Hacker News Reader

Comment by coldtea | Hacker News Reader

Most of this "X does Y with authoritarian government" is basically individuals picking up government signals (propagated through the media) for the new enemy of the day.

That's why it gets increasingly more frequent at a particular time (whereas China has been authoritative for decades when the same now "indignant" people didn't write about it), uses the same talking points (often of some bad but useful source that's repeated as gospel, "orange revolution" style opposition, ex-pats with axes to grind, etc.), and is focused on the singled-out "enemy du jour" even if there are tons of allies doing the same or worse.

Selective government talk points, "leaks" to the press, propaganda pieces, "exclusive access", etc, fuels this further.

Until there's another enemy to focus on, when it all deflates.

View on HN

Even though I agree with your view in general, it's worth pointing out that the article author is not a random "individual picking up government signals".

Jesse Squires is quite prominent contributor to the Apple's macOS/iOS development ecosystem and he definitely cares about Apple's reputation and the future. Apple is his bread and butter and if he's concerned with what's going on on this front there is something to think about...

Yes. In the past year I have heard endless breathless "news reports" about how China supposedly manufactured Covid in a lab, to how they are committing genocide with Uighur muslims, to how they are not respecting the UK's continuing dominion over Hong Kong, to how they never innovate and only steal technology from the US, to how they are being aggressive in the east China sea, how they're threatening Taiwan, and on and on and on.

Of course I have been hearing the same thing at various times about Cubans, Venezuelans, Russians, Palestinians, Iraqis, Syrians, Iranians, Libyans - Blinken just denounced the arrests of those involved in the post-coup massacre in Bolivia. And on and on. This piece is an example of the drive for ever expanding imperial policy under an authoritarian government.

Thanks for bringing that up. It was very obvious last year and is now that the election period is over. While the issues are real, the correlation between geopolitical consideration du jour and the media putting the spotlight on democracy issues is important to keep in mind, so that we remember to not be blind to other regions (e.g. Yemen) or don't let it deflates like you said when the focus move.

Thnak you for outlining this. I’d even say the “enemy” is more often than not one that disturbs the established neo-colonial structure. The moment a “new player enters the chat” - countries start with the “enemy speak” that you talk about.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com