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Comment by bicx | Hacker News Reader

Unless a company is actively hurting people, I'm going to choose what I use based on the quality of the product, not on a board member's past. Maybe they determined that a hardened political voice would balance them out in the boardroom. Maybe they need someone there to play the devil's advocate in an industry that can be extraordinarily narcissistic.

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> Unless a company is actively hurting people, I'm going to choose what I use based on the quality of the product, not on a board member's past

Seems like it did not work so well with Mozilla recently. And that guy there did not kill anyone either, even indirectly.

Uh we have all killed indirectly. Do you pay taxes?

I'm not American, and the country where I pay taxes does not wage wars in foreign countries as far as I know.

Have you ever bought a product/service from an American company?

I have, but it's significantly less than the amount of taxes I pay, and it's even less than the US government is getting in the end.

It may be a smaller amount, but it is voluntary. Paying taxes is not voluntary.

It's as voluntary as taking a shower everyday. I don't consciously think about where the product comes from when I buy stuff, especially when it comes to commodities. If you start doing that you can't buy stuff anymore and you have to grow your own stuff yourself and stop trusting everyone else on the planet :)

> If you start doing that you can't buy stuff anymore and you have to grow your own stuff yourself and stop trusting everyone else on the planet :)

That's exactly my point. If you're assigning blame for something the US government did to someone because they paid taxes, then you can pretty much assign blame to everyone for everything. Oh, you went to Stanford during the '90s? Well Rice was provost then, so you helped pay her salary are therefore responsible for the deaths that occurred in the Iraq war. It's absurd.

I think you are extrapolating vs the original point. I was answering to :

> Uh we have all killed indirectly

Well, Rice has been certainly much more 'directly' involved in killing that the ones who paid taxes.

It doesn't work that way, sorry.

Maybe you're replying to a reasonable person who continued to use Firefox.

And the only person they could find is one of the politicians behind the Iraq War? Heh.

Iraq war has not yet ended.

That is currently in the hands of the Obama Administration, not Dropbox.

Obama pulled all combat troops out of Iraq after they were told to leave.

According to an agreed timetable signed by Bush and Iraqi leadership.

According to the request of the democratically elected Iraqi leadership and the inability of the Obama and Iraqi leaderships to negotiate something mutually beneficial.

And iraq is such a more secure place thanks to that move, i guess ?

I think the point the author is trying to make is that you don't know what she will do to the quality of the product, but your best guess would be basing her future decisions on her past.

That said, I don't agree with the author. She may have made bad decisions in politics, but I don't see the relevance to a tech company.

Really? I see her as someone that can strengthen the ties of NSA and Dropbox.

sorry bicx but your response is a bit too logical for what we're looking for (a new target for the tech community hate mob)

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