Hacker News Reader

I think China has been playing us for years, and doing so masterfully. There's no _good_ reason for the US, with our economy and standing, to be ripping itself apart from within -- but, indeed we are.

Not only is China growing in power and influence, as you point out, it has been investing in American media and other industries. They're famous for playing their strategic game over a long span of time (the long game).

My pet theory is that Hollywood, Silicon Valley and the Left are thoroughly (and probably unwittingly) influenced by the infiltration, and are the medium for memes and messaging that divides us so much. It's as though we're about to re-fight the Civil War. China, the master that it is at cultural revolution and re-education, is playing a shrewd game.

I think they're about to beat us cold by causing us to implode from within. If so, it's beyond sad -- but in terms of military strategy, a brilliantly played hand by President Xi and the CCP.

Is it Hollywood, Silicon Valley, and the Left who are choosing to buy cheap Chinese goods?

Are they forcing Walmart and Amazon to carry those goods?

Are they responsible for the low wages Americans are making?

Did they move manufacturing overseas?

Otherwise a water tight theory ..

> My pet theory is that Hollywood, Silicon Valley and the Left are thoroughly (and probably unwittingly) influenced by the infiltration, and are the medium for memes and messaging that divides us so much. It's as though we're about to re-fight the Civil War.

Interesting you should attribute that to “Hollywood, Silicon Valley, and the Left” since the people spreading memes and propaganda literally advocating either a new Civil War and publicly advocating military overthrow of the lawfully elected government are on the Right (the former groups like the Boogaloo bois; the latter a number of prominent figures, including recently pardoned former National Security Advisor Gen. Michael Flynn.)

> China, the master that it is at cultural revolution and re-education, is playing a shrewd game.

Both the pro-Trump elites counselling extra-Constitutional violence and some of the more (superficially, at least) grassroots groups in the White nationalist/supremacist vein preaching race war have been well documented to have been engaged with and influenced by Russia; China less so.

If you're going to throw generalities: Meanwhile the Right believes a guy named Q, that Biden stole the election (despite Giuliani Total Landscaping providing zero evidence), that there's a furniture store selling missing kids hiding in plain sight... Sure, not all of "The Right", but as I said, generalities.

Your bias is showing, and you're totally blinded by propaganda as badly as you accuse some others.

I hear a lot of fear that the US may no longer be on top, from which I assume you are an American. The good news is that Americans (as individual humans) may be better off when America is no longer an empire.

The British empire was good for the rulers and owners of the companies integrated into it, but not for the average brit.

any proof of this besides your word? I'd love to read about it.

China has massive internal problems, and all data out of china's government are falsified and outright lies. China is a paper tiger in more ways than one. In 10 years, the power struggle between west and east will be a stalemate, and eventually both super powers will be overtaken by a growing power from India. India will be the powerhouse of the 21st century IMHO

Wake me up when India has a semiconductor fab < 65nm.

You will be sleeping like rip van winkle, as I am thinking in terms of decades.

>"I hope we're hacking back just as hard. That's what the NSA should be doing rather than domestic spying."

You can sleep well. Spying is what every government does.

>I hope we're hacking back just as hard. That's what the NSA should be doing rather than domestic spying

You really care about the ideals of "liberty" and "democracy" I see.

Well, not reacting just encourages more attacks.

If your goal is fewer attacks,launching your own is a terrible method of achieving your goal. Even if you stop all the "enemy" attacks that doesn't mean the number has decreased.

Deterrence is a time-honored strategy. As the Romans liked to say, "if you want peace, prepare for war." It tends to prevent adversaries from miscalculating, a proximal cause of many a bloody conflict.

Launching attacks isn't deterrence. Even if your general philosophy were correct, which I disagree with, it is not one of peacefully promoting democracy and liberty.

If an undemocratic adversary is trying to gain secrets to put them at an advantage against our military, citizens, or economy, it's only fair that we do the same.

They're not going to stop trying. We shouldn't just let it happen.

If it is unacceptable for them to do it to us, it is unacceptable for us to do it to them. Stop caring only for yourself under the false guise of "democracy and liberty."

A lot of countries aren't number one.

no reason the United States has to be an empire

no reason anything has to be an empire, for that matter

We make the biggest blockbuster movies. Have you even seen End Game? What about Frozen? (Not the sequel) The snowman Olaf transcends national borders. We'll be fine.

The studio system is shut down and blockbusters aren't coming back. Movies are going straight to streaming. Disney and Warner are doing far-reaching reorgs to see to it. Look also at directors like Nolan and Villeneuve complaining - they know their familiar way of life is coming to an end, and they're struggling to cope with the new reality.

Low-budget is something we'll get schooled on. International studios are just as good as we are.

China owns a number of US studios outright, and they also own a lot of the tooling (eg 40% of Epic Games, which is being used for Star Wars). They're cultivating our tech and using it themselves.

Most of the deep fake research amenable to use in films is coming out of China.

I'm not saying it's a sure thing, but China is in a very good position to attempt a takeover of the movie market if they want to.

edit: I'm now being greeted by "You're posting too fast. Please slow down. Thanks." on all messages I've attempted to post.

It appears my account got flagged for this thread. I've never seen this before in my ten year history of using HN. Not sure if this is automatic or manually added. Does anybody else know what this is about? [1]

[1] https://github.com/minimaxir/hacker-news-undocumented/issues...

Sure, but Olaf? He sneezed his nose off! That's original. That will keep the US at the bargaining table on any geopolitical issue. Heck, China won't even allow the words "Winnie the Pooh" to be spoken on Chinese soil, so that crazy honey addict is in our pocket forever.

China owns 40% of epic games? --- EDIT: wow, that's "unreal" ( excuse the pun ) ... what a sell out Epic games!

Everyone hates on Chinese repression and human rights violations until they get the check in the mail. What do you reckon the career prospects are of an Epic employee who criticizes China's treatment of Hong Kong? If precedents are followed, the entire company would be forced to make an embarrassing apology.

Yes. Tim Sweeney also stated he wanted to exchange expertise.

https://www.mcvuk.com/business-news/publishing/tencent-acqui...

Tencent own stakes in a lot of gaming, film and music companies. If you enjoy Western content there's a strong chance a chunk of the profits go to China.

> Zoomers on TikTok hate capitalism and the military, and it seems like they're being indoctrinated by an "algorithm".

I don't see how that connects to your larger point. Can you please explain?

Capitalism is fuels our wealth machine. The military helps project power and protect our interests.

If younger generations grow up hating these structures, they might vote against them.

I think younger generations believe that these structures have led to "the lack of opportunity we're providing for them," as you phrase it. By that reasoning, they should vote to change the military and economic status quo.

I have a lot of faith in the younger generations. They are much more desensitized to bullsh*t, and tiktok will quickly fade in popularity just like myspace and facebook.

Stagnant wages, unattainable housing, crushing student loans, the collapse of the American dream, young people don’t hate capitalism because of TikTok propaganda, they hate it because it has completely failed them.

Those characterizations of yours make it sound really bad.

Yet, the quality of life in America, as well as around the world, has improved drastically. How many people have luxuries like cell phones, computers, TVs, cars, refrigerators, indoor plumbing and heating, as well as access to resources like ambulances and hospitals--the list goes on. How humans of centuries past would long to have lived at this time, if they could see how we live today.

And it's not just about material things. For example, in the past hundred years, although the world population increased from 2 billion to 7 billion, the number of people who die to natural disasters each year has greatly decreased.

This video shows how widespread these misconceptions about world situations are: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1dvfH3s1Ak In this study, about 80% of people were wrong about more situations than if they had chosen an answer randomly.

This is not to say that there are no problems in the world, or in America. There will always be problems. But your characterizations are misleading, and your claim that capitalism has "completely failed" young people is extreme, and it fails to credit capitalism for the prosperity that it has enabled for most of the world's population compared to most of human history.

There’s a reason Bernie Sanders was so popular with young voters. HN is an echo chamber for capitalism, but the reality for most people is capitalism is failing them, society is failing them, and if we want to keep what we have today, we urgently need to address these failings.

I agree with you - the world isn't set up to benefit young Americans in this generation as easily as in the 60's and 70's. I'm not sure we'd agree on the causes though.

People are still told to go to expensive college. A cheap community college degree in STEM is worth much more than an expensive liberal arts education. A self-taught programmer has more marketable skills than a liberal arts degree holder. The freely available loans made the institutions money hungry, and they grew to absorb all of the new income.

We really need to fix education.

The post-war / post-energy boom is over, and the easy gains that yielded have faded. Today's economy is harder. The knowledge economy is not as accessible and requires more training. The US can't compete with the cost of manufactured goods as our standard of living and minimum wage are too high. By importing, we're moving that negative externality of hard or menial labor to economies that can handle it - bringing them up to our level, but destroying those opportunities domestically.

Housing is still affordable outside of major cities. I'm not sure what to do about the price of housing in major urban areas though. It's supply and demand, and wages for the average worker haven't increased.

You didn't even respond to a single thing I said. You just repeated your original claim that, "Capitalism is failing them." That's tantamount to propaganda--keep repeating yourself until people believe you.

You sound just like a politician with your empty, alarmist assertions ("failing! urgently address!"). Are you a Sanders staffer? I mean, it would explain your comments.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25513074

Capitalism is failing these people. There’s statistics all around. If you want to bury your head in the sand and lash out at random people on the internet, I feel sorry for you.

Really? You actually repeat yourself again after I just pointed out your repeating yourself?

You: "Capitalism is failing people!"

Me: "Actually, it's enabled much prosperity around the world, so that only a small minority of the world population lives in poverty compared to a few decades ago. For example, here's a YouTube video showing how public perception differs from reality."

You: "Capitalism is failing people!"

Me: "You're not even making an argument. You're just repeating your assertion."

You: "Capitalism is failing these people! You're lashing out at me!"

It sounds like you're trying to convince yourself by sheer repetition.

Zoomers not liking capitalism is just young people being young.

Too bad Biden is a China lap dog...

Meanwhile the President salutes Kim Jong-Un

I congratulate anyone who is able to create a dialogue with a country that is otherwise bristling for violence. Better words are flying that bullets or missiles.

Dialogue i.e. getting played?

He was bending over to yet another strongman dictator, e.g. fussing over getting him a Elton John CD for example.

It seems that some prefer warfare?

Well this administration is the most drone happy of since Clinton, executes people willy-nilly, and throws away treaties so perhaps judge it by those same standards.

Right, so Biden has still been soft on China and allowed his family to become financially entangled with the CCP; you haven’t spoken to that yet.

Who was executed “willy-nilly”?