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[...] tech companies are under fire for creating problems instead of solving them. At the top of the list is Russian interference in last year's presidential election. Social media might have originally promised liberation, but it proved an even more useful tool for stoking anger. The manipulation was so efficient and so lacking in transparency that the companies themselves barely noticed it was happening.
The election is far from the only area of concern. Tech companies have accrued a tremendous amount of power and influence. Amazon determines how people shop, Google how they acquire knowledge, Facebook how they communicate. All of them are making decisions about who gets a digital megaphone and who should be unplugged from the web.
Their amount of concentrated authority resembles the divine right of kings, and is sparking a backlash that is still gathering force.
Is it that the tech companies are creating problems for society as a whole, or merely disrupting the status quo for the old Powers-That-Be?
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday October 14 2017, @06:11PM (13 children)
I'm speaking for the US though, so...
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by NotSanguine on Saturday October 14 2017, @07:36PM (10 children)
Guess what? So am I. Just because you want to call center-right corporatists like Chuck Schumer leftists doesn't make it so.
I'm not sure why you continue to insist that anyone who doesn't share your beliefs must be a commie/socialist/evildoer bent on the destruction of these United States. As an American who believes strongly in the ideals upon which this country was founded, I take significant umbrage to that characterization.
Rather than insisting on being the special snowflake who has the all the right answers, why not engage in reasonable discourse rather than just dismissing anyone who disagrees with you? If you did, you might find your reasoning, ideas and rhetorical skills to be a bit less fuzzy.
Just sayin'.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 15 2017, @05:17AM
This is the typical blinkered crap from people who just think of the `left' in terms of the degree to which they approximate socialism. There are other left/right measures (and other political definitions that have no bearing on what you think of as left/right). Chuck Schumer (purports to) support labour over capital, special interests over general, poor people over rich, incremental collectivisation and curtailment of civil liberties in favour of centralisation of power. By most people's standards (not yours, of course, you're WAY too special for such common standards) that makes him solidly left, just with an american sheen.
In other news, there's a special on right now for big, steaming mugs of get-over-yourself. Snowflake.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday October 15 2017, @10:59AM (8 children)
Dude, you just finished saying left and right are relative to location so stop trying to argue the opposite now.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Informative) by NotSanguine on Sunday October 15 2017, @01:17PM (7 children)
I said nothing of the kind. Reread what I wrote.
In fact, go back and re-read my posting history. I've never changed what I said about the pretty far right (Rs) and center-right (Ds).
That hasn't changed an iota since before I came here.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday October 15 2017, @01:38PM (6 children)
Then you're wanting to use the international standard on the US. It's irrelevant both to the conversation and strictly national politics.
Pardon, you're wanting to use the cherry picked western European nations standard on the US. Internationally we are a far, far left nation if you consider all the nations of the world. Therefore I reject your statement entirely on the grounds that it is not relevant to any conversation except as a deception tactic.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 15 2017, @03:34PM (1 child)
Eeech, TMB you are just incapable of backing down even slightly from any position. It is a bad trait to have, it is much more common for adaptability to be needed than a stubborn "my way or the highway" attitude. For all your talk of hating all politicians and being a fan of critical thinking you sure seem to display unusual loyalty towards Republicans and a tendency to vilify whoever disagrees with you.
Grow up.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday October 15 2017, @03:40PM
Only when I'm right. If you have an argument I can't blow holes in, I'm happy to modify my position. When's the last time you changed one of yours?
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Informative) by NotSanguine on Sunday October 15 2017, @09:07PM (3 children)
You moved from claiming I'm wrong to complaining that I'm using the wrong yardsticks.
All without ever producing any evidence to support your wildly inaccurate claims that the right has no voice in the media and that the somewhat less reactionary center-right Ds are somehow heirs to Lenin and Marx. Please.
As for the US being less right-wing than most other countries, which ones are you referring to? No, really. I'm pretty confused. Just about *every* developed democracy except the US has socialized (or at least non-profit insurance companies required by law) healthcare (and generally better health outcomes too), much stronger safety nets, higher taxes, less income inequality, etc., etc., etc.
So what places are you referring to? Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Pakistan, China and Russia? Do you think we should be further right than those places?
Or are you referring to other places? Do tell.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday October 15 2017, @10:26PM (2 children)
I've said you're twisting words to make them fit your statement instead of speaking a true statement to begin with. What the rest of the world thinks has zero bearing on US internal political alignments.
Like this:
So, you've gone from comparing the US to the world and when called on the inaccuracy you've switched to a cherry picked group of western European nations. I flatly reject your comparison for that reason.
Start listing off all countries in your head. At least 2/3 of them are going to be to the right of the US. That puts us firmly in the middle of the left of the political spectrum worldwide. Which is entirely irrelevant because we were talking about internal US politics, so external definitions of any kind do not matter. At all.
You really should drop this argument. You're wrong and you know it.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Informative) by NotSanguine on Sunday October 15 2017, @11:40PM (1 child)
Western Europeans? You mean like Japan? S. Korea? Australia?
And if you mean "left" to say that we're better and freer than Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Egypt and most other countries, then I agree.
You're twisting *my* words. Perhaps I wasn't clear WRT to the left to right *spectrum*. You say that there are many more authoritarian regimes than the United states.
I say that *on the political spectrum* the "right" in the US is very much on the right side of the political *spectrum* and that what you laughingly call the "left" in the US is also on the right side of the political spectrum.
Those two statements are not mutually exclusive.
I'd also assert that if the more reactionary portions of the R's had their way, we'd live in a place more like Saudi Arabia than Australia. More like China than Denmark.
I'll say it again and use small words so you'll be sure to understand, The number of places that are authoritarian hellholes doesn't change the political spectrum itself.
Here's some actual information about such things: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_spectrum [wikipedia.org]
And here's an interesting application: https://www.politicalcompass.org/uselection2016 [politicalcompass.org]
There won't be any surprise with you as to the results of this test: https://www.politicalcompass.org/test [politicalcompass.org]
Perhaps you might surprise yourself though.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday October 16 2017, @12:53AM
Again, you move the goalposts to an irrelevant set. You're also wrong but let's leave that for now. International definitions of right and left are the wrong measure for internal comparisons. Period. This means your entire argument is pointless.
Now, back to you being wrong. You really, really need to study world levels of social spending if you believe even the right-wing of US politics is anywhere but solidly on the left of the international scale. Pay particular attention to us spending more on entitlements than anyone but Sweeden. Now if you were talking the liberty vs. authoritarian axis, that's an entirely different matter. Start listing off the nations of the world with freedom of speech, religion, the press, association, yadda-yadda-yadda enshrined in their constitution. It's going to be a very short list and it will include few if any of your favored European nations.
So, no, despite what your extreme-left professors taught you in college, the US is not a poor-hating, authoritarian hell hole. Not by any rational standard.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday October 15 2017, @05:54AM (1 child)
Really? I didn't know that you are an US press officer. I always thought you speak just for yourself.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday October 15 2017, @11:01AM
For, about, blah blah blah. You're parsing words like a Clinton.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.