Google Calendar removes Pride Month and Black History Month

A haunting reminder that rainbow capitalism is 100% about profit and convenience.

Corporations were never your friend. They were never going to defend you.

Wow Google's licking boot like there's no tomorrow.

Fucking shameful.

Every time a straight person has wondered why I hate rainbow capitalism, shit like this is why.

"Oh but it moves your kind forward, you should be thankful they support you now!" They only supported us when the government wouldn't take away contracts and people were sure they supported queers.

Same thing for every other company and every other minority. I can at least mask that I'm queer, black people can't mask being black.

God I hate being right about horrible things.

I'm not angry at this point. Just sad.

It's disheartening how quickly everything was washed away.

Google managed to create a very clean image of themselves in most heads, but looking closer it is an ugly profit maximization machine. It cares about shareholders. If it cares about you, then probably for spying on you and learn how to manipulate you and others better. I hope people start realizing finally.

And let's state it clear: Google could have a voice. They could object to the Musk-Thiel-Trumpian destruction machine. They could be there for the world. But they're not. Not at all. They serve the money. And if it pays off, then they are willing to ruin peoples lives.

Google is on the wrong side of history.

This was always going to happen. Companies in Germany when Hitler rose to power didn't protest and speak up against him - they needed to sell his army goods. They made his uniforms and cars and didn't say a peep about the extermination of people around them. The companies that spoke up were crushed. A corporation's bottom line is their bottom line, no matter what horrors they need to assist in perpetrating.

Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.

We're a long long way from those lofty goals of yesteryear, aren't we Google?

The audacity to still have this quote up, right now, is off the charts.

This is a screenshot from today. Get fucked Google. What a fucking lie. You're busy changing information to capitulate to a government that wants certain information hidden.

Remember when they removed "don't be evil" from their code of conduct back in 2018

Corporations, at their core, are profit-generating engines—nothing more, nothing less. The corporate board’s one legal imperative is to ensure the shareholders see a return on their investment, by any means necessary. Morality? A marketing gimmick when convenient- not an operating principle.

All companies are evil. Google is not any more or less evil than any other company. The difference is they have a significant power base and therefore have a lot to gain or lose in the transition to fascism. They understand that Trump is spiteful and willing to bend and even break the law to punish those who defy him. They also understand he rewards those who bend the knee. Therefore, the most profitable path of action is bending the knee.

This should not surprise anybody. You substitute Google for any large corporation and they would have done the same thing. Don’t believe me? Google around (while you still can freely search for information) for the Coca-Cola saga in Colombia, where union leaders were getting forcibly suicided by narco-paramilitary death squads hired by Coca-Cola.

You know- the commercials that make you feel all warm and fuzzy around Christmas time with the polar bears and Santa Claus? Yeah, they'll murder you if you threaten their bottom line. It's just what they do.

There's a simple math equation:

Let

P = Probability of getting caught,

F = Expected fine or penalty,

R = Potential revenue or profit,

Constants

α = The weight assigned to the probability of getting caught ( P ). If this constant is high, the corporation is more cautious.. if it's low, the corporation is willing to make more risks. In Colombia, this is much lower than in the US.

β = The weight assigned to the probable size of the penalty ( F ). A high β means there's a serious potential danger. However, if β is low (like when Ford decided the cost of simply paying lawsuits from deaths due to known car malfunctions was probably lower than the price of recalls) then they'll be more likely to push forward

γ = The weight assigned to the impact on their bottom line ( R ). For example, if Boeing thinks they will lose a lot of money from whistleblowers, they will find a way to suicide them. If the impact is small, then it's not worth the potential risks.

C = ( αP ⋅ βF ) − γR

Let's give an imaginary example. Let's say a corporation is considering dumping toxic waste illegally into a river, potentially giving thousands of people cancer. Let's say they're gonna save $10M a year from doing this.

R = 10,000,000

The probability of getting caught is 10%

P = 0.10

The expected fine is $5M

F = 5,00,000

Let's try out some constants

α = 1.5 ⇒ they're somewhat cautious about getting caught

β = 1.2 ⇒ they're moderately concerned about the penalty

γ = 2.0 ⇒ they're really motivated by profit (maybe their profits went down 10% last year, a big no-no)

Plug in the values

C = (1.5 · 0.10 · 1.2 · 5,000,000) - (2.0 · 10,000,000)

C = (900,000) - (20,000,000)

C = -19,100,000

C is less than 0? Dump that toxic waste, baby. It's the logical position if you're trying to maximize profit. Sometimes you will get caught, but imagine you did this in a simulation 1,000 times. Most of the times, you will be more profitable because of it and therefore you dump the waste.

It's like a poker player. If you get AA, you raise pre-flop. Sometimes you will lose on the flop to some dunce who goes in with 2-7... but in the long term, most of the time, you will win. Therefore it's the right move.

This is what companies do. People need to realize and internalize this. They are profit generating engines. Nothing more, nothing less. They are not your friends. They don't care about the environment. They don't care about the future of the world or anything. Literally nothing at all.

They are a math formula and if destroying everything you love happens to be the most profitable move most of the time, they will do it without second guessing. Because they aren't people. They are a machine.

They also removed Holocaust Remembrance Day. Probably because it's going to have to be renamed Holocaust I soon.

I'm happy to say I'm officially degoogled in my personal life/computer.

I still have legacy accounts with gmail that I can't migrate though.

Companies have decided to cut the crap and just focus on their core mission of being evil

The only thing I need to drop is my gmail account. Everything else went into the circular file.

Fuuuuuckkkk I wish I could degoogle again

Don't be evil, lol

Lmao, damn… I was done with them before this announcement but thanks for reinforcing my decision.

It’s a shame, but fuck Google regardless of this :)

Just shows that companies show their support to please the people in power and that’s just []-washing

Opinions are still divided on whether companies should have a political opinion

Fuuuuuck.. I was really hoping I didn't need to migrate away from gmail.. But looks like this is it.

I’ve already deleted Google maps. Deleting calendar will be tough.

Is there an alternative to Google Drive that doesn't lock me into using MS Office. I particularly need to ability to share and edit files online.

Sooooo.

Any recommendations on a replacement for Google calendar?

I've got shot of maps with that Gulf of Mexico business. The search engine due to ads, the mail client for the same reasons (still using the mail address but Fairmail as a client).

I don't understand why was this ever a thing. Fuck google, and fuck rainbow washing. They never really cared, and where just taking advantage of a noble cause.

Remove Google (Alphabet), Apple, Microsoft, Facebook (Meta), and Amazon from your life (and more, of course, but these are the big tech ones). Difficult but 100% necessary these days. De-Google your Android phone/tablet (basically Android without Google is possible), use Linux, order from small businesses, don't use social media owned by big corporations, etc.

Next thing you know Facebook is going to get rid of Daughter's Day!

I would only want actual state/local holidays anyway.
If I actually care about an event I am more than capable to set the event mysekf (e.g. Sysadmin day)

Bow!

“maintaining hundreds of moments manually and consistently globally wasn’t scalable or sustainable,” says the company, which also states that its “mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”, has the explicit goal of “mapping the entire world” and has, for example, already captured tens of millions of miles of Street View imagery… 🤣