Why do you hate Freedom? Why don't you move somewhere without free speech? Some of them are quite nice places - just don't say anything against the party line.
There are millions of immigrants who would be happy to take your place, to enjoy & defend the freedom of speech that you hold in such low regard.
In one of my first jobs we had a senior programmer with a white beard, who started programming in the days of punch cards. He could write a dozen languages, but was at that time was a Python expert - back when Python was bleeding-edge new. I think we all learned a lot from him, and the code quality of the project was probably a lot higher due to his influence.
But yeah, that's a rare thing to see in recent years.
Mandatory promotions? Oh noez!!! What if people *want* to stay dead-end code monkeys their entire career, until they are fired at age 35? What about *those* people?
Wait, I don't understand - how would any of those features help Big Brother spy on us even more?
You know what they say in Surveillance Valley: if it doesn't snoop like a deranged stalker or arbitrarily restrict freedom of speech, it's not REAL innovation!
It's time for President Trump to get out his trust-busting stick and break up Alphabet.
Alphabet has grown too big and has too much market power. It has repeatedly shown itself ready to abuse its power to stifle competition, and to censor the free expression that's necessary for a healthy democracy.
Android - separate company Chrome - separate company Gmail - separate company Search - separate company Surveillance / "advertising" - separate company
The two axis graph pushed by certain libertarian factions is certainly an improvement over the dumb single axis left/right graph. But it's still a gross over-simplification.
"Poverty is the DEFAULT state for humanity, with the average person working 12-16 hour days 6 days a week just to survive."
Oh my brother, you are woefully misinformed about history.
The horrific living conditions you describe are typical of the urban proletariat in the mid-19th century. 19th century capitalism can be seen as one of the all-time nadirs of human civilization. Such conditions were not at all typical of previous eras in European history. Peasants, serfs, and even most literal slaves in antiquity did not work nearly so much nor in such bad conditions.
The brutal living conditions of this new urban proletariat - a social grouping that had not existed a hundred years prior - appalled men of all classes. It directly inspired movements of anti-capitalist resistance such as communism, socialism, and the corporatist forbearers of fascism.
You might enjoy reading _The Great Transformation_ by Karl Polanyi for a detailed history of the development of capitalism and it's attendant poverty, squalor, & misery. Note that Polanyi would probably be described as "rightist" in contemporary American politics, illustrating again the bogusness of the left/right dichotomy.
"many hours of labour which would be required for me to go out and sheer a sheep, turn the wool into yarn or thread, and then weave the yarn into a pair of socks. Whereas Amazon gains maybe a dollar."
Problem: it's not actually possible for you, as a dispossessed urban worker, to actually do that you just said. Should you attempt to do so, you will be coercively prevented by armed agents of the state, on the basis of private pooperty.
That is, unless you are a member of the vanishingly small group of self-sufficient farmers who post on Slashdot.
You're so right! Well-paid workers is a terrible thing, something we must avoid at all costs. I mean, just think of it - teachers earning enough money to rent a small apartment WITHOUT ROOMMATES - oh the outrage, the OUTRAGE! This, my friends, is why unions are bad.
DOWN WITH UNIONS!!!1!! Down with wages! Hard working people deserve less! I've got mine, so screw you Jack!
Even putting aside your childish disparagement of traditional conceptions of deity - you seem to have missed the point. Many things may prevent a person from murdering, robbing, & raping. Faith in a God or gods is one of them. Faith in a false god like "science(tm)" or "ethics". Social instincts, social conformity. Fear of retaliation or fear of police. Laziness.
My point is simple and humble. It makes no claims about sociology or mass behavior. It is simply that there is no morality, no right & wrong, without a god. It is far from an original claim, having been made most famously by Nietzsche, and some would say by Maimonides long before that.
Slashdot Mirror
Cybernetic totalitarianism will solve ALL our problems!
President Geedub Boosh said, "they hate us because of our freedom". Well, we sure fixed that!
"Freeze Peach!"
Why do you hate Freedom? Why don't you move somewhere without free speech? Some of them are quite nice places - just don't say anything against the party line.
There are millions of immigrants who would be happy to take your place, to enjoy & defend the freedom of speech that you hold in such low regard.
We have become our own caricature of the Soviet Union.
In one of my first jobs we had a senior programmer with a white beard, who started programming in the days of punch cards. He could write a dozen languages, but was at that time was a Python expert - back when Python was bleeding-edge new. I think we all learned a lot from him, and the code quality of the project was probably a lot higher due to his influence.
But yeah, that's a rare thing to see in recent years.
Mandatory promotions? Oh noez!!! What if people *want* to stay dead-end code monkeys their entire career, until they are fired at age 35? What about *those* people?
You prefer to work with ostriches?
Just keep you head stuck firmly in the sand and sing "la la la!!". If you do, proletarianization and globalization can't touch you!
Wait, I don't understand - how would any of those features help Big Brother spy on us even more?
You know what they say in Surveillance Valley: if it doesn't snoop like a deranged stalker or arbitrarily restrict freedom of speech, it's not REAL innovation!
It's time for President Trump to get out his trust-busting stick and break up Alphabet.
Alphabet has grown too big and has too much market power. It has repeatedly shown itself ready to abuse its power to stifle competition, and to censor the free expression that's necessary for a healthy democracy.
Android - separate company
Chrome - separate company
Gmail - separate company
Search - separate company
Surveillance / "advertising" - separate company
Shouldn't that be dnc.cn?
It was like Faceboot, but less evil.
"I enjoyed USENET newsgroups focused on my interest, but they got buried in spam"
I wonder how much of that spam was paid for by Google, Faceboot, and other antisocial media companies?
"still possible by incorporating, working as a contractor instead of an employee"
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
I take it you've never tried the measures you suggest... 'Cuz when the do that you pay a lot more tax, not less.
I find it endlessly amusing that Vladimir Lenin wrote a book titled _"Left-Wing" Communism: An Infantile Disorder_.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik..."Left-Wing"_Communism:_An_Infantile_Disorder
"do it right and you can have a high standard of living and never pay taxes."
What are you smoking, and why aren't you sharing it with the rest of us?
The two axis graph pushed by certain libertarian factions is certainly an improvement over the dumb single axis left/right graph. But it's still a gross over-simplification.
+1 for one of the very best Tacitus quotes
"What you never mention is the alternatives"
Redistribution of land & productive capital. =)
"Poverty is the DEFAULT state for humanity, with the average person working 12-16 hour days 6 days a week just to survive."
Oh my brother, you are woefully misinformed about history.
The horrific living conditions you describe are typical of the urban proletariat in the mid-19th century. 19th century capitalism can be seen as one of the all-time nadirs of human civilization. Such conditions were not at all typical of previous eras in European history. Peasants, serfs, and even most literal slaves in antiquity did not work nearly so much nor in such bad conditions.
The brutal living conditions of this new urban proletariat - a social grouping that had not existed a hundred years prior - appalled men of all classes. It directly inspired movements of anti-capitalist resistance such as communism, socialism, and the corporatist forbearers of fascism.
You might enjoy reading _The Great Transformation_ by Karl Polanyi for a detailed history of the development of capitalism and it's attendant poverty, squalor, & misery. Note that Polanyi would probably be described as "rightist" in contemporary American politics, illustrating again the bogusness of the left/right dichotomy.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik...
"many hours of labour which would be required for me to go out and sheer a sheep, turn the wool into yarn or thread, and then weave the yarn into a pair of socks. Whereas Amazon gains maybe a dollar."
Problem: it's not actually possible for you, as a dispossessed urban worker, to actually do that you just said. Should you attempt to do so, you will be coercively prevented by armed agents of the state, on the basis of private pooperty.
That is, unless you are a member of the vanishingly small group of self-sufficient farmers who post on Slashdot.
Thank you, Dr Pedant, for those original and enlightening thoughts.
You're so right! Well-paid workers is a terrible thing, something we must avoid at all costs. I mean, just think of it - teachers earning enough money to rent a small apartment WITHOUT ROOMMATES - oh the outrage, the OUTRAGE! This, my friends, is why unions are bad.
DOWN WITH UNIONS!!!1!! Down with wages! Hard working people deserve less! I've got mine, so screw you Jack!
Even putting aside your childish disparagement of traditional conceptions of deity - you seem to have missed the point. Many things may prevent a person from murdering, robbing, & raping. Faith in a God or gods is one of them. Faith in a false god like "science(tm)" or "ethics". Social instincts, social conformity. Fear of retaliation or fear of police. Laziness.
My point is simple and humble. It makes no claims about sociology or mass behavior. It is simply that there is no morality, no right & wrong, without a god. It is far from an original claim, having been made most famously by Nietzsche, and some would say by Maimonides long before that.
will Facebook get called out for meddling in an election
Sounds like a good topic for congressional hearings.
Here's a more complete article that explains the type of content that was removed.
Even the WaPo semi-official propaganda story you linked makes it obvious that Facebook censored legitimate American political activists.
Why do you hate freedom of speech? Do you suppose that your faction will always be in power?