The number of people who have lost sight of this is unbelievable. It actually seems especially rampant on HN, which is kind of surprising, to be honest.
But aside from that, I can't understand how EU users are unable or unwilling to separate the intent of this specific law from the broader principle that it represents, and how other countries might misuse this principle.
If any jurisdiction in the world can pass a law no matter how ridiculous that forces any business in the world with a website to comply with, on the chance that a user from that jurisdiction might stumble on that site, AND there's any kind of enforcement mechanism, then the Internet will cease to exist. Either that or become ultra-balkanized, where every user has an identifier that will ONLY give them access to sites which are fully compliant with their jurisdictions.
What if the US to passes a law that Americans are too fat and are no longer allowed to be sold gelato (they're allowed to buy gelato, but no longer allowed to be sold gelato), and then levy a multi-million dollar fine against every gelato shop in Italy where Americans visit on vacation?
That makes as much sense to me as this does.
But Europe is full of people who aren't so in thrall to the EU as an idea, as evidenced by one of its most important countries voting to leave despite the population being threatened with massive chaos and severing of all cooperation and trade relationships with their neighbours should they choose to do so. Bad regulation was one of the most common talking points during the Brexit campaigns and GDPR is a good example of why.
These sort of people aren't posting so much on HN but they are quite common.
They don't exist. The EU loves to dress itself in the clothes of nation states, that which it so desires to become, but ultimately the concept of "citizenship" in the EU sense has nothing to do with the normal concept of citizenship.