this post was submitted on 29 Feb 2024
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Programming

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[–] [email protected] -1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

It's not the engineers that are the problem, or even limited to the tech industry. Dark patterns are top-down business decisions, motivated by money.

Just following orders, right?

Come on, that’s not how morality works.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Are you a moron? Because you sound like one. Are you really equating wageslaves working for Google instead of facilitating the sale of gazillions of far more unethical products at their local Walmart by being an associate customer success checkout wagie or smth to soldiers committing attrocities? Do you not even realize the "you hate prison, yet you participate in it - curious" levels of bullshit that view entails?

Because if you did that you'd be a moron. You are a moron.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Are you seriously suggesting knowledge workers have no responsibility for how their work is used?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

We have limited options in what we can do to get money. I currently have a job where I'm proud of what I do, but it took decades of working for assholes to get there. Even now I'm not comfortable with everything I'm asked to do. I push back when it's unethical, and sometimes that changes things. Sometimes it doesn't and I just have to do as I'm told. What's your life like?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I directly tell my managers that what they are asking for is illegal, and then I refuse to do it. So far, I've yet to be forced to "do as I'm told," and I doubt that this will ever be a problem for me as I don't intend to sign up for the military or any other organization that can actually force people to follow orders.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I don't get asked to do illegal things fortunately.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

But you do sometimes get asked to do "unethical" things, and you're "proud of what [you] do" even though "sometimes … [you] just have to do as [you're] told." Why? It sounds like you've chosen a compromised position "to get money."

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Because we're all human beings and we all think slightly differently to each other. If I wanted to only work with people who exactly agreed with me about everything, then I would only be able to work alone.

I'm not talking about things that are red lines for me, just preferences. If it were something that caused me dissonance I'd move on again, I promise you.

I'm lucky enough to have the background and the aptitude to get a new job whenever I want. Most people aren't that lucky.