I wonder if the people whose job it is to make these sorts of patronizing arguments privately feel embarrassed when doing so.
The people making those statements are drinking so much kool-aid they honestly don't even know they're talking nonsense. They actually believe it to their core.
Even if I'm an outlier, Spotify still has a free tier. Why would I go back to the radio? That would be like trading Netflix back in for Blockbuster Video. shudder
Strangely enough, I only have a problem with net neutrality violations when you're charging me extra for certain packets, not when you're giving me certain packets for free. Go figure.
Not all data is equal, spectrum is limited, and I'd rather users be permitted to get music bits that don't count towards their cap than some twit using spectrum for bittorrent. I would pay more because of T-Mobile's disregard for net neutrality in this case, because it benefits me as an end user. I've never seen Comcast, Verizon, or any other throttling of video content benefit someone (while at the same time they not being constrained by shared spectrum bandwidth limitations).
I don't know if that is the case or not in this situation, but it could be. Not everything becomes a violation
Not to be the "analogy not exactly right" guy, but it would be like closing Blockbuster Video just because "NETFLIX IS SO MUCH BETTER AND IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT THEN TOUGH SHIT".
No, I don't think they feel embarrassed at all. This the human-level equivalent of promulgating botnets, and involves a similar principle - that if people are too passive to harden their systems against such obviously lame exploits, then they deserve whatever they get. I find this an obnoxious argument, which is why I have so little sympathy for the 'black hat hackers help people improve security' argument sometimes floated here on HN.
I actually think it's true that most people are ignorant or possibly even stupid, and that they won't adopt good security (or critical thinking) practices until they've learned the hard way - by being exploited for someone else's gain. But going from observing this fact to actively leveraging it is precisely the point at which one is making the world a worse place.
/GRAR
It's about the same as a politician talking about proposed legislation with the phrase common sense.
The goal here is to paint people who oppose your view as out of touch with the average American or acting nonsensically.
Motorola shines again btw. Not only do they not cripple their phones but also include a simple FM Radio app by default.