Nobody's Perfect

Yahoo has spoken out about their Chinese connection and it makes the stomach turn.

Yahoo executives feel "horrible" about political arrests of Internet users in China but believe it's better to operate in that market and cooperate with authorities than not be there at all, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang said Wednesday.

This position is the old "it's just business" excuse reworded to sound sympathetic. Yang comes across as saying that it's a shame they are helping the oppressive Communist government out, but at least they are in the market and making money. His comments come very close to whining about how if Yahoo isn't in that market, Google and Microsoft will have a larger market share. Yeah, well, they are spineless cowards too.

Then Yang pulls a moral equivalence triangulation worthy of a politician running for the Senate.

Internet companies have to deal with regulations that affect their business in other countries as well, even in the U.S., which has the Patriot Act, he said. "There is no 100 percent clean, no matter what country you're talking about."

It's the tired old "the U.S. is not a perfect angel" defense people use when defending oppressive foreign governments. Most Americans don't like everything our government does, but direct comparisons between the U.S. and Chinese governments does nothing to strengthen the argument. In fact, his defense of Yahoo falls apart at that point. It's kind of like a bank robber saying "nobody's perfect" at his trial and expecting to get off.

It's frightening to watch today's business leaders attempt to build an amoral high ground to justify everything they do. You cannot separate morality and ethics from business. Just like everything else, refusing to judge and taking no action is an action all by itself. Yahoo is condoning the arrest of people whose only crime is to seek out information. The reason they are condoning the arrests is because they want a competitive edge in China. What a lousy reason. This is what it's like to not take a stand for or feel anything. The next thing you know, Yahoo will be part of the UN Security Council.

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