I’m generally curious what you all think about the “R2R” movement, because as a whole, it's great imo and Louis Rossmann, who’s the most recognizable face of it, is someone who I wish was more well known to the general public, but as a whole, what it aims to do is make it so that you're able to fix the things you purchase, rather than be “encouraged” by the company to purchase a new one, and in general, has become a question of “do you own your device/car/tractor/etc., or does the company” in terms of how much you're allowed to do with what you own.
People who farm have had to deal with John Deere locking down their tools so only licensed dealers can work on them effectively and have had to resort to jailbreaking their tractors on occasion, Apple and other Big Tech names have made their electronics harder to repair over the years, serializing and pairing parts to motherboards so they don't work even if you swap between two of the same part between two of the same brand new phone, it's a whole mess in and of itself, but the general conclusion that’s been agreed on is that only two things can really change this:
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Government regulations preventing all the nonsense like serialization/pairing, making manufacturers/OEMs have to provide parts and schematics.
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Society actually puts pressure on said companies by not buying those harder to repair products, which is pretty fucking hard, considering what society we live in, illustrated in this video.
Most R2R activists think that number 1 is way more likely to happen, and have been doing that, getting R2R laws passed in almost 20 states so far, but I'm just wondering if anyone has any issues with having to use the government to make companies less shitty when it comes to actually owning the device you purchase, or not.
I still remember the time when the default position of partisan Republicans was mindless shilling for corporations. I'm glad there has been a sea-change.
Back in the 90s, the "chamber of commerce" was a major Republican donor and a significant part of the Republican base. This was basically the "large corporation" interest group. Both parties always talk about "small businesses" because that polls well, but the truth is they are both pigs at the trough for big corporate money.
One of the biggest and most visible disconnects between the Republican elites and the base was due to the power of this lobby: immigration. The Republican base was strongly against illegal immigration and wanted restricted legal immigration. The chamber of commerce pushed hard for open borders because they wanted cheap labor. When they couldn't get it, they outsourced all the jobs, first to Mexico, then to China.
This pissed off a lot of Republicans, and created a rift. Also, the Republican base got the upper hand in the immigration wars and thwarted chamber of commerce pushes to get amnesty in the 00s.
As a result, the chamber of commerce shifted to the Left and stopped being a Republican thing, and became increasingly Democrat and liberal. Formerly dominated by right wing corporations, it is now dominated by liberal "tech bro" companies like Facebook & Google & Uber, as well as shit like Pfizer.
Right now, the "chamber of commerce", if you personified it, would be Mitt Romney on the Right side, and with a strong leftward tilt from him, since it loves to push amnesty & climate change.
The other major schism was over China. Obviously the Chamber lobbyists push hard in favor of China. When Trump went hard against China, it made the Chamber even more clearly the enemy of the Right, since they give 0 fucks about US national security and just want to make money even if it means supporting evil.