the US has many problems but it’s still a democracy
Given the choice between hot shit and cold shit still ends with you being covered in shit. Heads or tails between two very similar parties hardly counts as a true democracy.
I bet greed had much more impact than envy. Capitalims is, in a nutshell, gluttony applied to everything it can touch, and companies lust to make ever greater amounts of money or face the wrath of their shareholders. Innovation is hard, so copying your proud rivais is the easiest way (sloth, anyone?) to accomplish that...
Google's response sure is some vile corporate doublespeak:
As we’ve said, we’re responsibly investing in our company's biggest priorities and the significant opportunities ahead. To best position us for these opportunities, throughout the second half of 2023 and into 2024, a number of our teams made changes to become more efficient and work better, remove layers and align their resources to their biggest product priorities. Through this, we’re simplifying our structures to give employees more opportunity to work on our most innovative and important advances and our biggest company priorities, while reducing bureaucracy and layers.
I don’t think war criminals & mass murderers care about civil liberties.
they don't care about human rights either:
Shalhoub-Kevorkian, who is in her 60s, was strip-searched, handcuffed so tightly it caused pain, denied access to food, water and medication for several hours, and held in a cold cell without adequate clothing or blankets.
It used to help me greatly at my job (software development). I'm using mostly DDG as a replacement but it just isn't even close to what Google used to be years ago.
then I guess the weird epiteth of "enlightened idiot" fully applies to you