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The Great Firewall of China, Continued
rcs1000 writes "Slate (no longer owned by Microsoft, and therefore an acceptable place to find stories...) has a terrific article on The Filtered Future and how China's censorship is changing - for the worse - the Internet. The piece makes a few points: firstly, China is really trying (largely succefully) to seperate its Internet from the rest of the World; secondly, it may be possible to use technology to circumvent restrictions, but that makes them no less onoreous; thirdly, the sheer invisibility of the restrictions makes them worse (when Google doesn't even show up articles about democracy, that's no good thing); and finally, some Western companies are actively co-operating with the Chinese government in their censorship. Is this the beginning of the end for the global, unregulated, uncensored, Internet?"
Anonymous, distributed blogging on top of the I2P protocol.
Slate articles were posted on /. even when they were owned by MSN. I particularly remember this one, which links to a Slate article recommending Firefox over IE.
Blame the confusion between free enterprise and democracy for the sorry spectacle of companies from supposedly "democratic" countries going out of their way to cater to the whims of a supposedly "communist" country.
For a long time free enterprise did equal democracy. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union was held up as the prime example of a non-capitalist and non-democratic state. Here was proof for the peoples of the developing world that democracy went hand-in-hand with capitalism. China's success proved that this need not be the case.
Some free enterprise appears to be necessary to promote democracy: the right to be as rich as the corrupt bureaucrat next door. But China proved that it's possible to get rich in a supposedly socialist setting even if you're not a card-carrying member of the party. You can make money if you know when to shut up.
I'm a sci-fi vegan: I don't want the aliens to think we have as much right to live as the fried chickens we eat.
Telenor may be the major, but not the only ISP in Norway. I am surfing from Norway using NextGenTel as my ISP, and they are at least not telling their users that they have any kind of filtering. They have a policy close to this: "We supply the bandwidth and don't care what you use it for (as long as you don't break any laws)." The only complaints I have got is when they think your macheene is used as a zombie.
fuck you
AIDS only causes harm -- high economic development, which has been retarded by the disease, will naturally lead to 1 and 2 child societies -- just look at Western Europe
What, are you @#!%ing nuts? China does not "redistribute wealth". Since Deng Xiaoping's reforms after Mao died, China has pursued economic development. The CCP redifined several Marxist terms, and came up with the idea that socialism is not incompatible with economic policies such as private ownership of the means of production and free markets. China is absolutely stuffed to the gills with free markets nowadays. It's like the Marco Polo days...buy stuff, transport it elsewhere, and sell it.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
Well, I just read this article from an Internet connection in Shanghai. It will be interesting to see if it posts.
The Moore-Murphy Law: The number of things that will go wrong will double every 2 years.
We like to think that free societies are happy and successful because they are free and open, and in fact the example of their success will encourage others.
China is now trying to prove the opposite. They are trying to control their own people, and motivate them through a shared sense of national purpose and recovery of past greatness.
The last government that tried this was the Nazis. And it took millions of lives to suppress that threat.
The government of China is replaying the experiment. But they have time, numbers, capital, and unlimited reserves of patience on their side.
We are now engaged in the last great test of freedom, people. Wake up, we live in interesting times.
It is a persistant and unfortuneate myth that only people who have nothing to lose will fight. Most people who work effectively at overthrowing any given government ARE middle class, educated, etc. The peasants provide foot soldiers later when full scale fighting breaks out. The history of China provides a good example.
But before full scale fighting breaks out, you need people who actually have power to start the war. Look at the Islamist who really cause problems: they are well educated people from middle class backrounds.
Usama Bin Ladin indicated there was an Iraq 9-11 connection. His three demands were:
1) And end to US occupation of Saudi Arabia (the troops where there primarily to defend it against Iraq)
2) And end to the sanctions against Iraq
3) An end to aid to Israel
As a result of the Iraq war 2 of this 3 demands have been essentially met.