Tim Uckun (Feb 05 2025 at 03:56): Tim Uckun (Feb 05 2025 at 03:56):Just listened to the deepseek episode.
This may be an unpopular opinion but I would rather China have my data and Musk, Zuck, Altman, or any other member of the weird techbro cult. Those people have their hands on the levers of power that are much more likely to impact my day to day life than China does and are more likely to use it.
Ron Waldon-Howe (Feb 05 2025 at 08:28):Didn't the CCP get upset about comparisons between Winnie the Pooh and Xi Jinping?
Seems like both China and the USA are helmed by pathetic man babies prone to tantrums
The CCP does seem more effective and cohesive than the Republican party, however
Ron Waldon-Howe (Feb 05 2025 at 08:30):It's sad and alarming that, when I look upon the various devices in my home, my first thought is which government(s) is receiving the data from that device
Tim Uckun (Feb 05 2025 at 09:07):I think that winnie the pooh thing was just a story made up on the internet and somehow took hold.. There are lots of those types of stories about China and that's not by accident.
I find it odd that you would refer to Xi Jinping as a man baby prone to tantrums. I have never heard of anything he said that could be labeled as a tantrum. Granted I haven't seen him speak much but from what I have seen he always seems very measured in his speech both in style and content. Trump OTOH is basically insane as far as I can tell. He can't even string together a coherent sentence that doesn't contradict himself and keeps ping ponging from day to day.
Anyway yes you are the product. Your data is being delivered to five eyes + Israel no matter what you say. Some of your data may also be ending up in China or Russia or maybe even some other country. The fear for me isn't "who has my data" the fear is "who can use my data to harm me". As a Kiwi that entity is the USA and the rest of the countries in five eyes + Israel group. For example if I say something about Xi and he somehow decides to take action I am confident my government would not hand me over to China to be prosecuted. If Elon or Zuck or Trump decided I needed to be taught a lesson my country would happily hand me over to the USA to do with me as they will.
This is why I fear facebook, xitter, reddit, and other US based social media more than I fear China.
Ron Waldon-Howe (Feb 05 2025 at 09:25):The tantrum comment was under that assumption that the Winnie the Pooh this was true
But, I'm also going to assume that the average person in China is healthier and experiences a higher standard of living than the average person in the USA
And yeah, I'm an Aussie, watching the whole WikiLeaks extradition case, and also watching whistle blowers against the Australian government getting thrown in jail (e.g. Witness K, etc)
Tim Uckun (Feb 05 2025 at 09:43):In our case we had the Kim Dotcom raid. You may want to look that up if you are not familiar with the case but the whole affair was shameful and illegal under NZ law but it was done anyway.
I don't know how the average person lives in China but I do have lots of friends and family in the USA and the average person seems utterly miserable there. There is constant worry of being bankrupted by the next health event or car failure or whatever. Seems like even the middle class is barely hanging on and as a result they live a life of stress and angst. This has to be debilitating for your mental health especially if you have kids.
I decided to leave the US when Bush got re-elected. Best decision I ever made. NZ is a relatively poor country but life here is a lot less stressful. I did spend a lot of time in AU though and I love Melbourne and Perth. The only thing about AU that I don't like are the bugs and the fact that everything is poisonous and wants to kill you :grinning:
Ron Waldon-Howe (Feb 18 2025 at 05:27):https://daringfireball.net/2025/02/golfo_del_gringo_loco
There are other places around the world where Apple and Google show downright crazy or incorrect things on maps. The latter have one thing in common: they are to comply with the demands of countries governed by thin-skinned autocratic men who surround themselves with sycophants. As mentioned above, in China, Taiwan is falsely labelled as a province of China in Apple Maps.
Tim Uckun (Feb 18 2025 at 21:41):People are missing the point. The point is to control what you are allowed to see and say and think. This is a minor thing but it's the first thing. It was designed to see how quickly the tech sector would cave to his demands. He already got the mainstream press to cave to him before he even took office. Now he has google and apple and meta. The courts are next and he will take control over them as well before the year is out.
Look at what happened in Turkey and Hungary and Israel. That's your future. A strongman in power for decades by hook and crook. Granted trump is too old to rule for twenty years but Vance isn't and neither are his sons and daughter.
Last updated: Apr 09 2025 at 01:16 UTC