Why the World Is Drawing Battle Lines Against American Tech Giants • Hacker News Board

Re: Why the World Is Drawing Battle Lines Against American Tech Giants

#121

Post by yummyfajitas » Thu, Jun 02, 2016, 5:58 PM UTC

wfo wrote: post #111

yummyfajitas wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, due to the way broadcast television works, it's just not possible to cater to minority tastes. There's just no way to have the people who enjoy niche productions to pay the creators of those productions directly. If only there were some sort of global system for distributing niche productions to those subscribers who want to see them. Perhaps some sort of system using minicomputers to transmit the info…

Broadcast television can and has been catering to minority tastes for many, many years as we all know. It just can't bankroll itself by doing this, so it requires public funds or regulations to prop it up. But sometimes making room for minority viewpoints/culture/attitudes is worth interrupting the all-consuming capitalist neoliberal worldview for a moment, if just long enough to allow someone to point out its many f…

Since you seem to have missed the sarcasm, I'll make it explicit.

There's this thing called the internet. It allows minority producers and minority consumers to connect with each other. For example, if you wish to read fiction about the Death Star's project manager, or My Little Pony characters living in the world of Fallout, or a rationalist-themed fanfic rewrite of Harry Potter, you can do so.

There is even erotic fanfic to the aforementioned Harry Potter fanfic.

It's never been easier for producers and consumers to find each other than today. If the stuff the French are trying to protect can't survive in the age of the internet, it's because no one likes it.

Re: Why the World Is Drawing Battle Lines Against American Tech Giants

#122

Post by stcredzero » Thu, Jun 02, 2016, 5:58 PM UTC

ComodoHacker wrote: post #93

verroq wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The irony is that for there to be diversity there must be protectionist policies and xenophobia to preserve it.

Policies maybe, but not necessarily xenophobia. Xenophobia starts where multiculturalism fails. IMHO European multiculturalism has failed not in its idea, but in its implementation.

Xenophobia starts where multiculturalism fails. IMHO European multiculturalism has failed not in its idea, but in its implementation.

Then implementation of multiculturalism is always in a state of partial failure. I guess it always has "bugs?" Intolerance always seems to seep in, even from the most vocal proponents of tolerance. In fact, there seems to be a correlation between how stridently one advocates tolerance and how much intolerance seeps in with it.

Re: Why the World Is Drawing Battle Lines Against American Tech Giants

#123

Post by stcredzero » Thu, Jun 02, 2016, 6:02 PM UTC

orbifold wrote: post #114

yummyfajitas wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't seem to be true. Bollywood is thriving. So are Mexican telenovelas. Chinese influence in culture and technology is on the rise - witness the attempts by the west to clone WeChat. Japanese influence on western movies is so common as to be unremarkable. Maybe the problem with Gaelic, Welsh and French language movies/etc is that they just suck. People learning American alongside their own language, while Am…

French movies don't generally suck, just like not all US produced movies are great. Some are considered classics, for example the work of Godard. A lot of Hollywood movies objectively suck, yet they are billion dollar enterprises. There are plenty examples, such as most of the 4th of July Disaster movies, Transformers, a lot of the super hero movies, etc.. They are objectively trash, yet have a huge impact on young p…

They are objectively trash, yet have a huge impact on young people all over the world.

Like comics. Comics are simply a hot mess. However, they influenced generations of young people, who are now working and running things. Now we are overrun by comic book movies. (Disclosure: I am a comics person.)

I think Theodore Sturgeon got it right. 90% of everything is shite. Humans will still go on creating timeless works of truly great media and art, however. We need to live for the 10%.

Re: Why the World Is Drawing Battle Lines Against American Tech Giants

#124

Post by wolfgke » Thu, Jun 02, 2016, 6:03 PM UTC

criley2 wrote: post #106

hellbanner wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you considered the "non-facebook users" coordinate offline, in-person and can use other technologies like SMS, email, phone calls, IM, chat apps, running into friends at the store, visiting a friend's workplace and "passing the word along" telling friend A who tells friend B?

"and can use other technologies" The fact that they are not using these technologies to stay in touch after choosing to eschew the primary technology demonstrates reality. It's not my job to cater to every individual persons tech interests. If you don't want to use Facebook, thats fine, but you cannot complain when you don't get the benefit of Facebook. If you don't want to own a car, that's fine, but you cannot comp…

> If you don't want to use Facebook, thats fine, but you cannot complain when you don't get the benefit of Facebook.

But I can complain that Facebook has to abide the European data privacy acts since Facebook operates under Facebook Ltd. as an Irish company.

Re: Why the World Is Drawing Battle Lines Against American Tech Giants

#125

Post by dragonwriter » Thu, Jun 02, 2016, 6:03 PM UTC

hodwik2 wrote: post #115

dragonwriter wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Progressives move forever farther and farther to the left, and then accuse the right of "moving right" because we didn't move to your new definition of center fast enough. The individual mandate for purchase of private insurance + subsidy system adopted as "Obamacare" was first proposed by the Republicans and insurance industry lobbyists in opposition to healthcare reform efforts under the Clinton administration. T…

>"The individual mandate for purchase of private insurance + subsidy system adopted as "Obamacare" was first proposed by the Republicans and insurance industry lobbyists in opposition to healthcare reform efforts under the Clinton administration. [...] I don’t recognize this new brand of Republicanism that is afoot now, which I consider to be very reactionary, not conservative in many respects. " That's exactly right…

> That law limited religious freedom.

Well, sure, in that it allowed powerful private entities to engage in religious discrimination adversely affecting the practical religious freedom of less powerful entities and individuals, but in terms of government power, it limited government action more than it was prior to the law (which is why the right pushed it).

> It says that if you can prove a compelling interest, and can prove a law is the least restrictive way to do something, you can do it even though it steps on a person's constitutional right to free exercise

No, it didn't. It said that if you couldn't do that, you couldn't enforce a law affecting religious exercise; it didn't allow government anything that was previously prohibited. (This, in practice, tightened the standards on government from what had been established in case law.

> Medicaid and Obamacare are not legal programs to begin with in a strictly constitutional sense.

Ruling that either the ACA as a whole or Medicaid was unconstitutional would be, while both radically inconsistent with generations of case law and hard to justify textually, at least coherent. Ruling that it was constitutional for Congress to establish Medicaid, initially set standards for participation, fund it by annual appropriations, and set new standards and funding, but not apply the new standards to states that wanted to continue operating under the old standards and only take the share of funding that was attributed to the caseload which would be covered by the old standards was completely incoherent from any perspective related to applying any kind of Constitutional principal, and clear and unmistakeable arbitrary legislation from the bench.

Re: Why the World Is Drawing Battle Lines Against American Tech Giants

#126

Post by yummyfajitas » Thu, Jun 02, 2016, 6:04 PM UTC

orbifold wrote: post #114

yummyfajitas wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't seem to be true. Bollywood is thriving. So are Mexican telenovelas. Chinese influence in culture and technology is on the rise - witness the attempts by the west to clone WeChat. Japanese influence on western movies is so common as to be unremarkable. Maybe the problem with Gaelic, Welsh and French language movies/etc is that they just suck. People learning American alongside their own language, while Am…

French movies don't generally suck, just like not all US produced movies are great. Some are considered classics, for example the work of Godard. A lot of Hollywood movies objectively suck, yet they are billion dollar enterprises. There are plenty examples, such as most of the 4th of July Disaster movies, Transformers, a lot of the super hero movies, etc.. They are objectively trash, yet have a huge impact on young p…

I don't know what you mean by "objectively suck".

If they make a billion dollars it sounds like someone enjoys watching it. The fact is that people want to watch Spider Man's Teenage Heartbreak (or whatever that last Spider Man movie was called). I may not enjoy it, but so what?

Re: Why the World Is Drawing Battle Lines Against American Tech Giants

#127

Post by wolfgke » Thu, Jun 02, 2016, 6:05 PM UTC

yummyfajitas wrote: post #121

wfo wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Broadcast television can and has been catering to minority tastes for many, many years as we all know. It just can't bankroll itself by doing this, so it requires public funds or regulations to prop it up. But sometimes making room for minority viewpoints/culture/attitudes is worth interrupting the all-consuming capitalist neoliberal worldview for a moment, if just long enough to allow someone to point out its many f…

Since you seem to have missed the sarcasm, I'll make it explicit. There's this thing called the internet. It allows minority producers and minority consumers to connect with each other. For example, if you wish to read fiction about the Death Star's project manager, or My Little Pony characters living in the world of Fallout, or a rationalist-themed fanfic rewrite of Harry Potter, you can do so. There is even erotic…

> For example, if you wish to read fiction about the Death Star's project manager, or My Little Pony characters living in the world of Fallout, or a rationalist-themed fanfic rewrite of Harry Potter, you can do so. There is even erotic fanfic to the aforementioned Harry Potter fanfic.

Which all is only tolerated but not allowed by copyright laws.

Re: Why the World Is Drawing Battle Lines Against American Tech Giants

#128

Post by stcredzero » Thu, Jun 02, 2016, 6:07 PM UTC

guard-of-terra wrote: post #83

lbebber wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course not being able to access a website you want (and censorship in general) is not good, but comparing that to slavery is absolutely ridiculous.

Not being able to make choices for yourself is slavery. Slavery is not about hard work or poor conditions. There were plenty free men who had it harder and some slaves that led cushy life. Slavery is about not being a master for yourself.

There were plenty free men who had it harder and some slaves that led cushy life. Slavery is about not being a master for yourself.

Truth. There is a difference between privilege and power. When it comes down to it, we are all only slaves or free by degrees in this world. This world, as it is legally formulated, pretty much codifies Mao's observation that all power comes out of the end of a gun. This is not an exaggeration. It's literally how international law works.

Re: Why the World Is Drawing Battle Lines Against American Tech Giants

#129

Post by wolfgke » Thu, Jun 02, 2016, 6:08 PM UTC

lbebber wrote: post #68

guard-of-terra wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But are you prevented from visiting a wide range of websites? That is them deciding for you what you can and can't do. If you're not Chinese citizen then it's your choice being there. But if you're a Chinese citizen then all choices are made for you, what qualifies you as a slave.

Of course not being able to access a website you want (and censorship in general) is not good, but comparing that to slavery is absolutely ridiculous.

> Of course not being able to access a website you want (and censorship in general) is not good

Which is the same that the west does (they just call it "copyright laws").

Re: Why the World Is Drawing Battle Lines Against American Tech Giants

#130

Post by criley2 » Thu, Jun 02, 2016, 6:11 PM UTC

wolfgke wrote: post #124

criley2 wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"and can use other technologies" The fact that they are not using these technologies to stay in touch after choosing to eschew the primary technology demonstrates reality. It's not my job to cater to every individual persons tech interests. If you don't want to use Facebook, thats fine, but you cannot complain when you don't get the benefit of Facebook. If you don't want to own a car, that's fine, but you cannot comp…

> If you don't want to use Facebook, thats fine, but you cannot complain when you don't get the benefit of Facebook. But I can complain that Facebook has to abide the European data privacy acts since Facebook operates under Facebook Ltd. as an Irish company.

>I can complain about something totally unrelated to a conversation of people being unwilling to use Facebook and expecting everyone to cater to them

OK yeah you can :)