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tryauuumlast Sunday at 4:51 PM5 repliesview on HN

You can't fight political issues with clever technical solutions


Replies

toast0last Sunday at 6:05 PM

It depends on what the political system is trying to do.

A VPN won't help against government blanket outages, where the target is complete control of communications, and attempts to circumvent may result in extreme penalty. In this case, where the government policy is to stop unauthorized streaming, and collatoral damage is acceptable, a VPN hosted in a more favorable location is likely to work enough. Afaik, I don't think Spain has the political appetite to block VPNs and such during football matches.

You can still fight the political issue with political means, but in the mean time, you can also get work done.

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peanut-walruslast Sunday at 5:02 PM

Yes you can. Fight with clever technical solutions and the politics will follow once the solution becomes common or displays its usefulness. It is in fact the most effective way to fight dumb political issues.

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psychoslavelast Sunday at 5:00 PM

That's actually part of rebellion modus operandi, so totally something realistic. But not within the frame of law and not in the sweet position of someone away from the "I'll die for the just cause" mindset.

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logicchainslast Sunday at 6:08 PM

You totally can, that's why bittorrent still exists and works fine.

fc417fc802last Sunday at 6:14 PM

That became a popular refrain at some point but the truth of it varies. In fact many political issues are brought about by technical changes so obviously the reverse must be possible as well.

What technical solutions can't change is the underlying social dynamics.

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