Comments

1
I'm supposed to pause because people who like Uber are using Uber? Please, dig harder, and try not to hurt yourself in the process.
2
As my husband says: "Oh my god, people who like ALEC wear pants. Let's all not wear pants!"

ALEC thinks that breathing oxygen is a-okay. You know what to do...
3
There are points where you guys stretch the importance/significance of things. This is a classic example. Perhaps we can point out businesses that purchase advertising in The Stranger who aren't exactly.... good companies?
4
Yes, because right next to Ansel's article is one showing a stripper shoving her tits in my face offering to do anything for me for $$. Very PC.
5
So, you shouldn't be counting on Uber to give you a ride to Planned Parenthood, right? Or to your union job. Or to a Democratic Party precinct meeting. Or to an Earth Day event.
6
So?

I'd imagine they'd do that for any major convention that came to town. They're in the business of providing transportation, and people going to conventions need transportation.

It's ok to do business with people even when their ideology is disagreeable.
7
I'm not an Uber fan. I'd rather hire a taxi driver that carries insurance. So I'm not someone who would go out of my way to defend Uber.

But I'm not all that worried about them offering a discount to ALEC (which I agree is evil). Uber probably offers similar discounts to any major convention anywhere in the country, regardless of its political affiliation. Its called marketing.

I'd be much more concerned if Uber was a major corporate sponsor of ALEC, or were making political donations to ALEC or one of its PACs or something. But marketing to attendees at a major convention is just Business 101, not a reason to boycott.
8
ALEC is exactly what Uber needs to get model legislation pushed in all jurisdictions to legalize their business model.

However this is just a run of the mill promotion. They do it for all sorts of events in Seattle.
9
Pointing out that Ãœber is seeking to become " partners with" and sell special deals to the sort of people that attend an ALEC conference is not stretching the significance-- it is just stating a fact. You decide whether it is significant enough to choose not to use their service.

And @3, your comparison is not appropriate. That would be an example where potential ALEC attendees who feel that Ãœber is too liberal a company would decide whether to attend the conference of a group (ALEC) that would partner with such a business as Uber. That is to say, if questionable companies are advertising in The Stranger, one might wonder if the Stranger truly represents one's values.
10
Would the Stranger sell advertising space to ALEC?
---
I suspect that Ansel is copying Charles -- 125 comments for a "Seinfeld Post" -- to gin up comments & hence readership & then advertising revenues.

Do Slog writers share in profits based on # hits/comments in articles?
11
Kock Brothers!

Monsanto!

ALEC!

Cheney!

Drones!

Squawk!

Squawk!

Squawk!
13
@6,7 I do not want to support businesses that go against my ideology. I am very much a gun control advocate. My local Fred Myers has just started selling guns. FM has been my main grocery shopping source. There are lots of other places to buy guns and there are also lots of other large grocery stores. I am currently deciding whether to continue supporting FM with my $$. I don't know what is FM corporate ideology on the whole gun issue, but now that I know they have, at this particular time, decided to start selling guns at the store I shop in, I no longer want to do business with them. It can be a pain in the ass, but I do not want to support businesses that go against this particularly strongly held ideology. I'm also not pissed at the news paper that gave me the information.
14
@13 You sound very tiresome.
15
Uber does promotions like this with events and even theater companies all the time. But then I've quickly come to expect this sort of breathless, underreported outrage alert from Ansel.
16
TL;DR: Stop trying to identify the villain. It's everywhere and it's all of us.
17
@6: Uber carries insurance. The confusingly named UberX drivers also carry insurance, though many didn't until that was used as an attack vector by taxi companies a year or so ago.

But what a dumb story. Even if this somehow proves that Uber is satanic, how in the world would it give someone pause before bashing Seattle's terrible taxi companies and drivers? It's like saying that we should like Michael Bay more because James Cameron released a bad movie.
18
I don't trust UBER. It sounds German to me.

I just take a taxi.
19
And what's the matter with strippers? I've known some strippers who were mighty fine people.
20
A taxi company promotes a convention?!!! BRING THE FAINTING COUCH AND SMELLING SALTS.
21
The company received venture funding in late 2010 from a group of super angel investors in Silicon Valley, California, including Chris Sacca.[10] In early 2011, Uber raised more than $11.5M in Series A funding led by Benchmark Capital.[11] In late 2011, Uber further raised $32 million in funding from several investors that include Goldman Sachs, Menlo Ventures, and Bezos Expeditions[12] bringing their total funding amount to $49.5M.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uber_(com…

Wow, shocking that a Goldman backed company would partner with everything you hate.

Sometimes the Progressives get sold something that turns out to be the model of deregulation and how to destabilize the workers, while at the same time gouge customers with "market" pricing that is thinly veiled collusion between the various funding sources.

You can let go of their dicks, now.
22
@18. It IS German. It means "above", as in ubermensch, the concept of the Aryn superman.
23
Large corporations are untrustworthy and have dubious alliances, therefore we should forever be condemned to inadequate, shitty service from a woefully inadequate number of taxis. Or, something.
24
Even I gotta admit this one is pushing it. "ALEC is proud to announce some BBQ joint in Dallas is catering day #2 of our event." Can I no longer BBQ pork?

Now, if Uber is contributing cash to ALEC for lobbying, then it's a story.
25
Fuck you ALEC.

That's all.
26
I haven't trusted the Germans since the Lusitania
27
@13: If you were to list all the places you don't shop, we'd be here all day. What businesses are worthy enough to take your precious moneys?
28
I'm a proud union supporter, but to compare the hideous mess of worker abuse and corruption that are the cab companies to the folks who gave us weekends and the 40-hour work week is just fucking insane.

The management of the cab companies have been doing a just swell job of fucking over their employees for decades with very little to no help from Uber - so I fail to see why I should put up with a racist drunk who falls asleep at the wheel or refuses to take me to my address because he doesn't like the "kind of people" who live there.

And good thing those cabs have insurance - seeing as how most cabbies under-report or never report essential maintenance on the the cabs to keep from getting in trouble with the bosses.
29
I want to hate Uber. I really do. In fact, after this ALEC connection I do. But after years of cab drivers passing me up (white and even somali black) for the simple crime of not being white, I give them a HUGE benefit of the doubt. As far as Im concerned, cab drivers are LONG overdue for a serious kick in the pants.
30
Yeah… I get it. The Stranger thinks we should put up with shitty taxi service because Workers! Unions!

But here’s the deal: There is nothing stopping taxi services form adopting the same technology platforms and service standards as Uber and competing head on.

Until they do so. Fuck em.
31
Uber not only partnered with, but DONATED MONEY TO, Lifelong AIDS Alliance as a special promotion during Seattle Pride.

But yeah, Ansel, you insufferable hack, you tiresome nitwit, you obtuse partisan, you go right on ahead and paint them as neocons because it suits the purposes of the slimeball shysters who run the Teamsters union who see untapped potential in raking in increased revenues for their cleverly disguised sham of an organization from Uber drivers. This is the same union, by the way, that tried to put the Uber drivers they now claim to wish to defend out of business by becoming "lobbying partners" with the scam artists who run the cab companies when it seemed like Uber drivers were naught but a flash-in-the-pan threat to the labor union's dues payments. Two-faced, money hungry assholes cloaked in hollow "justice for workers" rhetoric are 10x as offensive as two-faced, money hungry assholes who don't pretend to be anything else.
32
liberals prefer moral neatness to quality outcomes. what u do matters less than who u do it with

if an organization with a history of successfully passing shitty laws wants to try to pass some good laws, i c that as a good thing

capital wants more immigration. so do i. capital wants in on the passngr transport market, and i want more transit options. y wouldn't we recruit the strongst allies available where our ntrsts coincide?

union busting in the productive sector crushed inflation amongst value-added goods. transport, healthcare, and government still have heavily regulated labor markets. not surprisingly, inflation in these sectors has continued unabated

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