What’s unfortunate is that a lot of folks here will cheer on regulation of tech if branded as “pro-consumer.” Anything with the keywords pro-privacy, and right-to-repair, Reddit/HN types will eat up uncritically. “This is great!”
But people don’t seem to understand, if you cheer when governments use their power to “protect” you, they don’t suddenly decide to stop doing it.
Just because phase 1 was friendly to your pet interests, doesn’t mean phase 2 will be.
I wish folks would look at all regulation with a much more critical lens, and be much more humble about implementing it.
Decentralization brought on by the internet is messy, complicated, and scary. But it’s a direct transfer of power from central authorities to individuals. So whenever you bypass the messy, decentralized way of solving problems in favor of the easy centralized way (regulation), you have given up your power. You reap what you sow.
But people don’t seem to understand, if you cheer when governments use their power to “protect” you, they don’t suddenly decide to stop doing it.
Just because phase 1 was friendly to your pet interests, doesn’t mean phase 2 will be.
I wish folks would look at all regulation with a much more critical lens, and be much more humble about implementing it.
Decentralization brought on by the internet is messy, complicated, and scary. But it’s a direct transfer of power from central authorities to individuals. So whenever you bypass the messy, decentralized way of solving problems in favor of the easy centralized way (regulation), you have given up your power. You reap what you sow.