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Things That Happen in Silicon Valley and Also the Soviet Union

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Re: Things That Happen in Silicon Valley and Also the Soviet Union

#91

Post by joefourier »

imbokodo wrote: post #80
WindowsFon4life wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Links?

You can just go to Wikipedia and look Russia: American Expeditionary Force, North Russia - American Expeditionary Force, Siberia China: Second Opium War - Eight-Nation Alliance ...I could point to dozens more for China, the latest article would probably be... Hainan Island Incident Saudi Arabia: United States withdrawal from Saudi Arabia

All of the above invaded many other countries themselves, and their citizens do not enjoy nearly the same quality of life and liberty as those living in United States.

Re: Things That Happen in Silicon Valley and Also the Soviet Union

#92

Post by danharaj »

neuland wrote: post #62
shadowtree wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A good test is your view on the 2nd Iraq War. For background, as facts matter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War "After 9/11, the Bush Administration national security team actively debated an invasion of Iraq. On the day of the attacks, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld asked his aides for: "best info fast. Judge whether good enough hit Saddam Hussein at same time. Not only Osama bin Laden."[72] President Bu…

I'm not really sure how the 2nd Iraq War is a testament to American evil. It sounds to me like you're saying the invasion was unjustified? But, is there really anyone who thought Saddam was a good guy? He was very obviously a brutal dictator. So, at the very least there's one fewer of those around. Sure, WMD turned out to be a total fabrication and the Iraq War ended up being a misguided attempt at democracy building…

> Even if the only outcome (as it seems to be) is getting rid of a dictator,

Innocent people died, friend.

Re: Things That Happen in Silicon Valley and Also the Soviet Union

#93

Post by ryandrake »

closeparen wrote: post #63

> living five adults to a two room apartment This one has become terrifyingly normalized - even within the industry, people who don’t live this way are decadent irresponsible pigs. People who resent living this way are entitled redneck whiners. And despite all that, don’t you dare suggest you’re not really a member of the evil elite 1%.

See also the “dense urban apartments are the only morally acceptable housing solution” trope that emerges from every Bay Area Housing thread.

Re: Things That Happen in Silicon Valley and Also the Soviet Union

#94

Post by sneak »

zug_zug wrote: post #12

"- being told you are constructing utopia while the system crumbles around you" This is the one that resonated with me. Obviously "the system" as a whole isn't objectively crumbling by traditional measures like GDP, but there were things that could give that feeling: Homeless sleeping in the subway and on the main streets, the smells, crime so rampant it's basically ignored (my car was broken into > 5 times), working…

Except that one was driven by actual scarcity, and the other is driven simply by people who think eating the cheapest calories ever produced in history is simply gross.

Re: Things That Happen in Silicon Valley and Also the Soviet Union

#95

Post by sneak »

jpzisme wrote: post #14
21 wrote: post #7

> the United States as a whole is depicted as evil by default So true. The USA is viewed worse than China, Russia or Saudi Arabia. I also see a lot of it on HN.

I'll go ahead and say the United States is the greatest country the world has ever seen. It's not perfect, but once you live in other countries for a bit, even if you enjoy the experience, you appreciate the U.S. a lot more.

I lived in Germany for ten years. I like the US even less now.

What makes you believe that what you say is true?

Re: Things That Happen in Silicon Valley and Also the Soviet Union

#96

Post by ryandrake »

arethuza wrote: post #31
s3r3nity wrote: post #27

"[T]he economy is centrally planned, using opaque algorithms not fully understood by their users" Loved this thread, but I think this one lost me. Does anyone know to what this is referring and mind explaining? Is this a comment on news feeds in apps, or is it a comment on the odd housing supply / zoning decisions? Or neither?

Possibly because large corporation do internally have a form of central planning - usually using Oracle Hyperion (which Google appears to use).... :-) Edit: I based my guess about Google using Hyperion for their financial planning based on the job adverts....

I’ve always found it ironic that the purest examples of communist style central economic planning are found within capitalist corporations. Raise your hand if your company’s budget, hiring, and other resource deployment is done democratically, through a vote.

Re: Things That Happen in Silicon Valley and Also the Soviet Union

#97

Post by sneak »

danharaj wrote: post #92
neuland wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not really sure how the 2nd Iraq War is a testament to American evil. It sounds to me like you're saying the invasion was unjustified? But, is there really anyone who thought Saddam was a good guy? He was very obviously a brutal dictator. So, at the very least there's one fewer of those around. Sure, WMD turned out to be a total fabrication and the Iraq War ended up being a misguided attempt at democracy building…

> Even if the only outcome (as it seems to be) is getting rid of a dictator, Innocent people died, friend.

Hundreds of thousands of people. Some estimates put the number at a million.

Re: Things That Happen in Silicon Valley and Also the Soviet Union

#99

Post by RestlessMind »

394549 wrote: post #68
mc32 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The one thing that you didn’t get in the Soviet Union was everyday crime, well, what we understand as crime. Sure they could and did send people off to the camps for weird [political and crimes against the state] offenses, but property crimes and such were close to non existent.

> The one thing that you didn’t get in the Soviet Union was everyday crime, well, what we understand as crime....but property crimes and such were close to non existent. This isn't about the Soviet Union, but another Communist country. I recently visited China, and was surprised to see that literally every apartment window had aftermarket bars installed (and every enclosed balcony was surrounded by a cage), even 20 s…

True that, for China. When I visited China, Beijing / Shanghai felt safer than San Francisco, especially when walking at the night.

Re: Things That Happen in Silicon Valley and Also the Soviet Union

#100

Post by zzzcpan »

ryandrake wrote: post #96
arethuza wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Possibly because large corporation do internally have a form of central planning - usually using Oracle Hyperion (which Google appears to use).... :-) Edit: I based my guess about Google using Hyperion for their financial planning based on the job adverts....

I’ve always found it ironic that the purest examples of communist style central economic planning are found within capitalist corporations. Raise your hand if your company’s budget, hiring, and other resource deployment is done democratically, through a vote.

I don't think it's a secret that Soviet Union "borrowed" a lot of ideas from large capitalist corporations. Of course they are similar.
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