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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   31954 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of May 22, 2023

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Its really dramatic in German descended parts of rural America and Canada... as the laws are increasingly written with the assumption that no one will obey them and German descended small business people try desperately to comply with impossible contradictory laws.

I wonder what the Germans do about GDPR. That law seems particularly difficult to comply with.

Assiduously fill out a form every time you go to a public event, to the doctor, to a mechanic, to town hall, or generally have any interaction with anyone whatsoever that isn't bedroom-private or plain retail.

I wonder what the Germans do about GDPR.

They (and Europe in general) get around it by not having any meaningful tech industry.

My opinion of the European tech industry is also pretty low. Here's an anecdote about Italy. While I was there, I couldn't access ChatGPT without a VPN because it didn't comply with Italian privacy laws.

Meanwhile, because of Italian law, every hotel required that I enter my passport photo, city of birth, and other very personal details into their extremely shittily-designed web portal which I am sure is being hacked regularly. (I did lie when possible)

That's not the fault of the Italian tech industry, that's the fault of Italian regulations.

Do people drive the speed limit there?

Rather famously, Germany has no speed limit on most of the Autobahn. German law-abidingness is a result of three linked phenomena - people believe the law simply codifies expected pro-social behaviour, people generally choose to behave pro-socially, and the legislators making laws (like speed limits on uncongested freeways) which would undermine the other two.

and the legislators making laws (like speed limits on uncongested freeways) which would undermine the other two

There's an underrated concept that I heard once about this concept generalized as having to make laws there be "beneath the dignity of the State".

Contrast the law in the neighboring countries and most of the English-speaking world where everyone recognizes that speed limits are not one of those laws that codifies pro-social behavior (because, quite simply, they're set far below the maximum safe speed of the road) and everyone drives 10 over as a consequence. It's almost like respect for the State is a two-way street or something.

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