This is why both decentralisation (federation or otherwise) and a healthy market are so essential. If one company controls a vast swathe of the internet and lots of people's everyday services, the country it's based in can force changes at the drop of a hat. If dozens of companies and groups provide a service, then it becomes way more difficult for any one person, country or organisation to force their worldviews on others/censor them.
But the only way to force this is to somehow force interoperability for products. Make it so anyone has the right to create a client for a service, or connect one service to another. Make it so whenever you buy a product, that's it you can do whatever you like with it. There can't be a license or terms of service beyond maybe "don't redistribute it as your own".
The distrust is not even ideological anymore, we just want our services to keep working without some guy deciding to nuke everything the next day for literally no reason.
I'd argue that there is far more American infiltration of Canada's political, legal, industrial and trade base that the internet, the one thing that could be cut off from America overnight, should be a distant afterthought.
Before someone flags it because "don't want politics on HN", the problem here is not Trump. He's only revealing the problem with Americans as a whole. Most of the political apparatus, Congress and Senate and the Supreme Court, is spineless and jingoistic. Most of American tech leaders are spineless and jingoistic. Most of the electorate is complacent and relish cruelty. Most of the media - both the old MSM and the new podcasters/YouTubers/tiktokers/etc. are clowns.
Well, travel a bit or familiarise yourself with what’s happening in the rest of the world. There aren’t any countries that are doing any better and lots are doing worse.
It's just the worst "developed" country in the world. Not except for all the rest. Just the worst. No tricks, it's just bad. Money is the only reason to live there. Everything else sucks.
Except the environment in the U.S.—better air quality than almost all of Europe. Except natural beauty in the U.S.— the U.S. has some truly beautiful places to visit and to live. The people are very friendly, especially outside of the cities. These are all good things about the U.S. that has nothing to do with the fact that the U.S. is rich (actually the U.S. being rich is one reason air quality is improving and better than Europe).
BTW, you cannot compare a country ("USA") with a whole continent ("Europe"). The countries in europe aren't all in EU or EEC and are much, MUCH more different than US' states are.
"the environment in the U.S." ... and yet you have abysmal drinking water quality in some areas. A friend of mine from Florida was astonished that you can drink tap water in all of Germany. We can all see how bad USA is with it's environment if we link hydraulic fracking to tap water quality.
Many people over here think that a good amount of US americans are so dumb because of lead poisoning.
Air quality: currently https://waqi.info/de/#/c/5.69/7.058/2.8z doesn't indicate that the USA is vastly better. Yes, there are green areas ... but these are areas devoid of people. Europa has this in Scandinavia. In areas where population and industry density is high the USA isn't that good either.
"beautiful places" I grant you that, but that has every region on earth. You also have many, many more awful places to visit. The last two times I was in the USA locals warned me about "no go" areas. That doesn't exist in Germany, for example.
"people are friendly" no, they aren't. You have the highest crime rate in the developed world. People robbing or mugging me aren't friendly. That "no go" areas even exist is also not a sign of friendly. Your immigration officers are exceptional rude and unfriendly --- virtually the first experience a tourist travelling the USA has with their "friendlyness". And your ICE is even more rude: a swiss journalist from NZZ was e.g. detained for about 2 weeks. Instead of just denied entry and put into the next airplane heading to back Zürich. And the detainment was in one single room with about 30 other illegally-jailed inmates with zero privacy. Even the loo was visible for all. That's US friendlyness ...
Even not rutal... the last time I was in TX I heard on local radio that some whites put a colored man with chains on behind an oversized US car and drove him to dead. And if you are an outlier, e.g. you are from a minitory, or LGBTQ or whatever, then you have a hard time in the friendly rural-ness. Many people leave the ruralness towards towns to gain freedom.
Not at all - cities are worse in Europe than in the US. European policy pushed diesel cars for a long time, and Europe burns a lot more biomass for heating than the US does. Both of those are localized - it's particulates, especially during winter, that are much worse.
This is why both decentralisation (federation or otherwise) and a healthy market are so essential. If one company controls a vast swathe of the internet and lots of people's everyday services, the country it's based in can force changes at the drop of a hat. If dozens of companies and groups provide a service, then it becomes way more difficult for any one person, country or organisation to force their worldviews on others/censor them.
But the only way to force this is to somehow force interoperability for products. Make it so anyone has the right to create a client for a service, or connect one service to another. Make it so whenever you buy a product, that's it you can do whatever you like with it. There can't be a license or terms of service beyond maybe "don't redistribute it as your own".
The distrust is not even ideological anymore, we just want our services to keep working without some guy deciding to nuke everything the next day for literally no reason.
I was going to say there's too much Cory Doctorow in this piece, but it's actually Cory Doctorow. Lots of outrage, no real ask.
I'd argue that there is far more American infiltration of Canada's political, legal, industrial and trade base that the internet, the one thing that could be cut off from America overnight, should be a distant afterthought.
What continent do they think they are on?
Before someone flags it because "don't want politics on HN", the problem here is not Trump. He's only revealing the problem with Americans as a whole. Most of the political apparatus, Congress and Senate and the Supreme Court, is spineless and jingoistic. Most of American tech leaders are spineless and jingoistic. Most of the electorate is complacent and relish cruelty. Most of the media - both the old MSM and the new podcasters/YouTubers/tiktokers/etc. are clowns.
The problem is America, not Trump.
Well, travel a bit or familiarise yourself with what’s happening in the rest of the world. There aren’t any countries that are doing any better and lots are doing worse.
Yep, America is the worst country in the world…except for the rest. ;-)
It's just the worst "developed" country in the world. Not except for all the rest. Just the worst. No tricks, it's just bad. Money is the only reason to live there. Everything else sucks.
Except the environment in the U.S.—better air quality than almost all of Europe. Except natural beauty in the U.S.— the U.S. has some truly beautiful places to visit and to live. The people are very friendly, especially outside of the cities. These are all good things about the U.S. that has nothing to do with the fact that the U.S. is rich (actually the U.S. being rich is one reason air quality is improving and better than Europe).
BTW, you cannot compare a country ("USA") with a whole continent ("Europe"). The countries in europe aren't all in EU or EEC and are much, MUCH more different than US' states are.
"the environment in the U.S." ... and yet you have abysmal drinking water quality in some areas. A friend of mine from Florida was astonished that you can drink tap water in all of Germany. We can all see how bad USA is with it's environment if we link hydraulic fracking to tap water quality.
Many people over here think that a good amount of US americans are so dumb because of lead poisoning.
Air quality: currently https://waqi.info/de/#/c/5.69/7.058/2.8z doesn't indicate that the USA is vastly better. Yes, there are green areas ... but these are areas devoid of people. Europa has this in Scandinavia. In areas where population and industry density is high the USA isn't that good either.
"beautiful places" I grant you that, but that has every region on earth. You also have many, many more awful places to visit. The last two times I was in the USA locals warned me about "no go" areas. That doesn't exist in Germany, for example.
"people are friendly" no, they aren't. You have the highest crime rate in the developed world. People robbing or mugging me aren't friendly. That "no go" areas even exist is also not a sign of friendly. Your immigration officers are exceptional rude and unfriendly --- virtually the first experience a tourist travelling the USA has with their "friendlyness". And your ICE is even more rude: a swiss journalist from NZZ was e.g. detained for about 2 weeks. Instead of just denied entry and put into the next airplane heading to back Zürich. And the detainment was in one single room with about 30 other illegally-jailed inmates with zero privacy. Even the loo was visible for all. That's US friendlyness ...
Even not rutal... the last time I was in TX I heard on local radio that some whites put a colored man with chains on behind an oversized US car and drove him to dead. And if you are an outlier, e.g. you are from a minitory, or LGBTQ or whatever, then you have a hard time in the friendly rural-ness. Many people leave the ruralness towards towns to gain freedom.
> actually the U.S. being rich is one reason air quality is improving and better than Europe
Is it that, or that that there is a lot of USA?
Dilution works very well, until it doesn’t.
Not at all - cities are worse in Europe than in the US. European policy pushed diesel cars for a long time, and Europe burns a lot more biomass for heating than the US does. Both of those are localized - it's particulates, especially during winter, that are much worse.
This is a very valid heading.
[dead]
I m3an, it's more like American has become to stupid to trust.
Ironic coming from someone with poor grammer.
The classic American trope: everyone who doesn't speak English must be stupid.
who said anything about speaking?
> grammer
Say less fam.
Speling is hard.
better than looking like Ai lsop init
Are you trying to confuse my Agent? There is no `init` command on `lsop`. :p