Earlier quoted context omitted.
The amount of harassment that citizens of any state that the US claims to hate at any given time endure on a daily basis is disgusting. Exiled iranians living outside of Iran for 20 years have got their bank accounts closed solely for being Iranian. I can't help but think that these internet services will be going that way in the future. The fact that the "free software" community is not putting their foot down for t…
It's unfortunately hard to separate good and honest foreigners from those that would prefer to destroy other nation states.
GitHub confirms it has blocked developers in Iran, Syria and Crimea
281–290 of 336 posts
Re: GitHub confirms it has blocked developers in Iran, Syria and Crimea
#282If Crimea was unwillingly annexed by Russia, then the sanction is punishing the victim instead of the criminal. If Crimea people genuinely supported the unification with Russia and received sanction for that, then it is a blatant attack on Crimean people's freedom.
There's a lot of whataboutism going on in this thread, but it is clear that these sanctions exist for reasons, and for Crimea, those are pretty solid reasons.
The whataboutisms about what other countries may or may not have done is immaterial. If you want to put some people who happen to live in the crimean region who cannot access and internet service in the same category as downing an airliner and ethnic cleansing, good luck.
Re: GitHub confirms it has blocked developers in Iran, Syria and Crimea
#283Earlier quoted context omitted.
You realize that sanctions also kill people through lack of supplies like medicine being available, people being unable to economically support themselves, and, if the sanctions cause the government to collapse, all the death that results from that. So let’s not pretend sanctions are somehow nonviolent.
These countries are run by some of the most violent and oppressive regimes in the world. Let’s not pretend that the US is responsible for the quality of life of the people living there. These sanctions are entirely non-violent. The actual word you’re looking for is harmful. They’re designed to be harmful, economically. Responding to regimes like this with economic pressure is most certainly preferable to actual viole…
Re: GitHub confirms it has blocked developers in Iran, Syria and Crimea
#284Earlier quoted context omitted.
Everything that reduces quality of life kills people in some way. Heck, I commute through a town that back in the day was rich enough to prevent the highway from being expanded. I bet a couple people have died in ambulances in gridlock there. Sanctions are a heck of a lot less violent than bombs, or some tit for tat response (which would probably eventually escalate to bombs). They're basically one step up from taxes…
But how many lives were saved from not having a fast moving road running alongside the town. Everything is good and bad.
This is king of going off on a tangent though.
Re: GitHub confirms it has blocked developers in Iran, Syria and Crimea
#285Earlier quoted context omitted.
You realize that sanctions also kill people through lack of supplies like medicine being available, people being unable to economically support themselves, and, if the sanctions cause the government to collapse, all the death that results from that. So let’s not pretend sanctions are somehow nonviolent.
These countries are run by some of the most violent and oppressive regimes in the world. Let’s not pretend that the US is responsible for the quality of life of the people living there. These sanctions are entirely non-violent. The actual word you’re looking for is harmful. They’re designed to be harmful, economically. Responding to regimes like this with economic pressure is most certainly preferable to actual viole…
If so (that Iran falls not because of US sanctions), surely it follows that there is no point to the sanctions?
They would only serve to embitter the targeted population.
Re: GitHub confirms it has blocked developers in Iran, Syria and Crimea
#286We made it point now to avoid all US-based services. While we're not affected by the sanctions yet, it seems like it is a possibility in the future. There's really not a lot of reasons to use Gitlab or Github or Slack or a number of other services. They're not exceptional in any way and can be replaced by other open-source or commercial projects.
Re: GitHub confirms it has blocked developers in Iran, Syria and Crimea
#287I know lots of Iranian people and they are universally kind generous lovely people. I hate the way Iran is demonized so politicians can point out an enemy. We were flat out lied to about Iraq. Demonization of Iran is no different.
Irans government is pretty backwards. The Iranian society is and was much more open a few decades ago. Truly a sad story of development in the completely wrong direction.
You can blame the US for fucking that up, you do realise that?
The US overthrew the democratically elected Mossadegh and put the Shah (a despot) in his place as ruler. The years after were characterised by massive unrest and (understandable) anti-US sentiment, eventually culminating in a fall into populism, arriving finally at the rise to power of the Ayatollah.
Re: GitHub confirms it has blocked developers in Iran, Syria and Crimea
#288Re: GitHub confirms it has blocked developers in Iran, Syria and Crimea
#289Earlier quoted context omitted.
Don't build a system to circumvent sanctions if you're within the reach of the US Government, AKA much of the world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_extradit...
There's room for building instruments like this at a state-sponsored level in, say, the EU. The EU has already been working on a special clearing house that would help European businesses circumvent the US-imposed sanctions. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/06/system-circumvent-san...