Marc Andreessen Pro-Colonialism Tweet Riles India Tech World • Hacker News Board

Re: Marc Andreessen Pro-Colonialism Tweet Riles India Tech World

#71

Post by tosseraccount » Wed, Feb 10, 2016, 2:31 PM UTC

peteretep wrote: post #58

nileshtrivedi wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should find out what India's share of world GDP and trade was when the british arrived.

Every serious economic paper I've read on the subject suggests that decline in Indian GDP during the colonial years was due to the bottom dropping out of several commodities markets. You seem to be insinuating something else was at work. Do you have anything you could cite?

Mughals: "The psychological interpretations emphasize depravity in high places, excessive luxury, and increasingly narrow views that left the rulers unprepared for an external challenge." [ theory from Wikipedia entry on Mughals. Follow their citations. ]

People were glad to get rid of them and their wars which crippled India.

Britain kicked them out and (mostly) unified India.

Re: Marc Andreessen Pro-Colonialism Tweet Riles India Tech World

#72

Post by morgante » Wed, Feb 10, 2016, 2:32 PM UTC

k-mcgrady wrote: post #37

jccc wrote: post #14

I don't particularly like the guy, but is there a campaign of deliberate misinterpretation going on? Yes, probably a really stupid thing to say, and perhaps wrong for many reasons. No, he did not say India should have kept Britain as its colonial power, or any of the other incredible interpretations now flying around the Twittersphere. Jonny Axelsson: Anti-semitism not the opposite of semitism. Now whether anti-colon…

Although I think you may be right in your interpretation how is maintaining net neutrality by India 'anti-colonialist'?

As a policy position, I don't think it is.

However, if you look at a lot of the rhetoric that has been used it is heavily influenced by anti-colonialism. (Don't let this Western company come in and colonize our Internet.) I suspect the debate would have been quite different if it were ex. Flipkart offering Free Basics.

Re: Marc Andreessen Pro-Colonialism Tweet Riles India Tech World

#73

Post by justinsingh » Wed, Feb 10, 2016, 2:33 PM UTC

azzafazza wrote: post #5

Finally he gets caught out for saying stupid shit. Every thing this man says is self serving (which is fine) but he tries to disguise it as profound knowledge. Ben Evans is 10x worse however, he is one idiotic twat.

By 'says' in your comment, I hope you mean 'tweet'. Andresseen has said and done many smart things.

Re: Marc Andreessen Pro-Colonialism Tweet Riles India Tech World

#74

Post by fwn » Wed, Feb 10, 2016, 2:33 PM UTC

mikeash wrote: post #51

In addition to the idiotic comment about colonialism, I'm curious about this new phrase he used: "partial Internet connectivity." That's a rather Orwellian choice of words, and appears to be flying under the radar while everybody gets upset at the other stuff. Let's call it what it really is: connectivity to a couple of services which also happen to be connected to the Internet. "Partial Internet connectivity" is abo…

Someone not sensitized by the net-neutrality debate would probably call a slow, spotty or censored internet connection still internet. But as frontiers are already pretty straight, qualitative differences in internet access already constitute a difference to what the net-neutrality side would be willing to accept as part of what can be called "internet".

This makes it funny that you name his wording "Orwellian" while subliminally reproducing this carefully crafted and politically loaded understanding of what qualifies as internet.

It in fact already is seeking political influence on a grammatical level.

Re: Marc Andreessen Pro-Colonialism Tweet Riles India Tech World

#75

Post by timonovici » Wed, Feb 10, 2016, 2:33 PM UTC

_yosefk wrote: post #54

yalogin wrote: post #6

Knowing the sentiment in tech about keeping internet free from external interests, I don't know how he could support Facebook's plan like this. On top of that he was condescending towards India by bringing up "poor" and "morality" when instead he should have commended India for not falling for the trap. He is entitled to his opinions about colonialism. People that care about it will respond.

I thought net neutrality was about protecting consumers from selective high prices set by regional monopolies. Here it "protects" them from a free product that anyone is AFAIK free to compete with. Do I miss something or did things go wrong with the net neutrality idea?

That's not what neutrality means. That means the ISP doesn't take anyone side - either by making certain services faster at the expense of others being slower, or by setting preferential pricing. If facebook really cared about access to internet, they could negotiated 1 free GB of traffic / month for everyone, not just access to facebook and a few other websites that they picked.

Re: Marc Andreessen Pro-Colonialism Tweet Riles India Tech World

#76

Post by temp » Wed, Feb 10, 2016, 2:33 PM UTC

jccc wrote: post #53

mikeash wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I were him, I'd say I meant that too! The original was catastrophically dumb. Was it because it's what he actually believes, or because he didn't spend more than fifteen microseconds considering his words? Beats me. Fun to watch, though.

Even when dealing with people I don't like and with whom I almost 100% of the time disagree, I've found it much better to try first to understand what the person was actually trying to say before jumping reflexively to the most uncharitable interpretation of what the person said.

>jumping reflexively to the most uncharitable interpretation of what the person said.

There isn't a charitable interpretation to what he said. There's only a "damage control" interpretation. And that one doesn't really fit well with the fact that he blocked people who retweetted (and hence gave more prominence) to his original tweet.

Re: Marc Andreessen Pro-Colonialism Tweet Riles India Tech World

#77

Post by rorykoehler » Wed, Feb 10, 2016, 2:34 PM UTC

blinkingled wrote: post #60

rorykoehler wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, it was stupid, however it was also a tongue in cheek tweet that was not an endorsement of colonialism and more poking fun at the sluggish Indian economy once they freed themselves of colonial rule. He was essentially making the point you made.

> sluggish Indian economy once they freed themselves of colonial rule If you understand the affects of colonialism of 200 years - economic and other exploitation - sluggish is pretty much the best case you can expect after freedom. Comparing to other colonies India has done fairly well for having being nearly destroyed and rebuilt.

I understand colonialism perfectly. My country was under British rule for almost 900 years, longer than any other country on earth. I wasn't supporting him in his statement, actually I disagree with at least 80% of what he tweets, however if there is to be a backlash against the likes of Marc Andreessen then it should be for legitimate reasons and not that he endorsed colonialism which he didn't. There are plenty of legitimate reasons to be pissed with SV elites who say and act as they wish without making up fake reasons.

Re: Marc Andreessen Pro-Colonialism Tweet Riles India Tech World

#78

Post by return0 » Wed, Feb 10, 2016, 2:35 PM UTC

Yay let's everyone miss the point of his tweet and focus on what language is allowed in social media, because that's all that matters.

Re: Marc Andreessen Pro-Colonialism Tweet Riles India Tech World

#79

Post by nileshtrivedi » Wed, Feb 10, 2016, 2:36 PM UTC

fennecfoxen wrote: post #43

k-mcgrady wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Although I think you may be right in your interpretation how is maintaining net neutrality by India 'anti-colonialist'?

For better or worse, I suspect a large part of recent developments in India regarding zero-rating services were supported as "let's deal a blow to the big bad corporations affiliated with the western civilization that colonized us! we don't like them!" rather than a matter of intrinsic merit. It's a common motive in a variety of nations. (edit: in this case, I suspect it might be "for better" and not "for worse" in e…

The whole movement started with opposition to Airtel Zero (an Indian company) and Flipkart (again, an Indian company). People have lauded Google for respecting net neutrality in Project Loon.

I don't know where this perception of an anti-west sentiments is coming from.

Re: Marc Andreessen Pro-Colonialism Tweet Riles India Tech World

#80

Post by factorialboy » Wed, Feb 10, 2016, 2:36 PM UTC

picardo wrote: post #32

factorialboy wrote: post #4

Extremely stupid tweet by Andreessen. He probably doesn't even realize that, like most ignorant people. FYI it was socialism that held back the Indian economy during the 70s and 80s. And it was colonialism that drained the country's wealth for over two hundred years. Here, Mr. Andreessen, educate yourself: https://www.google.com/search?q=bengal+famine

He probably meant "Anti-West" attitudes, not anti-colonialism. Coming from a third world country myself, I know there is a tendency to deny and dismiss some socially disruptive innovations because of their origin. There is a cultural trust issue there.

Net neutrality is not anti-West.