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Reflections on Ten Years Past the Snowden Revelations

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Re: Reflections on Ten Years Past the Snowden Revelations

#341

Post by Viliam1234 »

brabel wrote: post #311
genman wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you completely misinterpret the situation with Russia and China. Russia and China have the objectives of their own. For Russia it is to expand their empire that in their own mind rightfully belongs to them. They didn't attack Ukraine because of US actions but because they seriously believe that they have some kind of right over Ukrainians lands, or even more seriously, that Ukrainians don't exists. If US woul…

No, you're misrepresenting it. Your rationale is that Russia is an evil empire trying to expand its borders to its former glory, and that's why it attacked Ukraine... a primary school level of simplification. You ignore that Russia's number one fear after the collapse of the USSR was for another military invasion from the West, as had happened several times over the last few centuries... that Russia's border with Ukr…

You can both be right at the same time. It is true Russia was invaded several times over the last few centuries. It is also true that Russia have invaded and annexed many countries over the last few centuries. Evil empires also get invaded once in a while.

Sometimes, when everyone else is hostile to you, it can make sense to consider that maybe... just maybe... you might be doing something that triggers their anger. Like, what possible reason might the countries of Eastern Europe have to hate Russia? What possible reason might Ukraine specifically have to hate Russia? Does "Holodomor" ring a bell?

It is ironic that the countries of Warsaw Pact were more likely to be invaded by Warsaw Pact than by NATO.

> trying to understand what those motivations are, why their culture has evolved the way it has and how it is likely to react to your actions

But when we do exactly this, you call it "parroting the news".

Re: Reflections on Ten Years Past the Snowden Revelations

#342

Post by Viliam1234 »

genman wrote: post #330
brabel wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, you're misrepresenting it. Your rationale is that Russia is an evil empire trying to expand its borders to its former glory, and that's why it attacked Ukraine... a primary school level of simplification. You ignore that Russia's number one fear after the collapse of the USSR was for another military invasion from the West, as had happened several times over the last few centuries... that Russia's border with Ukr…

Well, Russia is an evil empire trying to expand its borders to its former glory. If you haven't understood this by now then it's not meaningful to continue this discussion with you.

Even if we adopt the moral relativism and stop calling Russia "evil"... still, the fact remains that it is an empire trying to expand its borders to its former glory.

Re: Reflections on Ten Years Past the Snowden Revelations

#343

Post by Viliam1234 »

hkt wrote: post #278
herbst wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See Switzerland. Yes most of the time new ideas are not easily heart, but the whole population gets to hear it and vote on it. Yes more often than not Revolutionary or forward leaning ideas don't get a yes on the first glance. But at this point the whole population talked about the topic. And here comes the magic. A few years later a new idea arises better than any idea before and suddenly people get it. We talk and…

Don't get me wrong, I love the Swiss model of lots of referenda, very strong regional (canton) govt and a seven person executive, but also.. Swiss women didn't get the vote at federal level until 1991. Some changes are hard to pull off through referenda, others less so.

And yet, the Swiss women pre-1991 were probably more free than women in some communist country who technically had the right to vote decades earlier... but they were only allowed to vote for the Communist Party, because there was no other option on the ballot.

Re: Reflections on Ten Years Past the Snowden Revelations

#344

Post by selimthegrim »

haakon wrote: post #263
selimthegrim wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You go to jail. Putin isn't Stalin. But Snowden isn't a Russia citizen, so the US could shoot him if rendered, now that Russia withdrew from the ECHR.

Snowden became a Russian citizen last September: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63036991

Yes you are correct my apologies.

Re: Reflections on Ten Years Past the Snowden Revelations

#345

Post by throwaway892238 »

passer_byer wrote: post #212
throwaway892238 wrote: post #176

Years ago, when I interviewed at places that did USG-related work, the stuff I heard about that I didn't have to sign an NDA to hear , scared me enough that I knew Snowden-scale stuff was entirely within the capabilities of the US Govt. I didn't realize they would use it against us just blatantly in direct violation of every law put in place to prevent it, though. I think the lesson I learned from the Snowden leaks i…

Sadly, this seems to be the case. Which means we the people, have lost control of our government.

In 2020, the Presidential election voter turnout was the highest it's been in three decades, at just over 60%. But that's still 40% of eligible voters that didn't "lose" their voice in government, like losing their car keys. 80 million people decided to give up their voice.

In other countries, people really do lose their voice in government. Plenty of countries are under the jack-boot of totalitarian regimes that will torture and execute whoever steps out of line. We live in a country that is so far away from that, that all we have to do to change our government is mail in a form. And we still can't be bothered to do that. So any lack of government control is completely our own fault.

The government's still gonna do whatever it wants to do. But we also have the power to bring it to heel. The thing is, you have to actually do something with that power.

Re: Reflections on Ten Years Past the Snowden Revelations

#346

Post by newZWhoDis »

trunic wrote: post #125
newZWhoDis wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft is also responsible for the Orwellian (and as far as I know still secret/closed source) PhotoDNA, which is an incredible tool for censorship and surveillance. A lot of people are dead or in jail because of that software, and not just “predators”.

It's only used to match on known child sexual abuse images. If you're someone who has collected any of these, then you deserve to be locked up in jail. No excuses.

You have no evidence that it has “only been used” that way. There is NO technical reason it is limited to CP. It can just as easily find tank man or pics of feds murdering children at Waco.

Re: Reflections on Ten Years Past the Snowden Revelations

#347

Post by newZWhoDis »

acdha wrote: post #50
newZWhoDis wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft is also responsible for the Orwellian (and as far as I know still secret/closed source) PhotoDNA, which is an incredible tool for censorship and surveillance. A lot of people are dead or in jail because of that software, and not just “predators”.

Do you have any examples?

Sure, next time you’re in mainland China send a text to someone else including pictures of Tiananmen Square tank man.

Some gentlemen will find you shortly to provide a more in depth example.

Re: Reflections on Ten Years Past the Snowden Revelations

#348

Post by Matl »

genman wrote: post #332
Matl wrote: post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are many, many explanations for i.e. why didn't China attack Taiwan (yet) and while the U.S. finger in the region helps in some ways, supporting Taiwan proclaiming independence for example may actually not be helping to prevent war there. It seems to me like China is much more reluctant than Russia is to go to such a war, probably because apart from facing domestic nationalistic pressure to do so, there's littl…

And from where does this isolation come from? I think you are contradicting a little with yourself here.

It comes from it attacking Taiwan unprovoked, but there's no need for large U.S. presence for that to already not be attractive as it would be a huge blow for China in the economic realm and even include the Global South. On the other hand, Taiwan declaring independence on U.S. encouragement for example could be spun by China as protecting its stated red lines and acting out despite U.S. presence in the region.

You may not know this, but Russia enjoys some sympathy in the Global South because they see the situation as being at least partly provoked by the U.S. The same could happen over Taiwan, but it doesn't have to if cooler heads prevail.

Re: Reflections on Ten Years Past the Snowden Revelations

#349

Post by acdha »

newZWhoDis wrote: post #347
acdha wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any examples?

Sure, next time you’re in mainland China send a text to someone else including pictures of Tiananmen Square tank man. Some gentlemen will find you shortly to provide a more in depth example.

How do we know that’s PhotoDNA specifically? It seems odd to single that one product out as if there aren’t many people who could use open source tools to build surveillance systems. China doesn’t have a shortage of CS majors.

Re: Reflections on Ten Years Past the Snowden Revelations

#350

Post by epolanski »

zoogeny wrote: post #205

In the last ten years technology has increased substantially. In the last five years AI has advanced significantly. That is worth really letting sink in. I try my best to avoid every kind of online discussion on these topics that I reasonably can avoid. Some might even see it as paranoia. But I assume that every single thing I post online (or say on the phone, send in text, or write in emails) is traceable back to me…

I share the spirit. Encription and privacy are important, not sharing important data digitally even more so.
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