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Silicon Valley thought India was its future, now things have changed

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Re: Silicon Valley thought India was its future, now things have changed

#51

Post by cptsmrk »

shash wrote: post #40
Clewza313 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

India is arguably faithfully following the US here, because Modi's populism has more than a few parallels to Trump.

All other things aside, Modi’s first term started in 2014, Trump’s in 2016. Even assuming that one is similar to the other, it raises the question of who’s following whom...

Definitely, if not consciously - I saw earlier today that Trump and his minions propagated the meme that says

"In reality, they're not after me, they're after you. I'm just in the way"

well after Modi, and in the time since it's been adopted by Netanyahu as well. I often wonder why these people are called "nationalists"...

Re: Silicon Valley thought India was its future, now things have changed

#52

Post by cptsmrk »

throwaway4good wrote: post #25

I don't like the crazy Hindu nationalism of current India at all. But the premise of this article is wrong and arrogant. India is a sovereign country and it has every right to define what is legal political discourse and what is not. The idea that the authority on this are some US companies or another outside force is absurd. Media and free speech is regulated all over the world including in the USA. Outright racism…

I'm no lover of these tech giants, but I think you're missing the point if you think there's no difference between Twitter banning Trump and succumbing to pressure from Modi after he threatened their entire Indian staff with arrest.

Re: Silicon Valley thought India was its future, now things have changed

#53

Post by zozbot234 »

mcnultification wrote: post #46

I had to laugh at this one. I'm neither a fan of social media nor the current Indian government, but this article is either ridiculously out-of-touch, or is aimed towards an ivory-tower audience nicely cosseted within universities far away from the country they're writing about. There might've been an idealistic Silicon Valley in the 1990s-2000s, but if it ever existed, it's gone now, replaced by high-growth corporat…

> There might've been an idealistic Silicon Valley in the 1990s-2000s, but if it ever existed, it's gone now, replaced by high-growth corporations

1990s Silicon Valley was "idealistic"? That's news to me, IIRC they were all about "high growth" ventures like pets.com. Idealistic tendencies on the Internet are not altogether unknown of course, but I'm pretty sure you've always had to look for them outside the commercialized SV bubble. And modern day Fake Social Media is highly commercialized as you rightly point out. TikTok even more strongly so if anything.

Re: Silicon Valley thought India was its future, now things have changed

#54

Post by intricatedetail »

mcnultification wrote: post #46

I had to laugh at this one. I'm neither a fan of social media nor the current Indian government, but this article is either ridiculously out-of-touch, or is aimed towards an ivory-tower audience nicely cosseted within universities far away from the country they're writing about. There might've been an idealistic Silicon Valley in the 1990s-2000s, but if it ever existed, it's gone now, replaced by high-growth corporat…

I believe Tik Tok just gathers datasets for CCP to train AI models about foreign face features, voice etc. to improve surveillance etc and could even be used in a war to target foreigners using autonomous drones.

Re: Silicon Valley thought India was its future, now things have changed

#55

Post by cptsmrk »

naruvimama wrote: post #44
zozbot234 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It comes from Christianity for sure but a Western youth culture interpretation of it, heavily influenced by foreign actors from the USSR (see the Mitrokhin papers proving their psyop influence campaigns on Western academia) and Maoist China (via the Gang of Four campaign to "Destroy the Four Olds" of China's traditional heritage, which was hugely influential in Western youth culture). The West used to be acknowledged…

> a promoter of freedom before the 1960s and 1970s That would be ironic considering that they had not completely freed many of their colonies yet.

Sure, we've often failed to live up to our values.

One of the baddest-ass diplomatic moments in modern history was in the 50s when India's UN ambassador read the US Declaration of Independence in protest of its support for colonial regimes in the name of anti-Communism.

But the hypocrisy of the west in applying those values doesn't mean they aren't worthwhile or worth fighting for.

Re: Silicon Valley thought India was its future, now things have changed

#56

Post by hnedeotes »

naruvimama wrote: post #28
publicola1990 wrote: post #12

India somehow had stumbled and took a turn towards the Hindu right wing majoritarianism/ultra nationalism. It has certainly caused long term effects, the pace of reforms has slowed down considerably. Major policy decisions seems to be stuck in limbo for years, for example regarding Walmart: atleast for 10 years Walmart trying to start retail operations in India, but government hasn't given clarity on policy. Similarl…

[flagged]

Yeah, western countries are known for having about 50% of their population relegated to an untouchable status without any chance of social mobility or partaking in the benefits and rituals of the other 50% - and not only in this life, it's for eternity.

Re: Silicon Valley thought India was its future, now things have changed

#57

Post by cptsmrk »

zozbot234 wrote: post #49
random314 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This post is an example of the wild fantasies indulged by the followers of hindutva where India is forever on the precipice of taking over the world intellectually and to an extent territorially. In this future liberalism will be consigned to the garbage can and ethno nationalism and fascism centered on Hinduism will reign supreme. The popularity of yoga is hilariously touted as a precursor of things to come. The pri…

> ethno nationalism and fascism centered on Hinduism will reign supreme. Hey, if nationalism and fascism (ethnic or otherwise) are going to reign supreme anyway in this "Brave New World" of Fake News Media and Fake Social Media, I'll gladly root for the Hindu version over others. I'd rather worship actual cows than the newfangled "sacred cows" that are being pushed by some parts of the West.

It's like you erected two straw men and are trying to convince us one of them is bronze.

Re: Silicon Valley thought India was its future, now things have changed

#58

Post by throwaway4good »

cptsmrk wrote: post #52
throwaway4good wrote: post #25

I don't like the crazy Hindu nationalism of current India at all. But the premise of this article is wrong and arrogant. India is a sovereign country and it has every right to define what is legal political discourse and what is not. The idea that the authority on this are some US companies or another outside force is absurd. Media and free speech is regulated all over the world including in the USA. Outright racism…

I'm no lover of these tech giants, but I think you're missing the point if you think there's no difference between Twitter banning Trump and succumbing to pressure from Modi after he threatened their entire Indian staff with arrest.

Sure when the us authorities want something from big tech, they can just ask nicely. Whereas if other countries wants something similar, they have to ask more forcefully (how forcefully depends on where on the totem pole of civilized nations they are).

Really just shows that big tech is us big tech.

Re: Silicon Valley thought India was its future, now things have changed

#59

Post by colorboy »

izacus wrote: post #24

This seems to be very related to the other article on first page: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27488950 Seems like US tech companies were exporting US politics and values to India (whether by design or by simply forgetting that not all the world is US) and the government decided that doesn't fit their own goals. I see more of this starting to show up as US citizens demand that tech companies take active part…

The fact checking of wuhan lab theory was very well done, wasn't it?

Re: Silicon Valley thought India was its future, now things have changed

#60

Post by colorboy »

random314 wrote: post #41
jaldhar wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can we stop with all this IT cell bullshit? Modi got in because he was more competent than the rajputra of the Nehru dynasty. My family are from Gujarat. We’ve known about Modi since he was governor. We moved out of our ancestral village several generations ago but still return on special occasions because our kuladevi is there. The area is semi-desert. Modi got water from the Narmada dam piped in. Now cash crops can…

He also led pogroms, segregated living areas by religion and promoted rioters and terrorists. Gujarats gdp per capita is only slightly above the median. And IT cell is a reality that has been exposed several times over. Identical copy paste tweets and interviews with ex-it cell employees.

Speaking of copy paste, what happened of the toolkit row? Whether the objective was good or bad, should the people actively trying to trend things be called "IT cell for XYZ"? It feels a bit hypocritical
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