Google cast itself as a disrupter fighting incumbent-funded politicians

Evidence

Third, just to be on the safe side, Google shared its largesse throughout the political system. In Schmidt’s 2014 book, coauthored with longtime Google executive Jonathan Rosenberg, the CEO aggressively developed the theme of government as the shill of incumbents colluding to inhibit change, with Google on the outside: an upstart and a disrupter. The authors voiced their disdain for politicians and lobbyists, writing, “This is the natural path of politicians since incumbents tend to have a lot more money than disrupters and are quite expert in using it to bend the political will of any democratic government.” — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 398

Categorization

• SEED: Angle: the irony of the huge incumbent Google performing the ‘disrupter against incumbents’ narrative while simultaneously working the revolving door — a case study in corporate narrative self-fashioning.
• XREF: connects to: Google treats public resistance as an obstacle to be managed commercially — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 442; Google funded far-right antiregulation groups and absorbed privacy advocates amid antitrust scrutiny — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 403

Broader Connections

• Google funded far-right antiregulation groups and absorbed privacy advocates amid antitrust scrutiny #complicates (0.85) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 403