Leaving China • Hacker News Board

Re: Leaving China

#571

Post by hgsgm » Mon, Mar 20, 2023, 4:13 PM UTC

beebmam wrote: post #396

imiric wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's entertain the possibility that China wasn't responsible for a lab leak, and that the zoonotic theory is true. Whatever the source, we know that the Wuhan wet market was a super-spreader event, which Chinese authorities concede. Following this, China grounded all domestic flights in January 2020, yet still allowed outbound international flights well into March 2020. Countries were left to ban flights from China…

The coverup of the origins of SARS-CoV-2 is a far worse crime than if it did accidentally leak from a lab. The coverup has done serious harm to our ability to understand how these diseases emerge at large scale in human populations.

And to be clear, the coverup was at least a two-handed effort of Chinese Communist Party and Ecohealth Alliance (US-based nonprofit pandemic/virus research org that operated in Wuhan.) Ecohealth was all-in to prevent inquiry into the lab leak possiblity from the start, including ghostwriting/astroturfing an op-ed pretending there was scientific consensus against a lab leak.

Re: Leaving China

#572

Post by hgsgm » Mon, Mar 20, 2023, 4:20 PM UTC

nomay wrote: post #458

photochemsyn wrote: post #214

I suspect China's draconian, desperate attempt to eliminate Covid entirely was largely due to official guilt. They knew that their poorly managed reckless science program at the Wuhan Institute of Virology was the source of the outbreak, and they wanted to somehow prove they could wipe the virus out entirely (which they couldn't). Eventually they had to give up. I wonder what happens to people in China who point this…

The regime has trumpeted the superiority of their political and governing system since the second month of covid-19, in stark contrast to the decadent and degenerate west, daily news started with data of how many more thousands died in the US. That’s a good 2 whole years on a roll, no matter how illogical it seemed, it worked. Until spring 2022, from where it lost control.

> The regime has trumpeted the superiority of their political and governing system

for decades

> daily news started with data of how many more thousands died in the US.

using unverifiable numbers about Chinese cases, and jailing people who challenge the data.

> Until spring 2022, from where it lost control

of the media message.

Re: Leaving China

#573

Post by kridsdale1 » Mon, Mar 20, 2023, 4:33 PM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #525

killjoywashere wrote: post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had no idea how sprawling Chinese diaspora was until I was in Ecuador and a sailor on the boat with me took me to a Chinese restaurant. In Ecuador. Of course there would be a Chinese restaurant in Ecuador, but of course there's also a sailor on my US-flagged ship who's ethnically Chinese and speaks Mandarin. And so we ordered Chinese in Chinese, in a Spanish-speaking country. In 1999.

Amsterdam, Vancouver and lots of other big cities have a large enough Chinese population that there can be whole districts that are mostly Chinese. To the point where the street signs are in Chinese.

I always like to reference the moment I saw on tv in Vancouver interviewing an old lady who was so immersed in her enclave she referred to white people as foreigners.

Re: Leaving China

#574

Post by TomK32 » Mon, Mar 20, 2023, 4:54 PM UTC

MandieD wrote: post #550

TomK32 wrote: post #474

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Culturally it has a lot of offer, vibrant scenes for any art or music taste and museums stuffed artifacts stolen from all around the globe[0] that might almost rival the British Museum. Also many musicians and artists have called it their temporary home, from Josephine Baker to David Bowie and his flat mate Iggy Pop[1]. Call it a litmus-test for how open a society is, even if you prefer complaining about the noise an…

Just spent a weekend there: I heard more English spoken in public than German, and even found myself having to backtrack and switch to English (my first language) after instinctively starting conversations in German (my second language). It didn't quite feel like I was still in Germany; only the street signs and some business names brought me back. A few of the people I met at the tech events I visited have lived in…

It is SO hard to not switch to English when you start talking with someone who doesn't speak fluent German. It's some stupid automatism we Germans have and it took me years to break this habit. Maybe you can do the same and stick to your bad German even if the Germans switch to English? Conversations in two languages sound funny :-) We have plenty of literature and media in German, and few languages get treated with the same effort by Hollywood distributors like German does.

If you already are a EU citizen, you simply won't bother with German citizenship. It will become an interesting problem for democracy to solve with Luxemburg have some 47% foreigners, not sure how many are EU-citizens [1].

Dallas = Munich, sad but true.

[1] https://luxembourg.public.lu/de/gesellschaft-und-kultur/bevo...

Re: Leaving China

#575

Post by specialist » Mon, Mar 20, 2023, 5:03 PM UTC

fortuna86 wrote: post #337

wdkrnls wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google Professor Philip Stark and read some of the papers he publishes about the dangers of electronic voting machines.

If you audit every election after they are done, what is the danger of using electric voting machines ?

Fully electronic voting cannot be inspected sufficiently to audit. Too many points of failure, too many blackboxes, no way to detect failures.

This has been thoroughly, repeatedly, exhaustively researched and debated. Which is why most jurisdictions (in the USA) have returned to paper ballots.

Re: Leaving China

#576

Post by stickfigure » Mon, Mar 20, 2023, 5:15 PM UTC

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #446

ekabod wrote: post #389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Bangkok is ethnically a mostly Chinese city Do you have a source for that because that has not been my experience?

https://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~rwest/wikispeedia/wpcd/wp/b/Bangko... > As of the 2000 census, there were 6,355,144 registered residents in the city. However, this figure does not take account of the many unregistered residents and daytime visitors from the surrounding metropolitan area. More than 50% of Bangkokians have some Chinese ancestry. They are still Thai, they often don’t even speak Chinese, just ethnically Chines…

I guess if you have a long enough timescale, every living human is ethnically African.

Re: Leaving China

#577

Post by fortuna86 » Mon, Mar 20, 2023, 5:23 PM UTC

RedCondor wrote: post #133

meh8881 wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you citing the Chinese government as the best source on supposed Chinese government atrocities?

Absolutely. If the accusation is "the Chinese government denies it!" the best way to demonstrate the falsehood is by citing the Chinese government not denying it. It seems pretty straightforward.

> Are you citing the Chinese government as the best source on supposed Chinese government atrocities?

> Absolutely.

He's telling you what he is. If you continue to engage, it's on you.

Re: Leaving China

#578

Post by fortuna86 » Mon, Mar 20, 2023, 5:23 PM UTC

RedCondor wrote: post #132

nebukhadnezzar wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you win or get out of the attempts to rewrite atrocities like they have never happened in history? What did the victims that died that week do to you? https://imgur.com/a/q8ZIS

I'm Latin American and very, very happy we have China as an alternative to America's tyrannical Monroe Doctrine. The demonization of China feels incredibly absurd, like when someone wearing an exceedingly ugly outfit, lacking self-awareness, tries to criticize someone else's fashion.

Your account was created 15 days ago and is used exclusively for posting inflammatory political nonsense. Also, you do realize that China is the most hyper-capitalist country in the world, don't you?

Re: Leaving China

#579

Post by fortuna86 » Mon, Mar 20, 2023, 5:26 PM UTC

coldtea wrote: post #528

coupdejarnac wrote: post #486

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This guy pops up in many China threads to regurgitate CCP talking points.

Yeah, god forbid somebody doesn't have the US viewpoint on foreign policy and other countries, especially given its excellent track record and how it has fucked up one country after another for a century! Anybody having different opinions must be burned to the stake!

I don't believe anyone is saying that. Reasonable objection is fine.

However the reductio ad absurdum tactic you employ to dismiss pointing out actual problematic behavior is typical of trolling itself. My opinion? I don't think that's an accident.

Re: Leaving China

#580

Post by fortuna86 » Mon, Mar 20, 2023, 5:28 PM UTC

specialist wrote: post #575

fortuna86 wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you audit every election after they are done, what is the danger of using electric voting machines ?

Fully electronic voting cannot be inspected sufficiently to audit. Too many points of failure, too many blackboxes, no way to detect failures. This has been thoroughly, repeatedly, exhaustively researched and debated. Which is why most jurisdictions (in the USA) have returned to paper ballots.

Most electronic ballots still carry paper or otherwise physical verification.