Ironically, the “series of tubes” politician gave a fair layman’s view of bandwidth. The quote was taken out of context.
Know what I miss? Remember when internet purchases were tax free? That lasted so long it blew my mind. When the US started applying sales tax, there wasn’t a whimper of protest.
Also lived in other countries in Europe for similar or greater periods.
Britain is definitely at least a decade or two “ahead” in this shit, plus they have very specific and highly entrenched problems around classism, hypocrisy, dynastic elites and how the scions of the elites are pretty much sent to the kind of private school (curiously called “public schools” in Britain) that specializes in turning them into sociopaths (being an “English Gentleman” isn’t actually about being honorable, it’s about maintaining a very specific complex image - complete with a unique non-regional accent - that conveys the impression that one comes from the upper classes).
It’s not by chance that the Snowden revelations showed that Britain was even worse than the US and, whilst in the US they actually walked back (for a while) the anti-constitutional elements of their state surveillance apparatus, in the UK they just retroactively made the whole thing legal and sent a bunch of D-Notices (the British censorship mechanism) to newspapers to shut them up.
Britain has great image management wrapped around a rotten core.
All good points. Been here nearly 50 years and not noticed most of it but then again I keep myself to my family. Or maybe it’s because I’m white so I don’t see the worst of it. I do find a lot of people around me are incredibly racist which is a real shame.
This isn’t a UK thing, it’s the entire developed world.
Multiple US states are considering it. Chat control in the EU is still a possibility. China and Russia already put efforts in restricting access.
Those in power are always trying to find a way to screw us over.
I miss when no politicians even understood what the internet was.
They still don’t, they’re just more embarrassed about it now that almost everyone else does.
Which leads to more overcompensating and thus stricter controls.
Ironically, the “series of tubes” politician gave a fair layman’s view of bandwidth. The quote was taken out of context.
Know what I miss? Remember when internet purchases were tax free? That lasted so long it blew my mind. When the US started applying sales tax, there wasn’t a whimper of protest.
I lived in the UK for over a decade.
Also lived in other countries in Europe for similar or greater periods.
Britain is definitely at least a decade or two “ahead” in this shit, plus they have very specific and highly entrenched problems around classism, hypocrisy, dynastic elites and how the scions of the elites are pretty much sent to the kind of private school (curiously called “public schools” in Britain) that specializes in turning them into sociopaths (being an “English Gentleman” isn’t actually about being honorable, it’s about maintaining a very specific complex image - complete with a unique non-regional accent - that conveys the impression that one comes from the upper classes).
It’s not by chance that the Snowden revelations showed that Britain was even worse than the US and, whilst in the US they actually walked back (for a while) the anti-constitutional elements of their state surveillance apparatus, in the UK they just retroactively made the whole thing legal and sent a bunch of D-Notices (the British censorship mechanism) to newspapers to shut them up.
Britain has great image management wrapped around a rotten core.
All good points. Been here nearly 50 years and not noticed most of it but then again I keep myself to my family. Or maybe it’s because I’m white so I don’t see the worst of it. I do find a lot of people around me are incredibly racist which is a real shame.