Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Marc Andreessen Pro-Colonialism Tweet Riles India Tech World

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 237 posts

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

#91

Post by tomp »

mikeash wrote: post #70
jccc wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

OK, how exactly are we supposed to do this here? The original statement may have different interpretations, but none of them result in mapping "anti-colonialism" to "socialism." There's just no way to get from A to B actually looking at what was said. Then he comes along and says he meant something completely different. No relation to the original statement. Apparently a moment of total brain confusion. Do we take hi…

> but none of them result in mapping "anti-colonialism"

And only a single stupid interpretation results in mapping "against anti-colonialism" to "pro colonialism", but you chose exactly that one.

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

#92

Post by rayiner »

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

One thing I never see mentioned in this debate is the fact that America was a British colony as well, and colonial status definitely drained American wealth for centuries (though obviously, the occupation of India was far more brutal). But I think it's highly unlikely that America ever would've become a superpower without the benefit of British culture, institutions, and law.

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

#94

Post by mikeash »

fwn wrote: post #74
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…

Fair, I accept that slow, spotty, and maybe even censored internet connections might qualify as "partial Internet connectivity."

But that's not at all what we're talking about here, right? The service in question allows connecting to just two sites or something?

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

#95

Post by jakejake »

mikeash wrote: post #70
jccc wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

OK, how exactly are we supposed to do this here? The original statement may have different interpretations, but none of them result in mapping "anti-colonialism" to "socialism." There's just no way to get from A to B actually looking at what was said. Then he comes along and says he meant something completely different. No relation to the original statement. Apparently a moment of total brain confusion. Do we take hi…

He's one of the original creators of one of the first web browsers - arguably one of the early architects of the web. And since has parlayed his fortune to become one of the top investors in silicon Valley.

And now, apparently a self-righteous hypocrite who is arguing against net neutrality because it suits his financial interests in Facebook.

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

#96

Post by cookiecaper »

morgante wrote: post #68

This headline is simply incorrect and unfair to Andreessen. Yes, it was a stupid tweet, but it does not mean that Andreessen is "pro-colonialism." I think the anti-communism of the McCarthy era was idiotic and contrary to American values. Does that make me pro-communism? Only if you're a Republican.

And so what if Andreessen is pro-Colonialism? It seems to have nothing to do with his performance as a VC or his early record as a tech entrepreneur, which is why he's noteworthy.

He's not running for political office, so his political beliefs shouldn't really make a difference. We need to be willing to accept a diversity of belief instead of feigning shock and manufacturing outrage to try to lend undue credence to our own ideas of social equality; doing that is really just an admission that the argument is on shaky ground to start with and that you don't want to allow anyone to attempt to challenge it (for fear that the ground will crack and cause the shaky belief to collapse).

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

#98

Post by jccc »

temp wrote: post #76
jccc wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Which interpretation is at least as uncharitable as the one that thinks he said India should have remained a colony of Britain?

Any other (more sane) interpretation might be a really, really profoundly stupid statement, as well. I don't care and am not qualified to argue those.

The point is that we can't have meaningful conversations when so many people jump immediately on the misinterpretation of a statement that is most useful for bringing out the hate for the one who spoke it.

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

#99

Post by Brakenshire »

nileshtrivedi wrote: post #27
tosseraccount wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mughal Empire , sectarianism and caste system crippled India, not Britain.

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

That's prior to the industrial revolution compared to after the industrial revolution. It's the same story with India, Russia and China - during that period the global economy shifted from being overwhelmingly defined by agriculture and other products of manual labour (and therefore being heavily dependent on population) to being defined by industrial production. Britain treated India as an extractive economy, were involved in many abuses and crimes, and certainly held back India's development (the lack of literacy even in the 1940's is the most clear-cut example), but it's an enormous stretch to say that India under the Mughals or the other regional rulers would suddenly have made India into an industrial superpower.

You can see in Russia, in the absence of any colonialism, the enormous struggle which there was to transform an economy dependent on manual labour, and with an elite dependent on feudal social structures, into a modern economy. I would separate the issues of abuses/crimes and the issues of development in the sense that the abuses were perpetrated due to moral failings, of power-hunger, racism, and greed, but development is not just about morality, it's about having the right policy and the right trajectory for society. In terms of development, the really damaging attitude was that India's ancient culture should not be disturbed to make way for industrialization, and this was an opinion shared by many well-meaning British and also Indians, pre and post independence.

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

#100

Post by [deleted] »

numair wrote: post #56

First, a disclosure: I hate Facebook, I think Free Basics is evil, and I think Marc Andreesen says a lot of stupid shit. That being said, this whole uproar is just more proof that social media is totally, utterly broken. Let me explain. While I think Marc is on the board of an evil company and that his thought process on this matter is incredibly ignorant, I really appreciate the fact that he shares his point of view…

[deleted]
Post reply on HN