3 ms·

What about patent trolls? What about tobacco, pharmaceuticals, oil? What about airlines with hub monopolies keeping up prices?

paxys 6y ago
> What about patent trolls What's the largest patent troll even worth? $10 million? > What about tobacco, pharmaceuticals, oil All of them are already intensely regulated, the exact opposite of big tech > What about airlines with hub monopolies keeping up prices What's an example of this? The biggest problem with airlines today is that there are too many of them, and so none of them are sustainable.
chrisdhoover 6y ago
All bad things. You should add telecom and cable as well. But here is the thing, search, social media, video, and micro broadcast messaging companies have picked political sides and have become propaganda machines. Even if one agrees with the political side they align with, smart folks should realize the dangers to our liberal traditions. The very idea of inalienable rights, open debate of difficult problems, and protection of minority rights are at risk.
- dantheman 6y ago
  What about newspapers and book publishers - they pick sides and hell even endorse candidates -- how can we allow them to exist?
zbrozek 6y ago
"What about" arguments deflect attention without addressing any real issues. The closest you can get to justifying using one is to acknowledge that regulators have finite bandwidth to deal with issues and that some prioritization is needed. But the regulators' prioritization metrics may not match your own. I don't always work on the biggest or most difficult of my household chores. Sometimes I work on ones I can complete today or which mitigate my most severe annoyances or which have a deadline for some reason.
ginko 6y ago
>What about airlines with hub monopolies keeping up prices? What about them? Flying is way too cheap right now.
wazoox 6y ago
The emergence of a new "tech-feudalism" is even the subject of Cédric Durand's last book: https://www.editions-zones.fr/livres/technofeodalisme/ https://www.editions-zones.fr/livres/technofeodalisme/ Cédric Durand is an economics professor in Paris Sorbonne and Geneva University.
seg_lol 6y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism We fix the things that are broken. Those things are bad but not we are talking about, we should fix those as well. Please participate in a discussion about the topic rather than derail and deflect.

paxys 6y ago

> What about patent trolls What's the largest patent troll even worth? $10 million? > What about tobacco, pharmaceuticals, oil All of them are already intensely regulated, the exact opposite of big tech > What about airlines with hub monopolies keeping up prices What's an example of this? The biggest problem with airlines today is that there are too many of them, and so none of them are sustainable.

chrisdhoover 6y ago

All bad things. You should add telecom and cable as well. But here is the thing, search, social media, video, and micro broadcast messaging companies have picked political sides and have become propaganda machines. Even if one agrees with the political side they align with, smart folks should realize the dangers to our liberal traditions. The very idea of inalienable rights, open debate of difficult problems, and protection of minority rights are at risk.

dantheman 6y ago
What about newspapers and book publishers - they pick sides and hell even endorse candidates -- how can we allow them to exist?

zbrozek 6y ago

"What about" arguments deflect attention without addressing any real issues. The closest you can get to justifying using one is to acknowledge that regulators have finite bandwidth to deal with issues and that some prioritization is needed. But the regulators' prioritization metrics may not match your own. I don't always work on the biggest or most difficult of my household chores. Sometimes I work on ones I can complete today or which mitigate my most severe annoyances or which have a deadline for some reason.

ginko 6y ago

>What about airlines with hub monopolies keeping up prices? What about them? Flying is way too cheap right now.

wazoox 6y ago

The emergence of a new "tech-feudalism" is even the subject of Cédric Durand's last book: https://www.editions-zones.fr/livres/technofeodalisme/ https://www.editions-zones.fr/livres/technofeodalisme/ Cédric Durand is an economics professor in Paris Sorbonne and Geneva University.

seg_lol 6y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism We fix the things that are broken. Those things are bad but not we are talking about, we should fix those as well. Please participate in a discussion about the topic rather than derail and deflect.