usually white and male, obviously)."Thankfully, people whose causes are being misused like that are not dumb. They can see what's going on and they respond (even if the corporate media tries to pay no attention to them).
Donald Trump's own lawyer has just labeled him "racist mobster" (it was all over the news earlier this week), but Trump and his enterprise insist that nothing could be further from the truth. In this particular case it's not the media that's lying; Trump's own track record speaks for itself. Words out of his own mouth (we'll spare the detailed list of examples).
"...corporations aren't people and they don't speak for people (they typically speak to the one person who owns them)."The bottom line is, there's an ample gap or difference between what's true and what's perceived. Microsoft is no friend of women's rights (there have been many lawsuits against the company for sexism; the courts sometimes had material from Techrights admitted), IBM doesn't work towards racial equality (folks need only assess its government projects around the world), Apple doesn't give a damn about privacy (the current CEO gladly added the company to NSA's PRISM program), Google isn't a friend of Free software (tell me where to download Google's search code; or any of its 'crown jewels' for that matter) and Amazon values workers/labour rights as much as Hitler "was a Zionist" (Ken Livingstone having a senior moment).
There's a profound problem when media is getting so weak (financial black hole), increasingly owned by advertisers, and controlled remotely by corporate marketing/PR departments of corporations with "perception management" budgets. There's much we can do about it other than shunning publishers that play along; we need to create alternatives and speak for actual people; and no, corporations aren't people and they don't speak for people (they typically speak to us for the one person who owns them).
The bottom line and perhaps the most important point is, when all those things get warped so badly the biggest casualties are the actual victims (of discrimination and abuse, sometimes physical assaults and even rape/murder). There's nothing for them to benefit from when billionaires take control of the message, deciding for example that removing "master" branches from repositories would magically tackle racial injustices and putting more women in visible (public-facing) positions would really address wage gaps (no, those positions don't pay equal sums of money). A lot of those billionaires profit from bombing countries where the ethnic majority is dark-skinned (perceived to be of "lesser worth), including women and children. But don't focus on the wars, focus on words instead. So they tell us... ⬆