Anyone interested in a concise, passionate, but well-researched account of India's situation while it was under foreign rule should check out Will Durant's The Case For India.
It's eye-opening.
Marc Andreessen Pro-Colonialism Tweet Riles India Tech World
81–90 of 237 posts
Re: Marc Andreessen Pro-Colonialism Tweet Riles India Tech World
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
>> "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." He's a pretty big investor in Facebook. That's why he's willing to ignore the net neutrality implications - because it benefits him.
Because everyone with a different opinion on the most beneficial infrastructural policy is driven by pure self-interest. ..basically the pop culture version of a regulatory debate.
> ...the most beneficial infrastructural policy...
That's a nice objective view of free basics. I honestly believe, as I believe the parent to your comment does, that free basics really is bad for the internet and that none of the big players supporting it, e.g. the board of Facebook, are ignorant of the massive walled garden effect that they expect and hope it will create.
At this point I think it's pretty close to an evil plan. Imagine a privately run "public" transit system that dropped you off inside buildings with no exterior doors. You'd be hard pressed to argue that the creators of such a system would not be aware of the effects it would have om the businesses inside such buildings, much less that they're creating this network out of the kindness of the hearts to honestly just give people who are in need access to transportation.
(little straw-many but i reallt hate the idea and implementation of free basics)
Re: Marc Andreessen Pro-Colonialism Tweet Riles India Tech World
#83I think this thread might need a refresher on how to disagree [1]. Already a few DH0 offenses. [1] http://paulgraham.com/disagree.html
Of course, that document was written by another VC who likes to run his mouth on Twitter. So there's a legitimate discussion to be had about whether that document is poisoning the well of criticism. Marc Andreessen is an extraordinarily influential person in tech, and that influence is based on his reputation. If a nobody like me tweeted something dumb, everyone would just ignore me. Nobody ignores Andreessen, though…
>Of course, that document was written by another VC who likes to run his mouth on Twitter. So there's a legitimate discussion to be had about whether that document is poisoning the well of criticism.
This comment itself is further argument that more people here could stand to read it. You've literally ignored the ideas within and just made an ad hominem argument based on the author instead.
Re: Marc Andreessen Pro-Colonialism Tweet Riles India Tech World
#84I think this thread might need a refresher on how to disagree [1]. Already a few DH0 offenses. [1] http://paulgraham.com/disagree.html
Of course, that document was written by another VC who likes to run his mouth on Twitter. So there's a legitimate discussion to be had about whether that document is poisoning the well of criticism. Marc Andreessen is an extraordinarily influential person in tech, and that influence is based on his reputation. If a nobody like me tweeted something dumb, everyone would just ignore me. Nobody ignores Andreessen, though…
>Marc Andreessen is an extraordinarily influential person in tech, and that influence is based on his reputation.
And that reputation is based on his position as an early luminary that made direct and real contributions to the progress of the field, and his continued ability to make great picks for VC. Andreessen, like Paul Graham, is one of the few VCs who actually understands the technical underpinnings of what's going on, which seems to seriously enhance a VC's performance.
Andreessen's political beliefs are totally irrelevant. Frankly, it wouldn't matter if he were a neo-Nazi.
Re: Marc Andreessen Pro-Colonialism Tweet Riles India Tech World
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
Mughals were the Mongols who converted to Islam and invaded India.
And they were a small ruling caste that was assimilated by the locals, for the most part. So the previous comment was quite accurate. The Mughals of Babur were far removed from the Mughals of Bahadur II.
Manchu Qing Dynastsy was foreign invaders that "got assimilated", too. Chinese people were glad to get rid of them and okay with Britain countering their presence.
Re: Marc Andreessen Pro-Colonialism Tweet Riles India Tech World
#86What Marc, Benedict and everybody else is (conveniently) ignoring is that Facebook does NOT bear the bandwidth cost of FreeBasics. So the whole thing about "giving something for free" is disingenuous. Indian telcos, Indian consumers and Indian public pay for FreeBasics. Fair of them to decide whether they want this scheme or not.
One of the main arguments is that the "them" doesn't include the people who would actually be benefitted.
Re: Marc Andreessen Pro-Colonialism Tweet Riles India Tech World
#87In 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…
"partial Internet connectivity." which is fully profitable to him as a Facebook investor.
Re: Marc Andreessen Pro-Colonialism Tweet Riles India Tech World
#88Extremely 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
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Re: Marc Andreessen Pro-Colonialism Tweet Riles India Tech World
#89Extremely 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
It was just pure ignorance. Some of the larger impacts of colonialism:
Indian share of world economy went from 23-24% before colonialism to less than 4% under colonialism. India's share of World Trade went from 27% to 2% under colonialism.
India's healthcare worsened during colonialism because all the resources were exported to Europe for cheap and in abundance
India's literacy was worsened during colonialism and was just close to 10% during Independence.
India's revolutionaries who opposed colonialism and raised against the British were brutally killed or hanged under British rule.
Anyone who spoke against the colonialism were jailed.
British Divide and Rule policy still affects India today.
Re: Marc Andreessen Pro-Colonialism Tweet Riles India Tech World
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
One of Evans' favourite debate tactics is to tweet something brimming with subtext, then when someone calls him out on it, takes a literal approach to what he said. It's infuriating.
You summed up exactly what I thought it in my head about his Tweets, he is positively juvenile.
Evans has been called out for his idiotic behavior before[0]. From what I can tell, his only contribution to a discussion is to say the most banal things (ex: there will be 5B smartphone users in 2020) in a way that makes them sounds original.
0: http://www.buzzfeed.com/williamalden/benedict-evans-wants-to...