We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.
Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
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“The regulatory superpower at work, protecting 300m people from the terrors of Google maps” Tim Newman, making sure that the EU’s work is appreciated as it should be:
The “DMA” to which Pauline refers is the EU’s Digital Markets Act. There is more commentary from Kevin A. Bryan here.
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The bizarre aspect is that the European Union and Google support the same objective of totalitarian international governance (the Corporatists at Google abandoned the idea of being politically and culturally neutral years ago) – but they find themselves in conflict because (to boil down the matter to the basic point) “there can only be one boss”. And, of course, bureaucracies get caught up in their own Red Tape – and the European Union is a bureaucracy.
When we left the EU I really hoped the plethora of pop ups about cookies would be jettisoned into the sun where it belonged. But no.
JuliaM – it is weird that people in the United Kingdom still, sometimes, have to use VPNs to prevent this “you are in the E.U. so you can not see ….” stuff.
But, as the local branch of the international establishment follows much the same policies as the E.U. (including on “Hate Speech” – i.e. dissent), perhaps it is not so strange that American websites sometimes still have this reaction.
Paul, Julia,
Welcome to the Hotel Eurofornia. You can check out, but you can never leave.
The intellectual dysfunction on display here is legendarily epic:
On the one hand, the same glorious statist “geeeniooouuus” types that demand ever-increasing centralized government power over everything are demanding that there be nothing at all in the way of commercial monopolies out there, even the ones that make a sort of sense like the power lines and so forth.
I’m sure they’d be just fine with a European Union government-run monopoly on search and maps; they just don’t like it when they don’t have direct control over it.
Despite the fact that they have no idea at all about how to actually operate such a thing…
Makes ya wonder, sometimes. Cognitive dissonance is apparently the hallmark of our modern age….
ap – so it seems.
Kirk – yes, the vast Corporations will find that the government idea of “partnership” will stay “the corporations get lots of money at the expense, direct or indirect, of the taxpayers” – at some point governments will turn on the Corporations. The move from Corporatism to full Socialism – which is even worse.
The Neil Oliver/George Galloway (British readers will know who I am writing about) “alternative” the corrupt bankers is not real money (it is not gold or silver, or any commodity that people choose to value) it is government creating money from nothing and dishing it out – the General Peron “alternative”.
Just as their “alternative” to Corporatism is “rent strikes” and other chaos and destruction.
Sadly “the enemy of my enemy” is not always “my friend” – the enemies of the corrupt Corporatists (such as Google) can turn out to be socialist fanatics – such as Mr Galloway M.P.
@Paul Marks 8.22PM
Your first paragraph outlines what Gunter Reiman describes much more fully in The Vampire Economy – Doing Business Under fascism
https://www.amazon.com/Vampire-Economy-Doing-Business-Fascism/dp/161016038X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=IJKCUQ08MXAF&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.m7bLj5zYD0dB2Jy2aC6JGRV2zoGYuk3tCtQHRuUfSVbXb3n8IindzNVOqsO0KOOk6AZ_zO6t286K90WFVI_4leiNQ6JTeOniRl0oatGqYF3g6zRUuZNAGWFV97OrmdFTwzQAhPrURm_SnWg8IbkVZHC2RDtqAp7xoIOAE4L8e3cBH0RlVv1am3yrNTx-w8ERoSFA3ohOQ2cO7HotiZAp5TA3aJ745guVNNYukEe8x8o.0aAtOBlOnpJYd67kZM-_dqbvCrr5LFhrbU8sTILTRtg&dib_tag=se&keywords=The+Vampire+Economy&qid=1710113313&sprefix=the+vampire+economy%2Caps%2C313&sr=8-1
The preface date is 8th September 1939 and it was published originally in America.
Worth reading to see how things may pan out.
Kirk, a few years there was a fine example of that dissonance and hypocrisy on view in Austin, TX. (I know! I was surprised too!)
Local businesses were using various schemes to discourage or push out homeless tent camps.
So the city passed an ordinance forbidding such practices, and effectively permitting camps on any sidewalk or parking lot.
Except…around City Hall and a couple other Government buildings.
At the time I described this as corrupt collusion between government and the biggest local industry (also government), to unfairly burden the smaller businesses.
What does this mean?
If i search for google maps in google search page i can click in it.