7 ms·

Just to drive this point home: be careful what you post on HN and elsewhere about China (YC's ventures have their hands dirty with China as well), as it's proba

Just to drive this point home: be careful what you post on HN and elsewhere about China (YC's ventures have their hands dirty with China as well), as it's probably being recorded somewhere and while they might not necessarily be able to pin it on you today, in the future there may come a breakthrough and all those archived records, once stashed away to gather dust as it were, suddenly become very useful and valuable. Happened before, will happen again.

hprotagonist 6y ago
"they're doing something naughty; better capitulate and do what they say! be afraid!" doesn't sound great to me...
Kednicma 6y ago
Sure, but also, fuck ethnofascism in all forms; when they come over here and ask us to censor ourselves, we say no [0]. We are obligated to resist it, not to shy away from it. [0] https://www.npr.org/2012/09/19/161343395/why-does-china-want-a-mural-in-oregon-destroyed https://www.npr.org/2012/09/19/161343395/why-does-china-want...
- coolspot 6y ago
  The US movie industry already censors itself from anything that can remotely offend China. NBA forbids all its employees from speaking in support of HK.
  - ardy42 6y ago
    > The US movie industry already censors itself from anything that can remotely offend China. I wonder how that could be changed. Could the US just pass a law banning exports of movies to China or banning cooperation with their censorship process? It's not like the censored movies are going to do much good, the censorship plus profit-seeking has a pernicious effect on the US domestic market.
testplzignore 6y ago
I think we should all do the exact opposite. Everyone should speak out against China's numerous human rights violations and concentration camps. Appeasement of dictatorships has killed tens of millions before and will do so again. If China wants to wage war on the rest of the world, it's better to get it over with as soon as possible.
- polotics 6y ago
  No rush! That may not necessarily be so: the one child policy has led to a peak in males, then relative prosperity has put demographics on a Europe-like path. The current bout of authoritarian leadership may be a last gasp before a climate led resource depletion enhanced population crumble. May I suggest you read up on how WW1 started? Also Thucydides of course.
colossal 6y ago
mm hows that boot taste
- dang 6y ago
  Hey, can you please not post attacks like this, or unsubstantive comments generally, to HN? We're trying for a different sort of forum here. If you wouldn't mind reading https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and using HN in the intended spirit, we'd be grateful.
reading-at-work 6y ago
Hey Xi Jinping - you look like Winnie the Pooh, your government sucks, and I hope your regime collapses. How's that?
- bzb5 6y ago
  Sounds bad, since the most likely outcome is that they will become the new empire to the detriment of the USA.
dougmwne 6y ago
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” You're talking about a country that has active concentration camps, runs its citizens down with tanks, and harvests the organs of political dissidents. I think I'll take my chances that democracy will prevail, thank you very much. As a gay man, I'll be first up against the wall if freedom dies. I don't belong in that other version of the world anyway.
- disown 6y ago
  > You're talking about a country that has active concentration camps, runs its citizens down with tanks, and harvests the organs of political dissidents. As opposed to countries that wiped out indigenous and stole their lands, enslaved people based on race, killed protestors, experimented on people without knowledge or consent, dropped nukes on civilians, etc? > As a gay man, I'll be first up against the wall if freedom dies. I guess you haven't heard about what democracy did to alan turing? And no, natives, jews, blacks, chinese, etc will be lined up far ahead of you. > “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Like all quotes, it's superficial nonsense. Every evil doer thinks that they are the "good guy". Pretty much all evil is done in the name of "good". The nazis, islamic terrorists, japanese imperialists, british empire and the people who nuked innocent civilians all think they are doing good. They all use your quote. The true evil are the ones who portray themselves as good and the other as evil. Those people who are so ideologically brainwashed as the ones capable of true evil.
  - dougmwne 6y ago
    In the USA, we live in a system where power is held accountable. Every single thing you mentioned was a atrocity and we are able to speak about it, learn about it debate it and replace our leadership to stop it from happening again. Your argument is pure whataboutism, a term coined to describe Soviet propaganda in the 60's. The reason it's still legitimate to bring up Tiananmen Square is because it is still denied, censored and unaddressed. The Nazis killed the gays right along with the Jews and I would face the death penalty in many countries today. I think I have a realistic take on what's at stake personally if we lose our free and open society. My gauge for evil is what the powerful are willing to do to the weak to increase their own power. By your argument, we can never call out evil when we see it. Instead of silence in the face of the evil we personally recognize, let us all speak!
mensetmanusman 6y ago
Not sure why you are being downvoted. If your public identity is linked to what you say online, and you said something bad about China, and your job asked you to get sent to China, ... It’s totally reasonable to ‘be careful’ about such a situation, because it is going to happen that some random citizen will be sent to jail for something. It’s happened with other countries, so there is precedent.
dang 6y ago
YC doesn't have any involvement in China. There was an attempt to set something up a few years ago but it has been unwound.

hprotagonist 6y ago

"they're doing something naughty; better capitulate and do what they say! be afraid!" doesn't sound great to me...

Kednicma 6y ago

Sure, but also, fuck ethnofascism in all forms; when they come over here and ask us to censor ourselves, we say no [0]. We are obligated to resist it, not to shy away from it. [0] https://www.npr.org/2012/09/19/161343395/why-does-china-want-a-mural-in-oregon-destroyed https://www.npr.org/2012/09/19/161343395/why-does-china-want...

coolspot 6y ago
The US movie industry already censors itself from anything that can remotely offend China. NBA forbids all its employees from speaking in support of HK.
- ardy42 6y ago
  > The US movie industry already censors itself from anything that can remotely offend China. I wonder how that could be changed. Could the US just pass a law banning exports of movies to China or banning cooperation with their censorship process? It's not like the censored movies are going to do much good, the censorship plus profit-seeking has a pernicious effect on the US domestic market.

testplzignore 6y ago

I think we should all do the exact opposite. Everyone should speak out against China's numerous human rights violations and concentration camps. Appeasement of dictatorships has killed tens of millions before and will do so again. If China wants to wage war on the rest of the world, it's better to get it over with as soon as possible.

polotics 6y ago
No rush! That may not necessarily be so: the one child policy has led to a peak in males, then relative prosperity has put demographics on a Europe-like path. The current bout of authoritarian leadership may be a last gasp before a climate led resource depletion enhanced population crumble. May I suggest you read up on how WW1 started? Also Thucydides of course.

colossal 6y ago

mm hows that boot taste

dang 6y ago
Hey, can you please not post attacks like this, or unsubstantive comments generally, to HN? We're trying for a different sort of forum here. If you wouldn't mind reading https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and using HN in the intended spirit, we'd be grateful.

reading-at-work 6y ago

Hey Xi Jinping - you look like Winnie the Pooh, your government sucks, and I hope your regime collapses. How's that?

bzb5 6y ago
Sounds bad, since the most likely outcome is that they will become the new empire to the detriment of the USA.

dougmwne 6y ago

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” You're talking about a country that has active concentration camps, runs its citizens down with tanks, and harvests the organs of political dissidents. I think I'll take my chances that democracy will prevail, thank you very much. As a gay man, I'll be first up against the wall if freedom dies. I don't belong in that other version of the world anyway.

disown 6y ago
> You're talking about a country that has active concentration camps, runs its citizens down with tanks, and harvests the organs of political dissidents. As opposed to countries that wiped out indigenous and stole their lands, enslaved people based on race, killed protestors, experimented on people without knowledge or consent, dropped nukes on civilians, etc? > As a gay man, I'll be first up against the wall if freedom dies. I guess you haven't heard about what democracy did to alan turing? And no, natives, jews, blacks, chinese, etc will be lined up far ahead of you. > “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Like all quotes, it's superficial nonsense. Every evil doer thinks that they are the "good guy". Pretty much all evil is done in the name of "good". The nazis, islamic terrorists, japanese imperialists, british empire and the people who nuked innocent civilians all think they are doing good. They all use your quote. The true evil are the ones who portray themselves as good and the other as evil. Those people who are so ideologically brainwashed as the ones capable of true evil.
- dougmwne 6y ago
  In the USA, we live in a system where power is held accountable. Every single thing you mentioned was a atrocity and we are able to speak about it, learn about it debate it and replace our leadership to stop it from happening again. Your argument is pure whataboutism, a term coined to describe Soviet propaganda in the 60's. The reason it's still legitimate to bring up Tiananmen Square is because it is still denied, censored and unaddressed. The Nazis killed the gays right along with the Jews and I would face the death penalty in many countries today. I think I have a realistic take on what's at stake personally if we lose our free and open society. My gauge for evil is what the powerful are willing to do to the weak to increase their own power. By your argument, we can never call out evil when we see it. Instead of silence in the face of the evil we personally recognize, let us all speak!

mensetmanusman 6y ago

Not sure why you are being downvoted. If your public identity is linked to what you say online, and you said something bad about China, and your job asked you to get sent to China, ... It’s totally reasonable to ‘be careful’ about such a situation, because it is going to happen that some random citizen will be sent to jail for something. It’s happened with other countries, so there is precedent.

dang 6y ago

YC doesn't have any involvement in China. There was an attempt to set something up a few years ago but it has been unwound.