[cryptonector]

> Because if we were less cowards and calling them for what they are - evil - they wouldn't hold so much power over us.

three years of covid nonsense -> crickets

video download speed throttle -> rage

Something is wrong here.

[midoridensha]

That's because there was a very good reason for that Covid "nonsense" as you put it: reducing infection rates and keeping healthcare systems from collapsing. If you disagree with that, then I'm sorry you aren't living in reality and believe in idiotic conspiracy theories and microchips in vaccines and the like.

(That said, there really was some real nonsense, such as certain dumb countries that penalized people for going on bicycle rides in rural areas by themselves.)

There's no good-for-society reason behind throttling video download speeds.

[cryptonector]

> There's no good-for-society reason behind throttling video download speeds.

Google certainly would disagree. Their argument (I assume) would go something like: if people don't pay for content up front and also don't watch the ads then these services can't exist, therefore if these services existing is better for society than them not existing, then it follows that <DRM, etc., fill in the blank> is good for society.

You might not like it but a great deal of our economy is built on that premise, so a lot of people and companies have a stake in holding onto such arguments.

Such an argument is a serious and honest one, and should be responded to with some care. Outright dismissal is not interesting.

> That's because there was a very good reason for that Covid "nonsense" as you put it: reducing infection rates and keeping healthcare systems from collapsing.

That definitely turns out to have been false. The models were vastly wrong. We definitely have differential handling of the pandemic, from Sweden, Africa, and some states in the U.S. for example, and those that went all out did not do better than those that didn't.

Many people warned that this was overblown, but also many people greatly enjoyed exercising authority, and others greatly enjoyed a sense of moral virtue ("saving grandma") that was unjustified.