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The last sentence is odd: > You can’t blame other countries for wanting to tell the American 250s to 0748. 250 = idiot 0748 = go die Which translates: > Yo
by RandomBacon 7y ago
The last sentence is odd:
> You can’t blame other countries for wanting to tell the American 250s to 0748.
250 = idiot
0748 = go die
Which translates:
> You can’t blame other countries for wanting to tell the American idiots to go die.
I'm not sure why the author felt the need to include that.
(Edit: Am I wrong for questioning the article?)
- coderholic 7y agoIt doesn't seem odd given the context of the full paragraph, which starts: > Still, the numbers/letters divide is emblematic of the Internet’s built-in bias: Even more than two decades after its birth, it’s still a fundamentally American system. It describes how URLs are frustrating and difficult to use for non-English speakers. Given that, it makes a joke about that frustration using the URL-hacks that are often used in China, which is what the whole prior article covers.
- tlrobinson 7y agoI get that the author wanted to express frustration and be clever, and he had limited examples of “number-based slang” to do so with, but I agree with the parent comment that calling Americans “idiots” and telling them to “go die” seems excessively hostile. Though I also can’t imagine “go die” has the same force in Chinese that it would have in English if it’s a common slang.
- RandomBacon 7y agoThat's my thought too. Apparently HN does not agree which I think is sad. It's interesting information in the article, but being hostile just because the Internet was pioneered in the U.S. and thus a lot of U.S. customs are baked in seems excesive. I like anime, but I'm not hostile to the Japanese because the shows I like are spoken in Japanese with only English subtitles.
- mikeash 7y agoAnime isn’t deeply embedded in society the way the internet is now. Imagine if you had to learn some Japanese just to access your bank account or buy plane tickets.
- RandomBacon 7y agoI have (Japanese, Spanish, and Korean). I didn't hate the host cultures because of it.
- mikeash 7y agoI don’t mean imagine if you had to do that in order to live in those countries. I mean, imagine if you had to do that in the US, to access your American bank down the street.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
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- kev6168 7y agoI think you are correct that '0748' is not a very serious/forceful phrase. Probably only a lighthearted slang used by young netizens in China.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- SiVal 7y agoIt's the New Republic, an intellectual fashion magazine for the American Left. As it says at the bottom of the article, the author is one of their staff writers. Comments about American hegemony and how other countries can't be blamed for wanting American idiots to go die are the kinds of intellectual fashion statements that the New Republic expects its staff writers to make.
- xvector 7y agoI am leftist myself, but these people are insane. "Yeah, let's just go ahead and hand over control of internet standards gift-wrapped to some of the worst human rights abusers in history. What could possibly go wrong?!" If Russia and China were sane, reasonable states that cared for any semblance of human rights, yeah, sure, maybe it'd make sense to make this not American-centric. But as it stands, the author just comes off as naive.
- bmn__ 7y ago> If Russia and China were sane, reasonable states that cared for any semblance of human rights America holding internet standards hostage can't be the answer to that, arrogant selfishness comes across as the motivation. Telephony interoperability standards are managed just fine by an international committee; this can serve as a role model how to govern control of internet standards. http://ITU.int/ITU-T http://ITU.int/ITU-T