I'm so old I remember when Jeff #Bezos seemed like sort of a good guy who chose books as the focus of his clever new internet store.
Now he will always be remembered as the toady who paid tens of millions in tribute to the Trumps while ruthlessly destroying one of history's great newspapers.
I'll always remember him for what I first learned about him: (1) for campaigning against the closure of Borders and indie bookstores (destroying my favorite date night, gift-buying, and meeting places, leaving a vacuum for years that hasn't filled in) then (2) for a candid interview in which he described his dream for Amazon was to collect as much info on behavior as possible so he could provide the goods needed by the master class orbiting around a toxic Earth where only the enslaved working class remained.
It's ever since been stuck in my mind that he expects or expected to be alive to witness that dystopian future and that, if his words were quoted accurately, seemed to fill him with hope.
This is what people support with "just buy it on Amazon. It's easy." This is what Amazon's buyers money and browsing data were meant for.
I can't imagine him only being a clever entrepreneur who supports books. That's too different from how I learned about the existence of Amazon.
(Hasn't helped that I have experience as an Amazon author and peer to authors who've been jerked around by the company again and again and again....)
James Gleick
Acin ☆