I've refused a ton, often after applying while full-well knowing (weird phrase) that the company was straight up gangster. shoot, i think i just applied to clearview the other day. i thought, 'is this _the_ clearview??' Submit!
My ego would get a nice bump if/when I got a call, then eventually I'd bail, or just fail to get thru the process. And i have been a contractor at some, and probably would be again, depending on the specifics, etc.
I come from the Chomsky school of thought, tho -- basically, institutional analysis -- i.e. companies/CEOs/boards and economies, as currently constructed, are required to put short term profit above all else -- if that means enslaving children in south america, so be it -- if that means accelerating humanity towards the end of organized life on earth, so be it.
so, facebook has been killing and terrorizing muslims and rohingya and others in asia for years, and almost auto-couped the US government this year -- so be it. if facebook requires muslims, rohingya, or americans to suffer and die, it's not personal -- it's just business.
the biggest companies are generally the biggest criminals, and growing companies will grow into that role -- it's the way the system is designed.
Apple and Nike exploiting/torturing/killing people all over China, etc. -- the list of 'bad companies' we could come up with is almost endless. Tesla. ugh.
so we can refuse to work for fakebook/meta, or some other 'evil' company, but to me it's mainly just virtue-signaling. ditto for the folks who work for those companies and tell themselves they're 'trying to change it from the inside'.
that said, it still seems like the right-ish/less-wrong choice to not work for the worst companies.
but i think if you actually have ethical problems with certain companies, or with 'the system', then organizing to change them and 'the system' probably requires more than just pulling your wage slave paycheck from a different provider -- especially if you live in a relatively free country, etc.
i remember just a few years ago when my favorite company to hate was Palantir -- ah, the good 'ol days.
i have probably mentioned my moral superiority to recruiters in the past -- don't think it matters to anyone/anything -- just more virtue signaling.
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