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Former officials say big tech monopoly power is vital to national security

greenwald.substack.com

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Re: Former officials say big tech monopoly power is vital to national security

#191

Post by throwaway_1928 »

nonrandomstring wrote: post #169

National security is the sum total of the individual earned securities of each citizen, including economic, political, social, health, cultural, military and all sorts of security that pertain to the identity we call a nation. What these guys are talking about is something else. They are talking about the security of the security services, their own self interests and the status quo of enmeshed relations between thre…

The national security argument is a red herring. It is in the interest of monopolies to keep their monopolies going. And they have all the money and lobbyists in the world to make it happen.

Re: Former officials say big tech monopoly power is vital to national security

#192

Post by kornhole »

acheron wrote: post #181
kornhole wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course I cannot prove that she still works with intelligence. The funding and direction of such assets is understably obscured. My statement is merely logical conclusion that you can choose to agree with or not.

I see you would be open to my information about how the lizard people run the world. Of course I cannot prove it but my statement is merely a logical conclusion.

You just need to put on the special glasses right? They Live is a great movie. "I came here to kick ass and chew gum, and I'm all out of chewing gum." is one of my favorite lines from it.

Re: Former officials say big tech monopoly power is vital to national security

#193

Post by BuckRogers »

kcatskcolbdi wrote: post #184
BuckRogers wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The lines are clearer than ever for the 21st century. This century has been kicked off with the world struggle between democracy and totalitarianism. People have a choice. Choose the US/Europe/Japan/South Korea/Taiwan, or, the mideast/Russia/China. Many people voted with their feet, migrating to the former nations. Those people have no room to speak as they already voted. I'm missing some players of course, but gener…

> The Russian people are also ultimately responsible here. I would be interested to learn about what steps you've taken to curb the abuses of your government. Surely your own government is not without fault, and through your logic you are responsible for all their transgressions.

That's a Soviet response right there. Everything must be examined objectively. It doesn't matter if someone else committed a crime or has a fault, that doesn't justify crimes of our own.

I'm happy to put myself on the defensive though. Self-examination is a path to enlightenment. I am guilty of many things in life. Some of which I have been punished and others which I never will be. In the portions of the Americas, Asia, and Europe that are healthy democracies, simple political engagement can suffice. Many things others would characterize as "abuses" were actually proxy wars against totalitarian regimes. If the entire world were healthy democracies, it would be a far more peaceful place due to having checks and balances on power. As opposed to dictators.

But that has no relevance here, when there's an active genocide occurring in Ukraine. I'm not part or parcel to that. Others are though.

Re: Former officials say big tech monopoly power is vital to national security

#194

Post by jmyeet »

thesuitonym wrote: post #177
jmyeet wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> To say that the US is in any way responsible for Ukraine is to deny ukraine agency No, it doesn't. This war has highlighted just how simplistic people are in that someone has to be the bad guy and someone has to be the good guy (hint: the US is always the good guy). Any suggestion that more than one party can bear responsibility or blame invites histrionics about victim-blaming. The US friend zoned Ukraine, basical…

>This war has highlighted just how simplistic people are in that someone has to be the bad guy and someone has to be the good guy Everyone who has ever said this has gone on to say that the US is the bad guy. And you're always arguing against people who say "Yes, the US is a bully, but that's not important right now."

To be fair, the US is almost always the bad guy.

I don't say this flippantly. Look at the governments the US has overthrown, rebels supported, natural resources stolen, corrupt leaders supported and arms supplied to those committing genocide (eg Saudi Arabia in Yemen).

Re: Former officials say big tech monopoly power is vital to national security

#195

Post by nonrandomstring »

throwaway_1928 wrote: post #191
nonrandomstring wrote: post #169

National security is the sum total of the individual earned securities of each citizen, including economic, political, social, health, cultural, military and all sorts of security that pertain to the identity we call a nation. What these guys are talking about is something else. They are talking about the security of the security services, their own self interests and the status quo of enmeshed relations between thre…

The national security argument is a red herring. It is in the interest of monopolies to keep their monopolies going. And they have all the money and lobbyists in the world to make it happen.

> they have all the money and lobbyists in the world to make it happen

But not the wisdom.

Re: Former officials say big tech monopoly power is vital to national security

#196

Post by TMWNN »

Harry Truman said in 1945 about the atomic bomb, "We thank God that it has come to us, instead of to our enemies". I feel the same way about FAANG and Silicon Valley as a whole (and Wall Street, and Hollywood, and SpaceX/Tesla, and the Ivy League), that they are in the United States.

That doesn't mean I approve of everything they do. That doesn't mean I can't or won't decry their putting thumbs on scales toward a certain type of bien-pensant ideology. That does mean that, overall, I am very, very glad that they are American instead of Russian, Chinese, or even British, French, or German.

Re: Former officials say big tech monopoly power is vital to national security

#197

Post by sangnoir »

nonrandomstring wrote: post #169

National security is the sum total of the individual earned securities of each citizen, including economic, political, social, health, cultural, military and all sorts of security that pertain to the identity we call a nation. What these guys are talking about is something else. They are talking about the security of the security services, their own self interests and the status quo of enmeshed relations between thre…

Splitting Apple/Google/Facebook/Amazon into 40 smaller tech companies would result in larger tech companies from elsewhere - mostly China - eating American tech industry's lunch on the world stage.

Large companies have massive resources which are a competitive advantage. Having these titanic companies headquartered in the US, beholden to American laws, employing Americans, being a symbol of American prowess abroad and listed on American stock exchanges is in American interests on multiple tangible & intangible levels; including allowing American engineers to command ridiculous salaries and granting the government a lot of soft-power.

The recent sanctions on Russia (and previously Huawei/ZTE) shows howuch that soft-power is worth

Re: Former officials say big tech monopoly power is vital to national security

#199

Post by netizen-936824 »

nonrandomstring wrote: post #185
colpabar wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have to ask - by "diverse", do you mean "different people from different backgrounds who have different viewpoints"? Or do you mean "people who all think the same way but have different skin colors"?

> I have to ask - by "diverse", do you mean "different people from different backgrounds who have different viewpoints"? Yes, people and institutions, and technologies. What gives security is something like "hybrid vigour" obtained by the whole system because it has evolutionary resilience (it's survivable, at least in part, to the greatest range of possible threats) Parts of a resilient system can even be in moderat…

Greater variation in a population makes it more robust to adverse events

Re: Former officials say big tech monopoly power is vital to national security

#200

Post by nonrandomstring »

sangnoir wrote: post #197
nonrandomstring wrote: post #169

National security is the sum total of the individual earned securities of each citizen, including economic, political, social, health, cultural, military and all sorts of security that pertain to the identity we call a nation. What these guys are talking about is something else. They are talking about the security of the security services, their own self interests and the status quo of enmeshed relations between thre…

Splitting Apple/Google/Facebook/Amazon into 40 smaller tech companies would result in larger tech companies from elsewhere - mostly China - eating American tech industry's lunch on the world stage. Large companies have massive resources which are a competitive advantage. Having these titanic companies headquartered in the US, beholden to American laws, employing Americans, being a symbol of American prowess abroad an…

You are talking about power. I am talking about security. They are related, but different.
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