Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

cnbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

281–290 of 1001 posts

Re: U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

#281

Post by chii »

lazyeye wrote: post #63
krapp wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, we are part of some kind of Truman show experiment. Every form of media you consume, which in aggregate forms much of your perception of the world at large and reality in general, is engineered to manipulate you with a narrative to serve someone's agenda, be that advertising, propaganda, psychological manipulation, addiction or manufactured consent.

This is true but has got absolutely nothing to do with whether the balloon is being used for spying or not.

Without first hand, primary sources of information, the media and their dissemination of information (or lack thereof) is a form of manipulation to suite someone's agenda, and has a lot of analogs with the truman show.

For example, nobody right now, except may be the US military, knows whether it's a real spy balloon, or really just a weather balloon. But the media reporting of it has framed it as a spy balloon with high probability.

Re: U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

#283

Post by ProAm »

FpUser wrote: post #115
blamazon wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US state apparatus did not make a big deal of this. The media and the public did, and the US state apparatus answered to the media and the public, as is their duty.

>"The US state apparatus did not make a big deal of this." Cancelling / postponing (whatever it will be) Blinken's visit to China does seem like a big deal.

> Cancelling / postponing (whatever it will be) Blinken's visit to China does seem like a big deal.

It's all political posturing. Look into the history of if you are allowed to take a photo with a handshake or not in political photographs. It's just part of the game to ensure you still have power or relevance,

Re: U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

#284

Post by colinsane »

LarryMullins wrote: post #240
pxc wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What? It's not derogatory. It's just shorter and in some ways better specified than 'American'. I also used the word 'American' in the same post! Just didn't feel like writing the whole thing out the second time. -_-

It is derogatory. Virtually no Americans call themselves "USians". It's nigh unpronounceable (it sounds like "US Asians") and only seen on the internet in the context of somebody with an axe to grind against America (as above.)

pleeeeease don’t do this. i was born here, i’ve lived here my whole life: i’m an American, or a USian, or any other label you want to use that marks me as a US subject/citizen. i really don’t want to be burdened in keeping up with which identifiers people use for me are supposed to be offensive v.s. neutral, especially when it doesn’t impact the meaning of the post. online communication is hard enough as is — don’t make it even more complicated.

Re: U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

#285

Post by [deleted] »

pxc wrote: post #102

I am so tired of China being used to stoke American jingoism, of politicians making a contest of who is really 'tough on China' and, most horrifyingly, of seeing other USians online practically salivate as they fantasize about a war with China. It's some cold war boogieman horseshit. And it's depressing to watch here on Hacker News, too, any comments that question the beating of those war drums go dead. Yesterday I h…

[deleted]

Re: U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

#286

Post by galacticaactual »

pxc wrote: post #102

I am so tired of China being used to stoke American jingoism, of politicians making a contest of who is really 'tough on China' and, most horrifyingly, of seeing other USians online practically salivate as they fantasize about a war with China. It's some cold war boogieman horseshit. And it's depressing to watch here on Hacker News, too, any comments that question the beating of those war drums go dead. Yesterday I h…

[flagged]

Re: U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

#287

Post by chii »

sebzim4500 wrote: post #183
dctoedt wrote: post #118

The video of the shoot-down shows flashes from the detached-and-falling payload, probably explosive self-destruct devices detonating. (It'd be shocking if the Chinese didn't include a self-destruct capability.)

You'll probably still get some information from the wreckage even if a self destruct activated.

Then it's not a very good self-destruct!

Re: U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

#288

Post by lizardking »

pxc wrote: post #102

I am so tired of China being used to stoke American jingoism, of politicians making a contest of who is really 'tough on China' and, most horrifyingly, of seeing other USians online practically salivate as they fantasize about a war with China. It's some cold war boogieman horseshit. And it's depressing to watch here on Hacker News, too, any comments that question the beating of those war drums go dead. Yesterday I h…

Accusations of jingoism on HN are detached from reality.

Re: U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

#289

Post by rhaway84773 »

yongjik wrote: post #229
yohanshi wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a taiwanese who lurks on hacker news for many years but when I saw this post I had to make an account. You are dead wrong, China is an enemy of the free world, pure and simple. South Koreans and Ukrainians would agree with me here. Especially since China has declared no limit friendship with russia

As a South Korean, well, I don't like the Chinese government either, but these aggressive rhetorics don't help. My own country was under decades of pro-American dictators, all the while conveniently enjoying the membership of the Free World(TM): at that point, what does "free" even mean? I'm not saying America is the force of evil; it has done some nice things, and some other pretty horrible things. What I'm trying t…

It’s ironic to see a South Korean say this when all you need to do is look across the border to see what a Chinese supported alternative looks like.

Re: U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

#290

Post by ascotan »

gonzo41 wrote: post #195

The Us military only shot it down because of pr. Usually you ignore spy planes. The are easy to track, and the military and airforce know how to sit around and wait things out. America should retaliate with its own balloons with no Intel packages, instead the should be very visible, and at the ceiling of most fighters so China has to waste be anti satellite missiles on cheap balloons.

>>> America should retaliate with its own balloons

I can imagine someone playing 99 luftballons in the background during the launch.

Post reply on HN