It's been so bad for me too. I don't think the jobs numbers the Biden admin posted are accurate. Everyone I have talked to looking for work have been struggling. I've been looking for well over a year and a half. Always getting the ghost jobs.
Yea, I tried DDG using Claude and was also extremely disappointed. On the other hand, I love my actual Claude account. It's only given me shit one time, weirdly when I was asking about how to hack my own laptop. The most uncensored AI I have played with is Amazon's Perplexity. Weirdly enough.
Yea... uhhh. I have no happy thoughts on any of this, to be frank. We kind of need a miracle? Historically speaking, though - we are looking at what any other population saw as they went from democracy to dictatorship. Not much comfort in that. All I have been doing is building curated news sources in RSS and getting to know friendly decentralized communities. The sooner I can get off the Meta based socials, the better. Also, I have been reading about past dictatorships. I'm learning about the Nicaraguan one right now. Lot's of parallels. The one silver lining, I guess, is - after a while most dictatorships turn thier own supporters.... violently. Yay?
Yea, that and the shit I saw on how to train kids in ballet with adults standing with almost full weight on their hips to "limber them up". It's a different culture all together.
I joined but I am not a TT refugee. I joined because I was extremely curious how the CCP was going to deal with this given how... uh how (fill in the blank) US Tiktok users are. Also because I've been to China and saw how weird the authoritarian arm is there so this new wave of social media users is really interesting to me. I joined because I'm a nosey b.
Key Focus:
The article examines whether Chinese technology transfers, specifically from Huawei, help recipient governments expand digital surveillance and repression. The study focuses on Huawei as it's the world's largest telecommunications provider and has significant data available about its transfers.
Main Findings:
The effects of Huawei technology transfers depend heavily on the recipient country's political institutions:
In autocracies: Transfers lead to increased digital surveillance, internet shutdowns, internet filtering, and targeted arrests for online content
In democracies: No clear or consistent evidence of increased digital repression
Key Data Points:
Study covers 153 Huawei projects worth approximately $1.6 billion
Spans 64 countries between 2000-2017
About 90% of projects by value are in the communications sector
Asia and Africa account for over 85% of total transfers
What Drives Huawei Transfers:
Market size (population)
Demand for low-cost telecommunications
Prior relationships with China through aid
Notably, transfers are NOT primarily driven by:
Natural resource endowments
Regime type
Political instability
Important Context:
China has developed sophisticated domestic surveillance capabilities
Huawei often incorporates technologies from smaller Chinese firms
Technology transfers are "dual-use" - they can be used for both legitimate development and repression
Why Different Effects in Democracies vs. Autocracies:
Different Motivations:
Autocracies: Often seek technology to control dissent and prevent collective action
Democracies: More likely to use technology for public goods and economic development
Different Constraints:
Democracies: Have institutional guardrails (courts, media, civil society) that limit misuse
Autocracies: Fewer checks and balances on government power
Limitations of the Study:
Difficulty measuring digital repression
Secrecy around Huawei contracts may lead to incomplete data
Lack of detailed information about specific transfer provisions
The research suggests that while Chinese technology transfers can enable digital repression, this outcome isn't inevitable - it depends significantly on the recipient country's existing political institutions and oversight mechanisms.
The Chinese are pretty heartless about the homeless from my own personal interactions with them on the topic. They call them pitiful and call the police on them if they're in plain sight. And if you ask a general Beijinger about the homeless in China they're super blasé about the answer and brush it off on family needing to step up and take care, how the mainland is building affordable housing (and maybe they are idk), or how everyone with limbs should be able to work. The attitude is very conservative against homeless from what I have seen. I liked my tripto Beijing but China isn't all roses and sunshine.
I hope somewhere down the line history books remember this time of darkness and attribute a majority of it to the international proliferation of Russian misinformation.
How did they not see this coming and have something in place? Not to victim blame. I'm just like, if you are in a position of leadership in yor nation's security how did you not strategize this scenario coming up? Either way, please isolate us (the US). We fucking deserve to lose leverage.
I went to Beijing and noticed young people in the stores and coffee shops who worked there sometimes would put red armbands when they saw me. It felt creepy. It's a shame their culture has been so shaped by authoritarianism. (Obviously it's not just China that has this issue, btw). Ultimately the majority of the people I met were absolutely lovely. Truly terrifying experience Junjie had. Poor kid. Definitely can see that shit happening there, though.
Literally. Al lhe said was China made an LLM with less. The end.