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By visiting Silicon Valley am I supporting the US government's covert wars, extrajudicial drone strikes and interference in the affairs of other countries? Not

By visiting Silicon Valley am I supporting the US government's covert wars, extrajudicial drone strikes and interference in the affairs of other countries? Not in any meaningful way. This is an absurd argument.

abalone 9y ago
It's a hypocritical argument, not an absurd one. One could argue that it's also wrong to uncritically celebrate the technological achievements of Silicon Valley. Well over a million people have been killed in U.S. wars of aggression (Vietnam, Iraq, etc.) and there are very direct ties between SV high tech funding and the Pentagon. Exhibit A: DARPA.[1] Even more direct than in China. A lot of what SV does is commercializing military technology developed at taxpayer expense. Autonomous vehicles and Siri are just a couple recent examples.[2][3] [1] https://www.darpa.mil/about-us/darpa-history-and-timeline https://www.darpa.mil/about-us/darpa-history-and-timeline [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARPA_Grand_Challenge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARPA_Grand_Challenge [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CALO https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CALO
- jjtheblunt 9y ago
  Vietnam was not a US war of aggression: the US came at the request of the French presence as the communist north tried to take the French allies in the south. The result was a mess, sadly, predictably.
  - thebread 9y ago
    No. America supported colonialism (France), then later suspended the Geneva agreement of 1954. The agreement required elections across both north and south that they knew Ho Chi Minh would win. That beget what is known in Vietnam as the American War. Vietnam struggled for 30 years to be one country. Ho Chi Minh took assistance from the OSS in WW2 and styled the Vietnamese declaration of Independence on the American one. He turned to the Communists when America decided colonial rule was more important than freedom.
  - seanmcdirmid 9y ago
    Are we talking about the American-Vietnam war or the Sino-Vietnam war? If the latter, China wanted to give Vietnam a taste of Chinese freedom for something going on in Cambodia.
  - abalone 9y ago
    Nonsense. As if one colonial power asking another to come slaughter the population would make it any less aggressive. The French agreed to leave and support elections with the Geneva Accords. The U.S. propped up a dictator and organized a campaign of brutal suppression and terror, then outright bombed the hell out of peasants in the south starting in 1962 under JFK to block a political settlement. That's as aggressive as it gets.
- drpancake 9y ago
  Granted it's hypocritical unless the original commenter applies the same principle to every country that he or she visits — which would be an absurd way to live.
volgo 9y ago
Don't forget systematically imprisoning its black population. 1/3 of male African American are locked up in U.S. prisons. Think about that. One third.
- tlrobinson 9y ago
  > 1/3 of male African American are locked up in U.S. prisons Huh, no. I agree it's much too high, but it's more like 2.3% according to the 2010 US census: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistics_of_incarcerated_African-American_males#Incarceration_by_race_and_ethnicity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistics_of_incarcerated_Afr... (I think that includes women too, but still nowhere near 33%)

abalone 9y ago

It's a hypocritical argument, not an absurd one. One could argue that it's also wrong to uncritically celebrate the technological achievements of Silicon Valley. Well over a million people have been killed in U.S. wars of aggression (Vietnam, Iraq, etc.) and there are very direct ties between SV high tech funding and the Pentagon. Exhibit A: DARPA.[1] Even more direct than in China. A lot of what SV does is commercializing military technology developed at taxpayer expense. Autonomous vehicles and Siri are just a couple recent examples.[2][3] [1] https://www.darpa.mil/about-us/darpa-history-and-timeline https://www.darpa.mil/about-us/darpa-history-and-timeline [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARPA_Grand_Challenge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARPA_Grand_Challenge [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CALO https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CALO

jjtheblunt 9y ago
Vietnam was not a US war of aggression: the US came at the request of the French presence as the communist north tried to take the French allies in the south. The result was a mess, sadly, predictably.
- thebread 9y ago
  No. America supported colonialism (France), then later suspended the Geneva agreement of 1954. The agreement required elections across both north and south that they knew Ho Chi Minh would win. That beget what is known in Vietnam as the American War. Vietnam struggled for 30 years to be one country. Ho Chi Minh took assistance from the OSS in WW2 and styled the Vietnamese declaration of Independence on the American one. He turned to the Communists when America decided colonial rule was more important than freedom.
- seanmcdirmid 9y ago
  Are we talking about the American-Vietnam war or the Sino-Vietnam war? If the latter, China wanted to give Vietnam a taste of Chinese freedom for something going on in Cambodia.
- abalone 9y ago
  Nonsense. As if one colonial power asking another to come slaughter the population would make it any less aggressive. The French agreed to leave and support elections with the Geneva Accords. The U.S. propped up a dictator and organized a campaign of brutal suppression and terror, then outright bombed the hell out of peasants in the south starting in 1962 under JFK to block a political settlement. That's as aggressive as it gets.
drpancake 9y ago
Granted it's hypocritical unless the original commenter applies the same principle to every country that he or she visits — which would be an absurd way to live.

volgo 9y ago

Don't forget systematically imprisoning its black population. 1/3 of male African American are locked up in U.S. prisons. Think about that. One third.

tlrobinson 9y ago
> 1/3 of male African American are locked up in U.S. prisons Huh, no. I agree it's much too high, but it's more like 2.3% according to the 2010 US census: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistics_of_incarcerated_African-American_males#Incarceration_by_race_and_ethnicity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistics_of_incarcerated_Afr... (I think that includes women too, but still nowhere near 33%)