[ExI] Does anybody still think a US dictatorship is impossible?

John Clark johnkclark at gmail.com
Tue Jun 2 12:16:59 UTC 2020


On Tue, Jun 2, 2020 at 4:42 AM Rafal Smigrodzki via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

>> Freedom of the press was nice while it lasted.
>
> Trump's executive order target's social media companies
>> <https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/28/politics/trump-twitter-social-media-executive-order/index.html>
>>
>
> > *### Seen from outside of the bubble you live in,*
>

You mean in the world of MAGA Hatters, Alex Jones, and Neo-Nazis?


> * > the real story is the 180-degree opposite  -  our freedom of speech is
> increasingly eliminated by oligarchic and monopolistic owners of internet
> platforms and Trump is here to feebly protest this enemy takeover. *
>

Enemy takeover?!  I'm a libertarian (small l), perhaps you've heard of it,
so I believe in the Free Market, especially for ideas, thus I have no
animosity against people who got rich off if it although I think they
sometimes act unwisely and against their own best interests. I also don't
think monopolistic online platforms are inherently evil but are a result of
the nature of the Internet and of networks in general; but if you disagree
and don't like them then why do you want the ultimate monopoly, why do you
want just one giant one in charge of everything and controlled by BIg
Brother?

And if internet providers were held to the same idiotic liability laws as
newspapers and had to have their lawyers give their OK for every Email or
text message or personal web page as Trump wants then how on earth could we
still have them? We couldn't, banning those things is the entire point and
is the clearest sign yet of impending dictatorship. The next step would be
for Trump to order American army troops into the streets of American cities
despite the wishes of those involved, like the Governors and Mayors and
even the local civilian police.


> *> The problem with networks is that their value is created by their
> ubiquity and in network-dependent industries meaningful competition is
> eliminated if the network is large enough and controlled by a single
> entity. Youtube, Google, Twitter, Amazon are all network companies, they
> are all controlled by a very small group of decision-makers,*
>

And you believe the solution to that is for networks to be controlled by an
even smaller group, the US government, and you think the perfect man to
control the government is Donald J Trump who is currently averaging 23.8
public lies a day, that's one public lie every 40 waking minutes. You think
that's the best way for the American people to get the real truth. I
disagree, I don't think government should get into the truth determining
business, especially not a government led by a congenital liar.


> *> and they have an enormous ability to control information, the lifeblood
> of our society, for their own goals and often against our, normal
> citizens', interests.*
>

And all this started not because Twitter deleted a Trump tweet but because
the Twitter company dared to add a link to it where somebody could fact
check it after Trump told a lie that was particularly egregious even by his
own very very low standards for honesty.

Rafal, are we on the same page here, are we even talking the same language?
Do you consider 1984 to be a dystopian or a utopian novel?

John K Clark
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