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While in Europe recently I met many Chinese tourists who all said that their internet filtering was originally put in place to protect children.

jacquesm 17y ago
What bugs me about all this is that when the iron curtain was still in place everybody and their brother here was taking pot-shots at the perceived weakness in the people on 'the other side' for not standing up while their rights were trodden on, and how evil those governments were. And here we are, our rights are trodden on in ways that the former sovblock regimes could probably only dream of (inspect every letter ? trace every data request citizen makes ? trace the whereabouts of every citizen 24x7 ?) and it just happens. It's almost as if having a bad example right next door helped us to find our moral compass.
- nopassrecover 17y ago
  The disturbing thing is we do have a bad example right next door - people will point and criticise China and Iran and in the next breath point out how we know better and would never let the power be misused.
  - jacquesm 17y ago
    Good point. I think that the fact that to most Europeans and Americans 'Russia' (the collective view of the former sovblock started at the east German border and ended halfway between Japan and the former USSR) was the enemy, and China is not yet. There is some noise now with respect to the google China situation, but on the whole people think of China as relatively benign, and as an ally and trading partner rather than as an enemy. The cold war was definitely different in that respect, and everything 'the Russians' did (and by extension the other sovblock regimes) was perceived as bad. I remember that in the mid 80's, when I visited Poland that on my return people were literally shocked that there were CCTV systems operated by the government on the streets. The KGB keeping files on all foreigners and so on. We've come full circle and we're doing all that and more.

jacquesm 17y ago

What bugs me about all this is that when the iron curtain was still in place everybody and their brother here was taking pot-shots at the perceived weakness in the people on 'the other side' for not standing up while their rights were trodden on, and how evil those governments were. And here we are, our rights are trodden on in ways that the former sovblock regimes could probably only dream of (inspect every letter ? trace every data request citizen makes ? trace the whereabouts of every citizen 24x7 ?) and it just happens. It's almost as if having a bad example right next door helped us to find our moral compass.

nopassrecover 17y ago
The disturbing thing is we do have a bad example right next door - people will point and criticise China and Iran and in the next breath point out how we know better and would never let the power be misused.
- jacquesm 17y ago
  Good point. I think that the fact that to most Europeans and Americans 'Russia' (the collective view of the former sovblock started at the east German border and ended halfway between Japan and the former USSR) was the enemy, and China is not yet. There is some noise now with respect to the google China situation, but on the whole people think of China as relatively benign, and as an ally and trading partner rather than as an enemy. The cold war was definitely different in that respect, and everything 'the Russians' did (and by extension the other sovblock regimes) was perceived as bad. I remember that in the mid 80's, when I visited Poland that on my return people were literally shocked that there were CCTV systems operated by the government on the streets. The KGB keeping files on all foreigners and so on. We've come full circle and we're doing all that and more.