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Comment by k33n | Hacker News Reader

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> It’s a very European concept, that making life difficult is a worthy pursuit

This is an incredibly bold statement, and something I really cannot relate to having lived in Europe for over a decade.

It comes across as more of a knee-jerk reaction from someone who believes oversight or accountability of any kind is by definition a needless burden.

I’m an incredibly bold guy. And I would personally just stop operating in the EU if it was between that and being accountable to their bureaucrats.

So you don't want to be accountable to users, or to bureaucrats? If you had to choose one who would it be?

Might be tough for a Florida-man to understand but there's a difference between being bold and being an a-hole.

Yeah, that's a very... interesting definition of "bold". One might argue that since operating inside a regulated environment is so out of his comfort zone, setting up shop in the EU would be the bold thing to do.

Maybe I’ll set up shop in the EU one day :)

Will you welcome me with open arms as long as I warn my users that my app uses cookies?

You do know that "the bureaucrats" is just a slur for our democratically elected government, right?

In other words, the will of the people.

Yeah but the opponents of the people literally believe democracy is bad and want to go back to monarchism in the form of unaccountable CEO kings that decide the will of the people.

Sadly this is like half the tech workforce too. People too brainwashed to see how destructive their work is to the world.

I believe it is up to the other half to stand up for decency, for democracy and for the rule of law.

Don't be quiet, don't just let things happen. Use your voice while you still have it!

I am actively working on several senate and congressional campaigns, believe me that these people want to actively imprison some of these CEOs for the destruction they wrought upon the world too. These stump speeches tend to get the crowds most riled up too. :D

What? Of course it isn't! I mean, I guess you could argue that it's technically a slur in the sense that it is disparaging, but obviously the guy knows that he's being disparaging- you use that word to draw connection to identitarian slurs which are inherently wrong, and bureaucrat is not that. It also refers specifically and exclusively to the parts of the government that aren't democratically elected; the opposite of what you're saying.

Even setting that aside, 'the fat cheeto and his deplorable clowns in congress' is a slur for a democratically elected government, "the will of the people". So what? We shouldn't be allowed to insult a democratically elected government for some reason? Democracies are certainly preferable to autocracies, but that doesn't mean 'democratically elected' is a synonym for 'good'.

"you use that word to draw connection to identitarian slurs which are inherently wrong" you are reading into this too much, slur is often used as a word for a general insult.

Doesn't make a lot of sense to me to respond to 'I don't want to deal with their bureaucrats' with 'You do realize that's an insult, right?'. Yeah, he realizes, he is clearly trying to be insulting. It's only an insult because of that intent, in fact. A lot more sensible if the intent is to suggest that the word ought not be used because it is an insult beyond what is acceptable in polite society, which is the much more common usage of 'slur'.

Not to say it's impossible you're right that it's being brought up irrelevantly, but I do think the odds are on my side and I further think it would be worth writing a sentence calling that out even if they weren't.

His point, I assume, was that many people insulting beurocrats think that those are somehow seperate from the people they elected i.e. it's not some unidentifiable blob responsible for these things but the person /you/ voted for. At least that's my charitable interpretation.

Nobody's holding a gun to your head, you're welcome to setup shop in the most anarchist society you can find. Good luck with whatever version of "operating" you're able to manage while there :)

Why would I move to London?

Despite Brexit propaganda, the UK still has bureaucrats and regulation. Try again :)

Edit: in case this was an attempted swipe at me, I'm not British, btw ;)

London is safer than many american cities, what are you talking about?

edit: removed snark

It’s about having rights, and exercising them. If companies find that difficult to work with then they’re not even hitting the minimum baseline.

Also why should we allow such companies to exist if the vast majority of people don't like their actions? There's no fundamental right to starting a business, so might as well make businesses socially acceptable rather than fucking the public for profit.

As everyone knows, there are no soldiers, or litigation lawyers, or security guards, or investigative journalists, or police, or home inspectors, in America, since everyone understands it would be inappropriate to make life difficult for bad actors. The one true way is to lie down for corporations, and tell anyone who doesn't like it that they're free to live in the woods and interact with no-one if they appreciate personal liberty so much.

You think standing in for people's rights against the profit interests of transnational corporations means "making life difficult"? Whose life exactly? That of the CEO of Microsoft?

Hey, he MIGHT be that CEO one day. Currently he’s temporarily embarrassed billionaire.

> Oh I LOVE this, we can't have enough of these privacy-focused non-profits making tech companies' lives difficult.

Literally the comment I replied to.

it is a very American concept, that company interests should be placed above human interests and rights.

Well, not all Americans. Just ones of a specific political bent that is common on this site. And the wealthy ones, because they have the money hoarding disease

When an entity becomes almost a monopoly, surely the rules about some behaviours should be stronger

> It’s a very European concept, that making life difficult is a worthy pursuit.

It's really hard to understand concepts when you're internationally masking and misleading yourself.

Obviously no one things "making life difficult is a worthy pursuit", but, doing the right thing sometimes is worth a bit of the difficulties it introduces, this is why you see moves like this.

You force yourself onto my life (because, for various reasons, most of the career listings are there for example) and then you attempt to make it miserable too, by using and abusing every FOMO tool in the box ?

You bet your ass I'm going to make your life difficult. If you want it to stop, you're the one with the ball on your side of the court, you know exactly what to do.

It's a very American concept, to believe you can just ignore systems and networks. The guy shitting in your yard every day doesn't go away just because you're not looking at him do it.

You don't pay them anything but you are the product, genius !

Oh wow, I’ve never heard that one before. I had no idea!

making life difficult for _people i don't like_ is a worthy pursuit

Making the lives of those that wish to exploit us and monetize our relationships on their enshittified platforms is not the same as making everyone's life difficult.

I would say that they are the first that decide to make everyone's life harder on purpose, first. Trying to pay them back is the least somebody could do

This is 100% going to be the boot lickiest comment I read all day

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