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The town is no longer friendly for business

swombat.com

91–100 of 119 posts

Re: The town is no longer friendly for business

#91
post #88
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm american myself. Please go read what pg has to say about ID.

Do you actually believe America is a fascist country? Also do you have a link to the pg article?

>Do you actually believe America is a fascist country?

If it were we wouldn't be having this conversation. But likewise, I don't think it's the greatest country on earth either (nor can I think of any way such a concept would be meaningful really). To me, it is simply a first world county; it has its good points and its bad points. There are a lot of scary things happening in the western world right now and many of them are spearheaded by the US.

>Also do you have a link to the pg article?

Sure. http://www.paulgraham.com/identity.html

Re: The town is no longer friendly for business

#92
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you really believe the US is fascist?

As it gets more managed, managed democracy grows increasingly indistinguishable from fascism.

If America is a fascist country then the word fascism has no meaning.

Re: The town is no longer friendly for business

#93
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can we discuss the deteriorating situation in the US like adults and not sputter out epithets like "fascist regime"? Discussing US politics "as adults" means being willing to accept and confront difficult truths... such as the fact that our system is drifting precariously close to what can be best described as "fascist." Placing our hands over our eyes, sticking our fingers in our ears, and pretending that we don't s…

> can be best described as "fascist." Only by those ignorant of what fascism was actually like, and lacking the knowledge and/or imagination to label "bad government" with more appropriate labels. No one ever talked about denying that there are problems in the US, but coming up with nonsensical, hyperbolic, historically inappropriate labels for them is not a means to direct the debate in a useful direction, either.

I agree that some people are ignorant of what fascism was actually like, and I'll add that the real issue isn't the historical context of what happened in Pre-WWII Italy or Nazi Germany, but the present day context of what is happening in the US.

Re: The town is no longer friendly for business

#94

"My servers are in Germany." The author's granttree is at .co.uk, but woobius is at .com. My understanding is that the US claims domain over anything serving .com and .org, and that first world countries (do we say that anymore?) will roll over for the US on domain issues.

SOPA claimed dominion over any domain served with an ARIN-allocated IP address. So that also includes .ca (Canada) and Caribbean domains.

If I had a time machine, after I killed Hitler, I'd go back and fix DNS so it didn't map to geography or institutional type. There is just no reason for it.

Re: The town is no longer friendly for business

#95
post #91
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you actually believe America is a fascist country? Also do you have a link to the pg article?

>Do you actually believe America is a fascist country? If it were we wouldn't be having this conversation. But likewise, I don't think it's the greatest country on earth either (nor can I think of any way such a concept would be meaningful really). To me, it is simply a first world county; it has its good points and its bad points. There are a lot of scary things happening in the western world right now and many of t…

Thank you

1) For admitting, if reluctantly, that America is not fascist.

2) The link

I did not claim we were the greatest country, whatever that means, but I can't fathom the 'America is the worst thing since AIDS' attitude on HN. In the next breath they complain its hard to get here.

Re: The town is no longer friendly for business

#96
post #66
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can get AWS on european servers, and iirc that falls under digital safe harbour laws, so the US govt can't get access to it.

I don't think that's true, given that Amazon is a US-based company -- so they can be compelled to turn over data as a result of the Patriot Act, etc. Microsoft admits this is the case with them and I suspect it's true for other cloud providers as well. http://www.zdnet.com/blog/igeneration/microsoft-admits-patri...

This. Having worked for a few multinationals, I know that any US-based business is subject to the Patriot Act, no matter where their servers are located. Obviously they could choose to refuse access, if they really want to experience Guantanamo's tropical weather, but chances are that Interpol agreements will find a way to get that data anyway. Also, as soon as data enters your US-based network they can tap it, which makes your hosting arrangements irrelevant as long as you have US-based clients. The only practical difference is whether relevant US authorities can just show up at the facilities and get cracking or not.

Besides, it's all pointless anyway; any mainstream business (a category including any mainstream cloud provider) wants to be on the good side of the US government, so they'll bend over backwards at the first occasion.

Re: The town is no longer friendly for business

#97
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for your thoughtful reply, and of course your right. But these fascist claims go unanswered here too often and I shouldn't have to dispute it point by point. It's ludicrous. >you are painting all Europeans with the same brush and that is just as stupid as those that like to paint all of the US with one brush. Well I did qualify it with 'whining'. Particularly the ones whose sense of entitlement has become so b…

But these fascist claims go unanswered here too often and I shouldn't have to dispute it point by point. Except you didn't dispute it at all. Instead of making any sort of insightful argument you said it is sad, and I am batshit crazy, spewing nonsense, and that you want to sabotage the European economy. This is really not a good way to make an argument.

You conveniently left out the most important part when you quoted me. It's ludicrous. I know you are intelligent, and said as much, because I read some of your other comments. Unless you work for the Chinese government, the fact that you persist with this idea that America is a fascist country makes me think that something is dreadfully wrong somewhere. It was morning here and I was drinking coffee, maybe it was late there and you were drinking scotch. I'm sorry if I offended you.

Re: The town is no longer friendly for business

#98
post #88
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm american myself. Please go read what pg has to say about ID.

Do you actually believe America is a fascist country? Also do you have a link to the pg article?

How many civil liberties need to be eradicated before you're living in what could be described a fascist regime?

Or a better way to come to think about it is to ask yourself how many civil liberties have been gained compared to how many have been lost over the past 10 years. And do you see this trend continuing?

Re: The town is no longer friendly for business

#99
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The walls are going up, the spy-cams and wiretapping are springing up You mean like England, the land of ubiquitous CCTV?

The US is supposed to be a shining beacon of hope. I'm not quite sure what the UK is supposed to be.

The frequently grey, overcast beacon of hope.

Re: The town is no longer friendly for business

#100
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you actually believe America is a fascist country? Also do you have a link to the pg article?

How many civil liberties need to be eradicated before you're living in what could be described a fascist regime? Or a better way to come to think about it is to ask yourself how many civil liberties have been gained compared to how many have been lost over the past 10 years. And do you see this trend continuing?

I'm sure you would love to argue the fringe cases of specific liberties, but you are claiming fascism.
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