The House just voted to wipe out the FCC’s landmark Internet privacy protections • Hacker News Board

Re: The House just voted to wipe out the FCC’s landmark Internet privacy protections

#531

Post by warlox » Sat, Apr 01, 2017, 12:39 AM UTC

alphapapa wrote: post #529

warlox wrote: post #492

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the previous election we had a milquetoast liberal running against a ur-fascist demagogue. It is clear which one was the lesser of two evils, and now we are seeing the effects of America's choice in this bill and others. If Hillary Clinton was president or if the Democrats had control of one chamber of Congress, this bill never would have passed.

> It is clear which one was the lesser of two evils Obviously there is significant disagreement on that issue. > If Hillary Clinton was president or if the Democrats had control of one chamber of Congress, this bill never would have passed. Yes, because the left is happy for government agencies run by unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats to continually enlarge their regulatory domain. Other people consider that a bad…

Sometimes the outcomes are better when appointed technocrats to decide things, particularly when the people are manifestly incapable of making good decisions.

Of course, there is something to be said for allowing people to screw up their own government irreparably and be forced to suffer the consequences.

Re: The House just voted to wipe out the FCC’s landmark Internet privacy protections

#532

Post by ericd » Sat, Apr 01, 2017, 6:21 PM UTC

ClayShentrup wrote: post #475

ericd wrote: post #408

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ranking by preference isn't exactly hard. Most 18+ year olds can handle it.

There's empirical evidence saying otherwise. http://scorevoting.net/Lorenzo.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2q_eMUGCU5U&t=487

Ah I meant not hard to vote your preferences, it can definitely be hard to understand the outcomes. I think you might be right that that's what the parent was talking about. Nice work injecting some research into this thread.

Re: The House just voted to wipe out the FCC’s landmark Internet privacy protections

#533

Post by abritinthebay » Mon, Apr 03, 2017, 4:15 PM UTC

pnathan wrote: post #363

abritinthebay wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given this vote was split along party lines this smells of whataboutism.

This vote had a bad result, and the Rs were pushing the bad thing. But a bit of puttering around older newspaper articles reveals the Democrats have also done their fair share of problematic votes here. Obama's Administration was not particularly sympathetic to these sorts of concerns, although more so than the current Administration. The EFF had more than a few things to say. I don't mean to exculpate the Rs or go "…

> I don't mean to exculpate the Rs or go "ruh ruh whatabout those bad Democrats".

Well... good. It did read a bit that way however. But you know, tone, text, internet, etc

Re: The House just voted to wipe out the FCC’s landmark Internet privacy protections

#534

Post by pnathan » Mon, Apr 10, 2017, 5:59 PM UTC

latj wrote: post #291

pnathan wrote: post #19

This, right here, is the consequence of the withdrawal from politics many geeks advocated very strongly in an earlier time. "Everything is corrupt, it doesn't matter"... turns out to only be a viable philosophy when things mostly work well enough . What we have in protections and freedoms were purchased through a ton of hard work by prior generations: the liberty to slack and think that it just works ok is a nice sid…

Here is an alternative account of what has happened. The government is trying to reduce protections of civil liberties, the environment, etc. Why? Because the party in control of the legislative and executive branches are removing those protections. Why? Because it is in their best interest and because they promised to do so in their election campaigns. Why? A. Because their corporate sponsors want less regulation. B…

I'm sorry for not responding to your post earlier.

> We need to stop assuming that bad things are happening because a few bad apples tricked roughly half the population to support them. They are making America great again. Look at any point in time before now in American history and you will find less civil liberty, more oppression of workers, and more destruction of the environment. It was promised. Its being delivered. And no one was fooled. It is straight up what half the population asked for.

You're correct by and large. I won't get into the remarks on the (effective) propaganda efforts Fox & crew have done. Much deception has happened there.

But, this specific bill is troublesome in part because the lawmakers often are very ignorant of what's going on, much like many of the senior judges in the US. This is one part generational divide, one part tech avoiding law, and one part lobbying. Some of that is avoidable by engagement, and if adult geeks had realized this in the 80s & 90s instead of disengaging from politics, the world would be different.