this post was submitted on 05 Jan 2024
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I saw this post and wanted to ask the opposite. What are some items that really aren't worth paying the expensive version for? Preferably more extreme or unexpected examples.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 16 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I am sure China established NSA in 1960s and started global surveillance programs in 70s. And Snowden and Assange exposed Chinese government.

Oh wait.

[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

This is classic whataboutism. You should try to avoid it because it's an incredibly poor defense if nothing else.

I've been bitching about the PATRIOT Act since less than a week after 9/11 happened. The Act's continued existence doesn't excuse China's well-documented bad behavior.

[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Well-documented deeznuts. China's bad behaviour mostly has only one source, that anonymous CIA or Pentagon guy who does not wish to be named, and it almost always turns out to be either false or a dishonest interpretation.

Whataboutism is a dog whistle word used by Westerners for deflection used to abrupt or end the argument when there are no real counterpoints. And since US government loves to demonize their "near-peer competitors" (official term) China and Russia, its perfectly fair to argue with US in perspective.

[โ€“] [email protected] -3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

If you spent any time reading the articles, you would see Australian sources for incidents dating back to 2012, Lithuanians reporting in 2018, and various private security companies also weighing in.

If the only defence you have for bad behavior is that other people do it, then I guess slavery, mass murder, torture, and theft are all okay. I don't accept when people do those things, and not because I haven't done them but because I believe they are damaging to society no matter who does them. That applies to various acts on the national level, as well.

[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Too bad I know the kind of anti-China drivel Australia (deputy sheriff of NATO) pushes out with 60 Minutes and via their Murdoch media network, and surely enough you are not convincing me with Lithuania, the country that thinks Taiwan is a country, and the same country whose military lied about Xiaomi spying a couple years ago on behest of US government.

[โ€“] [email protected] -2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I made a mistake, not in anything I said but in assuming you were willing and able to discuss this in good faith.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

My mistake was giving you the benefit of doubt that you might not have a pro-NATO pro-capitalist xenophobic agenda.

[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

When it comes to hardware, isn't the situation usually...

  • American company is spying on customers through hardware it sold
  • American government is actively trying to spy on citizens through hardware (American-made or not), but the company blocks them unless they have a warrant
  • Chinese company freely shares data back and forth through the Chinese government using their hardware thanks to "backdoors"
[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

the company blocks them unless they have a warrant

Heard of FISA courts and gag orders? Every single company involved in Snowden leaks had one for PRISM, and for every single NSA ops conducted since 1970s. This is an open thing.

You may go read pages 63 and 64 here: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.564903/gov.uscourts.nysd.564903.152.0_1.pdf

Chinese company freely shares data back and forth through the Chinese government using their hardware thanks to "backdoors"

I never get evidence from US government for this, despite the bullshit propaganda they invent and disseminate via media. Even Germany and UK's GCHQ declared Huawei 5G gear to be clean, until USA nudged them to quietly align with the "narrative" and protect NATO's xenophobic interests, if they do not want consequences. What are these Chinese hardware backdoors, that I barely see anything on, compared to that on Cisco routers, Intel, AMD, Siemens, Nokia and other US/Europe tech companies?

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

How else is China collecting all its data on its citizens?

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

Very, very basic userspace level software methods. Methods that do not even need to go as deep as Facebook/Google/Apple or others.

Spying on people is easier than you think. Create fear and citizens will comply with just about anything for their "safety". But in China's case, the two Opium Wars lost against the 8 Nation Alliance is far too traumatic, and that serves as the fuel for current and old people to never see their children in the same world. The "Century of Humiliation" is a phrase easy to notice, and they are quite keen on regaining their global financial position they had before Western Industrial Revolution and Britain's "laissez faire" colonialism happened.