thought about LRB, corporate intrusion, the history of exploitation in general
I wonder how many colonization efforts started with "oh, don't mind us, we're just friendly strangers, here to trade and farm peacefully!"
I wonder how much we can learn, as basically Internet indigenes*, from that history. What separated nations like Japan, Thailand, and (mostly) Ethiopia from those that got occupied? Should we be pulling the equivalent of Tokugawa's closing of ports to all European powers who wouldn't play ball?
It sure sounds like a good idea to me-- if we have something they want, it seems like the thing to do is keep it as far away from their ugly grasping mitts as possible. And fire on them if they approach, no matter how much they're offering.
*Zero disrespect intended to actual real-world indigenes, whose situation is infinitely more dire than ours could ever be. But the general process of "we were here first, but nobody gave a shit 'cause we were in the way" seems to have some meaningful strategic similarities. And man, do I feel like a Polish cavalryman facing down a German Panzer these days... *sigh*
thought about LRB, corporate intrusion, the history of exploitation in general, a little swearing
@zebratron2084
I'm not sure Tokugawa is a great metaphor, but I'm all for if the fuckers show up to enclose the commons and wreck the grass we send then packing