Steam has been banned in China • Hacker News Board

Re: Steam has been banned in China

#411

Post by ganzuul » Sat, Dec 25, 2021, 7:47 PM UTC

tombh wrote: post #267

robbedpeter wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Neville Chamberlain had similar thoughts about Germany. Perhaps when dictators start doing things like rounding up undesirables into camps and pushing ideological uniformity at the point of a gun the reasonable response is to condemn the behavior? It doesn't matter who's wearing the jackboots, it's despicable to appease, condone, or enable the ones stepping on the throats of human beings.

In Zygmunt Bauman's Modernity and the Holocaust [1] it is argued that the Holocaust was not merely a tragic aberration of the ideals of modern Western civilisation but rather a logical realisation of it. Hitler himself, in both Mein Kampf , and Zweites Buch , wrote of how he was inspired by British concentration camps in South Africa. Maybe I haven't studied history enough, but I simply do not understand how dismissi…

> The Holocaust lies at the feet of Europeans, not merely the Nazis.

Why stop abstraction there? You should continue on with all humans, then all life... that would be logical; this isn't.

Re: Steam has been banned in China

#412

Post by User23 » Sat, Dec 25, 2021, 7:48 PM UTC

chancho wrote: post #332

demonshreder wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facing discrimination when you are foreigner is pretty common in most countries. I think if you are from the white diaspora you wouldn't have noticed in the western countries but every time a friend (I am from India) goes to countries in NA & EU, there is almost always some form of discrimination preventing access to service or being overcharged without legal intervention.

"White diaspora" is blowing my mind a bit. I think I would have been slapped by my social studies teachers if I ever used that phrase to describe colonialism. (I'm white, US)

European diaspora is an accepted term[1]. Yes there's a redirect, but the word "diaspora" is used in the very first paragraph. It's ok, Europeans are people too. There's nothing offensive about the term. Plenty of "colonials" were sentenced to transportation, they didn't choose it.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_diaspora

Re: Steam has been banned in China

#413

Post by ganzuul » Sat, Dec 25, 2021, 7:54 PM UTC

tombh wrote: post #170

rndgermandude wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not being OK with the myriad of human rights abuses the Chinese government commits - sometimes "silently" and sometimes very opening and outright proudly - is just because I struggle with my own regions history? What the actual fuck... I have to call your "theory" what it is: stupid and dangerous - and whataboutism on top.

To give a metaphor, I think it is perfectly reasonable to criticise my project lead when she criticises me for not meeting my targets but turns up hungover and spends the whole day on Facebook. I am criticising her because I want her to be effective at her job . Not because I disagree with her about our team's laziness.

We are not equating missed targets with atrocity... A terrorist attack does not miss the target of benevolence. It is something that should never, ever happen but this planet is such a soul-crushing clusterfuck that it is like water under a bridge.

Human life has value. It's not effective value or an estimate of value. It is absolute.

Re: Steam has been banned in China

#414

Post by dillondoyle » Sat, Dec 25, 2021, 7:55 PM UTC

qybaz wrote: post #138

justbaker wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You should be sceptical of all the news about China that comes from China. Fixed it for you.

The average Joe in the West doesn't get absolutely any news directly from China, so I'm not sure of what you mean.

They would be surprised that they probably actually do.

I would change to directly from the CCP, because there is no independent free press in China at any meaningful scale.

Not only does a lot of their media get big readership online here, People's Daily and others.

Also does anyone know how much SCMP's independence has eroded now? I don't know that much on that one but it still gets placements in news aggregators for example as if it were the NyTimes.

CCP also pays for reach, spending millions to get their content in the large US based media like WaPo. Most people don't realize they are reading an ad, not an actual article by a WaPo reporter.

Though maybe funnily on the opposite end, a CCP persecuted group Falun Gong owns the Epoch Times, which has grown huge too. In the past few years they have been one of the top sources of social media/fb links. A lot of it is just meme & engage bait. but it's still interesting to think about.

Russia Today too ;)

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/dec/07/china-plan-for-... https://freedomhouse.org/report/special-report/2020/beijings... https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/china/ccp-buys-med...

Re: Steam has been banned in China

#415

Post by dillondoyle » Sat, Dec 25, 2021, 7:58 PM UTC

freeflight wrote: post #259

yodsanklai wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't read the comments but 1. it could be flooded with pro cpp activists, it's a known fact that China pays people to influence forums 2. It may be difficult to understand for Americans, but (I think) some people here are "pro-china" as they see China as an alternative to US imperialism, or at least something that can be less harmful. Personally, my wife is Taiwanese so I'm extremely concerned about China in a ve…

Quoted post unavailable.

This is a great example of one of the tactics CCP deploys. Whataboutism.

As shown to be actually happening (does not give facts showing it happens on HN but I personally think it's reasonable, or at least not unfathomable) by this recent HN top thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29654137

Re: Steam has been banned in China

#416

Post by ubercow13 » Sat, Dec 25, 2021, 8:00 PM UTC

MomoXenosaga wrote: post #266

ubercow13 wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you really think you can't learn anything as a tourist?

Most people can't learn anything and they don't want to. It is impossible to explain what living in a slum is like to a middle class woke guy.

Well if you're being that reductionist, what's the point in doing or learning anything? Why is tourism any more useless than any other pointless attempt for a woke guy to learn something?

Re: Steam has been banned in China

#417

Post by tombh » Sat, Dec 25, 2021, 8:06 PM UTC

ganzuul wrote: post #406

tombh wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whilst I readily admit that focussing my attention on the West's criticism of China depletes my limited resources to affect positive change in China, I actually believe I am ultimately having a greater impact. What I'm saying is that if we truly have China's, or namely humanity's best interests at heart when we criticise China, then we could profoundly increase our effectiveness if we demonstrated even just a basic u…

Your context is where everyone already is as and your example appears to be wholly unrelated to your claim. I don't think you are having a positive influence here.

Could you give more details?

Re: Steam has been banned in China

#418

Post by hker » Sat, Dec 25, 2021, 8:09 PM UTC

dillondoyle wrote: post #409

gavinray wrote: post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This sort of bullshit (sponsored videos) should not be promoted on HN. Promoted or not, this is generally a community for having level-headed discussions about things. The original commenter says "China is X way". Someone responds and says "China is Y way." Everyone ought to be able to upvote/downvote, and argue + discuss to their hearts content. I have no horse in this race, but I would have expected the person to…

There is a big difference between real debate on real issues - the example egg nutrition lol. Versus trying to refute or distract with a 'debate' on reality & facts. Some things shouldn't be up for debate and calling doubt on reality is a weapon used by those who have political stakes. China is a tough one too because as we saw on a top HN post from a few days ago we know the CCP has a large, active operation to comm…

This HN post?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29661475 "Spamouflage: CCP-Aligned Disinformation Campaign on Facebook Twitter YouTube"

Re: Steam has been banned in China

#419

Post by tombh » Sat, Dec 25, 2021, 8:10 PM UTC

ganzuul wrote: post #411

tombh wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Zygmunt Bauman's Modernity and the Holocaust [1] it is argued that the Holocaust was not merely a tragic aberration of the ideals of modern Western civilisation but rather a logical realisation of it. Hitler himself, in both Mein Kampf , and Zweites Buch , wrote of how he was inspired by British concentration camps in South Africa. Maybe I haven't studied history enough, but I simply do not understand how dismissi…

> The Holocaust lies at the feet of Europeans, not merely the Nazis. Why stop abstraction there? You should continue on with all humans, then all life... that would be logical; this isn't.

I'm British. I was specifically taught the gruesome details of the Holocaust in school. But I only learnt about the horrors of British colonialism much later in life, and through my own efforts. British genocides are conspicuous by their absence from both our education system and our political discourse.

Re: Steam has been banned in China

#420

Post by ls612 » Sat, Dec 25, 2021, 8:10 PM UTC

siva7 wrote: post #14

taway54321 wrote: post #7

Quoted post unavailable.

Not sure if this is satire or you need help

I don’t think he is saying this is ‘good’ insofar as people should like it, he is saying that a model which produces more will outcompete by force one which produces less, regardless of the living conditions of the people living under that model. That is why the conclusion is “the future is scary”.