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Google's censored Chinese search engine: a catalogue of ethical violations?

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Re: Google's censored Chinese search engine: a catalogue of ethical violations?

#181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I agree that an engineer is less likely to spend effort on politeness, they are more likely to substantiate their claims. sologub did neither in their comment.

Well, besides misspelling my name, you did not even stop to consider what I wrote before engaging in trying to spot a Russian national behind the post. To understand why people “support” the current government, you have to understand what they have been through. 90s have not been kind to the average “Joe” (Ivan?) in Russia (or most of the non-EU former Soviet Union countries). From bad economical prospects to collaps…

Please forgive the misspelling, I assure you it was not on purpose. I never claimed you were Russian, just pointed out that your rhetoric sounded remarkably like coming from a Russian, quite ironically, given the context.

As to the rest of your post, -- well, are you a Russian or not? Have you lived there or not? Do you read Russian debates and watch Russian state TV? If you haven't and you can't, then what is the basis for your claims that their priorities changed as a result of the 90's crisis, that they do not have imperialist ambitions, etc?

Otherwise (if you do speak Russian and did live there): 1) why are you claiming you don't? 2) We have radically different experiences. Russia I know didn't change much after or during the 90's. They have had the imperialistic attitude during the Soviet times. The 80th-90th crisis knocked them out of the saddle, but as soon as Russia recovered in the 2000'th, the ambitions made a comeback, and now it's more a defining characteristic of the nation than ever. 3) In my experience, Russians (as a nation, not every individual, of course) are not decent people at heart. They are cruel, they hate the world and each other. Moreover, they do not believe anyone else is 'decent at heart', they believe everyone is faking it (a term has even been coined for this in Russian: the Reverse Cargo Cult [1]).

[1] https://larvatus.livejournal.com/558422.html

Re: Google's censored Chinese search engine: a catalogue of ethical violations?

#182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's get the logic straight here. Economic stagnation is a result of living under an aggressive totalitarian state, not of foreign sanctions on that state. You personally are unfortunate to live in that state and suffer from the side effects of wars it's waging, but Russians as a nation fully support the regime and have been empowering it for many years, therefore I feel they deserve what they're getting and more, u…

> Economic stagnation is a result of living under an aggressive totalitarian state Your logic is flawed. Try telling that to China.

China's economy is already slowing down, and I expect it to hit a ceiling sooner rather than later. Its advantages over the Western countries are cheap labor, undervalued currency and the freedom from intellectual property-related litigation risks. Its disadvantages are the lack of freedom of sharing ideas, its disconnect from the rest of the world, corruption and a weak justice system. While the advantages are quickly exhausting their effect, the disadvantages are there to stay, so the point of equilibrium must be below the Western countries.

Re: Google's censored Chinese search engine: a catalogue of ethical violations?

#183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re right that the USA has committed many sins of its own but freedom of expression in the USA is still protected to a degree unthinkable in places like China or Russia or Vietnam. I can go on Facebook right now and post any opinion I like of my government. See how long you have to wait for a knock on your door if you try this in one of those other countries. The censorship demands made by China, for example, abso…

> the USA has committed many sins of its own but freedom of expression in the USA is still protected So Americans being able to say what they like is more important than the chaos the American government has wrought on the rest of the world? I'm not sure what you're saying.

I’m saying those are two different things. Parent post was conflating them, along with healthcare, for some reason.

Re: Google's censored Chinese search engine: a catalogue of ethical violations?

#184
post #98

For once, I am on Google's side with this one. Somewhat of a discourse. In the last years, "China and Russia" became a new racist norm against anything and everything there. My mom and dad are absolutely against totalitarianism, but their "cardinal sin" is that they were born in Russia and they lack the financial means to move to another country. For years, they can't even buy any good cheese because the cheese was "…

You're right. Here's food for thought: have sanctions ever resolved authoritarianism or dictatorship? Economic war should only be used to disable aggressive enemies, because it has never actually helped anyone better their human rights or political rights. In fact, among "passive" abusers of human rights we see that more contact with the rest of the world improves conditions.

The collapse of Soviet Union is believed to be accelerated by drop in oil prices, which in turn some beleive to be artificial. Which is not exactly sanctions, but not that sanctions couldn't have the same effect.

The main problem with sanctions is that they affect economies of both confilicting parties, and democracies are generally more sensible to economic problems than authoritarian regimes.

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