[SeeTheTruth]

The fear of death due to infection by a pandemic is new. The need for PPE and lack thereof is new. Firing whitleblowers in the face of a pandemic and meeting to smear them (with public proof thanks to a leak) is new.

We didn't think Amazon was nice and cuddly - but this is a good point for Tim to exit.

Jumping on someone doing a principled thing at personal cost for "not doing it sooner" is so cynical. I think we can criticize Amazon's long history of being repressive without shaming someone who publicly did the right thing.

[tom_mellior]

> The fear of death due to infection by a pandemic is new. The need for PPE and lack thereof is new.

Very specifically, yes. A bit more generally, it's not different from a pattern of conditions like "heat so extreme it required the regular posting of ambulances to take away workers who passed out, strenuous workloads in that heat, and first-person reports of summary terminations for health conditions such as breast cancer".

> Jumping on someone doing a principled thing at personal cost for "not doing it sooner" is so cynical.

I don't agree that doing one good thing undoes bad things that went before, and that it absolves one from criticism.

[lidHanteyk]

Sure, but at the same time, it is our civic responsibility as skilled programmers to deliberately starve Amazon of the labor needed to build their oppressive systems. It is not wrong to remind ourselves of that greater responsibility, especially in the context of Amazon being vulnerable to organized labor action today.