by Travis Mateer

On Tuesday at 4pm the Public Art Committee is meeting to discuss art stuff. If you understand the importance of keeping artists grant/donor dependent for narrative control purposes, this screenshot from Tuesday’s agenda might interest you like it interests me. Here it is with the first non-action item highlighted for emphasis:

While I haven’t been able to figure out what this “R.A.C.E.” funding proposal is, I definitely know what Cognizant is, and that’s a tech company that consumes other tech companies like a vicious amoeba. In 2018 this tech-parasite slithered into our Missoula community after the founder of ATG, Tom Stergios, sold out to it.

Here’s the MONEY rationalization for selling out to this nasty tech-entity from the man who employs my own father:

In an interview with the Missoula Current, Stergios said ATG will continue to operate at its existing locations, including Missoula and Kansas City. With Congizant’s ambitious plans for growth, he also expects the number of Missoula employees to expand in the coming years.

As it stands, Cognizant is adding 500 jobs in Mesa, Arizona, and 1,100 jobs in Texas. The firm currently employs 260,000 people.

“We’re anticipating we’ll use all those levers to grow Missoula to its fullest potential,” Stergios said. “I’m measuring jobs in the hundreds to potentially thousands. We’ll aim high. They’re looking at hiring 25,000 in North America over a five-year period, and I think we’ve got a tremendous amount of advantages.”

Yes, the man who is excited to bring cancerous growth to Missoula will ultimately benefit as some of that money flows to pacifying local artists with blood money. That’s right, I said BLOOD MONEY. From the link (emphasis mine):

The panic attacks started after Chloe watched a man die.

She spent the past three and a half weeks in training, trying to harden herself against the daily onslaught of disturbing posts: the hate speech, the violent attacks, the graphic pornography. In a few more days, she will become a full-time Facebook content moderator, or what the company she works for, a professional services vendor named Cognizant, opaquely calls a “process executive.”

For this portion of her education, Chloe will have to moderate a Facebook post in front of her fellow trainees. When it’s her turn, she walks to the front of the room, where a monitor displays a video that has been posted to the world’s largest social network. None of the trainees have seen it before, Chloe included. She presses play.

The video depicts a man being murdered. Someone is stabbing him, dozens of times, while he screams and begs for his life. Chloe’s job is to tell the room whether this post should be removed. She knows that section 13 of the Facebook community standards prohibits videos that depict the murder of one or more people. When Chloe explains this to the class, she hears her voice shaking.

This company is perfect for my father AND Missoula because both have eagerly fragmented their souls into collateralized debt instruments in order to get paid. Who cares if the paymaster is an exploitive predator? Just take your handout and be happy you aren’t searching the riverbanks for temporary housing, serfs!

Going back to the list being considered by the Public Art Committee, another name that pops out at me is BLOOMBERG. Let’s take a look at this “grant opportunity” from what I’m assuming is Bloomberg Philanthropies, shall we?

Hey, I have an idea? How about telling Bloomberg Philanthropies to FUCK OFF? Or is Missoula’s art community just a bunch of whores eagerly offering up submissive orifices to any suitor that comes along with deep pockets?

I decided to take a walk to Cognizant headquarters in Missoula for some pictorial context, and boy did I get some pictorial context! So much context, in fact, that a whole other post might be required. Or maybe a video?

Before all that, here are some of the images I find relevant to this post.

With the invigorating March air helping to propel my multi-modal feet, I extended my walk on Wyoming Street west, toward Russell. That’s when things got interesting.

But that will have to be for another post! If you appreciate context like this, please consider a making a donation at my about page.

Thanks for reading!