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I am so incredibly tired of Germany being a legal and technical internet backwater. It's exhausting and depressing and I hate it so much. I wish the old people

I am so incredibly tired of Germany being a legal and technical internet backwater. It's exhausting and depressing and I hate it so much. I wish the old people would fuck the hell off, because they simply don't belong in positions that represent our society in a modern world.

xijingpooh 5y ago
France isn't a lot better in this regard. You need a permit from the Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel to operate a public open wlan. They had a three strike policy for sharing infridging content but they just gave up for some reason. Maybe they finally realised it's a waste of public servant time to go after people in the benefit of a few corporations.
- maeln 5y ago
  Big copyright holders hold a lot of political power in France. That's why France has been one of the country in the E.U fighting the most against piracy and taxing pretty much everything you can store music file on (we used to buy blank CD/DVD in germany or spain because they where close to 10 time cheaper). The three strike / hadopi bullshit was clearly a political move to satisfy the biggest copyright holder, a lot of it was completely unenforceable and even unconstitutional from the start. In the end, very few people even got to the third strike, and they couldn't even do what they "promised" (forbidding the person from having an internet connection) and had to go through costly court procedure just to give fines in the end. It was just a machine to burn public money for the miniscule benefit of a few. It died very fast because nobody wanted to try to make this bullshit actually work and burn even more money when they have to get re-elected.
brnt 5y ago
I recently went to work in Germany (not Berlin). It surprised me how conservative the country is, in many ways, not just the use of tech. Its lack of tech is a reflection of that attitude is my impression. Unfortunately the pandemic has made it difficult to get to know people personally and study this in a bit more detail.
yololol 5y ago
Since when is it okay to say these things? People not up to date to do their jobs are the problem, not "old" people. Blame behaviors not groups. PS: I moved to Germany and I want to move out asap because of how outdated everything is here.
- ChuckNorris89 5y ago
  Curious to know what are your points of comparison when you say everything is outdated in Germany.
  - yololol 5y ago
    Hmmm okay, so first of all I should had said Berlin, as perhaps my experience does not necessarily reflect the situation in the whole Germany. So about Berlin: Aside from the internet paper-based communication, and general love for bureaucuracy, I found the city's infrastructure to be generally deprived. When I arrived Tegel and Schönefeld were the only airports, the state of which I frankly found shameful, especially for the capital of Europe's biggest economy. And the new Brandenburg airport that took 10 years to finish is not great either. I found the state of S-Bahn and U-Bahn pretty disappointing too, and parts of the public transport system to be constantly broken. Also the general customer service is very bad, a lot of places don't even accept credit cards, and overall people seem to be reluctant to adopt new technologies. I have the feeling that Berlin is stuck in it's golden age, and doesn't want to move forward. As for the point of reference, I moved from Hong Kong (not my native country), which I consider to be very modern in these aspects, so the whole experience was like a time-travel back to the 90s :)
- llampx 5y ago
  Its a systemic rot. Old people in this case are definitely part of the problem, but so are the young bureaucrats who just step into their predecessor's shoes and continue working as they were in the 70's. "Bitte per Fax zukommen lassen."
hvgk 5y ago
A good friend of mine is German. She moved out of the country a couple of years back because it was crammed with backwards ideologies and Ludditism to use her own words. Her father ran a small shop which went bankrupt because he was closed at lunch times and weekends (when everyone wanted to go in there) and only took cash and this was everyone else’s fault apparently. She came here (UK) and was surprised you could actually pay pretty much anywhere with a phone for example and says we live in a technology utopia compared to there.
- f6v 5y ago
  Nur Bar ist wahr! I’m in Denmark now and don’t carry any cash with me. In Germany, I could forget about getting lunch with that attitude.
  - dgellow 5y ago
    That changed a lot since 2020. I regularly pay small things, like franzbrötchen, with my Apple Watch (that was not always possible before). At least in Hamburg it is now possible to use a card/contact-less payment almost everywhere. I only use cash for public transports.
  - Merem 5y ago
    "Nur Bares ist Wahres"...and it's true. With cash you have full control of the money while with some CC or phone you rely on third parties. Not to mention the privacy and data issues. It's always "funny" when people whine about that or how their CC got compromised, despite it being their choice.
    - DyslexicAtheist 5y ago
      you're getting downvotes which is puzzling because a sibling thread laments the all too common overreach of law enforcement citing the "zwiebelfreunde/CCC" raid. It's perfectly consistent to be suspicious about paying by cash and also wanting to avoid leaking information to advertisers or taking care about security. Rejecting FinTech or traditional banking in a high tax country even as a law abiding citizens is not being a Luddite. It's good data hygiene for when they eventually come knocking and demand you explain yourself.
LargoLasskhyfv 5y ago
And the younger ones are better? I think this has nothing to do with age per se, more of mind, character, experience. Or class. Or how compromised and corrupt they are. I mean, look at Spahn. Or Dorothee Bär. Or lets not concentrate on persons, but on concepts instead. What makes anyone competent to be at the top of any branch, resort, ministry? Their staff? Then why not appoint someone from the staff to that position? It's all non-sense now, a tragicomedy at best. Regardless of party and age.

xijingpooh 5y ago

France isn't a lot better in this regard. You need a permit from the Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel to operate a public open wlan. They had a three strike policy for sharing infridging content but they just gave up for some reason. Maybe they finally realised it's a waste of public servant time to go after people in the benefit of a few corporations.

maeln 5y ago
Big copyright holders hold a lot of political power in France. That's why France has been one of the country in the E.U fighting the most against piracy and taxing pretty much everything you can store music file on (we used to buy blank CD/DVD in germany or spain because they where close to 10 time cheaper). The three strike / hadopi bullshit was clearly a political move to satisfy the biggest copyright holder, a lot of it was completely unenforceable and even unconstitutional from the start. In the end, very few people even got to the third strike, and they couldn't even do what they "promised" (forbidding the person from having an internet connection) and had to go through costly court procedure just to give fines in the end. It was just a machine to burn public money for the miniscule benefit of a few. It died very fast because nobody wanted to try to make this bullshit actually work and burn even more money when they have to get re-elected.

brnt 5y ago

I recently went to work in Germany (not Berlin). It surprised me how conservative the country is, in many ways, not just the use of tech. Its lack of tech is a reflection of that attitude is my impression. Unfortunately the pandemic has made it difficult to get to know people personally and study this in a bit more detail.

yololol 5y ago

Since when is it okay to say these things? People not up to date to do their jobs are the problem, not "old" people. Blame behaviors not groups. PS: I moved to Germany and I want to move out asap because of how outdated everything is here.

ChuckNorris89 5y ago
Curious to know what are your points of comparison when you say everything is outdated in Germany.
- yololol 5y ago
  Hmmm okay, so first of all I should had said Berlin, as perhaps my experience does not necessarily reflect the situation in the whole Germany. So about Berlin: Aside from the internet paper-based communication, and general love for bureaucuracy, I found the city's infrastructure to be generally deprived. When I arrived Tegel and Schönefeld were the only airports, the state of which I frankly found shameful, especially for the capital of Europe's biggest economy. And the new Brandenburg airport that took 10 years to finish is not great either. I found the state of S-Bahn and U-Bahn pretty disappointing too, and parts of the public transport system to be constantly broken. Also the general customer service is very bad, a lot of places don't even accept credit cards, and overall people seem to be reluctant to adopt new technologies. I have the feeling that Berlin is stuck in it's golden age, and doesn't want to move forward. As for the point of reference, I moved from Hong Kong (not my native country), which I consider to be very modern in these aspects, so the whole experience was like a time-travel back to the 90s :)
llampx 5y ago
Its a systemic rot. Old people in this case are definitely part of the problem, but so are the young bureaucrats who just step into their predecessor's shoes and continue working as they were in the 70's. "Bitte per Fax zukommen lassen."

hvgk 5y ago

A good friend of mine is German. She moved out of the country a couple of years back because it was crammed with backwards ideologies and Ludditism to use her own words. Her father ran a small shop which went bankrupt because he was closed at lunch times and weekends (when everyone wanted to go in there) and only took cash and this was everyone else’s fault apparently. She came here (UK) and was surprised you could actually pay pretty much anywhere with a phone for example and says we live in a technology utopia compared to there.

f6v 5y ago
Nur Bar ist wahr! I’m in Denmark now and don’t carry any cash with me. In Germany, I could forget about getting lunch with that attitude.
- dgellow 5y ago
  That changed a lot since 2020. I regularly pay small things, like franzbrötchen, with my Apple Watch (that was not always possible before). At least in Hamburg it is now possible to use a card/contact-less payment almost everywhere. I only use cash for public transports.
- Merem 5y ago
  "Nur Bares ist Wahres"...and it's true. With cash you have full control of the money while with some CC or phone you rely on third parties. Not to mention the privacy and data issues. It's always "funny" when people whine about that or how their CC got compromised, despite it being their choice.
  - DyslexicAtheist 5y ago
    you're getting downvotes which is puzzling because a sibling thread laments the all too common overreach of law enforcement citing the "zwiebelfreunde/CCC" raid. It's perfectly consistent to be suspicious about paying by cash and also wanting to avoid leaking information to advertisers or taking care about security. Rejecting FinTech or traditional banking in a high tax country even as a law abiding citizens is not being a Luddite. It's good data hygiene for when they eventually come knocking and demand you explain yourself.

LargoLasskhyfv 5y ago

And the younger ones are better? I think this has nothing to do with age per se, more of mind, character, experience. Or class. Or how compromised and corrupt they are. I mean, look at Spahn. Or Dorothee Bär. Or lets not concentrate on persons, but on concepts instead. What makes anyone competent to be at the top of any branch, resort, ministry? Their staff? Then why not appoint someone from the staff to that position? It's all non-sense now, a tragicomedy at best. Regardless of party and age.