I hear ya buddy. We've got a President who doesn't want to do things democratically and we had a major, society-altering law passed whose authors have nothing but contempt for us, the American people. It doesn't look like it's going to get better anytime soon, either. These contemptuous attitudes are deeply ingrained in our elites and our universities do nothing but promote bitter divisiveness. I'm glad you've done well in such an oppressive society.

MLK also said to judge people not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

There are a hell of a lot of New Yorkers of shockingly low character. Bringing a foreign country's culture into the argument doesn't change anything and is just a lazy attempt at guilt by association. Guilt by association is a logical fallacy and educated people should know better.

This form of the argument is as follows:

• Source S makes claim C.
• Group G, which is currently viewed negatively by the recipient, also makes claim C.
• Therefore, source S is viewed by the recipient of the claim as associated to the group G and inherits how negatively viewed it is.

An example of this fallacy would be "My opponent for office just received an endorsement from the Puppy Haters Association. Is that the sort of person you would want to vote for?"

Q: Why is starting a comment in the Subject: line incredibly irritating?

First of all, your dig at the Nobel Peace Prize is racist, you just can't stand that a black man won it in 2009 and you'll go to any length to criticize him.

Second, that pro-capitalist bullshit is a bunch of bullshit, stop cheerleading for Danone and other multinational corporations. The sooner they are driven out of business, the better.

Third, the whole "money-lender" thing is anti-Semitic, and this is the nail in the coffin of your whole gestalt. Yeah, you didn't actually say "Jews" but then again you didn't need to, you made it quite clear. Please stop speaking in public.

"It left China with either letting go of censorship, or breaking significant chunks of the Internet for their population."

I love the tiny minds at work here. People who cannot see outside of themselves, nor consider any perspective but their own Western one. As if there were any choice involved! China doesn't block websites because they're evil, they block websites because they are damaging to China's body politic. These overseas actors want to harm China, and like antibodies reacting to bacteria, China's government reacts to block the damage. You can cry censorship all you want, but the fact remains that it's for China's own good that these actions are taken.

I remind everyone that the Chinese Communist Party is made up of the smartest people in China. It is full of scientists and engineers, people with analytical minds, and people who are qualified to make decisions for others. If Slashdot were based in China, the most thoughtful constantly-modded-up users would be mostly CCP members. Think of John Gruber, the MIT economist who helped get the badly needed Affordable Care Act passed despite opposition from lesser minds. There is nothing particularly scandalous about what he did. The seriousness of the deception depends on the extent of the harm done. Getting healthcare for millions of uninsured is the same as China's blocking these harmful websites. A little harm is done, mostly to people who intend harm in the first place, and much good is done to people who badly need it. It is a Faustian bargain, but it is worth it. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.

The Western mindset that censorship is automatically bad is outdated and unsuitable for 2014 and beyond. We need to just relax and let the smart people do their thing. We're better off with them in charge rather than the mob. If you disagree, then say so - but don't doubt China's justification for its own point of view, which I doubt anyone, especially those in this "freedumb center", has even taken a moment to think over.

If you don't have any customers in China (like 6/7 of the world) then you lose nothing by banning Chinese internet. Hell, I used to run a site inside China and I had to ban .ru addresses because I got nothing but spam from them.

So, Google has hit upon an idea to further deplete our already-scarce helium reserves. Bravo. When are we going to stop letting dickheads with money squander global resources and start centrally allocating on basis of need instead? Fucking mega-corporations.

Google doesn't have a monopoly on search. Not even close. The only reason they get used is because they're the best. The second that they start sucking, people will leave in droves. It's pretty fucking far from tyranny when any user can go elsewhere. That's not a monopoly.

For someone supposedly so imaginative, you sure jump to conclusions. You really can't see any other perspective than your own? That's so sad that you live in such a tiny world. I feel sad for you.

Criticizing Sheila Jackson Lee is racist. You're a racist, and this makes everything you say invalid.

Let's keep the offensive stereotypes alive. After all, it's OK when we do it, but wrong when they do it. We have always been allied with Eurasia.

AI has always been an anti-Western institution, right from the very beginning. Do you not know this, or are you being deliberately misleading?

"Alec saw the battle lines redrawn with stark clarity, with the victims of capitalist and imperialist oppression all over the world on one side, and the United States and its allies, including Spain, on the other. Given such a contest, he realised that to undertake the defence of the Spanish freemasons had been timely as well as symbolically correct because it opened the door for victims of injustice everywhere, but especially in countries friendly to the United States, to join his former comrades-in-arms in Spanish prisons in a grand international coalition of the oppressed whose plight, when efficiently publicised, would bring embarrassment and opprobrium to the adversaries of the Soviet Union."
-- foundation of Amnesty International, 1954

I never understood the popularity of Pokemon as a video game. Pointless random combats and very little story. Hours and hours of watching animations of attacks happen. The entire idea of the game is enslaving animals and forcing them into pit fighting. Micheal Vick was sentenced to prison and vilified by the entire world for doing the same.

The students are social justice warriors. Everything is an instrument to impel social or political change to SJWs. Those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

So, in other words, you're against the market and capitalism, but if you can benefit from it, you're for them?

Sounds like gigantic hypocrisy to me. Please pick some principles and stick with them. Don't go down the capitalist road - China did and look what happened to them. A disaster for anti-capitalists the world 'round.