5 ms·

At some level of incompetence, you might ask whether the underlying assumptions are wrong -- for example, perhaps they're looking for excuses to reduce internet

At some level of incompetence, you might ask whether the underlying assumptions are wrong -- for example, perhaps they're looking for excuses to reduce internet access more generally.

jl6 5y ago
One could imagine a 365-day excuse calendar which provides a cover story for any time they want to shut down the internet. Today’s excuse is exams.
- FredPret 5y ago
  This whole story belongs under April 1st sadly
_old_dude_ 5y ago
It's like a fire drill. The government wants to desensitize people. They want people be to used to the fact that cutting internet is something mundane so the next time they do it because of a protest, nobody will care.
- slipframe 5y ago
  > It's like a fire drill. The government wants to desensitize people. I think this analogy is good, except for 'desensitize' which should be 'normalize'. Fire drills particularly are meant to normalize responding to a fire alarm going off (to make sure people know how to get out of buildings fast), but certainly aren't meant to desensitize people to fire alarms. Though in the case of internet shutdowns, desensitization and normalization are basically the same thing.
- MeinBlutIstBlau 5y ago
  Is that a bad thing? Think about it from a perspective of legitimate resistance against the government. Not only are you training your citizens and preparing them for the fact that this occurs, but you're giving the citizens the cultural understanding that they can effectively respond when it happens. Internet goes out? Let me hop to our archaic method of message communication we've already devised with neighbors and other "group members" that we have no problems with. For the first world yes I get it this is unacceptable. For the third world in a war torn country? It's almost necessary.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

5 ms·

At some level of incompetence, you might ask whether the underlying assumptions are wrong -- for example, perhaps they're looking for excuses to reduce internet

by padastra 5y ago

At some level of incompetence, you might ask whether the underlying assumptions are wrong -- for example, perhaps they're looking for excuses to reduce internet access more generally.

jl6 5y ago
One could imagine a 365-day excuse calendar which provides a cover story for any time they want to shut down the internet. Today’s excuse is exams.
- FredPret 5y ago
  This whole story belongs under April 1st sadly
_old_dude_ 5y ago
It's like a fire drill. The government wants to desensitize people. They want people be to used to the fact that cutting internet is something mundane so the next time they do it because of a protest, nobody will care.
- slipframe 5y ago
  > It's like a fire drill. The government wants to desensitize people. I think this analogy is good, except for 'desensitize' which should be 'normalize'. Fire drills particularly are meant to normalize responding to a fire alarm going off (to make sure people know how to get out of buildings fast), but certainly aren't meant to desensitize people to fire alarms. Though in the case of internet shutdowns, desensitization and normalization are basically the same thing.
- MeinBlutIstBlau 5y ago
  Is that a bad thing? Think about it from a perspective of legitimate resistance against the government. Not only are you training your citizens and preparing them for the fact that this occurs, but you're giving the citizens the cultural understanding that they can effectively respond when it happens. Internet goes out? Let me hop to our archaic method of message communication we've already devised with neighbors and other "group members" that we have no problems with. For the first world yes I get it this is unacceptable. For the third world in a war torn country? It's almost necessary.
deleted 5y ago
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