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Comment by mrkrab | Hacker News Reader

>Technical screwups aside, the existence of .IO and the fact that it "belongs" to the UK government is morally questionable, since the entire country code only exists because the British and American militaries forcibly removed the original inhabitants of islands such as Diego Garcia so that they could use the area as naval and air force bases.

Since you're getting political there for no reason at all, let me say this: might is right. Get over it.

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> might is right. Get over it.

That's a good summary of the UK's response to the UN, but we are allowed to disagree. We are allowed to have moral values that are not enforced at the end of a gun. I'm sad that you don't.

And when it comes to the global organization of the Internet, politics is important. Politics is why the fad for .ly domains in link shorteners allowed links to be censored by Gaddafi's government.

And politics is presumably why the UK controls this ugly stepchild of a TLD* and doesn't care about it enough to put competent people in charge of it.

*Unfortunately, I use it too. .com and .org are in an end-game where everything belongs to the domain squatters.

Next time summon the courage to express your moral nihilism on your real account.

It almost feels like a mistake to dignify this with the obvious response: might is might, but might is not right. Moral criticism like that of the GP is subject to debate, but not to the blanket claim that injustice as a thing doesn't exist and power is the only reality.

Ladies and gentleman: Hacker News.

This comment is in terrible taste but it isn't wrong. We can't just shove our hands in the sand and say it isn't fair so it isn't true.

Might makes the rules, but that doesn't mean the rules are right. We can definitely shove our hands in the sand and say that they are not fair.

> it isn't wrong

are you referring to "might is right"? what makes you say that?

Thanks for asking that question. My original comment was made quickly and perhaps unintelligently. I don't mean to imply force makes something "right" where "right" is good or best society. I meant from a historical perspective success and strength often makes things culturally acceptable.

A pop culture reference I like to make is the protagonist in Wolf of Wall Street who defrauded many innocent and vulnerable people, is seen as a hero.

Relating back to OP and his American comment, we can reopen Guantanamo Bay for the purpose of torture yet every time our president sets foot in a foreign country he receives a celebration: partly due to the might of the American military and economy.

Relating back to tech and software in general: How do we feel about Microsoft, Bill Gates, after what they did in the 90s? How do we feel about the way Steve Jobs treated his employees and bought his higher placement on the organ transplant list?

"Might makes culturally acceptable" it seems.

> is seen as a hero

He definitely isn't. Neither is Gordon Gecko except by those people who fail to understand the slightly deeper meaning of the telling of those stories.

> How do we feel about the way Steve Jobs treated his employees and bought his higher placement on the organ transplant list?

Or his partner for that matter. But that wasn't the subject, even so plenty of people detest Jobs for or even all of the above.

Surprising behavior from a green username.

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