21–30 of 41 posts
This is entirely unrelated, but it reminds me of a comment I saw on reddit that was very telling. Someone was talking about a colleague of his who was Chinese and had come to the US, and who, over dinner with some other colleagues, said: "I can't believe how smooth your propaganda is here in the US. In China it is crude and everyone can see through it, but here you almost miss it." To which all of the other colleague…
This is entirely unrelated, but it reminds me of a comment I saw on reddit that was very telling. Someone was talking about a colleague of his who was Chinese and had come to the US, and who, over dinner with some other colleagues, said: "I can't believe how smooth your propaganda is here in the US. In China it is crude and everyone can see through it, but here you almost miss it." To which all of the other colleague…
Just another special case of how centralized systems can't compete with distributed competition systems. Chinese propaganda comes from the government and doesn't have any reason to improve. In the US, you have propaganda from the two major sides of the government and various agencies, in addition to a wide-open market in propaganda in the commercial market which we call "marketing" and "public relations", in a consta…
A couple of things here: 1) Many trained economists would say this is a woeful oversimplification or flat-out disagree. 2) Exactly what is meant by "efficient" and "pretty much"?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would say that anecdote is more telling of the alleged climate in the United States, depending on how you read it.
I had a Chinese girl lecture me on how I was taken in by propaganda by believing that the Yuan/RMB was not pegged to gold. I had proof that it was pegged to the US dollar from 3 independent reliable sources but she wouldn't believe any of it. Banning skype is simply an ineffective attempt to protect the propaganda misinformation machines in the people's republic of China.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just another special case of how centralized systems can't compete with distributed competition systems. Chinese propaganda comes from the government and doesn't have any reason to improve. In the US, you have propaganda from the two major sides of the government and various agencies, in addition to a wide-open market in propaganda in the commercial market which we call "marketing" and "public relations", in a consta…
And also a reminder that the market will efficiently execute pretty much anything, regardless of the desirability of efficient execution. A couple of things here: 1) Many trained economists would say this is a woeful oversimplification or flat-out disagree. 2) Exactly what is meant by "efficient" and "pretty much"?
Many trained economists would also have to blow out the HN comment limit to fully explain what they meant. Accusing someone's economics of being "simplified" is a bit of a cheap shot, a PhD thesis is also "simplified". I don't think very many trained economists would have a hard time expanding my sentence into a reasonable claim. The propaganda market in the US is brutally competitive, and it almost all ultimate boils down to money for somebody in the end, no? (Some exceptions for truly ideological-only propaganda, sure, but those are the exceptions.)
I hate making generalizations about huge entities like states, but I can't resist on this one. I think this kind of thing will ultimately trip China up, and prevent China from ever gaining a significant technological lead. The more closed their internet is, the less ideas people will be exposed to, and thus there will continue to be less innovation.
Obviously they've avoided the worst tendencies of the latter, but will they every master the best aspects of the former?
Alternately, will we continuing relentlessly undermining our own advantages to the point where China doesn't have to bother taking civil liberty seriously?
This is entirely unrelated, but it reminds me of a comment I saw on reddit that was very telling. Someone was talking about a colleague of his who was Chinese and had come to the US, and who, over dinner with some other colleagues, said: "I can't believe how smooth your propaganda is here in the US. In China it is crude and everyone can see through it, but here you almost miss it." To which all of the other colleague…
I'm an American expat in China and I've lived here for several years. I completely agree with the Chinese guy's statement and have thought the same thing myself many times, though I've never heard anyone else openly express it. Living in an extremely alien culture allows you to see things about your own culture that are hard to notice when you're immersed. I can be a little more specific about how the propaganda syst…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I had a Chinese girl lecture me on how I was taken in by propaganda by believing that the Yuan/RMB was not pegged to gold. I had proof that it was pegged to the US dollar from 3 independent reliable sources but she wouldn't believe any of it. Banning skype is simply an ineffective attempt to protect the propaganda misinformation machines in the people's republic of China.
If it was pegged to gold, shouldn't it have gotten kinda huge of late?
I hate making generalizations about huge entities like states, but I can't resist on this one. I think this kind of thing will ultimately trip China up, and prevent China from ever gaining a significant technological lead. The more closed their internet is, the less ideas people will be exposed to, and thus there will continue to be less innovation.
Obsessively trying to force toothpaste back into the tube does not telegraph a general sense of well-being and confidence. China may be a 'superpower'. But a 'superpower' like the US? Or the USSR? Obviously they've avoided the worst tendencies of the latter, but will they every master the best aspects of the former? Alternately, will we continuing relentlessly undermining our own advantages to the point where China d…
Maybe Cory Doctorow has a fan in the Chinese Communist party and they decided to nip that particular problem in the bud.
This is entirely unrelated, but it reminds me of a comment I saw on reddit that was very telling. Someone was talking about a colleague of his who was Chinese and had come to the US, and who, over dinner with some other colleagues, said: "I can't believe how smooth your propaganda is here in the US. In China it is crude and everyone can see through it, but here you almost miss it." To which all of the other colleague…
I'm an American expat in China and I've lived here for several years. I completely agree with the Chinese guy's statement and have thought the same thing myself many times, though I've never heard anyone else openly express it. Living in an extremely alien culture allows you to see things about your own culture that are hard to notice when you're immersed. I can be a little more specific about how the propaganda syst…