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Imagine a world where all our enemies DIDN'T know how fragile our infrastructure is. False security, surely, but still would be somewhat comforting. :)

by kevwil 6y ago

nine_zeros 6y ago
Firstly, America should strive to not have enemies. We fail at this very badly. Secondly, ZERO countries in the world have non-fragile infrastructure. America's infrastructure is better than most countries and definitely above average even among developed countries, except public transportation.
- eternalsculptor 6y ago
  > Firstly, America should strive to not have enemies. We fail at this very badly. This comment is not based in reality. Does Australia have many enemies? Does South Korea? Does Japan? Taiwan?
- throw0101a 6y ago
  > Firstly, America should strive to not have enemies. We fail at this very badly. This will never be possible, even if America does nothing 'wrong' against anyone else. As long as America (flaws and all) is a better place to live than other countries, and can be used as an example of how things can be better (though not perfect), and so will be a target of powers that don't want their own people thinking about improving things. * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_to_Unfreedom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_to_Unfreedom * https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/apr/15/the-road-to-unfreedom-russia-europe-america-timothy-snyder-review-tim-adams https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/apr/15/the-road-to-un... There are also plenty of bullies out there, who are only checked by American power, and wouldn't mind the US being more isolationist. There are all sorts of problems of how America interacts with the world, but there are many other countries who would do worse things IMHO. America simply existing generates enemies.
  - nine_zeros 6y ago
    America will always have adversaries. But enemies, who what to destroy the country? That's entirely our own creation. We should try to make enemies only when attacked. Not make enemies out of adversaries.
    - rafael09ed 6y ago
      I disagree it's our fault for having enemies if we want to keep our values but regardless we have enemies now and I don't see them going away for a while.
    - throw0101a 6y ago
      > America will always have adversaries. But enemies, who what to destroy the country? That's entirely our own creation. There are innocent people who have done nothing wrong, and yet other folks want them wiped out of existence. I'm sure we can all think of examples from history where this is true, both the recent and distance past.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
Johnny555 6y ago
The problem isn't our enemies knowing how fragile our infrastructure is as much as it Americans not knowing (or not caring) and being unwilling to spend money to make it less fragile.
- wolrah 6y ago
  > Americans not knowing (or not caring) and being unwilling to spend money to make it less fragile. And of course the fact that for the most part those most impacted by these outages aren't the ones making the decisions about what money to spend in the first place. I have no meaningful influence on my ISP's network backbone. I don't even have a real choice in ISP so it's not like I can go to someone else, and they know it. I currently have 500mbit/sec service from my cable company and the only other options are ~50mbit/sec 4G or Frontier DSL that claims 24mbit/sec while rarely syncing beyond 8. Those aren't actual alternatives. If I want to have a connection that can properly support a household full of gamers and streamers, I'm stuck with this unless I want to add another zero or two to my monthly bill for a dedicated fiber line. This is the best case scenario for the majority of the US. One cable company that's mostly decent, one shitty DSL provider, and a few wireless services that have very limited spectrum and data caps. Almost no one in this country has true competition in wired broadband unless they have a municipal fiber service or are lucky enough to be in one of the few cities that Google dumped money in to.

Imagine a world where all our enemies DIDN'T know how fragile our infrastructure is. False security, surely, but still would be somewhat comforting. :)

by kevwil 6y ago

Imagine a world where all our enemies DIDN'T know how fragile our infrastructure is. False security, surely, but still would be somewhat comforting. :)

nine_zeros 6y ago

Firstly, America should strive to not have enemies. We fail at this very badly. Secondly, ZERO countries in the world have non-fragile infrastructure. America's infrastructure is better than most countries and definitely above average even among developed countries, except public transportation.

eternalsculptor 6y ago
> Firstly, America should strive to not have enemies. We fail at this very badly. This comment is not based in reality. Does Australia have many enemies? Does South Korea? Does Japan? Taiwan?
throw0101a 6y ago
> Firstly, America should strive to not have enemies. We fail at this very badly. This will never be possible, even if America does nothing 'wrong' against anyone else. As long as America (flaws and all) is a better place to live than other countries, and can be used as an example of how things can be better (though not perfect), and so will be a target of powers that don't want their own people thinking about improving things. * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_to_Unfreedom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_to_Unfreedom * https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/apr/15/the-road-to-unfreedom-russia-europe-america-timothy-snyder-review-tim-adams https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/apr/15/the-road-to-un... There are also plenty of bullies out there, who are only checked by American power, and wouldn't mind the US being more isolationist. There are all sorts of problems of how America interacts with the world, but there are many other countries who would do worse things IMHO. America simply existing generates enemies.
- nine_zeros 6y ago
  America will always have adversaries. But enemies, who what to destroy the country? That's entirely our own creation. We should try to make enemies only when attacked. Not make enemies out of adversaries.
  - rafael09ed 6y ago
    I disagree it's our fault for having enemies if we want to keep our values but regardless we have enemies now and I don't see them going away for a while.
  - throw0101a 6y ago
    > America will always have adversaries. But enemies, who what to destroy the country? That's entirely our own creation. There are innocent people who have done nothing wrong, and yet other folks want them wiped out of existence. I'm sure we can all think of examples from history where this is true, both the recent and distance past.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

Johnny555 6y ago

The problem isn't our enemies knowing how fragile our infrastructure is as much as it Americans not knowing (or not caring) and being unwilling to spend money to make it less fragile.

wolrah 6y ago
> Americans not knowing (or not caring) and being unwilling to spend money to make it less fragile. And of course the fact that for the most part those most impacted by these outages aren't the ones making the decisions about what money to spend in the first place. I have no meaningful influence on my ISP's network backbone. I don't even have a real choice in ISP so it's not like I can go to someone else, and they know it. I currently have 500mbit/sec service from my cable company and the only other options are ~50mbit/sec 4G or Frontier DSL that claims 24mbit/sec while rarely syncing beyond 8. Those aren't actual alternatives. If I want to have a connection that can properly support a household full of gamers and streamers, I'm stuck with this unless I want to add another zero or two to my monthly bill for a dedicated fiber line. This is the best case scenario for the majority of the US. One cable company that's mostly decent, one shitty DSL provider, and a few wireless services that have very limited spectrum and data caps. Almost no one in this country has true competition in wired broadband unless they have a municipal fiber service or are lucky enough to be in one of the few cities that Google dumped money in to.