Comment by nik282000

4 days ago

[flagged]

China isn't threatening to invade Canada. The neighbours to the south that have similar software in our military planes are.

You absolutely have a point, I just don't see how this is functionally different from western/US policy, especially from the perspective of e.g. BRIC nations:

We have ample evidence that US intelligence siphons data from literally every meaningful company it can tap, is willing to share that data with partners abroad and uses such things without even public sanction against targets picked by the president (see Venezuela).

Sure, the US is still the devil you know, but if Americans want to claim the moral high ground then at least credible pretending is required, and under the current administration we wont even get that.

I have never before felt pressured about what I can or cannot protest about in Europe by China, but I can’t say the same about our most powerful ally, who has threatened every sector of our society – political or non-political – with consequences if we do not act and speak as they do. China absolutely does not care about our society the same way as that.

> And it may sound paranoid but remember that China was caught operating their own "police" force around the world not long ago

Have you heard about ICE? That one's not a paranoid thought. It's a very real personal police designed for oppression. I'd much much rather chineses EVs flooding the market over Teslas.

  • Did ICE have clandestine police stations in Canada trying to rendition political dissidents? People need to get a grip and some perspective.

    • American citizens being shot and brutalized by a state sponsored force of masked thugs without training. Sounds pretty clandestine to me and it's happening in us soil.

      6 replies →

  • These two concerns do not need to be mutually exclusive. Either one can be recognized as a threat to our liberties without diminishing the severity of the other.

    The more relevant discussion is the lack of policy/legislation to prohibit government agencies from sidestepping the 4th amendment and purchasing access from private corps, like Flock, to surveil individuals without a warrant. It’s ICE today, maybe DEA tomorrow, and the FDA in some broken future. In a decade or two, when nearly all vehicles are inherently advanced optical sensors with wheels, what stops auto manufactures becoming real-time surveillance companies, like Flock?

  • > Have you heard about ICE? That one's not a paranoid thought. It's a very real personal police designed for oppression.

    Oh, come on. ICE may be behaving badly right now, and you might be mad at them, but that's not an excuse for flights of fancy. Stay grounded in the truth. ICE is not "personal police designed for oppression," they're police designed to enforce immigration and customs laws (ICE literally stands for "immigration and customs enforcement").

    Canada and every other country has some kind of police force that serves those roles: for instance: https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/security-securite/rem-ren-eng.ht...:

    > The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) removals program contributes to upholding the integrity of Canada’s immigration system by removing people who are inadmissible to enter or stay in Canada.

    > ... The CBSA also prioritizes the removal of failed refugee claimants who entered Canada irregularly between points of entry. These cases are prioritized due to their significant impact on program integrity and on Canada’s asylum system.

    I'm under the impression that Canada has historically actually been much more strict with enforcing immigration laws and deporting people than the US had been.

Everyone knows. But America is has made it very clear it has no allies, this means every middle power is near obligated to re-position themselves to be roughly in the middle between the two super-powers.

  • This ignores physical geographical reality.

    • Geographic proximity is mutual. If it came down to it, I doubt the US will ever be prepared for polite Canadian terror cells.

All that goes for US EVs too. And China hasn't threaten with annexation.

Perhaps in an ideal world, we trade mostly with allies and nations that are ideologically aligned with the US. Unfortunately, the current president is doing everything he can to weaken alliances with those nations and cripple those trade relations.

The hallmark of patriotism is caring more about the surveillance from the other side of the lake than the bugs that are likely planted in your living room.

[flagged]

  • Please don't make sweeping claims about what HN “is”.

    The HN is a large group of people with a range of views that maps to a normal distribution on most topics, with a slight skew to left-libertarianism. It's common for people to notice "too much" of what they dislike on HN, and then to think the site is dominated by that thing.

    https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

    • "I've noticed" was my wording - communicating my claim and opinion. I will make claims and opinions on a message forum, thank you very much. Unless you want to pull up a specific moderation rule instructing me otherwise.

      "Slight skew" is just your claim and opinion. We're both equally entitled to them. I'd be happy to look at actual data: try an anonymous poll on HN for political affiliation sometime. We both know that skew wouldn't be "slight".

      Please don't make unfounded counter claims without evidence.