161–170 of 252 posts
Isn't it surprising that Microsoft, Apple, Google, Netflix, Blizzard and others don't express their deep regret and support the people of Hong Kong? If they really stood by their values they would act in the same way as they did by supporting the BLM movement. It's just another proof that they only did that to get press coverage for being "benevolent" and not because they genuinely supported the people. Disgraceful.
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I've been surprised by the absence of discourse about HK on HN over the past week, given the magnitude of what's going on there and its relevance to this forum's interests. Meanwhile, relatively trivial articles are holding the front page for days.
Mods often suppress anything remotely political in order to keep the forum "civil". It's one of the aspects of this forum that I personally dislike.
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I've been surprised by the absence of discourse about HK on HN over the past week, given the magnitude of what's going on there and its relevance to this forum's interests. Meanwhile, relatively trivial articles are holding the front page for days.
Mods often suppress anything remotely political in order to keep the forum "civil". It's one of the aspects of this forum that I personally dislike.
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Western societies believe freedom of speech is the root of all that is good in the world. Healthy discussion leads to good governance leads to wealth, power, and status. China believes freedom of speech is just a leaf on the tree. Wealth, power, and status are the roots of a society that can weather the chaos of dissent. Dissent is like a source of entertainment to keep people distracted to be sprinkled strategically…
> Western societies believe freedom of speech is the root of all that is good in the world. That’s not the case for all western societies. Talking for the ones I’m the most familiar with, neither Germany, nor France, nor Switzerland is based on freedom of speech as the root of what is good and they have a good amount of legal and social rules regulating speech. As far as I’m aware only the US, and maybe British class…
Arguably the tradeoffs made when different fundamental rights conflict are different, but they're still held as fundamental rights.
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> I know my company quietly waited until it was clear nobody would bat an eye if they did a press release supporting BLM. It may have a vocal (majority?) support, but it’s still a very divisive issue. It’s probably better to not raise any flag, unless you really mean it and genuinely want to support it.
The BLM movement has gotten to the point that if companies don’t make some statement of support they are risking negative PR.
Interesting.
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What a wonderful world we’re building for ourselves
The world, for better or worse, will be built by the people in their private capacity, whether individually or acting in concert through government. Complaining about for-profit institutions pursuing profit is, at best, a category error, and has nothing to do with our ability to shape the world except a childish inability to separate an organization represented by people from actual people . It's like making a pool i…
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> Western societies believe freedom of speech is the root of all that is good in the world. That’s not the case for all western societies. Talking for the ones I’m the most familiar with, neither Germany, nor France, nor Switzerland is based on freedom of speech as the root of what is good and they have a good amount of legal and social rules regulating speech. As far as I’m aware only the US, and maybe British class…
The free exchange of ideas is still held as enlightenment value. Having some limited exceptions to the rule does not negate that. The US has them too, see hate speech or the thing about shouting fire in a theater. Freedom of thought and expression are articles in the charter of fundamental rights. Arguably the tradeoffs made when different fundamental rights conflict are different, but they're still held as fundament…
America has limits on free speech, but those aren't them. "shouting fire in a theater" came from a SCOTUS case about protesting the draft not being free speech; that was thankfully overturned decades ago. And America doesn't have hate speech laws like Europe. Libel/slander isn't protected though.
Isn't it surprising that Microsoft, Apple, Google, Netflix, Blizzard and others don't express their deep regret and support the people of Hong Kong? If they really stood by their values they would act in the same way as they did by supporting the BLM movement. It's just another proof that they only did that to get press coverage for being "benevolent" and not because they genuinely supported the people. Disgraceful.
Corporations are not people. No matter how much they've tried to convince you and even gain rights over the last 150 years. They. Are. Not. People. They don't have emotions or intentions.
The directors of Google have not made a statement on Uighur in China, etc.
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I don't think wanting black people to not get regularly murdered by the police is marxism, per se. Neither is being against celebrating slavers etc. Claiming the CCP and BLM are on the same page would be comical if I wasn't so sure you were serious.
The actual numbers of murders by police do not support that claim though. To quote (black) Columbia scholar McWhorter: "black people in the US are 2.5 times more likely to be poor, and they are 2.5 times more likely to be murdered by police." Highly recommend to take an hour and watch him for example being interviewed by Coleman Hughes (black, Columbia U scholar) or on the Glenn Loury (black, Brown U scholar) podcast…
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Speaking as charitably as possible, comments like these indicate to me that the poster has never been to China and has no idea about the actual conditions there. If you just step outside the select few favored economic zones you will see a very different, much lower, standard of living that accounts for the vast majority of the land area. Granted the last time I was there was about eight years ago, but taking a bus f…
> Speaking as charitably as possible, comments like these indicate to me that the poster has never been to China and has no idea about the actual conditions there. Ah yes, start off by constructing a straw man. > If you just step outside the select few favored economic zones you will see a very different, much lower, standard of living that accounts for the vast majority of the land area. and here we go. OP was talki…
FWIW, I drank tap water at large, western hotels in Shanghai and Shenzhen without issue - most recently in 2012 ...