Censorship, fascism and Microsoft

I would make fascism illegal, which I know is fascist in itself.

More than anything, it was restrictions on the free flow of information that caused the dark ages. Blame it on middle class guilds or blame it on the church, the lack of the exchange of information caused a technological stagnancy that seriously impeded the development of Western Europe forcing millions to live in poverty for centuries.

I have no use for censors, closed source or the deliberate invasion of personal privacy to improve the profitability of a corporation based on some arbitrary concept of "fairness".

There will always be bullies who will force people into their mold or reality. "If you don't play my way I will take my toys away and make you miserable." Spoiled brats with no real concept of "fairness" telling everyone else what their concept of "fairness" is and doing everything they can to force other people into that concept.

Hitler and the NAZI party had their idea of fairness which is why they started WW2.

What people don't know is that WW2 started because France had a different idea of fairness that conflicted with the German idea of fairness which is why Germany started WW2. People focus on the holocaust instead of looking at the underlying economic and political causes of Nazism and WW2.

Rome had the same issues. They imposed their idea of fairness on the western world and not everyone agreed with Rome. As long as Rome had the muscle to impose that concept of fairness they did.

Some people will say that the US war in Afghanistan and Iraq is fought in that same ideology. It isn't. The United States is not trying to censor Islam or force people to pay tribute. The United States just does not want people to come and kill people in the United States. If nations are going to support that idea and make threats to do that, the United States is going to stop them. Then the US will go home, like they always do and wait until the next moron comes along and blows something up.

Truthfully the United States just wants what everyone else wants, a peaceful life with a "good" standard of living. The US does not just want that for themselves the way Rome or NAZI Germany did, the US would like that for everyone.

To get to that point you need to have acceptance and the free exchange of information.

Essentially to have a peaceful, "good" standard of living you need civil rights and freedom of speech. People need to be able to accept each other when they have stupid ideas, as long as those ideas are not imposed on others, and they need to exchange information freely.

It is the acceptability of the free and open exchange of information that makes the world peaceful and improves the standard of living world wide. Period.

Everyone's idea of "good" or "improving a standard of living" is different and that is great.

When corporations like Microsoft impose their ideology of fairness on people, when they invade people's privacy to improve their profitability, the world is being forced into a new "dark ages" where civil rights and the free exchange of information are discouraged.

I would go after Microsoft the same way the US government went after Afghanistan and Iraq, and for the exact same reasons.