5 ms·

The west is, to a large degree, institutionally captured. Consumer boycott is the only solution.

agul29 5y ago
The West is instutionally captured by established power structures whose financial and political profit is dependant on a new Cold War, in which the bulk of the Red Scare-ish craziness is realized as yellow perilist propaganda.
- redis_mlc 5y ago
  The behavior of the CCP is well-documented, and the West has been infiltrated by their influence. The CCP has "border disputes" with every single one of their neighbors. Stop being a useful idiot. Here's the current international human rights drama with the CCP: https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/18/china/wta-ceo-peng-shuai-steve-simon-intl-hnk/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/18/china/wta-ceo-peng-shuai-stev... This scientist is getting PR for a faulty analysis: https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/18/health/covid-origins-market-theory/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/18/health/covid-origins-market-t... It's faulty because: - the CCP has acknowledged a man died on Dec. 1 from corona - participants at the Military Games said Wuhan had "empty streets" a couple months earlier. - Wuhan hospital parking lots were full according to satellite images around the time of the Military Games. - WIV had areas evacuated according to cell tower traffic and a PLA general took control before Dec. 1
- stickfigure 5y ago
  On the other hand, watching western actors grovel in public because they had the temerity to call Taiwan a nation makes me inclined to think that there's something actually perilous here.
  - sofixa 5y ago
    But Taiwan isn't an independent country. Nobody of note recognises it as such, and heck, they barely claim to be one! It's a vastly complex subject with tons of history, you can't just reduce it to "Taiwan should be called a nation". (they should ideally become an independent nation, but that's besides the point)
    - stickfigure 5y ago
      Taiwan is self-governing, has its own armed forces, passports, and fully controls its own borders. That makes it a nation, no matter what you want to call it.
      - sofixa 5y ago
        A nation requires none of those to be a nation, look at indigenous nations in the US and Canada. A country needs to be self-governing, autonomous, and recognised by the majority of UN members. Taiwan isn't recognised by any country of note, including the US, so they fail the country test.
        stickfigure 5y ago
        > A country needs to be ... recognised by the majority of UN members. Are you trying to be funny? Because that's hilarious. Also, nobody (including the residents) considers the reservations in north america to be "nations". I'm guessing you've never actually been here.
        sofixa 5y ago
        Do tell what you think is the criteria for a country being one. Is Transnistria one? South Ossetia? Taiwan? A native American tribe? The US? An American state? It's a trick question! A native American tribe is a nation, by definition [1]. Heck, the Canadians call theirs "First Nations". A country requires sovereignty over some land, people, and international recognition. Without the last part, Sealand was a country. Funnily enough, depending on how strict you're with the criteria, some native American tribes are countries, and the US isn't always one due to reservations and states sovereignties. 1 - `a large body of people united by common descent, history, culture, or language, inhabiting a particular country or territory` Oxford English dictionary
- cinquemb 5y ago
  And to me its seems the antidote in part is hyper decentralized, cross nation state jurisdictional distributed, and transparent structures of power and wealth that seeks to cannibalize and eventually obsolete the existing financial system. Only on a few servers in the world where I can see users speaking mandarin, english, farsi, turkish, etc where their wealth goes up as their leaders in their respective countries increase their malfeasance…
- selfhoster11 5y ago
  It's not being perilist if you really are in peril.
swiley 5y ago
Or just make non-free consumer software illegal.
- tjs8rj 5y ago
  By this do you mean making all consumer software free and all new consumer software must be free?
- _-david-_ 5y ago
  Wouldn't solve the issue. You can have censorship with open source software and so long as there is a locked bootloader you couldn't easily replace the software. Also, even if the bootloader was unlocked the majority of people aren't technical enough to replace the software that is doing the censorship.
  - nine_k 5y ago
    There is a fundamental contradiction between safety and freedom. The more you are in control, the more you need to know and pay attention too. Any guard rails necessarily limit your choice of path. In other words, the price of liberty is eternal vigilance, and there is a lot of people who do not want to pay that price. They just need stuff done, no matter what.
riffraff 5y ago
Many countries in west cut out Huawei from 5g contracts. It seems just as easy to cut Xiaomi out from consumer phones.
blackoil 5y ago
Consumer's can't agree on wearing masks or if earth is flat. I don't see any measurable impact by consumers in reasonably near future.

The West is instutionally captured by established power structures whose financial and political profit is dependant on a new Cold War, in which the bulk of the Red Scare-ish craziness is realized as yellow perilist propaganda.

redis_mlc 5y ago
The behavior of the CCP is well-documented, and the West has been infiltrated by their influence. The CCP has "border disputes" with every single one of their neighbors. Stop being a useful idiot. Here's the current international human rights drama with the CCP: https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/18/china/wta-ceo-peng-shuai-steve-simon-intl-hnk/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/18/china/wta-ceo-peng-shuai-stev... This scientist is getting PR for a faulty analysis: https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/18/health/covid-origins-market-theory/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/18/health/covid-origins-market-t... It's faulty because: - the CCP has acknowledged a man died on Dec. 1 from corona - participants at the Military Games said Wuhan had "empty streets" a couple months earlier. - Wuhan hospital parking lots were full according to satellite images around the time of the Military Games. - WIV had areas evacuated according to cell tower traffic and a PLA general took control before Dec. 1
stickfigure 5y ago
On the other hand, watching western actors grovel in public because they had the temerity to call Taiwan a nation makes me inclined to think that there's something actually perilous here.
- sofixa 5y ago
  But Taiwan isn't an independent country. Nobody of note recognises it as such, and heck, they barely claim to be one! It's a vastly complex subject with tons of history, you can't just reduce it to "Taiwan should be called a nation". (they should ideally become an independent nation, but that's besides the point)
  - stickfigure 5y ago
    Taiwan is self-governing, has its own armed forces, passports, and fully controls its own borders. That makes it a nation, no matter what you want to call it.
    - sofixa 5y ago
      A nation requires none of those to be a nation, look at indigenous nations in the US and Canada. A country needs to be self-governing, autonomous, and recognised by the majority of UN members. Taiwan isn't recognised by any country of note, including the US, so they fail the country test.
      - stickfigure 5y ago
        > A country needs to be ... recognised by the majority of UN members. Are you trying to be funny? Because that's hilarious. Also, nobody (including the residents) considers the reservations in north america to be "nations". I'm guessing you've never actually been here.
        sofixa 5y ago
        Do tell what you think is the criteria for a country being one. Is Transnistria one? South Ossetia? Taiwan? A native American tribe? The US? An American state? It's a trick question! A native American tribe is a nation, by definition [1]. Heck, the Canadians call theirs "First Nations". A country requires sovereignty over some land, people, and international recognition. Without the last part, Sealand was a country. Funnily enough, depending on how strict you're with the criteria, some native American tribes are countries, and the US isn't always one due to reservations and states sovereignties. 1 - `a large body of people united by common descent, history, culture, or language, inhabiting a particular country or territory` Oxford English dictionary
cinquemb 5y ago
And to me its seems the antidote in part is hyper decentralized, cross nation state jurisdictional distributed, and transparent structures of power and wealth that seeks to cannibalize and eventually obsolete the existing financial system. Only on a few servers in the world where I can see users speaking mandarin, english, farsi, turkish, etc where their wealth goes up as their leaders in their respective countries increase their malfeasance…
selfhoster11 5y ago
It's not being perilist if you really are in peril.

swiley 5y ago

Or just make non-free consumer software illegal.

tjs8rj 5y ago
By this do you mean making all consumer software free and all new consumer software must be free?
_-david-_ 5y ago
Wouldn't solve the issue. You can have censorship with open source software and so long as there is a locked bootloader you couldn't easily replace the software. Also, even if the bootloader was unlocked the majority of people aren't technical enough to replace the software that is doing the censorship.
- nine_k 5y ago
  There is a fundamental contradiction between safety and freedom. The more you are in control, the more you need to know and pay attention too. Any guard rails necessarily limit your choice of path. In other words, the price of liberty is eternal vigilance, and there is a lot of people who do not want to pay that price. They just need stuff done, no matter what.

riffraff 5y ago

Many countries in west cut out Huawei from 5g contracts. It seems just as easy to cut Xiaomi out from consumer phones.

blackoil 5y ago

Consumer's can't agree on wearing masks or if earth is flat. I don't see any measurable impact by consumers in reasonably near future.