Berlin anti-TTIP trade deal protest attracts hundreds of thousands | Hacker News Reader

Berlin anti-TTIP trade deal protest attracts hundreds of thousands

theguardian.com

112 pointswalterbell12 comments

Nice Article. Unlike what Der Spiegel wrote... They quickly associated the protestors with: Pegida, NPD, Front National, Bulgarian Ultranationalists, American Tea-Party and Donald Trump.

"Wer nichts Schlimmes daran findet, sich gedanklich bei Pegida-Bachmann, Marine Le Pen und Donald Trump unterzuhaken, darf bei der Demo heute gerne hinter dem Plakat mit dem Chlorhühnchen herrennen."

Unbelievable.

Source: http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/soziales/ttip-bei-der-demo-...

"Der SPIEGEL: Die BILD-Zeitung für Abiturienten." - Volker Pispers

The article on Der Spiegel is an opinion piece (Kommentar) and not thought to be neutral coverage.

It's even not only an opinion piece but explicitly labelled as "polemic" and has a reply linked at the end.

Spiegel is very well situated within Germany's industrialist and business interests. I really would not have expected anything less from them. I don't think we really have anything sufficiently similar to compare them to, but it's definitely very upper establishment oriented.

Actually I've heard many people say (and I agree at least partially) that the "Spiegel" is quite "left" in the political spectrum. One example would be "Im Zweifel links" by Augstein and Fleischhauer.

IMO the "Der Spiegel" changed a lot since the death of Rudolf Augstein. Consider for example that for a while their assistant editor in chief was the former assistant editor in chief of "Bild". Which is very popular and very much on the "right" side of the political spectrum.

In my opinion the article gives a valid point, could you please elaborate on why you think it is wrong?

Yes, but in all fairness, this is one article out of 6 Spiegel Online had on the protests. And one was an explicit counter point to their own earlier polemic:

http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/ttip-kommentar-ich...

Okay, so it turns out that there are 2 deals:

TTP TTIP

In essence, it is hoping to standardize trade and other shit into 1 "free" system.

It also looks to be centred around NATO countries (or mostly them). So similar capitalist-agenda I guess?

This also sounds very dangerous on political grounds, as it will outcast many countries with alternate ideologies compared to the corporate-governed (or would "controlled" be a better word?) countries.

As hackers, many on HN wouldn't care too much for political banter like this, but as startup founders, this type of deal will entrench the VWs of the world and the "much-loved" Teslas will be squeezed out by entrenched corporate-sponsors with deep pockets.

There are more than two trade deals being negotiated right now, there are at least five: TTIP, TPP, TISA, CETA and a Chinese-led deal I forget the name of.

EDIT: The Chinese-led trade deal I was referring to is called RCEP.

> this type of deal will entrench the VWs of the world and the "much-loved" Teslas will be squeezed out by entrenched corporate-sponsors with deep pockets

Why? It seems to be the opposite. The insane level of senseless regulations in EU countries is often the reason why medium and especially small american companies don't even bother going there. Have you, for example, tried accepting payments from EU customers as a small internet business?

Standardized regulation is what first and foremost helps the small business, not the large corporations.

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