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

Naomi Wu and the Silence That Speaks Volumes

hackingbutlegal.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 216 posts

Re: Naomi Wu and the Silence That Speaks Volumes

#31

Post by tbrownaw »

stavros wrote: post #18
rchaud wrote: post #11

> The omission of her predicament by the media isn't just an oversight—it's a signal suggesting that a significant portion of western media may be increasingly compromised by Beijing's influence, finding themselves unable to criticize foreign policy, lest they rile the tiger and negatively impact their business. Compromised because they didn't provide coverage of a Youtuber in China getting silenced? You make sound a…

Well, we got no coverage on Wu getting deplatformed, and a bit of coverage on Uyghur matters. Instead, we should have gotten a bit of coverage on the former, and a lot of coverage on the latter.

Isn't it fairly common to be not especially interested in what those other people over there are doing amongst themselves - even if it's genocide or censuring dissidents or whatever - and to care a lot more about important local news like which faction gets to impose their values on the public school curriculum and what color suit the president wore left week?

Re: Naomi Wu and the Silence That Speaks Volumes

#32

Post by beefpies »

flangola7 wrote: post #24
barry-cotter wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, censorship can totally be the answer to getting people to stop saying things you don’t want them to say if you don’t have any commitment to free speech. See how Tucker Max or Milo Yiannopolous are no longer culturally relevant. Censorship works.

If I can find it again there's a really great video explaining how, to have free speech, you must restrict some speech. Because bad actors use speech and claims om they are "defending free speech!" in bad faith as a weapon to further their ends, and once they're in a position of power will shameless drop the pretenses and restrict any speech that doesn't entrench their position.

Here's a video on the subject:

Debate and Deplatforming

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFAYN6oWyIo

And it's sequel:

Why Deplatforming Works (And Why it Doesn't)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6r5C-G0VrjI

Re: Naomi Wu and the Silence That Speaks Volumes

#33

Post by devnullbrain »

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #21

It's depressing how many Americans and Europeans seem utterly allergic to any kind of nuanced discussion or deeper understanding of China. I think the same applies to the former USSR. I'm not sure why this is.

A language and internet barrier makes it difficult to find unbiased news and views. Most of us have no primary sources, everything is relayed to us by:

- People in China who choose or are allowed to bypass the GFW

- People who decided to leave China, or whose families decided to leave

- People who decided to learn Chinese

There can be a political motivation for all three of these.

Re: Naomi Wu and the Silence That Speaks Volumes

#35

Post by stavros »

tbrownaw wrote: post #31
stavros wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, we got no coverage on Wu getting deplatformed, and a bit of coverage on Uyghur matters. Instead, we should have gotten a bit of coverage on the former, and a lot of coverage on the latter.

Isn't it fairly common to be not especially interested in what those other people over there are doing amongst themselves - even if it's genocide or censuring dissidents or whatever - and to care a lot more about important local news like which faction gets to impose their values on the public school curriculum and what color suit the president wore left week?

Yes it is, but, as you say, genocide could probably get airtime instead of the president's suit.

Re: Naomi Wu and the Silence That Speaks Volumes

#36

Post by devnullbrain »

kmeisthax wrote: post #25
consumer451 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Am I being paranoid in thinking that Musk’s exposure in China & disdain for the LGBTQ community could lead him to lower the reach of tweets related to this issue?

This was explicitly one of the things people were worried about when he bought Twitter. If you didn't notice this your personal filter bubble is giving you ideological blind spots.

Twitter now bravely, aggressively exposes me to both left-wing and right-wing politics [1]

[1] for a country I don't live in

Re: Naomi Wu and the Silence That Speaks Volumes

#37

Post by rcoveson »

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #21

It's depressing how many Americans and Europeans seem utterly allergic to any kind of nuanced discussion or deeper understanding of China. I think the same applies to the former USSR. I'm not sure why this is.

Why do you think it's easy for most to have nuanced, dispassionate discussions about the ancient Assyrians but not the Nazis? Spacial/temporal/ideological proximity. We're not likely to become anything like the former, but we fear ourselves (or at least our leadership) becoming more like the latter.

Obviously it would be ideal to learn from the good aspects of even the most evil totalitarian regimes, but in practice it's easier to wrap the whole nationalist/collectivist/communist idea-space up in a bundle and throw it out as one, at least in conversations with strangers of unclear motives.

Re: Naomi Wu and the Silence That Speaks Volumes

#38

Post by zoklet-enjoyer »

barry-cotter wrote: post #20
4v0v wrote: post #12

Censorship from one side or the other is never the answer.

No, censorship can totally be the answer to getting people to stop saying things you don’t want them to say if you don’t have any commitment to free speech. See how Tucker Max or Milo Yiannopolous are no longer culturally relevant. Censorship works.

I don't know about Milo, but after looking at Wikipedia, it looks like Tucker grew up and so did his former audience.

Re: Naomi Wu and the Silence That Speaks Volumes

#39

Post by em-bee »

anon7331 wrote: post #34

She speaks the truth often, but I never really got how she portrays herself. Not a huge fan... regardless, she should be able to say whatever she wants and use the platform she built.

a year ago she posted a video about her origin story that may give some insights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9vW_MpXTfs

Re: Naomi Wu and the Silence That Speaks Volumes

#40

Post by catchnear4321 »

saagarjha wrote: post #28
TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #21

It's depressing how many Americans and Europeans seem utterly allergic to any kind of nuanced discussion or deeper understanding of China. I think the same applies to the former USSR. I'm not sure why this is.

Nuance takes time and effort, of course.

not to mention interest.

investments of either time or effort, let alone both, are far less likely without that.

Post reply on HN