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A comment on Groups funded by the Koch brothers are campaigning against municipal broadband. Parent comment

Re:Groups funded by the Koch brothers are campaigning agains... by mcv on Monday December 18, 2017 @07:07AM (#15951082)
> Do people really believe that infrastructure is not the purview of the government?

Well, the people behind these Koch-funded groups do. They believe that nothing is the purview of government, or at least nothing that can be monopolised and exploited for profit.

I think the purview of government is primarily to protect the people against this kind of monopolisation and exploitation. Privatised infrastructure is fine with me as long as it doesn't hurt people's access to it. But in this case, the government is clearly responding to a lack of access.

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Re:Groups funded by the Koch brothers are campaigning agains... by tremon on Monday December 18, 2017 @08:37AM (#15951476)
Do they really believe that, or do they simply need us to believe that so they can keep pillaging the country?
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Re:Groups funded by the Koch brothers are campaigning agains... by jedberg on Monday December 18, 2017 @12:17PM (#15953255)
There was a great Freakonomics podcast[0] where they interviewed a Koch brother. It seems like they truly believe that is what would be best for the country. They are Libertarians and believe in it's tenets to their core.

[0] http://freakonomics.com/podcast/why-hate-koch-brothers-part-...

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Re:Groups funded by the Koch brothers are campaigning agains... by hodgesrm on Monday December 18, 2017 @12:48PM (#15953552)
That's pretty much my take on the Kochs as well. They seem to contribute to things they believe in, which incidentally includes public radio stations and hospitals [0]. You may not like their politics--and many do not--but so far everything I have read or heard about them supports the notion they are sincere in their beliefs.

The problem is not so much the Kochs as the fact that we've permitted a political system to arise in the US that allows a disproportionate amount of wealth to flow to a relatively small number of people and to allow those lucky few an outsized influence on the evolution of said system. Those two things are not unconnected.

[0] https://www.usnews.com/news/the-report/articles/2015/06/26/t...

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Re:Groups funded by the Koch brothers are campaigning agains... by vorotato on Monday December 18, 2017 @10:53AM (#15952430)
Upton Sinclair's "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it." still holds true here.
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Re:Groups funded by the Koch brothers are campaigning agains... by dredmorbius on Tuesday December 19, 2017 @07:37AM (#15959722)
Read Jane Meyer's Dark Money.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/24/books/review/dark-money-b...

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Re:Groups funded by the Koch brothers are campaigning agains... by losteric on Monday December 18, 2017 @11:12AM (#15952613)
I think they would agree that infrastructure falls to the government... the disagreement arises in what "government" means. Their views seem more aligned with feudalism/monarchism, subjugating the public by convincing citizens to surrender key infrastructure to privatized rule.
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