Fun fact: the SOPA page on Wikipedia was still accessible during the blackout.
It wasn't initially, they corrected that fairly early in the day though.
Jon Stewart calls out congressional nerd bashing over SOPA
81–90 of 161 posts
Re: Jon Stewart calls out congressional nerd bashing over SOPA
#82it points to a big shift in society and the economy. software is now a cornerstone of the world economy. modern life runs through the internet. even if you personally avoid the internet, you depend on it. but the baby boomer generation, represented by these politicians has not understood it. they know engineers as the guys building houses, bridges, aeroplanes, rockets. but software? it is an invisible world to them.…
This is why it is hard working in companies that don't have a software/hardware related business model. To them, sitting in front of a computer all day means you're not working. I also have higher expectations from members of congress, people with allegedly good education ... "nerds"? Really?
Apparently congressmen haven't passed the age of 12.
How is this kind of language acceptable? When they listen to expert opinions from psychiatrists, do they say "let's hear from the head-shrinker"?
Re: Jon Stewart calls out congressional nerd bashing over SOPA
#83Re: Jon Stewart calls out congressional nerd bashing over SOPA
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
In this case, however, they're laughing at you, not with you.
The joke is on them, however. "Nerds" always win in the end. This whole SOPA thing - or variations thereof - will only be small hiccup in the grand scheme of things. The advancement of technology and its ensuing freedom will trump any current setbacks. When the older generations move on and those who have grown up with the power of technology at their fingertips are in power, who have relatively open minds and unders…
"The joke is on them, however. "Nerds" always win in the end.".
But which ones - the tech nerds or the legal nerds?
Re: Jon Stewart calls out congressional nerd bashing over SOPA
#85it points to a big shift in society and the economy. software is now a cornerstone of the world economy. modern life runs through the internet. even if you personally avoid the internet, you depend on it. but the baby boomer generation, represented by these politicians has not understood it. they know engineers as the guys building houses, bridges, aeroplanes, rockets. but software? it is an invisible world to them.…
This is why it is hard working in companies that don't have a software/hardware related business model. To them, sitting in front of a computer all day means you're not working. I also have higher expectations from members of congress, people with allegedly good education ... "nerds"? Really?
Actually, that bit brought this entire thing into focus for me.
All those congresspeople were simply regurgitating, verbatim, what lobbyists from the MPAA were whispering in their ears right before any of that televised coverage. "these are just a bunch of angry nerds"...
I now understand that this is what most, if not all congresspeople do on any issue brought before them.
We have to get more involved in the political process, people.
Our country is being run into the ground by self-serving, self-obsessed sociopaths without the humility or brainpower to even do the tiniest bit of their own research on the topics that are guiding this country.
Re: Jon Stewart calls out congressional nerd bashing over SOPA
#86Is "geek" too cool of a word now that they have to reach for the calculated more insulting "nerd"? (my apologies to proud nerds - but my point is that's not how they were using it) So if people who know what they are doing with computers are the equal of geeks, do politicians think they are the dumb jocks in this high school infantile throwdown?
These politicians used the insult "nerd" because they are trying to paint SOPA protesters in a negative light and to distance themselves from responsibility for the legislation's ill effects. ("How should I have known that would happen after we passed SOPA? I'm not a nerd!")
I said this already above, but they used that word because that's how lobbyists from the MPAA framed the debate for them. All of these politicians are simply repeating the talking points that lobbyists feed them. Extend this to any given issue.
We, as a community, must get more involved in the political process.
Re: Jon Stewart calls out congressional nerd bashing over SOPA
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
For last couple of centuries or so, each generation grows up with unprecedented change in their lifetime. For example, I enter elementary school, the internet started to take off and browsers were primitive. Nowadays, we can enjoy the convenience of movie streaming, fast browsers, and extraordinary rich video games(Dwarf Fortress, I am looking at you). So it doesn't make sense to me that congressmen are literal dinos…
you're seriously too young to understand. i am 32 years old. the first time i went online was in 1999. before that i had personal computers, yes. but no internet whatsoever. can you even imagine a world without google and wikipedia? i got my first mobile phone in that time frame. my parents were born after ww2. your time as a youth shapes you, forms your understanding of the world. you translate everything you see in…
I don't believe that for a second.
I'm 45 years old. My parents were born during ww2. I grew up with black and white tv (okay, partly because we couldn't afford color yet...). But my dad, an unskilled immigrant, ran IT companies for most of his life, and my mother, well into her 60's, got an iPad before I did. Hell, she was on Skype when I still had a landline... She even owns a friggin' Wii.
If there are people who don't seem to "get" this new world, it's not because because they are uneducated (both my parents' education ended with highschool) or because they are "old". It's because they don't want it. They've seen more change during their lifetime than you can imagine, some it they supported (or even made happen), some of it they were against. They're perfectly capable of dealing with changing times.
These politicians see a change that erodes their power and gives it to the people, and they simply don't want that to happen. That's why they belittle us by calling us "nerds", because they consider us a threat, not because they don't "get" it.
They get it quite well, thankyouverymuch, which is exactly why they say what they say and do what they do.
Re: Jon Stewart calls out congressional nerd bashing over SOPA
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
"human history" covers a lot of territory. in terms of fundamental changes, nothing comes close to agriculture (let population densities skyrocket, enabled pyramid-style social setups) and writing (let knowledge accumulate rapidly from generation to generation).
Not to mention the wheel (that ubiquitous cliche), the discovery of bronze (an alloy of copper and tin that allowed for more durable weaponry), the Haber-Bosch process; and so on.
Unlike computing none of those things reached near-ubiquity within one generation though.
Re: Jon Stewart calls out congressional nerd bashing over SOPA
#89And we are surprised by this? as the US is like the UK where a lot if not the majority of politicians and the 1% are lawyers.
Out in the real world "engineers" are considered the little chap in oily overalls (and a flat cap) who "fixes up the roller dont cha know"
Oh and that's how real engineers are seen in teh UK not some hobby php programmer cobbling together some online shoe shop by cutting and pasting
Re: Jon Stewart calls out congressional nerd bashing over SOPA
#90it points to a big shift in society and the economy. software is now a cornerstone of the world economy. modern life runs through the internet. even if you personally avoid the internet, you depend on it. but the baby boomer generation, represented by these politicians has not understood it. they know engineers as the guys building houses, bridges, aeroplanes, rockets. but software? it is an invisible world to them.…
This is not a generational issue, this same kind of political issue has existed in all times in various forms. It is an issue of power and control, power to control distribution channels and who may produce what and when. Or framed in a better way, before the internet it was about the radio and before that it was about the telegram. The radio was not allowed to be free, pirate stations where setup all over the place…
> This is not a generational issue, this same kind of political issue has existed in all times in various forms. It is an issue of power and control, power to control distribution channels and who may produce what and when.
And note the parallels to Stallman's "The Right to Read" article: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
SOPA/PIPA is just the latest attempt to bring about a world very much like what Stallman described.