Hacker News Reader

Comment by balls187 | Hacker News Reader

I imagine the anger here is the frustration that the Chinese seem to be so brazen about their IP theft, but IP theft isn't just relegated to the Chinese government and Chinese companies.

In light of all the "bad" things the US does with little oversight, ensuring US Technology is still top must be a major priority, and probably has droves of covert operations to help US companies be competitive if needed. It's just likely that the US doesn't have many sources to steal from.

I also have to believe this anger is cultural as well. As Americans, we're brainwashed into black and white thinking, and to attach very high weight to moral and ethical implications of decisions. "Always pay back your debts. If you take out a mortgage, if you go bankrupt, you are a bad American."

I expect that Chinese culture has a different take regarding what we consider "cheating."

View on HN

> I also have to believe this anger is cultural as well. As Americans, we're brainwashed into black and white thinking, and to attach very high weight to moral and ethical implications of decisions.

I find it very strange that you are effectively calling culture “brainwashing”. Would you prefer we have no cultural values at all? How do you think that would even play out? Without a shared value system, you cannot have civilization.

That said, your overall point is correct: Sometimes cultural value systems differ in incompatible ways, unless reconciled somehow. Often, this means being faced with the cold, hard reality of weighing the cost vs benefit of “acting out” against a law or moral code expected of you by the other party (whether or not your culture agrees with those laws or morals is irrelevant, when we’re purely talking about tangible consequences).

If there are no consequences from us, I don’t think it’s fair we “play the victim”. If we (the US) don’t want this behavior to continue, we must specify and enforce a policy of tangible consequences that will occur in retaliation for every single instance of IP theft that occurs.

> I find it very strange that you are effectively calling culture “brainwashing”. Would you prefer we have no cultural values at all? How do you think that would even play out? Without a shared value system, you cannot have civilization.

That's an extreme conclusion from my argument--that we (as Americans) are indoctrinated into moral and ethical thinking even if such decisions aren't in our best interest, while other Americans avoid such thinking and are able to find success because they're not constrained by such beliefs.

There is much more to American values than blind obedience wrt paying back debts.

American's can have a shared sense of moral and ethical standards without creating an extreme adherence to such beliefs.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com