copperbadge:

arsenicjade:

copperbadge:

nerdvanauniverse
replied to your photo “I’m not normally a huge fan of ridesharing services (and straight up…”

Do you mind if I ask why you don’t use Uber? I’ve used them a couple of times but if they’re being shitty to employees/minority customers then that’s a huge reason to stop supporting them. If you’re not comfortable answering that’s perfectly fine.

OH MAN WHERE TO START

Uber is a hot shitshow, my friend, from top to bottom, like if you took everything wrong with silicon valley and rolled it all up into a big ball and then compressed it down into a smaller ball of pure, condensed bullshit. 

If it had just been Uber scabbing while cab drivers were striking in protest of the Muslim Ban, that would be bad enough; that’s when I took Uber off my phone (I had mostly been using it to hail cabs anyway). 

But the CEO also built a deliberate culture of toxicity (including rampant sexism) while trying to run his competitors out of business….and then there’s the (now resigned) board member who, during a discussion of misogyny at Uber, remarked that more women on the board would mean more talking (while A WOMAN was trying to make a point that statistics prove more women on a board means a more successful company). 

Not to make a pun, but the wheels were off Uber as far back as June, and at this point even if you don’t care about the company’s myriad moral failings, it’s probably going to die a slow, agonizing death in the coming year. So why even bother with it? Kill it quick. 

I don’t love Lyft, either, because I don’t like the goal of deregulating anything to do with cars or driving, as I truly believe that almost nobody takes the death potential of cars as seriously as they should. I also believe that a lot of people use ridesharing because of racism, since in Chicago at least, most cabdrivers are immigrants of color and national demographic studies show that rideshare drivers in the US are overwhelmingly white. I know a lot of people who think Lyft is “safer” for reasons they can’t seem to really vocalize when pressed to do so; this includes my parents, who are ten million times happier taking a slightly sketchy Lyft than a perfectly nice cab when they visit Chicago. 

And honestly I don’t like that there’s a weird cultural pressure to talk to your driver with rideshare, which is lacking in cabs. 

But I’m fuckin’ broke, my friends, so I have a rule that if a Lyft to the airport costs less than half of a cab ride (average $45 from where I live) I’ll take it; I also take Lyfts if I’m going anywhere from Hyde Park and need a ride, since cab drivers straight up won’t go to Hyde Park to pick you up. 

So yeah – Lyft and Uber are both companies which are not super great for our culture or society, but Lyft is kind of like the local creep you avoid talking to while Uber is an actual serial killer. 😀

You didn’t want too mention that time they got hacked and paid the hackers rather than coming clean to the public/their users?

Oh my god I FORGOT THAT. They are so awful I FORGET all the awful things they do.