• tomkatt@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    Rather than blame Americans you could make the shit you want. Just saying.

    America sucks at the moment no doubt, but what exactly is the rest of the world’s excuse for not creating viable local or collaborative alternatives to American corporate services and products?

    • Cursed_Fig@lemmy.world
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      2 hours ago

      What the fuck are you talking about? Are you telling me to personally cast the fittings used in my water heater? To hand solder a PCB for my microwave? To machine my own engine camshaft?

      Or did you already decide on a response after you read three words and guessed at the rest? In what state, may I ask, did you receive your education?

      • tomkatt@lemmy.world
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        46 minutes ago

        Badly engineered, badly coded, badly built, and badly serviced. Great work, Americans.

        You blamed it on Americans and specifically pointed out bad code, badly built, and badly serviced products.

        Are you telling me to personally cast the fittings used in my water heater? To hand solder a PCB for my microwave? To machine my own engine camshaft?

        Believe it or not, some people actually do that shit.

        Also, please point to me where the any of that is specifically a fucking American problem? Your microwave PCB was probably manufactured in China or Taiwan. Same for the rest of the stuff you mentioned.

        And yeah, feel free to solder shit. I fixed my microwave PCB that way when a thyristor fried. Microwaves are pretty fucking simple where circuitry is concerned, large components and they even come with a PCB manual, generally above the door. Even if you can’t build it you can at least repair it.

    • jeffep@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      what exactly is the rest of the world’s excuse for not creating viable local or collaborative alternatives to American corporate services and products?

      Decades of American diplomacy and big tech market domination hindering them from doing exactly that. It’s not a coincidence all relevant tech companies are in the US. For the most time, if you started a company elsewhere and it became reasonably relevant, you had to eventually move to the US or go down.

      Of course, you could start a non profit, but it would also stay irrelevant because it’s incompatible with big tech. Microsoft’s docx, android and iOS locks etc.

      That said, there is now a political opportunity to move away from this system, but it takes a few years.

      • tomkatt@lemmy.world
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        5 hours ago

        But that means the blame is misplaced. The opportunity for competition existed all this time, but other nations rested on their laurels or otherwise corrupt politicians must have stopped competition and/or regulation preventing that technological dominance.

        Likely it was simply easier to say “let America do it.” Then there’s no responsibility or accountability and if anything goes wrong, blame America.

        We’re a nation of ~340 million in a world of billions. Surely there’s a means for other nations to create the same level of technological progress and rival whatever products and services we have. Our education system is trash and our politicians corrupt. You can’t be saying there was no other country or non-American business smart or savvy enough to make it happen. I’d it’s happening that way it’s because they choose not to out of convenience. It was a choice, and we’re all living with the outcome globally.

        • jeffep@lemmy.world
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          4 hours ago

          No, not out of convenience. I don’t know what your image of American diplomacy is like, but they have always been willing to force other countries to go their way. In some cases they had to kill political leaders, in the EU for example politicians "understand’ without getting killed.

          But I think we’re generally on the same boat. It’s weird how all relevant tech companies are in the US. The difference is, I don’t think this is because of"convenience". That doesn’t scale that much. This is enforced.

          • tomkatt@lemmy.world
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            2 hours ago

            Ah yes, the reason Spotify is vibe coded, tech bros make shitty products, and Europe doesn’t have a decent competitor to Netflix is… checks notes … the threat of assassination of European leaders via “diplomacy.”

            Bro, I don’t know whether you’re wearing the tin foil or smoking out of it but either way I think you should put it down.

            I still say it’s a choice. There are European providers that are hosting alternatives even for the likes of Azure and AWS. Use them. Fuck off from Amazon, Microsoft, and other American companies. Vote with your wallet. Support local products and services. They exist. If they’re not as good, it’s in part because they weren’t supported over American options.

            • jeffep@lemmy.world
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              2 hours ago

              You’re twisting my words, end of discussion here for me.

              Look up the Atlantic treaty association, for example. Look at what the Snowden Files revealed about how America treats its “friends”.