Fighting the Fight Against The Unfighters

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Second choice title: Bourgeois technorati being, what else, bourgeois.

Sometimes interesting conversations do come out of the über-upper middle class of my beloved & missed #Americant and its otherwise money-minded bourgeois technorati. And while I’m not quite off subject yet…

Time to worst-write a thing or three about being born in the right place at the right time. I think this can be worst-called: the born proximity.

In other worst-words, the proximity of your existence–including the origins of your existence–is a good friend to have if you’re interested in understanding the frivolity of success and failure in these times of gluttony galore. Am I wrong? If I’m right, here’s a question for you:

If given the choice where to be born right now–as a regular Joe or Joyce, and not to be born to wealth–would you chose to be born in the fly-over states? In other-other worst-words, the wits required to find upward mobility in the #Americant middle class post WW2 needn’t be all-that unicorn-, snowflake- or even (dys)topia-like. Nor is it about what you know–as indicated by the learn-ed classes vomited up and out of University X, Y or Z. Indeed. This whole phenomenon of successful compulsive behaviourism (i.e. careerists) is best witnessed in the proximity of northern California. Ironically, or not, CA is also the place where two of the most important aspects of life in the 20th century western world were invented:

1. Who do you know?
2. “So… What do you do?”¹

But all worst-cynicism aside. Let’s try to get back on subject.

I’m kind of a TWIT.TV fan. I regularly listen to two podcasts by head TWIT Uncle Leo Laporte. I suppose that makes me a fan-boy–even though he’s got something like, I don’t know, a thousand podcasts that I don’t listen to. The thing is, I used to listen to more of his podcasts but something has gotten weird lately. Either there’s no need for tech-news broadcasting or, due to the shift of tech companies becoming fashion companies, Uncle Leo is missing the boat.

Nomatter.

Last week, while listening to one of his shows, something caught my soul. But first allow me this. Uncle Leo is actually pretty good at keeping politics out of his tech network. But every once-a-once I suppose it is inevitable that politics sneak in. To me, this time, it snuck in… huuuugely.

Btw, as you may or may not know, worstwriter has a thing or three to say about politics. Without rehashing any of that, let me just say this: The one thing that really gets (under) my gander about almost any political discussion, regardless of where it sneaks in, is that most people almost always get it wrong. (Smirk, giggle, authoritarian sarcasm on/off.) That is, nomatter what is said (or thought out-loud), the essence of what’s really wrong with the world these days is almost always a bit skewed. 

In worst-short, allow me to summarise the answer to everything and the universe (kinda Hitchhiker-Galaxy-like), especially when it comes to politics: Look into yourself first. Blah. Blah. When you’ve done that, look into the people around you (hence proximity aforementioned). Blah. Blah. Then look at your neighbours, your community, your county, your state, etc., etc. After that, take off your clothes and look in the mirror. For guys, get your hands and friends hands off your willy. For gals, yes, your tits are uneven. Deal with it. Blah. Blah. If, after a few days, the mirror doesn’t reveal how much of a moron you are, because you’re an American, then continue on–same as it ever was. Same as it ever was. Same as it ever was. Blah. Blah.

Oh well. I guess I couldn’t help but slip in my politics, eh. So hang in there.

With that out of the way and in the worst-words of Steve Jobs: one more thing.

I’m a Trump hater. I’m a Trump despiser, too. No. Seriously. The man literally disgusts me to the point of physical sickness. But get this: I know that he’s not the essence of what it is that I hate or despise or that disgusts me so much. Heck, he’s not even to blame for being who he is. Remember: Frankenstein wasn’t the monster. The monster was the monster. The one that made the monster is/was…

Considering the political situation in my beloved & missed #Americant–where the Republican party can become the monster-made–I don’t even blame the $hitbag politicians that, in the words of Captain Picard: make it so. Hence, I really hate it when #Americants talk politics and then obviously can only talk in terms leased to them. The panel on This Week In Tech #694 did just that. The made and manufactured (Frankenstein’s) monster is alive and well, eh.

Let me try and set this up with a worstwriter summary of what caught my soul when listening to This Week In Tech #694 (the segment I’m referring to starts at 39:30 in the vid linked to below).

Worstwriter summary: Discussing an article from The Guardian about EU plans to tax links (from Google to news sites), the panel immediately side-step into a discussion about how regulations of any kind may or may not be detrimental to Silicon Valley.

Whaaaaaa?

Typical of greed-mongers and the mongers that enable the greed, the panel completely circumvents and convolutes what should be the ONLY issue worth discussing in the context of copyright, content ownership–yawn–and the Interwebnet. In short, and in worstwriter’s humble opinion, Google should have no (legal or otherwise) right to claim any kind of ownership of links. (Period!) The core problem with all-things Interwebnet today is that too many companies are doing their damnedest to be monolithic and monopolistic–and there’s nothing out there to counter that except, maybe, a few regulators in #Eurowasteland. Also. The difference to TV/radio of yore and the enablement of it as a source for information and entertainment is that the Interwebnets gives direct control to users and, as we’re seeing, even minor content creators. Creators, by-the-buy, that aren’t major corporate $hitbags. (Congrats Leo Laporte!) Yet companies have been trying–from the get-go (of the Interwebnet)–to circumvent all that. But what’s more important than creators and Interwebnet companies is this: I do not want to be a product and I should have the right to deny Google or any other organisation (Facebag) the ability to turn me into a product. If companies can’t find business models to fit into this new paradigm, then they should go away.

Yeah. Go away toot-sweet.

Regarding the question: who’s gonna pay for it? I don’t give a $hit. The ridiculous cost of computers, network connections, peripherals, etc. is more than enough for users (consumers) today. Anything above and beyond that has to come from somewhere else–if it is even necessary! Considering how the Interwebnets works, how it was built, how the protocols connect $hit, there really shouldn’t be the level of costs that there is now. So let me say it again: If a company (on the Interwebnet) cannot find a business model that allows them to profit based on a new paradigm of life and technology that doesn’t infringe on users (consumers)… fcuk em. Fcuk them all!

What matters to me and what the panel in this discussion barely touch on is that there needs to be some sort of regulation that guarantees the rights of Interwebent users (consumers) FIRST. What happens between Interwebnet companies, content creators, aggregators, etc. should play second-fiddle. Google and the likes of Facebag have done a fine job (sarcasm off) of providing links and making a krapp load of money off of turning something beautiful into something ugly and as disgusting as any TV (cable or terrestrial) channel. 

Uncle Leo and crew jumped the shark and resorted to reactionary punditry the other day. This lead to the mis-mention of the LA Times being unreadable in the EU. It also lead to an odd and bitter diatribe by Mike Elgan about the EU still being stuck in the 19th century. Although Elgan is right about the current cookie situation in the EU, his placement of blame is über-skewed.

First. Here’s a quote about GDPR:

“The GDPR aims primarily to give control to individuals over their personal data and to simplify the regulatory environment for international business by unifying the regulation within the EU. Superseding the Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC, the regulation contains provisions and requirements pertaining to the processing of personal data of individuals (formally called data subjects in the GDPR) inside the EEA, and applies to an enterprise established in the EEA or–regardless of its location and the data subjects’ citizenship–that is processing the personal information of data subjects inside the EEA.” -Source: Wiki

I don’t know about you, but from the above quote, I’m kinda OK with what the EU is attempting to do. The LA Times, on the other hand, has chosen to NOT make its website available to me–and not just because I’m on the Interwebnets in Germany/EU (see NPR example in pics above). The reason the LA Times isn’t available is because the LA Times can’t have a fcuking website where it doesn’t turn users (consumers) into products. The EU regulation protects me from being a sellable product by the LA Times. It really is that simple. Unfortunately TWIT.TV is yet another example of how #Americant media can almost never get it right. And forget about fake news, don’t you know. To decry that the EU, in its attempts to protect Internet users (consumers) from piranhas like the LA Times and its advertising bull$hit-galore… Well… Fcuk the LA Times.

And just so we’re clear here. Yes, I live in the EU. I’m an American citizen, too. On most EU politics-krapp, I’ll yell it first and louder: Fcuk the EU! I’ll even one-up Bourgeois Mike Elgan and say that the EU is stuck in much worse than the friggin 19th century. And on that note, I do die-gress.

Rant on.

-T

PS NPR has a pretty interesting alternative to what the LA Times is doing; see pics above. 

Link that motivated this post: This Week In Tech 694 – Reverse Superlatives (https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech/episodes/694) starts @ 39:30