ecnerwala

And yet you stand in a 1 KM queue to get a visa to the "west". :P

Its not an unpopular opinion in my book. The first sentence, especially the "it might be harder if you have a family to feed", is distressing. If an average developer salary is not enough to do that, then, what are the jobs that DO allow you that ?

I am not in the US. But your point is actually in support of my last sentence :). Of course, I do agree that there are a bunch of worse work environments.

His work wasn't objectively easier - he worked hard but on his own schedule. To be fair, I am measuring quality of life by what's important to me (rather than any standard metric), but there is a fair bit of overlap. The only weak point was healthcare which has since improved but a healthy lifestyle meant he never needed to visit hospitals. All things considered, I would rather be him than an Amazon warehouse worker.

You need a bit of perspective. The last part of your sentence hasn't been true in our country in the last 50 years. Working 3 jobs like a robot isn't what I consider high standard of living.

My grandfather who was born in a poor country and was a farmer through out his life had a better life than these employees. Its a shame that decades (or should I say centuries) of productivity increases in US haven't trickled down in order for these employees to have better options than working at Amazon.

Yes, it is a new problem when you take into account scale, cost and targeting. Traditional media couldn't target audiences at the granularity Facebook can. And running propaganda via newspapers or TV channels was limited to national boundaries which is not the case with Facebook. One more aspect is cost - I don't have any data, but its possibly very cheap to distribute fake news or propaganda pieces with social media.

I am assuming this is a joke, but if it isn't, then guess which countries have/don't have the manpower to be thrown at killbots :P

Okay - Without understanding a specific tech, would it be possible to defend against it? And subversion may not be possible against certain countries. I would rather have these type of weapons developed by countries ruled by democracy.

What credibility has Amazon got? (The Amazon experience is typically good for a customer, but bad for an employee. My question is in that context.)

Consider the statement "Autonomous weapons are inevitable" carefully. What it means is, any state actor can potentially invest in tech to develop these type of weapons and succeed in a few years. In other words autonomous weapons are within striking distance of technological progress (as opposed to, say, human landing on Mars.)

With the above information, what would you do, if you were a state actor of an advanced country? Surely, (1) you either want to develop these yourself, or (2) ensure that nobody else develops them. (2) can be achieved by international treaties, but the question is whether it can be enforced. If state actors don't trust option (2), then the only option left is (1).

Again, my point is that, if an authoritarian government has the power to silence a person, then they certainly have the power to make a person say what it wants them to say. (Not directly related, but "confessions" are fairly common in these regimes. Gui Minhai - for example.)

Past track record? I think the events you've mentioned are organic protests, but that is beside the point.

Well, my point isn't really about whether I care or not. Any rational actor wouldn't give any weightage to celebrities supporting an authoritarian regime, simply because they don't have any other options. (The "option" to keep quiet can be taken away any time. Although I agree that this particular instance wouldn't warrant such measures.)

Agree that there is no need for CCP to coerce celebrities. But, help me understand, why should we give a rat's ass about what those celebrities say in favor of CCP policies, given that their only options are (1) Keep quiet (2) Endorse.

Do they have any other option other than "support" Xinjiang cotton? The only other option Dilraba possibly would've had is "re-education."