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This pretty terrible piece of rhetoric using a false dilemma involving the strawman that "non-US control" = "foreign government control" which is not a true sta

This pretty terrible piece of rhetoric using a false dilemma involving the strawman that "non-US control" = "foreign government control" which is not a true statement. This strawman sets up the false dilemma whereby a dichotomy is framed to us so as to make the US control appear to be the lesser of two evils. There are many other possible options for internet governance (or non-governance and de-governance), some of which we haven't yet devised. I suspect this forum may come up with some decent new ideas.

gibwell 13y ago
It's a false dichotomy from a strictly abstract point of view where other logical possibilities exist, but that's irrelevant. The people who are proposing to move control of the internet away from the US actually are foreign governments, and in particular Russia and the Chinese. In the real world it is not a false dichotomy. If we want other alternatives, we actually have to devise and validate them before they become real.
- hitchhiker999 13y ago
  "where other logical possibilities exist, but that's irrelevant" - That's not irrelevant. He writes "Indians are much better off putting their faith in their freedom-loving American counterparts than participating in grandiose international internet governance schemes." -> that's pretty powerful rhetoric, suggesting a black/white scenario. This probably isn't accidental.
  - triplesec 13y ago
    Quite! Another comment has suggested a distributed model, but I haven't seen a social or technical mechanism for this yet. I hope we are inspired to come up with some options and protocols. I'm now putting brain backcycles on this for sure, and others may be work on this as a priority. I'm wondering if there's already an .org dedicated to this.
hitchhiker999 13y ago
Considering this is HN, we should have seen this comment sooner. The entire premise was a text-book demonstration of a logical fallacy.

gibwell 13y ago

It's a false dichotomy from a strictly abstract point of view where other logical possibilities exist, but that's irrelevant. The people who are proposing to move control of the internet away from the US actually are foreign governments, and in particular Russia and the Chinese. In the real world it is not a false dichotomy. If we want other alternatives, we actually have to devise and validate them before they become real.

hitchhiker999 13y ago
"where other logical possibilities exist, but that's irrelevant" - That's not irrelevant. He writes "Indians are much better off putting their faith in their freedom-loving American counterparts than participating in grandiose international internet governance schemes." -> that's pretty powerful rhetoric, suggesting a black/white scenario. This probably isn't accidental.
- triplesec 13y ago
  Quite! Another comment has suggested a distributed model, but I haven't seen a social or technical mechanism for this yet. I hope we are inspired to come up with some options and protocols. I'm now putting brain backcycles on this for sure, and others may be work on this as a priority. I'm wondering if there's already an .org dedicated to this.

hitchhiker999 13y ago

Considering this is HN, we should have seen this comment sooner. The entire premise was a text-book demonstration of a logical fallacy.