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Is 4chan the perfect Pirate Bay poster child to justify wider UK site-blocking?

(torrentfreak.com)
361 points gloxkiqcza | 14 comments | 24 Aug 25 16:30 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source | bottom
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torginus ◴[25 Aug 25 08:26 UTC] No.45011561[source]▶
I genuinely do not understand where how the idea of building a total surveillance police state, where all speech is monitored, can even as much as seriously be considered by an allegedly pro-democracy, pro-human rights government, much less make it into law.

Also:

Step 1: Build mass surveillance to prevent the 'bad guys' from coming into political power (its ok, we're the good guys).

Step 2: Your political opponents capitalize on your genuinely horrific overreach, and legitimize themselves in the eyes of the public as fighting against tyranny (unfortunately for you they do have a point). They promise to dismantle the system if coming to power.

Step 3: They get elected.

Step 4: They don't dismantle the system, now the people you planned to use the system against are using it against you.

Sounds brilliant, lets do this.

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specproc ◴[25 Aug 25 08:56 UTC] No.45011763[source]▶
The West aren't good guys and have never been the good guys. We talked a good talk about democracy when we had communism to compare it to, but without that to contrast with, we look increasingly like the managed democracies you see out East.
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baud147258 ◴[25 Aug 25 09:34 UTC] No.45011981[source]▶
While the West aren't really the good guy, I think there is an argument that could be made that the West is the better guy. Because while government outreach like those discussed are a scary possibility in the West nowadays, in the 'East' (more like Russia & China), it is a given and there are no recourse.
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1. closewith ◴[25 Aug 25 09:41 UTC] No.45012031[source]▶
The West is the least bad if you live in an area where Western forces aren't currently bombing you or directly supporting the people starving you to death. Then China probably seems a lot better.
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2. throwaway65042 ◴[25 Aug 25 09:53 UTC] No.45012122[source]▶
So if Germany supports Israel bombing Gazans they are bad, but if China supports the Russian bombing of Ukrainians, suddenly it's a lot better?
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3. closewith ◴[25 Aug 25 10:00 UTC] No.45012166[source]▶
Maybe re-read my comment.

From the perspective of the Gazan parents watching their children starve to death, yes, China probably seems a lot better than the UK, which is directly responsible for their situation.

The Ukrainian parent suffering Russian bombing is likely has a much better opinion of the UK for their support, but that doesn't make the UK the good guys. Just less bad in that particular situation.

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4. ◴[25 Aug 25 10:33 UTC] No.45012367[source]▶
5. random9749832 ◴[25 Aug 25 10:35 UTC] No.45012374[source]▶
False equivalence. One of them is a (failed) proxy war the other is genocide.
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6. whstl ◴[25 Aug 25 12:38 UTC] No.45013195{3}[source]▶
Forced deportation of Ukrainian children, the rhetoric denying Ukrainian nationhood and massacres in places like Bucha definitely put the Ukrainian war into genocide territory.

But if you want to talk about "real" genocides, China is backing Myanmar.

7. AlexandrB ◴[25 Aug 25 13:46 UTC] No.45013785{3}[source]▶
From the perspective of the Gazan parents, the worst of all should be Hamas (who is actually directly responsible for their situation) since they insist on poking the bear and getting Gaza into military conflicts they can't win.
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8. AlexandrB ◴[25 Aug 25 13:48 UTC] No.45013814{3}[source]▶
> the other is genocide

How is it a genocide? It's pretty clearly a war in an urban environment where there will be a lot of civilian casualties. Was the battle of Stalingrad a "genocide" too?

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9. closewith ◴[25 Aug 25 13:53 UTC] No.45013862{4}[source]▶
I wonder how quickly people will start to scrub their online presence now that the zeitgeist has turned against the Israeli genocide of Palestinians.

You're on the wrong side of history and a despicable human being.

10. shazbotter ◴[25 Aug 25 14:08 UTC] No.45014031{4}[source]▶
Yeah, definitely don't blame the country actually committing genocide.

You sound like someone who is excusing domestic violence by saying, "if she didn't want to get hit, she shouldn't have talked back".

Fuck Hamas, I don't support hamas, but like, Israeli actions in Gaza are clearly inexcusable.

11. snapcaster ◴[25 Aug 25 14:24 UTC] No.45014199{4}[source]▶
Did you ever expect to be making this kind of argument when you were growing up and learning about 20th century horrors? Or did you imagine yourself the kind of person who would have resisted in 1930s germany?
12. ◴[25 Aug 25 14:29 UTC] No.45014260{4}[source]▶
13. integralid ◴[25 Aug 25 21:59 UTC] No.45019586{3}[source]▶
Pretty callous. I doubt dying Ukrainians care that you dismiss their war as "proxy". The unprovoked invasion and resulting deaths are a fact. And Russia absolutely wants to destroy the Ukrainian identity, so that actually is a genocide.
14. integralid ◴[25 Aug 25 22:04 UTC] No.45019658{4}[source]▶
Sometimes I wonder what contemporary Hacker News would say about my country freedom fighters back in the day. If they lost, I'm pretty sure we would call them terrorists or bandits instead.