Live data from Hacker News

Iraq blocks Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Instagram, shuts down internet

netblocks.org

211–220 of 325 posts

Re: Iraq blocks Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Instagram, shuts down internet

#211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The opposite is often true. For instance, in Guatemala and Chile the US helped overthrow democratic governments and installed totalitarian regimes.

To be fair, they weren't totalitarian. That's absurdly overstating things. North Korea or Khmer Rouge Cambodia were totalitarian governments.

From the Wikipedia article on the Pinochet regime [1]:

> The regime was characterized by the systematic suppression of political parties and the persecution of dissidents to an extent unprecedented in the history of Chile. Overall, the regime left over 3,000 dead or missing, tortured tens of thousands of prisoners, and drove an estimated 200,000 Chileans into exile.

From the Wikipedia article on Carlos Castillo Armas [2]:

> Upon taking power Castillo Armas, worried that he lacked popular support, attempted to eliminate all opposition. He quickly arrested many thousands of opposition leaders, branding them communists. Detention camps were built to hold the prisoners when the jails exceeded their capacity. Historians have estimated that more than 3,000 people were arrested following the coup, and that approximately 1,000 agricultural workers were killed by Castillo Armas's troops in the province of Tiquisate. Acting on the advice of Dulles, Castillo Armas also detained a number of citizens trying to flee the country. He also created a National Committee of Defense Against Communism (CDNCC), with sweeping powers of arrest, detention, and deportation. Over the next few years, the committee investigated nearly 70,000 people. Many were imprisoned, executed, or "disappeared", frequently without trial.

Those don't sound totalitarian to you?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_dictatorship_of_Chile...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Castillo_Armas

Re: Iraq blocks Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Instagram, shuts down internet

#212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fortunately, we're not all bastards

Wanting to protect your own civilization and way of life doesn't make one a bastard. It's this kind of divisive rhetoric that has spurned the division we see today and the rise of hard-right nationalism. Please learn to be somewhat more rational and civil in your discourse.

Extremists always whine 'you made me do it' rather than take responsibility for their actions. It's just a gambit to increase their rhetorical leverage and need not be taken seriously.

Re: Iraq blocks Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Instagram, shuts down internet

#213
post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US conflict with Iraq was unjustified and based on blatant lies. Whatever their reasons for invading, they were certainly to further their own interests, the economic boost of a war machine and rebuilding infrastructure, geo-politics, etc. The interests of the "poor Iraqi people" come about dead last on the list of reasons the wars occurred. So "protecting your civilisation and way of life" from the fallout of an…

No. It's not my problem. It's not our problem. The endless guilt trip ends here. We are not obliged to take a single soul from these countries. Our only obligation is to leave those areas the hell alone and look after our own civilization. They have radically different ideas than us on how society should be run. That means both mass immigration from those countries and our own attempts at spreading liberal democracy…

If your country is a signatory to the UN Convention on Refugees then yes, it is your problem whether or not you feel happy about that.

Re: Iraq blocks Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Instagram, shuts down internet

#214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this argument equivalent to "You can't say you support single-payer healthcare unless you run a hospital from your garage" or "You can't say you support NASA unless you have an orbital rocket launch pad in your garden"?

Not really. With his pithy comment, lawnchair_larry touches on an interesting aspect of this discussion. Many of those who support mass 3rd-world immigration (engaging in much grandstanding and moral preening in the process) are entirely removed from the actual consequences of it. They have no "skin in the game" so to speak as they know 3rd-world immigrants will not be settling in their neighborhoods (or guest bedroo…

Utter BS, a specious argument we've heard a million times before (often from Larry, who has been here a long time). You should go for a more subtle sty;e, right wing trolls are always endorsing pithiness, perhaps because of Andrew Anglin's fondness for that adjective in his Daily Stormer trolling guides. I'm sure you would not wish to be mistaken for keeping such noisome company.

Re: Iraq blocks Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Instagram, shuts down internet

#215
post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US conflict with Iraq was unjustified and based on blatant lies. Whatever their reasons for invading, they were certainly to further their own interests, the economic boost of a war machine and rebuilding infrastructure, geo-politics, etc. The interests of the "poor Iraqi people" come about dead last on the list of reasons the wars occurred. So "protecting your civilisation and way of life" from the fallout of an…

The social costs of the US directly meddling in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya and elsewhere, along with the subsequent fallout that came from this meddling, has not fallen on the USA. It has fallen almost solely on Europe. If the US were providing adequately for its victims, the Middle East taking in their fellow Muslims, and China showing some semblance of humanity in offering a home to some, we wouldn't be…

> If the US were providing adequately for its victims, the Middle East taking in their fellow Muslims, and China showing some semblance of humanity in offering a home to some, we wouldn't be seeing the rise of nationalism in Europe that we now are.

I don't think you can pin the rise of nationalism solely on migration - non-European countries are also experiencing sharp increase in (right-wing) nationalism - including the US which you noted hasn't bourne the social cost.

My pet theory is that nationalism is on rise due to economic frustration post-great recession, as well as a loss of social memory on how awful war is. I remember reading that the big wars tend to happen every 3 generation - I bet nationalist sentiment would closely track that, and our last big war was WWII

Re: Iraq blocks Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Instagram, shuts down internet

#216
hey guys, I want to take this opportunity to ask if anyone here was born in the early 70s in Baghdad and went to Baghdad College high school (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad_College) in the early to late 80s. We left in 87 to London, UK then Boston, US after that, just before the end of the war with Iran, and I'd like to reconnect with any classmates/old friends who may also be into tech... I'm sure everyone is all over the world by now, in different places. Thank you, and take care wherever you are.

Re: Iraq blocks Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Instagram, shuts down internet

#217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Deploying and maintaining radio jamming devices is _way_ more difficult and expensive than telling an ISP to shut down service.

Depends on the frequencies and types of antennas used. Doesn't take much to disrupt a radio-based service (people do this by accident, that's why RF regulations exist everywhere). It's not that much of an expense for a government to set up a few antennas and make them put out half a megawatt of noise each.

You can also use directional antennas to find and destroy RF jammers

Re: Iraq blocks Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Instagram, shuts down internet

#219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. It's not my problem. It's not our problem. The endless guilt trip ends here. We are not obliged to take a single soul from these countries. Our only obligation is to leave those areas the hell alone and look after our own civilization. They have radically different ideas than us on how society should be run. That means both mass immigration from those countries and our own attempts at spreading liberal democracy…

If your country is a signatory to the UN Convention on Refugees then yes, it is your problem whether or not you feel happy about that.

And what will the UN do if we chose not to comply because the original intent of said convention is now being abused as an excuse for mass third-world immigration?

No, I'm serious, what will the UN, a cabal of unelected bureaucrats who I have never voted for, do to my country if we don't comply with said convention?

Re: Iraq blocks Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Instagram, shuts down internet

#220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The social costs of the US directly meddling in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya and elsewhere, along with the subsequent fallout that came from this meddling, has not fallen on the USA. It has fallen almost solely on Europe. If the US were providing adequately for its victims, the Middle East taking in their fellow Muslims, and China showing some semblance of humanity in offering a home to some, we wouldn't be…

> If the US were providing adequately for its victims, the Middle East taking in their fellow Muslims, and China showing some semblance of humanity in offering a home to some, we wouldn't be seeing the rise of nationalism in Europe that we now are. I don't think you can pin the rise of nationalism solely on migration - non-European countries are also experiencing sharp increase in (right-wing) nationalism - including…

> I don't think you can pin the rise of nationalism solely on migration - non-European countries are also experiencing sharp increase in (right-wing) nationalism - including the US which you noted hasn't bourne the social cost.

Hold on. The US has also seen massive demographic change due to migration (just not from migrations from the Middle East). Indeed there have been US politicians and other mainstream figures openly celebrating the "end of white America".

Post reply on HN