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It has to do with China as the parent comment made clear: We’re constantly told China is a threat, and that’s probably a reasonable bit of advice. We’re not c

It has to do with China as the parent comment made clear: We’re constantly told China is a threat, and that’s probably a reasonable bit of advice. We’re not constantly told our own governments are a threat, and that forms the basis of propaganda and misinformation.

thephyber 6y ago
> We’re constantly told China is ... > We’re not constantly told our own governments are ... When I read these statements, I can't help to substitute these nouns with "a used car salesperson". Of course a used car salesperson will talk up the cars on their lot and won't go out of their way to point out the defects or bad value. That's exactly why we should look for sources other than the salesperson and their allies. Look for data supplied by neutral third parties who have a slight adversarial stance. Also look for data from strong adversaries and evaluate the likelihood of truth versus pure propaganda.
roenxi 6y ago
And just to be clear; in the normal case a local government is much more of a threat than a foreign government. The experience in the 20th century made it very clear - if a government causes you to die, it was probably your government. Not a foreign government. The experience in the 21st century has thankfully been a little bit milder but (1) we're only 20 years in and (2) if you are going to be persecuted it is still far more likely to be by a local government than a foreign government.
unishark 6y ago
> We’re not constantly told our own governments are a threat, and that forms the basis of propaganda and misinformation. On the contrary I'd say a very notable feature the US culture is the adversarial view people have of the government. It's practically part of every major party's platform.
catalogia 6y ago
> We’re not constantly told our own governments are a threat That has not been my experience living in America. Not even remotely.

thephyber 6y ago

> We’re constantly told China is ... > We’re not constantly told our own governments are ... When I read these statements, I can't help to substitute these nouns with "a used car salesperson". Of course a used car salesperson will talk up the cars on their lot and won't go out of their way to point out the defects or bad value. That's exactly why we should look for sources other than the salesperson and their allies. Look for data supplied by neutral third parties who have a slight adversarial stance. Also look for data from strong adversaries and evaluate the likelihood of truth versus pure propaganda.

roenxi 6y ago

And just to be clear; in the normal case a local government is much more of a threat than a foreign government. The experience in the 20th century made it very clear - if a government causes you to die, it was probably your government. Not a foreign government. The experience in the 21st century has thankfully been a little bit milder but (1) we're only 20 years in and (2) if you are going to be persecuted it is still far more likely to be by a local government than a foreign government.

unishark 6y ago

> We’re not constantly told our own governments are a threat, and that forms the basis of propaganda and misinformation. On the contrary I'd say a very notable feature the US culture is the adversarial view people have of the government. It's practically part of every major party's platform.

catalogia 6y ago

> We’re not constantly told our own governments are a threat That has not been my experience living in America. Not even remotely.