when my wife was in Shanghai as layover before going back to Indonesia, she couldn’t use any western app
I used to think this was bad until recently we found out that the country I live in has its government data stored in American servers which could in theory be accessed by the Trump admin. Then I also realised that the entire continents IT infrastructure is hopelessly dependent on America, meaning we have no digital sovereignty and the Americans can spy on our data (which the NSA did, as was revealed in the Snowden leaks).
Imagine protecting your IT industries from international competition so you can develop digital sovereignty. Couldn’t be us (Literally, we are fucked here).
But you cannot deny that aiming at blocking VPNs is quite dystopian.
My only contact with Chinese people is buying their products. A shame, because they are 1,4 billion people that could impact the globe with their ideas.
Most rational people can and should argue that it’s not dystopian to block out trash and garbage. The real dystopia is having a global dictatorship that provides funding, support, weapons, and government mouthpieces that drowns out actual truth in a tsunami of horseshit, to psychologically abuse and gaslight the vast majority of a planet’s population. Especially when that nation has practically the entire world in a choking vice grip, and has done almost nothing beneficial for humanity, at least not without strings attached, and has invaded, sanctioned, couped and stalled human societal progress for centuries, and has the fucking gall to think of itself as the shining city on a hill, while completely misunderstanding the original meaning behind that phrase.
I’d fucking block all western webcrap in my country if I could. Wait, my country is already doing that. And it’s doing wonders to our society. Our infospace isn’t influenced by imperialist astroturfing (as much)
But you cannot deny that aiming at blocking VPNs is quite dystopian.
Sometimes measures need to be taken that take away convenience. The Chinese do have limited access to some western sites and apps but it has had a great effect on their technological and economical sovereignty and independence. Chinese platforms are thriving. The Chinese are actually in control of their own data. Can the same be said about our governments where we face a “vendor lock” by FANGAM which have their claws over our data?
It has also kept them away from toxic anti-China sentiment on western platforms.
My only contact with Chinese people is buying their products. A shame, because they are 1,4 billion people that could impact the globe with their ideas.
That’s strange because there are Wechat, Weibo, Xiaohongshu, BiliBili and other Chinese platforms. If you really wanted to socialise with Chinese people you’d already be on one of those platforms and not writing such a cynic complaint. Still, I’ll assume good faith and recommend you to check out these platforms for yourself. Registering an account on XHS is very easy and it is definitely worth it. :)
Those platforms will be filled with mandarin instead of English.
If you consider this a problem, do you also believe that everyone should abandon their own language for English? Translation tools are available nowadays and their accuracy has increased a lot in recent years, so there is no need to use an intermediary language.
They need a global social media where they speak a language that people outside of their country understand.
XHS has a lot of content in different languages if that is what you seek. Otherwise, translation tools do a good enough job nowadays so they don’t even need to speak another language to communicate.
If china is so strict and such a large powerful entity, then I don’t wanna be there.
Is being strict bad? If you’re not strict you can’t enforce the laws and if you can’t enforce the laws you’ll eventually end up with a society which has normalised crime and believes that they can get away with it. “Authoritarian” is a very misused word and often used in western propaganda to refer to cultures which are more collectivist and law-obedient than us. Plato in the Republic, if I recall correctly, notes that sacrifices have to be made for the sake of the many because the common good is more important than an individual’s gain, and that thought is actually embedded in the Chinese culture.
Yes, I desire English to be an official language in all of the EU countries. We need unity. I don’t care what happens outside of the EU.
But I only met my wife outside of my continent because she spoke English. Communication connects people.
I’ll look up XHS, thanks. Edit: the translate button next to every comment/post is really nice
Being strict is not how I’m going to handle my life. Now that I need to guide younger employees, I’m not going to order them around. I’m just going to talk to them and try to make them understand. If they refuse, then I’ll take a step back. If shit hits the fan then I’ll offer help. When the shit is cleaned up, I’ll communicate how they can prevent the shit in the future.
My wife’s pregnant, I don’t feel like being a strict parent. I want my kid to be able to think for itself.
Authoritarianism has its benefits. Singapore is very safe. The cars cannot go over the speed limit. It’s very clean. They punish you economically if you step out of line.
I do like parts of Chinese culture. Like the whole family living together. My family lives together in one home. It makes the cost of living extremely cheap.
Don’t get me wrong, usually I am the one talking good about china. Their economy boomed tremendously. Poverty went down by far.
But socially, I don’t know any Chinese person. My wife does. She’s indonesian and a lot of Chinese people are near her area where she grew up. She doesn’t like them. That’s her choice, I guess she’ll have her reasons. Mainly because she worked for Chinese owned law practices and had many Chinese clients. I’m guessing it’s just typical employee disliking their boss stuff.
Yes, I desire English to be an official language in all of the EU countries. We need unity. I don’t care what happens outside of the EU.
Isn’t it already? And where is the unity then?
But I only met my wife outside of my continent because she spoke English. Communication connects people.
You are very lucky. Communication is indeed important, and English does pragmatically help a lot with international exchanges. I only disagree with your claim that we need (only) English for that. But even so, not all content produced on a platform is meant for international consumption. So it is only natural that it will be in the language of the target audience.
I’ll look up XHS, thanks.
Hope you enjoy it :)
Being strict is not how I’m going to handle my life. Now that I need to guide younger employees, I’m not going to order them around. I’m just going to talk to them and try to make them understand. If they refuse, then I’ll take a step back. If shit hits the fan then I’ll offer help. When the shit is cleaned up, I’ll communicate how they can prevent the shit in the future.
My wife’s pregnant, I don’t feel like being a strict parent. I want my kid to be able to think for itself.
The actions of a government cannot be judged on the same basis as the actions of an individual. I agree that you should be foremost communicative and helpful as a manager, an employer, an employee, a person, a parent. But the government operates on a different level. It can’t be too lax with ensuring smooth operation of its society, economy and law enforcement. On the other hand, being too strict like some Muslim countries or the DPRK, the former due to their cultural background, the latter due to a state of belligerency with its neighbour and the constant danger of a war breaking out, is also not the ideal that governments should strive for. I’ve been to Russia and China before and spoken with people from both countries, online and offline, admirable people with great critical thinking. They don’t consider that the laws are too strict; on the other hand, they think that we in the west are strange or even funny when it comes to legislation and law enforcement.
Don’t get me wrong, usually I am the one talking good about china. Their economy boomed tremendously. Poverty went down by far.
We actually both agree in a lot of aspects. :)
She’s indonesian and a lot of Chinese people are near her area where she grew up. She doesn’t like them. That’s her choice, I guess she’ll have her reasons. Mainly because she worked for Chinese owned law practices and had many Chinese clients. I’m guessing it’s just typical employee disliking their boss stuff.
Understandable, but still one should not judge a book by its cover, or a people by speaking with a few persons.
English is allowed in a lot of instances here in Belgium, but it’s not an official language. Here it would be Dutch, french and German.
In practice, employees at city hall will just speak English but if they kept themselves to the rules then they would have to speak one of the official languages to the person.
The unity is present when we’re looking at the Ukraine-Russian war. Only Hungary is opposed.
I do believe there’s a sense of unity within Europe.
You say you went to Russia and they think we’re too lax. Now when the war broke loose. People protested and they were arrested. Opposition seemingly is silenced in Russia. Their broadcasting, just like in EU, sells a story.
We don’t have much of a choice. Neither do the Russians.
It’s an unfortunate situation.
I think the communists side with Russia because of its history, not its present state. The history of the USSR is vast and impactful for communists.
However, current day Russia looks like an oligarchy to me. Putin is one wealthy dude. Some sources say he’s worth 200 billion USD.
To me, Ukraine is like Palestine and Russia is like Israel.
To communists it’s not like that.
It’s very simple to me. The one crossing the border with their army is the aggressor.
It seems as if you are absolute in your beliefs and not willing to actually understand others’ viewpoints. A lot of comrades have replied to you in this same post but your answers say a lot about you. And since you mentioned being somewhat of a capitalist yourself in another comment, it looks like you’re predisposed of blindly accepting western brainwash. I don’t like to judge people but you do give off that kind of impression.
Maybe staying in touch with a Marxist-Leninist instance will be of long-term benefit for you. Maybe not. Politics are not as simple as you seem to think.
I used to think this was bad until recently we found out that the country I live in has its government data stored in American servers which could in theory be accessed by the Trump admin. Then I also realised that the entire continents IT infrastructure is hopelessly dependent on America, meaning we have no digital sovereignty and the Americans can spy on our data (which the NSA did, as was revealed in the Snowden leaks).
Imagine protecting your IT industries from international competition so you can develop digital sovereignty. Couldn’t be us (Literally, we are fucked here).
It’s true that it all has pros and cons.
But you cannot deny that aiming at blocking VPNs is quite dystopian.
My only contact with Chinese people is buying their products. A shame, because they are 1,4 billion people that could impact the globe with their ideas.
Most rational people can and should argue that it’s not dystopian to block out trash and garbage. The real dystopia is having a global dictatorship that provides funding, support, weapons, and government mouthpieces that drowns out actual truth in a tsunami of horseshit, to psychologically abuse and gaslight the vast majority of a planet’s population. Especially when that nation has practically the entire world in a choking vice grip, and has done almost nothing beneficial for humanity, at least not without strings attached, and has invaded, sanctioned, couped and stalled human societal progress for centuries, and has the fucking gall to think of itself as the shining city on a hill, while completely misunderstanding the original meaning behind that phrase.
It’s dystopian to think that everything outside of one country is trash and garbage.
Your subjectivity got in the way so quickly, so I can just tell you that you’re being irrational.
Globalism is the future. Social media like lemmy can help with that tremendously. Everyone is welcome. I wonder if Chinese can access it.
You’re projecting and strawmanning
Not outside, but inside. Most countries are fine, but then there is America.
I’d fucking block all western webcrap in my country if I could. Wait, my country is already doing that. And it’s doing wonders to our society. Our infospace isn’t influenced by imperialist astroturfing (as much)
Which country do you live in?
A Global South country
Yeah which one, I live in Belgium.
Sometimes measures need to be taken that take away convenience. The Chinese do have limited access to some western sites and apps but it has had a great effect on their technological and economical sovereignty and independence. Chinese platforms are thriving. The Chinese are actually in control of their own data. Can the same be said about our governments where we face a “vendor lock” by FANGAM which have their claws over our data?
It has also kept them away from toxic anti-China sentiment on western platforms.
That’s strange because there are Wechat, Weibo, Xiaohongshu, BiliBili and other Chinese platforms. If you really wanted to socialise with Chinese people you’d already be on one of those platforms and not writing such a cynic complaint. Still, I’ll assume good faith and recommend you to check out these platforms for yourself. Registering an account on XHS is very easy and it is definitely worth it. :)
Those platforms will be filled with mandarin instead of English.
They need a global social media where they speak a language that people outside of their country understand.
If china is so strict and such a large powerful entity, then I don’t wanna be there.
Singapore is authoritarian as well, but it’s a city. Can flee to Malaysia or Indonesia in a 2 hours trip.
If you consider this a problem, do you also believe that everyone should abandon their own language for English? Translation tools are available nowadays and their accuracy has increased a lot in recent years, so there is no need to use an intermediary language.
XHS has a lot of content in different languages if that is what you seek. Otherwise, translation tools do a good enough job nowadays so they don’t even need to speak another language to communicate.
Is being strict bad? If you’re not strict you can’t enforce the laws and if you can’t enforce the laws you’ll eventually end up with a society which has normalised crime and believes that they can get away with it. “Authoritarian” is a very misused word and often used in western propaganda to refer to cultures which are more collectivist and law-obedient than us. Plato in the Republic, if I recall correctly, notes that sacrifices have to be made for the sake of the many because the common good is more important than an individual’s gain, and that thought is actually embedded in the Chinese culture.
Yes, I desire English to be an official language in all of the EU countries. We need unity. I don’t care what happens outside of the EU.
But I only met my wife outside of my continent because she spoke English. Communication connects people.
I’ll look up XHS, thanks. Edit: the translate button next to every comment/post is really nice
Being strict is not how I’m going to handle my life. Now that I need to guide younger employees, I’m not going to order them around. I’m just going to talk to them and try to make them understand. If they refuse, then I’ll take a step back. If shit hits the fan then I’ll offer help. When the shit is cleaned up, I’ll communicate how they can prevent the shit in the future.
My wife’s pregnant, I don’t feel like being a strict parent. I want my kid to be able to think for itself.
Authoritarianism has its benefits. Singapore is very safe. The cars cannot go over the speed limit. It’s very clean. They punish you economically if you step out of line.
I do like parts of Chinese culture. Like the whole family living together. My family lives together in one home. It makes the cost of living extremely cheap.
Don’t get me wrong, usually I am the one talking good about china. Their economy boomed tremendously. Poverty went down by far.
But socially, I don’t know any Chinese person. My wife does. She’s indonesian and a lot of Chinese people are near her area where she grew up. She doesn’t like them. That’s her choice, I guess she’ll have her reasons. Mainly because she worked for Chinese owned law practices and had many Chinese clients. I’m guessing it’s just typical employee disliking their boss stuff.
Isn’t it already? And where is the unity then?
You are very lucky. Communication is indeed important, and English does pragmatically help a lot with international exchanges. I only disagree with your claim that we need (only) English for that. But even so, not all content produced on a platform is meant for international consumption. So it is only natural that it will be in the language of the target audience.
Hope you enjoy it :)
The actions of a government cannot be judged on the same basis as the actions of an individual. I agree that you should be foremost communicative and helpful as a manager, an employer, an employee, a person, a parent. But the government operates on a different level. It can’t be too lax with ensuring smooth operation of its society, economy and law enforcement. On the other hand, being too strict like some Muslim countries or the DPRK, the former due to their cultural background, the latter due to a state of belligerency with its neighbour and the constant danger of a war breaking out, is also not the ideal that governments should strive for. I’ve been to Russia and China before and spoken with people from both countries, online and offline, admirable people with great critical thinking. They don’t consider that the laws are too strict; on the other hand, they think that we in the west are strange or even funny when it comes to legislation and law enforcement.
We actually both agree in a lot of aspects. :)
Understandable, but still one should not judge a book by its cover, or a people by speaking with a few persons.
English is allowed in a lot of instances here in Belgium, but it’s not an official language. Here it would be Dutch, french and German.
In practice, employees at city hall will just speak English but if they kept themselves to the rules then they would have to speak one of the official languages to the person.
The unity is present when we’re looking at the Ukraine-Russian war. Only Hungary is opposed.
I do believe there’s a sense of unity within Europe.
You say you went to Russia and they think we’re too lax. Now when the war broke loose. People protested and they were arrested. Opposition seemingly is silenced in Russia. Their broadcasting, just like in EU, sells a story.
We don’t have much of a choice. Neither do the Russians.
It’s an unfortunate situation.
I think the communists side with Russia because of its history, not its present state. The history of the USSR is vast and impactful for communists.
However, current day Russia looks like an oligarchy to me. Putin is one wealthy dude. Some sources say he’s worth 200 billion USD.
To me, Ukraine is like Palestine and Russia is like Israel.
To communists it’s not like that.
It’s very simple to me. The one crossing the border with their army is the aggressor.
It seems as if you are absolute in your beliefs and not willing to actually understand others’ viewpoints. A lot of comrades have replied to you in this same post but your answers say a lot about you. And since you mentioned being somewhat of a capitalist yourself in another comment, it looks like you’re predisposed of blindly accepting western brainwash. I don’t like to judge people but you do give off that kind of impression.
Maybe staying in touch with a Marxist-Leninist instance will be of long-term benefit for you. Maybe not. Politics are not as simple as you seem to think.
Best wishes.