[Aeolun]

I imagine if the whole world was using a Russian VCS site, and silicon valley was a region of moscow these same discussions would take place in reverse.

Cutting off the US for their invasion of Iraq would have seemed pretty reasonable.

But maybe not so much, since that country was provably ruled by a dictator, so people wouldn’t feel the same about the attack as about one made on a liberal democracy.

[nickpp]

"Imagine if the good guys were bad and the bad guys good."

But they aren't. And you know why? Because you can't have creativity and innovations without freedom. You can't have money and success without a population where the best and most successful are allowed to create and keep a large part of the value they build.

This is why dictatorships never build Silicon Valleys while their best and brightest quietly emigrate to work and create in freedom.

[Aeolun]

To some extend this is true, but I think China tells is that there is a balance somewhere, even if we haven’t quite found it yet.