You're a HYPOCRITE! [mic drop] (Issue #11)

Don't let people shut down complex-but-necessary conversations.

Author

Chris Musei-Sequeira
April 28, 2025

This photograph shows a Shure SM58 microphone, consisting of a round silver grille and a black cylinder body. The microphone is oriented diagonally, with the silver grille at the lower left of the photograph and the black cylinder body pointing toward the upper right of the photograph. SOURCE: File:Micro Shure SM58.jpg - Wikimedia Commons. (2006, May 18). https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Micro_Shure_SM58.jpg. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license, available from https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en. No changes made to photograph.

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I'm sick of people who throw out the word “HYPOCRITE” at anybody who tries to improve society somewhat.

Oh, you're vegan? Well, the perfume you're wearing comes from a beaver's behind. So… you're a HYPOCRITE!

Oh, you're texting about labor rights from an iPhone, which is made in a Chinese labor camp. So, you're a HYPOCRITE!

Oh, you want to stop human-caused climate change, but you exhale carbon dioxide every time you breathe. So, you're a HYPOCRITE!

I thought that whole genre of so-called communication had fallen out of fashion in the 1990s… but nope. I see people posting mic drop zingers even on my LinkedIn feed!

The function of the “you're a hypocrite” mic drop is to shut down complex conversation.

It's a form of binary thinking. (I would argue that binary thinking is a manifestation of colonialism, but that's a story for another day…) Our world is increasingly connected. And while Trump’s tariffs may suggest a return to isolationism, at least within the United States of America, our supply chains are increasingly globalized, complex, and obfuscated… which gives more room for more people to be exploited without us even knowing about it.

There's exploitation in digital supply chains, too. For example, there have been numerous publications (such as this one) about how low-paid workers in Africa are used to clean data and train AI models in use by millions of people around the world. There are also people who are employed to moderate posts on platforms such as Facebook, which involves regular exposure to some of the most heinous content ever created. They're often employed by subcontractors so that organizations such as Facebook have plausible deniability regarding their mental health.

I would truly argue that in today's hyper-connected world, the only way not to be a hypocrite is to stand for nothing. Here's a word of unsolicited advice about that: If indeed you stand for nothing, maybe don't brag about it? 

A few weeks ago, I watched a documentary called Code Rush about the company Netscape circa 1999 / 2000 (including a short cameo by Marc Andreesen himself). At the 53:34 mark, the computer programmer Jamie Zawinski says the following:

We’re at the beginning of an industry and who knows where that industry is going to go. This could all turn into television again. It could be controlled by a small number of companies who who decide what we see and hear... And there's a lot of precedent for that.

I don't need to remind you about the platform-owning billionaires who attended Donald Trump's inauguration, from Mark Zuckerberg to Jeff Bezos to Elon Musk. There's no doubt that network effects, economies of scale, and vendor lock-in allow these platform owners to cement their market position and increase their profit margin. That is the business model. So if anybody wants to migrate out of their ecosystems, it's very difficult to do.

I'm increasingly participating in conversations with people who wish to migrate their technology stacks away from Google, Microsoft, Facebook, etc. toward platforms that are more secure, more private, and maybe less exploitative where possible. This is very difficult work. I consider it to be valiant work… And I really don't care about anybody using the word “hypocrite” in my direction or anybody else's direction.

The reality is that there are some systems that are very difficult to migrate from if you've built your business on them. Once you start talking about interoperability with your customers, it gets exponentially more difficult. I admire people who are willing to ask the hard questions about how their values align with the world that they operate in—the real world with all of its complexity, not the fake world where you're either perfect or a hypocrite. Those are the people I want to be around.

Adapted from my new video channel, available on YouTube and TikTok

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Got something to say to me?

I’m Chris, the Principal of CJSC, LLC, and I’m (un)learning along with all of you — so hit the “reply” button and give me a piece of your mind!

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My name is Chris Musei-Sequeira, and I use he/him pronouns. My mother was born in Trinidad and Tobago as a descendant of African slaves brought to the islands during the time of European colonization. She came to the United States of America (USA) at the age of 10. My father is Goan and was born in India, in Mumbai, and raised Catholic and English-speaking. He came to the USA for his graduate studies, where he met my mother.

My sister and I were born in the USA and lived a middle-class life in the suburbs of multiple American cities. I studied aeronautical engineering and technology policy in university, then worked at the Federal Aviation Administration and as an aviation consultant. I've lived in cities up and down the USA East Coast since the age of 18; I now reside in Queens, New York with my wife.

I thank Heather Luna and Lavinia Muth for showing me the importance of publicly expressing our positions. Because of our positions, all of us are very familiar with some aspects of the world while having no idea of other aspects. Positionality expresses how our individual positions affect our relationships with other people and with the world as a whole.

Introductory image: File:Micro Shure SM58.jpg - Wikimedia Commons. (2006, May 18). https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Micro_Shure_SM58.jpg. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license, available from https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en. No changes made to photograph.