causepix

joined 1 week ago
[–] causepix@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 minutes ago

I've yet to see a convincing explanation of why China would even be interested in this data... what good would it even be to them?

We know American tech, media giants, and government contractors and agencies use it for profit and domestic control but, even if you believe China is just as much of a dystopian capitalist surveillance-state as the USA, what profit is there for Chinese capitalists to extract from American data that they can't already extract much more efficiently through American data brokers? As for the government end, is the interest in having control over Americans in American territory even comparable to that of the American government? It's not like the vast majority of the data would even be actionable or relevant to the Chinese government.

It just doesn't make sense for Chinese capitalists/government to be even a fraction as aggressive in surveilling Americans as their American counterparts. It seems more like a distraction to me and an excuse to avoid talking about American surveillance being every bit as bad as you imagine Chinese surveillance to be.

As for being the "largest exporters in the global market", if the profit was all that enticing on a private scale, the US capitalist class certainly could have chosen to compete with China in that avenue. They chose to boost their short term profits by deindustrializating instead. What does that tell you?

[–] causepix@lemmy.ml 16 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Sure, if you assume their "political enemies" are the Republicans. Rather than assume incompetence; because, you're right, this is a pretty glaring oversight that only bumbling incompetence could begin to explain away; you could make a much more fitting assessment with the "political enemy" being the working class.

That is who this law is being wielded against, the only ones who were ever threatened by it, along with being completely disempowered to abuse it against the ruling class who passed it. Those are the enemies that fit your description.

[–] causepix@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Is the implication that new developments or information may have come out in the <4 months since this article was published which invalidates some or all of the information it contains? I'm having trouble seeing why this is an issue that needs pointing out in this particular case.

Where would you prefer content like this be posted and discussed?

[–] causepix@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 days ago

Nah this definitely sounds like a situation where "it's the end of your senior year and there's no other way we can effectively reprimand this behavior" and he might have already been a problem student.

[–] causepix@lemmy.ml 14 points 2 days ago

There was a kid that shit his pants at my middle school. Left a little nugget that slid out of his basketball shorts in the hallway. I guess there was also some on his seat which nobody noticed until a girl in the next class sat in it.

[–] causepix@lemmy.ml 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

The problem is that a capitalist system will not allow itself to be reformed in this way, as the "reforms" that Marx poses are antithetical to the very foundation of capitalism.

To give some accessible examples; you can't house homeless people or give people healthcare and higher education because homelessness and debt is a whip to keep the workers working for whatever wage and conditions are offered by a capital owner. You can't deconstruct racism because it was invented in the first place to keep the working class at war with itself rather than struggling against the conditions set by the ruling class. You can't stop imperialism because infinite growth requires infinite and unrestricted expansion into new territories.

The system of capitalism manufactures its own required conditions through cruelty and social inequality (and yet, it's these very things that lead to resistance), and without those necessary components the whole system collapses. The ruling class will not allow this to happen, because this system serves their material interests, and thus fundamental change cannot happen until the working class; whose material interests are directly opposed to those of the ruling class; is in power. The ruling class will pay lip service and the occasional half-measure in order to obscure this reality and make "reformism" seem possible, but 1) that is all they will do especially in the absence of a real threat to their power and 2) they will always eventually claw back even the smallest and hardest-fought of crumbs. Crumbs are good and all but there comes a point where our energy is better spent fighting for the whole cake.