I've come to realize that there are a few issues here that led up to this but I can only speak of a few as it would make a comment like this go on to book length lol. The most obvious is that both MS and Apple are massive, far too massive. Both are the top valued corporations in the nation. MS number 1 and Apple number 2, and they will switch places from time to time. Apple even had gone over a trillion bucks at one time and may still be. Considering that our annual GDP averages around 24 Trillion, that should scare the crap out of people, but that would also mean a somewhat basic understanding of economics. But it won’t. In fact it does the opposite. It instills some strange sense of nationalistic pride that the two major computing companies in the world are “American”, our boys, and all that. But that comes from this odd sense that a company, no matter the size is approached or related to as if it is a real person. Of course that all comes about from very well tailored marketing strategies, of which Apple Corp., has down to a science. They caught on quick decades ago as to their core market was and played it for every ounce of gold they could throw at it. And yes, maybe up until fifteenish years ago, much of that loyal following was deserved, but not anymore. The Apple that most like to believe is the same Apple of yore, died with its founder, Steve Jobs. He must be spinning in his grave the way the company is today.
Heck, most Americans still can't fathom that just like all else in the physical universe, all things have a cycle of their own. This includes capitalism and how we view it. We buy into whatever some charismatic talking head tells us without any thought, or willingness to look deeper into the subject. We trust too much, and the wrong people. Heck, they’re on tv, or the radio, or the internet, and so many people listen to them, and take them seriously, so they must have something to them?
But despite what we’re told by those who have good reason to convince us of that, there's not just a good cycle to capitalism, there's a bad cycle to it as well. And for as good the up side of capitalism can be...which look at the nation today and all it is made for us. Just imagine how ugly the dark cycle is. And I'm not speaking about economic upturns and downturns, I'm talking about the fundamental nature and philosophies of capitalism itself and how for as much as how it should be is how much it can be the complete opposite. We talk of deregulation or no regulation as if we can really trust that industry can self police itself. Can we? If there were no stop signs on a street, could you even say that you would not just whizz through if you felt no one was watching, or it was the dark of the night? Or anyone else for that matter? How could anyone expect such high ethics when we're talking about dealing with the lowest common denominator of human activities. Striving for, acquiring, and maintaining wealth. People murder their loved ones for it. Let's leave it at that. But we've entered into that dark cycle awhile back, and now were' going deeper. Unfortunately, we've also crossed into some very fascist style of economic policy making in the way government is handing over its responsibilities to private companies. It doesn't matter whether they're for or non profit, they function the same. However, this scenario isn't recognized because those words of old are not used. You would be a fool to ever expect any politician, television personality, or editorialist ever use the word fascism as a viable and desirable economic and political system here. And yet here we are. The issue is, that many Americans are so unfamiliar with it, that its staring them right in the nose and has been the better part of four decades, except it isn’t being called fascism. What idiot would even do that?
Instead it has been nicely sanitized and spoken of in what appeals to us most as capitalists. In fact, the whole essential aspect of it that has been so appealing to those who benefit from it most have successfully cloaked it under the phrase "government should be run like a business'. It sounds logical, even sounds correct. And like most things, it seems to be so however, it's just a phrase. But like anything else, you can call something anything you wish, it’s processes and results will still be the same thing and in this case we now have a distinct and clear mechanism of fascist style governing except without the authoritarian aspect–– for now.
This all began in the 90s when Perot ran, that was his campaign phrase and I can remember those bumper stickers everywhere. It was not a concept entirely unique to him, but he used it and it caught on like wild fire. Reagan’s phrase was that we should be an “ownership society”. No more public libraries. If you want to read a book, go to a store and buy it. If you need to have the fire put out on your roof, subscribe to a fire protection subscription service. If you wan’t to go to city park, buy a home of your own or pay someone a fee to enter their for-profit park. If you want to use the roads (and I’m serious about this) than pay the tolls, which wold mean all highways big or small would all be privately owned and you would be constantly stopping to pay tolls every few miles. Yes, this was an actual debate of which to date I don’t think came to pass anywhere. But Americans bought the idea of government being run like a business because after all, it seems to make sense. It's a very simple and to the point phrase, except for one thing. Government is not a business. No government, especially one that is supposed to be democratic (we're a republic not a democracy btw) can be run as a business. To do so is to forget a fundamental aspect of who we are as a country, the very thing our forefathers wrote up the declaration of independence, and the revolutionaries fought the British for that independence. Government for the people by the people. Not government by the wealthy corporate land owners for the wealthy corporate landowners. But despite people’s belief in the former still, or so they claim, when you ask them about the idea of a government being run like a business, and all that it would entail, suddenly there is a disconnect and they’re all for it. And why? Well how much time do you have, and how much do you really care to know about it all? Because it's a complicated subject that has a long history. But to be simple, we’ve been convinced, or better yet we’ve had our own selfish tendencies played against us. The notion that taxes are evil, that we shouldn’t have to pay them, that they’re being used for things we don’t agree with, etc., are amongst the biggest reason and that has been used to not just turn us into anti-tax raving lunatics, but to become willing to sell the country piece by piece to the highest bidder.
Here is a simple fact. A fact that for some reason seems to allude the better part of 330 million people. You live in a society. You live in a country, and entire nation. You. Along with 329,999,999 other people. Without some form of taxes, you won’t have a society, nor a nation––at all. Also, you as an individual are not an island unto yourself, you live with 329,999,999 other people calling themselves Americans too. And they all have differing and some similar expectations as to what they feel their share of taxes paid should be spent on and not spent on as well. And just because you may or may not agree, does not mean you have the right too without paying taxes. If you feel that way, then find yourself an island somewhere, and live alone all by yourself. Because life is not black or white, there is a thing called compromise that MUST not only be acknowledged but acted upon if you ever hope for a nation let alone a democratic style governed one to succeed. And those convincing you otherwise are only acting on behalf of much larger fish that you will never see or know whose money is so vast and they’re values being so selfish that they not only don’t feel they should have to pay any taxes, but that all that is the responsibility of the little guy. That is you. And you are indeed a little guy, even if you are pulling in a couple hundred grand a year. You are small fry, very very small fry.
Now I know I’ve gone astray with much having to do with MS and Bing, but like all complicated issues, those complications must at some point be touched upon to at least give understanding as to why a situation becomes as it has. In this case, Americans are too easily manipulated by the top wealth holders whom historically have always been the ones who have either managed to attain ruler class status or had it from the beginning. And for just about every historically known and written about issue of societal oppression, class warfare, incredible levels of wealth disparity (no middle-class and in today's version a diminishing middle-class), war, etc., can always be traced to the movements, manipulations, and never ending desire for more at the cost of the rest of their society.
So with Microsoft and Apple we have a problem. We have a clear oligopoly in our midsts. They are the two major software/hardware or OS and that is all. These two companies existence has been relatively short for the length of time they've been so high up in the food chain that they can actually be sitting atop it. Yet there they are. And now they can do like any monopolistic company can do which is manipulate the entire scenario––which we let them do without complaint and definitely without any repercussions.
Sure, the EU erupts with class action lawsuits for anti-trust violations every now an again, but we don't. And these two beasts are our companies... or perhaps I should rephrase this. We belong to them. Because now, you are seeing with MS the same kind of behavior that Apple exhibits as well, but in their own unique ways. The end result is the same however. Both companies are so big, so powerful, so extremely wealthy, and are now the only real game in town being so embedded in every aspect of our lives, government, etc., that they can essentially take any attitude they wish with all of us. Both companies now make decisions and act in ways that no other company has the luxury to be able to do and yet continue to grow, make money, and expand into ever greater areas of technology (and our lives) with little concern of kickback. Could you imagine any other company in any other industry being able to be so cavalier about whether or not they will fix a simple bug or not concerning the elementary function of their major search website –– of all things? Yet, both Apple and MS approach similar situations in the same way. Rather than fix such issues, they simply turn the tables around and tell us whatever our complaint is, it is something we must do. That is unless we’re willing to pay them a little extra coin for that fix. At least the way Apple handles it with their ever increasingly expensive Apple Care subscriptions.
Could you imagine Google telling us to turn off our ad blockers each time we wished to do a search? Or clear our caches, or in this case download a back door "fix”if we wish to use not just Google, but their own Chrome browser the way it should? Yet, Apple does its own shady and manipulative if not twisted tings, for instance their community support forum. If you post anything negative about Apple, or comment in ways that express displeasure, or point out obvious faults or unfair ways they treat their customers whether it be with complaints or concerning shady marketing tactics on some of their products (such as we've been doing), they will either censor your post by removing all of those references except for the basic elements, or reject it outright. And they will send you an email informing you of this and that will state that it was because you went against their "Community Standards". Those are not community standards, that's just psychological manipulation speech meant to shame people into thinking they did something horribly wrong and in bad character. In fact, both this reply as well as my original posting would have been rejected out right never seeing the light of day.
But guess what? Apple and MS are not the only companies being so blatant in the way they go about their businesses. Amazon is just as bad if not worse. Amazon consistently rates pretty **bleep** low for honesty and above board marketing practices. In fact it rates pretty low in terms of their web site and dishonest and manipulative marketing. And yet, Amazon has its overwhelming share of "I love you Amazon!" idiots. You will encounter review after review that go along these lines.
"Oh, it came a week late, and its all busted up on the outside, and it looks like it might have been a return, but at least I got! I still consider it a great purchase and I'm so happy! I love Amazon!"
You would think we live in some bizarro world of mindless idiots in this country. And yes, this type of review is unique to us. Because the main review areas are for the United States. You have to specify whether you wish to see the rest of that products reviews by the rest of the planet... And they are by far anything from forgiving when they feel they are getting rooked–– as they should be. But us? There is something seriously wrong with us. It wasn't' always this bad, but in the past three decades, we've gone odd in the head over our stuff.
So, with all that, perhaps this might put into perspective what is going on. MS is not going to fix Bing. If they had any interest in doing so, they would have been on that beast the moment they realized so many people were irate over it. Google would have. Google would have had no choice. Google is not part of the top five highest valued corporations, despite their all being tech companies. For as much money Google has, it still has to sing for its supper, but don't get me started on them, because they're no angel either.
This issue with Bing has been going on for at least the past two years that I know of. That was when I first encountered it. And I downloaded Tap Monkey and it seemed to work, but it was a pain in the **bleep** to have to constantly update it, which it seemed to need doing every week or so. And the greatest question comes down to;
Why?
Why should anyone need to download a patch, a fix, another add-on to their browser just to get a search engine to function properly? The arrogance of that expectation by MS is so outrageous, it almost matches the arrogance we deal with from Apple. And I've been using Apple crap since 1988, except over the past ten years, I've had enough. I'm not some teenager or twenty-something bright eyed and bushy tailed, wowed out at every technological advancement thrown at me kind of guy anymore. We're talking about money here. My money, your money. Our money. We have to struggle for it. So, excuse me if I don't like playing fanboy for any company anymore with the money that I have to struggle with harder and harder every year because it is these very companies and others like them and those who own and run them that have managed to turn the basic functions of the government to their favor. Because after all we are talking about people who are worth billions. Not just millions mind you––billions.
Oh, yes... I know... I'm good with history, sociology, philosophy, and I fully understand no society lasts forever. I am also good at recognizing the signs of when a society is in its decline, as well as recognizing the crossover points when it is impossible for a society to dig itself out of that decline. But **bleep**... I, like so many others never wanted to believe that it could happen here, or at least in our life time. I thought that as a people we had far more sense than to let ourselves get so duped by toys, money, charismatic faces, fancy production graphics, sets and bombastic behavior that we would just give it all away––and in less than forty years .
@noiwillnot
