5 ms·

The 'yellow peril' aspect of it was certainly disgusting.

Loughla 5y ago
Sure, but what are the repercussions? If you know how to ride a media wave, you literally can't lose in today's media landscape (mixed metaphor, I know).
ciupicri 5y ago
What "yellow peril"?
- JadeNB 5y ago
  The focus on Asia, specifically China, as a uniquely threatening force: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Peril https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Peril .
  - Stupulous 5y ago
    Is China not a uniquely threatening force? They have the second largest GDP, the second-most expensive military with the most personnel, considerable influence over other important Asian countries, and a major role in manufacturing the world's products, and they continue to rapidly expand across all of those facets. They are very much in opposition to Liberal values (free speech, democracy, privacy), and they are somewhat aligned with other US adversaries (Russia, North Korea). In 1910, I'd absolutely attribute focus on China to racism. Today, if I were to rank the biggest threats to US for the coming decades, I would put China in distant first place. But I'm no geopolitics expert, am I missing something?
mechanical_bear 5y ago
All of Chinese economic activity is subservient to the state, including companies like ByteDance. The information they gather goes back to the state. This is not “yellow peril”, this is “Sino peril” if you must call it something scary sounding. It has nothing to do with race, and everything to do with national security and ideology.
- ok123456 5y ago
  If we can put aside our own ideology and national bias, the business model and tactics of ByteDance, Facebook or any other company in the ad-tech supported social media realm operates more-or-less with the same objectives and does the same things. Ideology is just the trash can we are all eating from.
  - edmundsauto 5y ago
    It's not necessarily wise to put aside national bias. There are well informed, intelligent, honorable people who believe that Chinese hegemony would be a bad thing. In that lens, it would be perfectly consistent to want to prevent Western citizens from being influenced by the Chinese company/govt, while being OK with the same power in the hands of Western governments. IE, you would need to also assert that Western companies having these data is no better than Chinese companies, an opinion which is hotly debated and not at all settled.
    - ok123456 5y ago
      There are well informed, intelligent, honorable people who believe that American hegemony has been bad thing.
      - edmundsauto 5y ago
        Yep, totally agree! They usually aren’t the ones making the case that for Us citizens, it’s better to have data in the Us companies hands rather than Chinese. I may have missed your overall point though - would you mind being explicit about it?
      - mechanical_bear 5y ago
        Yes, but no well informed, intelligent, honorable people who believe Chinese hegemony would be a good thing.

Sure, but what are the repercussions? If you know how to ride a media wave, you literally can't lose in today's media landscape (mixed metaphor, I know).

ciupicri 5y ago

What "yellow peril"?

JadeNB 5y ago
The focus on Asia, specifically China, as a uniquely threatening force: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Peril https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Peril .
- Stupulous 5y ago
  Is China not a uniquely threatening force? They have the second largest GDP, the second-most expensive military with the most personnel, considerable influence over other important Asian countries, and a major role in manufacturing the world's products, and they continue to rapidly expand across all of those facets. They are very much in opposition to Liberal values (free speech, democracy, privacy), and they are somewhat aligned with other US adversaries (Russia, North Korea). In 1910, I'd absolutely attribute focus on China to racism. Today, if I were to rank the biggest threats to US for the coming decades, I would put China in distant first place. But I'm no geopolitics expert, am I missing something?

mechanical_bear 5y ago

All of Chinese economic activity is subservient to the state, including companies like ByteDance. The information they gather goes back to the state. This is not “yellow peril”, this is “Sino peril” if you must call it something scary sounding. It has nothing to do with race, and everything to do with national security and ideology.

ok123456 5y ago
If we can put aside our own ideology and national bias, the business model and tactics of ByteDance, Facebook or any other company in the ad-tech supported social media realm operates more-or-less with the same objectives and does the same things. Ideology is just the trash can we are all eating from.
- edmundsauto 5y ago
  It's not necessarily wise to put aside national bias. There are well informed, intelligent, honorable people who believe that Chinese hegemony would be a bad thing. In that lens, it would be perfectly consistent to want to prevent Western citizens from being influenced by the Chinese company/govt, while being OK with the same power in the hands of Western governments. IE, you would need to also assert that Western companies having these data is no better than Chinese companies, an opinion which is hotly debated and not at all settled.
  - ok123456 5y ago
    There are well informed, intelligent, honorable people who believe that American hegemony has been bad thing.
    - edmundsauto 5y ago
      Yep, totally agree! They usually aren’t the ones making the case that for Us citizens, it’s better to have data in the Us companies hands rather than Chinese. I may have missed your overall point though - would you mind being explicit about it?
    - mechanical_bear 5y ago
      Yes, but no well informed, intelligent, honorable people who believe Chinese hegemony would be a good thing.