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I don't see how my nationality is relevant. Is it better to deny people of certain countries a few tools towards democratic empowerment? I'm genuinely curious

I don't see how my nationality is relevant. Is it better to deny people of certain countries a few tools towards democratic empowerment? I'm genuinely curious what it is you wish people like me learn from the Arab Spring.

lovemenot 9y ago
It's just that I know of no oppressive regime which produces writers as fluent in English as you are. So I am suspicious of your first claim. The Arab Spring reminds us that technology is a double-edged sword. If I've called it wrong in your case, my apologies. What do you propose we should call the hypothetical USian 50 cent army? The $50 army?
- lovelearning 9y ago
  Then I think your knowledge of government oppression around the world is neither complete nor nuanced. One obvious reason is that the citizens of such countries don't have access to safe platforms to write about their oppression. Which brings us right back to my original comment about the need for democratic empowerment tools so that people around the world atleast can atleast communicate what oppressions exist around the world. But then why is your discussion about me (and my alleged agenda) instead of my message? The claim that technology is a double-edged sword made without any kind of supporting explanation neither enlightened me nor persuaded me to change my original opinions. As for the personal attack, fluency in anything is from individual effort and habits. Your comment actually made me happy that atleast one person in the world thinks my English is good enough to be mistaken for a native speaker's, since I myself think I'm not naturally fluent in it and I usually have to put in extra mental effort to appear to be fluent in it. If you are insinuating that that I'm some kind of a paid propaganda troll for the US government, then it's hands down the weirdest and also funniest insinuation I've faced. Thanks for the giggles!
  - lovemenot 9y ago
    No worries. Take it any way you choose. As I said, if this does not apply to you personally, then a pinch of salt is probably the best way to take it. Your original comment read to me like a call for technology as a solution to authoritarian regimes. I believe the Arab Spring demonstrated that such a view is naive or worse. YMMV.
    - soundwave106 9y ago
      I'm curious about your viewpoint on the Arab Spring. For me, the only role of technology in that incident was that it opened up a window into many of the issues and various conflicts that were often ignored by the various theocratic / dictatorial rulers there. Technology may have made communication a bit easier but it was not the root cause. Most governments have not resolved these issues and conflicts at all, they have merely suppressed them (the recent Iranian protest flare ups show that). So, if anything, I see the governments in these regions as the ones being naive or worse. In the mean time, the country that launched the Arab Spring (Tunisia) seems to have become better off for it as a result -- it was the only one that actually made major structural changes to their government in response. (I do agree that one cannot simply throw technology at these sorts of problems and expect magical solutions to come out of thin air.)
      - lovemenot 9y ago
        Tunisia's democratic success was the reason I was slightly circumspect. I guess I felt lovelearning's original tone was anachronistic. As if we might still believe technology was a force for democracy in and of itself. This tone was often heard 10 years ago. Not so much now.

lovemenot 9y ago

It's just that I know of no oppressive regime which produces writers as fluent in English as you are. So I am suspicious of your first claim. The Arab Spring reminds us that technology is a double-edged sword. If I've called it wrong in your case, my apologies. What do you propose we should call the hypothetical USian 50 cent army? The $50 army?

lovelearning 9y ago
Then I think your knowledge of government oppression around the world is neither complete nor nuanced. One obvious reason is that the citizens of such countries don't have access to safe platforms to write about their oppression. Which brings us right back to my original comment about the need for democratic empowerment tools so that people around the world atleast can atleast communicate what oppressions exist around the world. But then why is your discussion about me (and my alleged agenda) instead of my message? The claim that technology is a double-edged sword made without any kind of supporting explanation neither enlightened me nor persuaded me to change my original opinions. As for the personal attack, fluency in anything is from individual effort and habits. Your comment actually made me happy that atleast one person in the world thinks my English is good enough to be mistaken for a native speaker's, since I myself think I'm not naturally fluent in it and I usually have to put in extra mental effort to appear to be fluent in it. If you are insinuating that that I'm some kind of a paid propaganda troll for the US government, then it's hands down the weirdest and also funniest insinuation I've faced. Thanks for the giggles!
- lovemenot 9y ago
  No worries. Take it any way you choose. As I said, if this does not apply to you personally, then a pinch of salt is probably the best way to take it. Your original comment read to me like a call for technology as a solution to authoritarian regimes. I believe the Arab Spring demonstrated that such a view is naive or worse. YMMV.
  - soundwave106 9y ago
    I'm curious about your viewpoint on the Arab Spring. For me, the only role of technology in that incident was that it opened up a window into many of the issues and various conflicts that were often ignored by the various theocratic / dictatorial rulers there. Technology may have made communication a bit easier but it was not the root cause. Most governments have not resolved these issues and conflicts at all, they have merely suppressed them (the recent Iranian protest flare ups show that). So, if anything, I see the governments in these regions as the ones being naive or worse. In the mean time, the country that launched the Arab Spring (Tunisia) seems to have become better off for it as a result -- it was the only one that actually made major structural changes to their government in response. (I do agree that one cannot simply throw technology at these sorts of problems and expect magical solutions to come out of thin air.)
    - lovemenot 9y ago
      Tunisia's democratic success was the reason I was slightly circumspect. I guess I felt lovelearning's original tone was anachronistic. As if we might still believe technology was a force for democracy in and of itself. This tone was often heard 10 years ago. Not so much now.