this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2026
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[–] GrouchyGrouse@hexbear.net 51 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

The USA ran full speed into surveillance after 9/11 and have been heckling China from the lead position the entire race. It’s just now that treats are expensive and the surveillance has gotten so far out of hand you have venture capitalists moving in on the game. Those are some mighty high contradictions for the average Joe and he might just see through the propaganda because of it. Oopsiedoodle. Let’s hope more liberals start to get the picture.

[–] Flyberius@hexbear.net 47 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (1 children)

China easily has shit loads more cameras, but to give you an idea how they are used, my mate left his bag in a taxi, so he went to the police station and whilst they were with him and in the space of about 10 mins, they loaded up the nearest camera to where he had been dropped off, got the taxi registration, called the driver, and got the bag delivered to his hostel.

This isn't even a rare occurrence. At first I was a bit weirded out by the sheer number of cameras, especially around roads, but having interacted with Chinese law enforcement on a few occasions, I am no longer concerned. They genuinely seem to be there to serve the populace and not enforce some draconian policy of protecting capital.

[–] BoxedFenders@hexbear.net 43 points 19 hours ago

Police actually being helpful is such a foreign concept to anyone in America with a net worth under $10 million. Cops here absolutely do not give a shit about you reporting a theft or loss. The only thing it is good for is paperwork to show your insurance agent.

[–] eldavi@lemmy.ml 12 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (1 children)

Oopsiedoodle. Let’s hope more liberals start to get the picture.

don't worry, they never will.

or atleast not enough of them to make an impact on things today.

[–] GrouchyGrouse@hexbear.net 3 points 11 hours ago (1 children)
[–] eldavi@lemmy.ml 3 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

not today, but guaranteed to happen no matter what we do. we just have to endure long enough to be at the right and the right place to capitalize (pun intended lol) on their asshattery.

... or atleast that's what history keeps telling us.

... over

... and over again

[–] Renin@hexbear.net 25 points 17 hours ago

I don't think many people can comprehend that you can set up a state that tries to make it as difficult as possible for corruption to occur and one that tries to protect the proletariat.

They either thing China is a horror surveillance state or they think it's totalitarian and they wanna copy all the stuff, not realizing this shit doesn't work if you don't have a socialist system. China itself had to purge the shit out of the their government, after they did the whole tactical reform and opening up pact with the demon.

[–] mctoasterson@reddthat.com 39 points 20 hours ago

Remember two decades ago when everyone clowned on London England for having widespread CCTV cameras and being a surveillance state.

Fast forward to now. AI cameras everywhere, bulk data collection, bulk internet traffic collection, cellular phone account and ISP KYC requirements, ID verification at the OS level, people walking around with literal GPS tracking devices they can't turn off, and a Federal workaround to the 4th Amendment by authorities simply purchasing all that data from commercial vendors.

The worst part is the average person is so stupid or blackpilled that they won't even push back on it or realize it's a problem. So long as they can get their cheap garbage from TikTokShop.

[–] MeetMeAtTheMovies@hexbear.net 24 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

In China packages can be delivered to shared publicly accessible spaces and everyone will just take theirs and leave everyone else’s alone. Theft from those spaces is very rare. Meanwhile there are entire Facebook groups dedicated to suburbanites in the US complaining about people stealing packages off their porches and homeless people walking down the sidewalk.

[–] TreadOnMe@hexbear.net 12 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Tbf, there are a lot of areas in the U.S. where public package deliveries are the norm. I myself have only ever had a lockbox for packages in my apartment complex once, and I have never had a package stolen from me in my entire life.

In my experience it is really only the wealthy suburbs that are usually robbed, and ordinarily it is the children of the neighborhood that are doing it, not random homeless people. That said, there have absolutely been huge rackets around stealing packages in the cities, but that whole thing seems to have died down a bunch.

Idk. It always seemed like a hugely exaggerated problem to me.

[–] EmmaGoldman@hexbear.net 6 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (1 children)

I live in a small town in Canada in a neighborhood with the region's high school and we had a bunch of package and laundry theft in my town and several adjacent towns.

Chuds on all those neighborhood apps were constantly frothing about how it must be one of the tiny handful of non-white students that go to high school here.

I had so many problems with my medication getting swiped in addition to everything else that I bought a local-only doorbell camera, and caught the (white chud) daughter of one of my neighbors stealing packages in front of my door. I asked my landlord if he recognized her, he called the cops apparently.

So, my landlord and this bigass Mountie go to their door to Just Ask Questions and this lady took a flying leap out the back window to flee the pigs. She got arrested for running from the cops, and they found out she'd been behind all of the thefts in the area. There hasn't been a package theft in my town since.

I still feel weird about this. I'm curious about what happened to the brand new Buick Enclave Avenir she'd paid for in cash by flipping the stolen goods.

[–] mctoasterson@reddthat.com 5 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

She must've stolen a shitload of stuff... Any fencing operation is gonna pay like 25% of the retail value of stolen goods since they are taking a risk themselves. Therefore to buy even a shitty car with cash, think of the amount of thefts that requires.

[–] EmmaGoldman@hexbear.net 4 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

The car she bought starts at $75,000 CAD, and was a brand new car. At 25%, that would mean she stole $300k worth of stuff?

[–] Le_Wokisme@hexbear.net 2 points 7 hours ago

if it was all stolen, and a bit more if you include whatever taxes and fees on top of the price of the car

[–] BoxedFenders@hexbear.net 15 points 19 hours ago

And those groups are filled with fantasies of confronting the thief and exercising their CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS on them.

[–] DragonBallZinn@hexbear.net 20 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (2 children)

Calling it now, they will frame mass surveillance as “based and redpilled” and we’ll have a whole generation of ‘rebels’ who will unironically tell you “If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.”

[–] FlakesBongler@hexbear.net 15 points 19 hours ago

I mean, they've already been doing this

PATRIOT Act really set the tone for the last 20-odd years

[–] Hohsia@hexbear.net 4 points 15 hours ago

It’s already happening in the comments. Granted those are usually ratio’d to hell, but unfortunately it won’t be hard to pump up the likes with some bot farms.

Manufactured consent is just changing forms :/

[–] Tabitha@hexbear.net 17 points 21 hours ago

3 times while the car was off in the parking lot

[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de -4 points 12 hours ago (2 children)
[–] comrade_pibb@hexbear.net 10 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

please elaborate. Let's have a conversation about this and better understand each other

[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de -4 points 10 hours ago (3 children)

Ok. Do you think China is not an authoritarian state? I believe they are for reasons such as their social credit system and their game console bans that went for like 15 years and banning any games that would allow user generated political content and any political opposition will land you in a camp.

[–] gualudengren@lemmy.ml 11 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

social credit system

Thing that isn't real.

their game console bans that went for like 15 years and banning any games that would allow user generated political content

Entirely logical and reasonable thing to do (to shut down a massive pipe of information warfare) when faced with the most prolific and pervasive intelligence and propaganda apparatus in history who wishes nothing but for the destruction of your people.

and any political opposition will land you in a camp.

Untrue. Also using camp instead of prison to evoke concentration camp imagery and attempt to liken the Chinese government and Chinese people to Nazis is disgusting and you should be ashamed.

[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de -2 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (2 children)

Ok. Call it prison then. Same issue. Also, what would happen if you said on social media that you thought the tiananmen square massacre was an atrocity?

Also, if you don't feel it's an authoritarian government, what do you call it?

*Edit: I forgot to ask. The videogame thing. What country are you referring to here? Since games were coming out of many different countries and most of the consoles were out of Japan. Who exactly there is your enemy? And if all of it was to block propaganda and misinformation from other countries, that implies that China was the only source of information you were allowed to know of growing up? You don't feel like that was oppressive at all?

[–] gualudengren@lemmy.ml 2 points 25 minutes ago

Ok. Call it prison then. Same issue.

It's not because it doesn't happen please read what I said before replying.

Also, what would happen if you said on social media that you thought the tiananmen square massacre was an atrocity?

Nothing usually maybe your post might get removed if you stray too far from criticism towards spreading nonsense. (Oh the horror I know).

Also, if you don’t feel it’s an authoritarian government, what do you call it?

A government. Authoritarian is a meaningless pejorative used mainly by white liberals to denote country they don't like. All modern governments are "authoritarian" in that they wield power to enforce laws etc.

The videogame thing. What country are you referring to here?

Very obviously the US and it's vassals.

Since games were coming out of many different countries and most of the consoles were out of Japan. Who exactly there is your enemy?

Most of Europe and Japan are for all intents and purposes US vassals (especially Japan). The US has been trying to undermine and destroy modern China for decades through propaganda attacks as well as actions such as funding terrorists.

And if all of it was to block propaganda and misinformation from other countries, that implies that China was the only source of information you were allowed to know of growing up?

It doesn't imply that at all.

You don’t feel like that was oppressive at all?

No. It was an entirely reasonable action.

[–] ProletarianDictator@hexbear.net 9 points 8 hours ago

Also, what would happen if you said on social media that you thought the tiananmen square massacre was an atrocity?

Literally nothing. Discussion and much more intense criticism of the Deng Xiaoping government's handling of the June 4th incident exists on xiaohongshu.

Are you really so daft that you believe people are getting thrown in prison for internet comments? They simply delete the garbage.

Virtually every Chinese person has access to a VPN. The government does not care. Because the goal isn't total control over the information sphere, but rather to make Facebook slow and inconvenient enough that you decide to use Weibo instead. The western internet is blocked as industrial policy to advantage native Chinese companies and prevent the west from having algorithmic dominance over the information sphere of the Chinese public.

If you believe that the government is seriously concerned about Chinese people being exposed to a typical reddit anti-china circlejerk, it is you who has fallen for the propaganda. How would China be able to handle students studying abroad coming home after being enlightened?

[–] NewOldGuard@lemmy.ml 7 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

The “social credit system” is not real. It just doesn’t exist, nobody can point to any concrete policy or framework regarding it because it’s just a fabrication of the west based on intentional misinterpretations and fabrications

[–] ProletarianDictator@hexbear.net 4 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Nah, it was a real, short-lived series of experiments each of which was implemented as a series of penalized actions typically exclusive to a city or province, none of which lasted more than two years or prevented citizens from accessing public utilities. Enforcement relied on usually elderly volunteers reporting violations. This was notoriously unreliable and caused more disputes than it resolved, so the central government legally outlawed the systems they recommended be implemented and trialed by provincial or city governments.

Still, many Chinese people clamour for this to be returned and expanded upon. Mostly people annoyed with litering, theft, scams, and other behaviors that are already illegal, but frequently violated.

What remains today is basically a credit score for business owners and executives that also accounts for causing public harm. More or less it is a cumulative punishment for fraud, forging tax or safety data, violating environmental or labor regulations, and giving predatory interest rates or loan conditions. Think of it as a supplemental penalty for losing civil suits or violating the law where the punishment is typically a fine. Makes it so businesses cannot eat the fine because their profit exceeds the legal penalty.

What westerners believe is a complete fabrication, one that is frequently mocked on Chinese social media.

[–] comrade_pibb@hexbear.net 6 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Quick question: what's your credit score according to EquiFax (a privately held company)?

[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de -3 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Ah.

I see where the problem is. You decided to equate me saying China is an authoritarian state to me also saying that the US is not an authoritarian state.

[–] comrade_pibb@hexbear.net 9 points 8 hours ago

"i oppose authoritarianism, which is why I feel compelled to remind everyone that the enemies of NATO are also bad"

[–] MasterBlaster@lemmygrad.ml 9 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

more people die during America's Halloween celebrations per year than have been killed by Chinese police, in the entire country, in the same time period

[–] ProletarianDictator@hexbear.net 3 points 7 hours ago

Spirit Halloween is also authoritarian. Two things can be bad at once.