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Marc Andreessen Pro-Colonialism Tweet Riles India Tech World

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Re: Marc Andreessen Pro-Colonialism Tweet Riles India Tech World

#61

Post by MLR »

nileshtrivedi wrote: post #27
tosseraccount wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mughal Empire , sectarianism and caste system crippled India, not Britain.

You should find out what India's share of world GDP and trade was when the british arrived.

I really hate this argument, the change in GDP share is because the West industrialised and the East didn't, before that it was mostly a matter of population, per capita GDP didn't matter so much.

Not to say I have any idea what would have happened without colonialism, but thinking that India would have retained their share of world GDP is naive.

Re: Marc Andreessen Pro-Colonialism Tweet Riles India Tech World

#62

Post by dpweb »

jccc wrote: post #14

I don't particularly like the guy, but is there a campaign of deliberate misinterpretation going on? Yes, probably a really stupid thing to say, and perhaps wrong for many reasons. No, he did not say India should have kept Britain as its colonial power, or any of the other incredible interpretations now flying around the Twittersphere. Jonny Axelsson: Anti-semitism not the opposite of semitism. Now whether anti-colon…

There's a case to be made about the good things colonialism brought for countries. Not a great one and you'll get shouted down however.

But this fracas really distracts from the more important issue - "net neutrality" (Colonialism is dead after all, at least early 20th century style..) The Indian government seems quite appropriate in their concerns. This whole 'denying poor people free stuff' is very likely seen as a subterfuge. Maybe 'owning' parts of the net is the new colonialism.

Re: Marc Andreessen Pro-Colonialism Tweet Riles India Tech World

#63

Post by geofft »

british_india wrote: post #9

There is one salient example: fresh water in India. In 1947, the British departed with 24/7 pressurized water across the developed parts of India. Now, the British-built water system has all but collapsed. Instead of pressurized water, the water comes weakly and only intermittantly. What difference does that make, you ask? Well, if a pressurized system leaks, the leak causes water to leave the pipe. In a non-pressuri…

Hm, I'm curious to see more about this. I was a young child when I last visited my family in India, many years ago, but I don't remember a particular need to filter water. And if I google 'india reverse osmosis', the second result (the first is a sales site) is a Times of India article about how it's a scam:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/Reverse-osmosi...

Re: Marc Andreessen Pro-Colonialism Tweet Riles India Tech World

#64

Post by mikeash »

geofft wrote: post #35
TheCowboy wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The tone of your comment comes off as drama. When it doesn't include the details of the tweet, people are left guessing. If no mention of the other things you find questionable are explained, then it's just flaming. This isn't to defend him, but to suggest this style doesn't help solve the problem of sloppy social media commentary.

Marc Andreessen has a well-documented record of blocking people liberally for very little reason: https://medium.com/@aminatou/to-marc-andressen-6d09239f0065 https://twitter.com/triketora/status/677597576183480320 http://money.cnn.com/2015/12/23/technology/marc-andreessen-b... https://blogdotitrendcorporationdotcom.wordpress.com/2014/05... And, confusingly enough, doesn't really respect other people's blocks: https:/…

I don't see what's wrong with this, specifically. It's his account, he can block whoever he wants.

People take this stuff way too personally. I've blocked a few people simply because I don't like their stuff in my feed. One of them bugged me for months afterwards to unblock him, even though it's completely inconsequential and I don't say much interesting anyway.

IMO this is a flaw with twitter. Blocks are two-way: I don't see their stuff, and they don't see my stuff. But whenever I'm blocking someone, it's just because I don't want to see their stuff. There's no reason to tie those together.

In any case, how a person manages their own Twitter account is their business. If they use it to say something ridiculous then by all means attack it, but going after them merely for blocking people is ridiculous.

Re: Marc Andreessen Pro-Colonialism Tweet Riles India Tech World

#65

Post by jsprogrammer »

> India’s decision to block a free Internet service from Facebook Inc.

How does Bloomberg lead with this "fact"? Facebook's offering is not Internet service, but a whitelisted pipe. Does Bloomberg normally willingly eat up and repeat corporate propaganda?

Re: Marc Andreessen Pro-Colonialism Tweet Riles India Tech World

#66

Post by npalli »

british_india wrote: post #9

There is one salient example: fresh water in India. In 1947, the British departed with 24/7 pressurized water across the developed parts of India. Now, the British-built water system has all but collapsed. Instead of pressurized water, the water comes weakly and only intermittantly. What difference does that make, you ask? Well, if a pressurized system leaks, the leak causes water to leave the pipe. In a non-pressuri…

Developed parts of India made up about 10% in 1947. Today Urban india is almost 35% and the population is 4 times larger. So effectively an increase of 14 times in number of people that are urbanized. Highly doubt the British system would scale to current population and density levels.

We just saw reports of Flint, Michigan and multiple cities having excessive lead and contamination in water supply etc. I wouldn't use that to suggest British need to come back and take over the US.

Re: Marc Andreessen Pro-Colonialism Tweet Riles India Tech World

#68

Post by morgante »

This headline is simply incorrect and unfair to Andreessen. Yes, it was a stupid tweet, but it does not mean that Andreessen is "pro-colonialism."

I think the anti-communism of the McCarthy era was idiotic and contrary to American values. Does that make me pro-communism? Only if you're a Republican.

Re: Marc Andreessen Pro-Colonialism Tweet Riles India Tech World

#69

Post by nileshtrivedi »

mikeash wrote: post #38
jccc wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FYI it was socialism that held back the Indian economy during the 70s and 80s. Which is exactly what he says he meant: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11072752

If I were him, I'd say I meant that too! The original was catastrophically dumb. Was it because it's what he actually believes, or because he didn't spend more than fifteen microseconds considering his words? Beats me. Fun to watch, though.

I found the tweet harmless. It was what happened after that which was interesting: https://twitter.com/nixxin/status/697289669671841793

Re: Marc Andreessen Pro-Colonialism Tweet Riles India Tech World

#70

Post by mikeash »

jccc wrote: post #53
mikeash wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I were him, I'd say I meant that too! The original was catastrophically dumb. Was it because it's what he actually believes, or because he didn't spend more than fifteen microseconds considering his words? Beats me. Fun to watch, though.

Even when dealing with people I don't like and with whom I almost 100% of the time disagree, I've found it much better to try first to understand what the person was actually trying to say before jumping reflexively to the most uncharitable interpretation of what the person said.

OK, how exactly are we supposed to do this here?

The original statement may have different interpretations, but none of them result in mapping "anti-colonialism" to "socialism." There's just no way to get from A to B actually looking at what was said.

Then he comes along and says he meant something completely different. No relation to the original statement. Apparently a moment of total brain confusion.

Do we take him at his word? I suppose we could, but then we're basically giving everybody a free pass to retroactively alter any statement they've made in any way if they don't like the reaction.

For what it's worth, I don't dislike Mr. Andreessen and have only a vague idea of who he even is (something to do with Netscape, right?).

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