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There is an active war on the Internet Archive, et al. in the West by private corporations seeking to monopolize information. How is this a false equivalence? G

There is an active war on the Internet Archive, et al. in the West by private corporations seeking to monopolize information. How is this a false equivalence? Glass houses. Remember Aaron Swartz.

kelnos 2y ago
The difference is that we can fight back in the West, and on this particular topic we are largely succeeding so far. The people of China cannot fight back against their government, have already lost, and have no recourse. Absent a drastic change in human nature, we are always going to have people who want to do these sorts of crappy things, in any society. In China, those people have the backing of the government. Here, they're just corporations (not that we don't have crappy government propaganda machines too). Yes, I would absolutely agree that corporations have much more power than they should. But their power is not absolute, by even the wildest stretch of the imagination, and ultimately they're are just another set of people who can -- and do, often enough -- lose when they try to impose their will on others. That's why it's a false equivalence.
- swed420 2y ago
  > The difference is that we can fight back in the West, and on this particular topic we are largely succeeding so far. By what metrics exactly? Most people agree that Google etc results are increasingly useless, and it won't be long before AI content is based on previous AI content and all of the limitations inherent to that. Anything of value will be locked up and metered out based on class. Given how captured by capital our political systems are in the West, it seems like only a matter of time before things are exponentially worse than our present point in the decline.
demosthanos 2y ago
The Internet Archive jumped the shark and brazenly broke the law hoping they'd retroactively get pardoned for it. I dearly hope that the archive survives this lawsuit, but they 100% brought it on themselves.

There is an active war on the Internet Archive, et al. in the West by private corporations seeking to monopolize information. How is this a false equivalence? Glass houses. Remember Aaron Swartz.

kelnos 2y ago

The difference is that we can fight back in the West, and on this particular topic we are largely succeeding so far. The people of China cannot fight back against their government, have already lost, and have no recourse. Absent a drastic change in human nature, we are always going to have people who want to do these sorts of crappy things, in any society. In China, those people have the backing of the government. Here, they're just corporations (not that we don't have crappy government propaganda machines too). Yes, I would absolutely agree that corporations have much more power than they should. But their power is not absolute, by even the wildest stretch of the imagination, and ultimately they're are just another set of people who can -- and do, often enough -- lose when they try to impose their will on others. That's why it's a false equivalence.

swed420 2y ago
> The difference is that we can fight back in the West, and on this particular topic we are largely succeeding so far. By what metrics exactly? Most people agree that Google etc results are increasingly useless, and it won't be long before AI content is based on previous AI content and all of the limitations inherent to that. Anything of value will be locked up and metered out based on class. Given how captured by capital our political systems are in the West, it seems like only a matter of time before things are exponentially worse than our present point in the decline.

demosthanos 2y ago

The Internet Archive jumped the shark and brazenly broke the law hoping they'd retroactively get pardoned for it. I dearly hope that the archive survives this lawsuit, but they 100% brought it on themselves.