patrick.net

I wish we had a Crap filter in America.

Who knows this might spur the Chinese people to think for them selves rather than thinking as one part of a Media psyche that belies every thing they see read or hear on the internet as true.
In this day and age where so much is either fabricated, or used out of context to make counter conflicting political points. Where real issues are never considered.

I noticed a huge difference in my Stress levels, and perception on society as a whole when I spent a month in Malaysia. Where all the news papers go through government filters, CNN Asia is only news channel, and all of the Movies DVDs, Cable or in the Theaters are censored, and most of the all things stupid, American Culture T.V and Movies where all of the main characters in the movies are miscreants doing deviant behaviors and getting rewarded, are filtered.

When I got back I wished you had to configure your devices to get crap content, rather than the other way around.

My Point is they the Chinese, aren't missing anything, but a bunch of whining name calling, and idle moot rants about corruption, which falls on deaf ears, that are in the service of Popular upheaval, and focused on the tits in the latest Youtube video.

I doubt the next revolution will have a website.

Are you saying that you are for us having less freedom, or that less freedom is inevitable ?

Or are you saying both ?

No I wish we had a filter you have to turn off.

We're bombarded with pure crap from the cradle to the grave, and the quality of crap they pummel us with is going up in quantity.

Our Moral fabric has eroded so much to the point, none of us are Pious enough to cast stones at the corrupt political system in Washington.

People are expected to be a liar and a cheat, the only crime is getting caught for transgressions, while not being powerful enough to make it go it away.

I'm saying as long as the governments of these countries aren't being oppressive and filtering them lies and spin information like the Cold war propaganda machine.
Then I don't see a moral problem with it. Granted it's a slippery slope, but I'd prefer a country that does it right, like we used to be with rules pertaining to companies freedoms to Lie and misrepresent them selves. They had no rights to do so and commercials were more scrutinized.
I don't think there are even "False advertisement" laws anymore.
So if advertisers can legally distort facts in our Free media society, then what the politically motivated distorting?

It's more like "No news is good news" compared to the news that is reported to control, the American psyche as a whole. And polarizes two political factions against each other.

And more over, those people in those Countries should have the right to go to countries where they can raise their kids, as a Contemporary Dufus.

I recently moved back from China. Before living and working there I visited many times over the last 15 years. I can say that things have changed dramatically in that time and people living there are more free than we are in the US. There is also much more real capitalism. It reminds me of the US in the 1950s. Even the roads are new and smooth like in the 50's here.

Any Internet blocking is for show only, it is easily gotten arround by using a simple proxy server (I used proxify.com) that costs $20 per quarter of a year. Everything else that is supposed to be unavailable, actually is readily available, like any US cable TV channels you want, they even sell porn DVDs out in the open...I couldn't believe that.

The government has done a wondelful job of education the people, like we used to do in the 1950 through cute public service announcements. Old habits like spitting on the ground, rude clerks, loud talking, have all but disappeared.

I was shocked, but in living there I never saw 1 instance of government intervention in anyone's business or life. As in Sinagapore, the people do believe, however, that the government does have a master plan that is good for their country. Ideas like fiscal responsibility for the country and individuals are the norm, unlike the US. What strikes me the most in coming back to the US (I have not lived here for 10+ years) is the number of Americans on some sort of government assistance, and the lack of saving money. The Chinese save 25% of their income.

I could go on and on about what is wrong with the US, but as a fellow Patrick site reader, you already know, don't you.

Frankly, as a resident of the Sunset in San Francisco, the real Chinatown, I'm thankful that in the last ten years the city has been swamped with a deluge of immigrants from China. Ten years ago, after the collapse of the Dot Com bubble, this neighborhood, from nineteenth on out to the ocean ,wasn't blight exactly, but was certainly dying economically, with multiple vacant stores, restaurants, bars, etc...
Since the arrival of a new wave of Chinese immigrants, the neighborhood's economy is, well, I don't know if you can call it thriving, but it certainly is a pretty self reliant one, as much as it can be, providing great economic staples and , at least from a commercial real estate standpoint, a respectable use of capacity. There is a healthy economy, providing us with great choice in groceries, restaurants, laundramats, hardwares, bars, dentists, doctors, etc...
It's not just the Chinese, but I attribute to them what seems to be a very healthy civic and economic mindset which is here.
That said, who knows, maybe something like Patrick . net isn't so welcome in a place where so many financiers work from, and their low-life derivatives-realtors, like China, and make money off of the notion that investing money in U.S. real estate is a good investment. Certainly, our own self-censored main stream press wasn't terribly interested in mass communicating the truth that the housing hysteria was little more than a credit bubble , which, when exploded would destroy the economy. They , too, did it's part in trumpeting the lie, on behalf of the banking and realty industries, that the sky was the limit for real estate.

Nomograph says

Tenouncetrout says

I wish we had a Crap filter in America.

If we did, none of your posts would make it through.

Well there you go, but the beauty is Nomo, like area51ufopilot suggests, you could always use a proxy to get my latest mental wedgies.

Nomograph says

Do you think that, just maybe, your “perception on society as a whole” changed because you weren’t able to smoke pot all day long in Malaysia? One’s outlook changes once one stops being stoned and stupid all day long.

Just sayin’.

I wasn't able to smoke pot period. And like area51ufopilot suggests, it reminded me of Post war great Generation America in their Prime. I said on several occasions while I was there...

"You guys are doing America better than we do."

Nomograph says

Tenouncetrout says
I wish we had a Crap filter in America.
If we did, none of your posts would make it through.

Awwww, come on t-oz! It was funny. And true, but about all of us. We say what we want, and have the ability to simply ignore people if we wish. But a crap filter, as you suggest, would be something subjective. What's crap to one isn't always to another.

Nomograph says

One’s outlook changes once one stops being stoned and stupid all day long.

(ellie wipes a tear from her eye) Damn, I miss college.

I'd like to see American TV violence sensored too. It does affect society, people become desensitized to violence and it become 'acceptable'. When I was in New Zealand in 2002 I was disappointed to find out CNN had started broadcasting there several months before. The Kiwis were horrified at the gratuitous violence of American TV and blamed the sudden upswing in murders squarely on it. The murder rate was one every few years, then suddenly 7 murders in the 4 months since CNN started broadcasting, two very gruesome ones while I was there. The correlation is pretty obvious.

common_sense says

I’d like to see American TV violence sensored too. It does affect society, people become desensitized to violence and it become ‘acceptable’.

It's not just tv violence causing problems, what with video games, movies, the interwebs. The gates have opened and shutting off the tv won't help.

common_sense says

I’d like to see American TV violence sensored too. It does affect society, people become desensitized to violence and it become ‘acceptable’. When I was in New Zealand in 2002 I was disappointed to find out CNN had started broadcasting there several months before. The Kiwis were horrified at the gratuitous violence of American TV and blamed the sudden upswing in murders squarely on it. The murder rate was one every few years, then suddenly 7 murders in the 4 months since CNN started broadcasting, two very gruesome ones while I was there. The correlation is pretty obvious.

Please don't let facts interfere with a good story.
NZ Annual murder rate (per million people)
1926-1970: 6
1985-1992: 21
1994-1998: 15
1999-2003: 14
2004-2008: 12

Even this doesn't present a true picture since there have been several changes in the statistical record keeping over the years. It is very difficult to compare crime stats country to country anyway. For example the homicide category is particularly broad in New Zealand. It includes murder, attempted murder, manslaughter, infanticide, illegal abortion, and aiding suicide.

The idea of NZ media finding American media violent is pretty funny. News in NZ brings the concept of exploitive and sensationalist reporting to a whole new level. Plus reporters in NZ NEVER let facts interfere with a good story. Fox could take lessons from these guys.

I was in China ten years ago and loved the people. The gov was something else. Emailed home every day for twelve straight days (purposefully innocuous messages) and one got thru. Of course I was charged for the ones that didn't--anything for a buck!

In the mid-'90s I was in Victoria, B.C., 6 pm, looking for something I didn't have to pay for on the hotel's tv. Found the public channel. Flipped to it. And my jaw dropped. I immediately called my husband and said, "Honey, you are not going to believe what I'm watching being pierced and it's on their public tv channel!" I told him I'd snap a picture of the screen. I did. He couldn't believe it even when he saw the picture.

IMHO there's more actual violence being done by the Ponzi schemers, the bankers who took TARP funds and won't lend to those with good credit and small businesses, the credit card companies who jack the rates based on the user's zip code, the gov employees who take their salaries and sleep on the job than ever can be shown on a TV program. Yeah, America is slidding down hill and if you're wondering why, go and look in the mirror. You called your city hall lately and tried to have a chat with the city manager? You know who your city council person is? You tried to get them on the phone? You even voted in the last couple years?

Nomograph says

More advice: don’t take suggestions from someone who calls themselves an “area51ufopilot”.

:)

China has a lot of western content block. You wont' be able to get on Youtube or any video hosting site outside of china because they have them all banned except for the local ones like Todou. China's propaganda is just as bad over there as it is here. It's just you won't see any Americanize content there and if you do they're edited.

Seriously China does not like our culture or even our society the only reason why we get along with each other is because our economies are so intertwined, to where we currently need them as much as they need us. However, if ever this tie is served expect tensions to rise between China and U.S, just like how it was with the U.S. and Russia.

Right now both countries just tolerate each other, but in no way do we like each other. Which ever gets the first opportunity to rise will be the first one to stab the other in the back.

Zeik says

Seriously China does not like our culture or even our society the only reason why we get along with each other is because our economies are so intertwined, to where we currently need them as much as they need us.

Yeah that's why a Brown 4 door Buick is the most coveted car of status one can have in China.

Because they hate us so bad...

Tenouncetrout says

Zeik says

Seriously China does not like our culture or even our society the only reason why we get along with each other is because our economies are so intertwined, to where we currently need them as much as they need us.

Yeah that’s why a Brown 4 door Buick is the most coveted car of status one can have in China.
Because they hate us so bad…

I am not saying they're out to get us, I am just saying they just tolerate us, it's not like we're buddy buddy or even close allies. But just like the U.S they're also vying for power.

Do you know why most Asian horror shows have a White pasty face ghost that comes out of the dark to get them?

Like religious fanatics worry about God watching them, Asian cultures worry about their Ancestors hanging over their heads watching them and judging them. Ghosts, but not just any Ghost the Ghost that haunt them are their ancestors. That is the Asain Boogie man, and is ancient as the first Chinese characters. All of our boogie men are 20th Century inventions.

Ironically the only derogatory word Asians have for Americans, is "Ghost". Now from an American Racist point of view it is easy to write this off as to "Oh that's because Americans are White".
But many Chinese are more pasty white than we are.

The Chinese respect us, and want to be American in every way. They work 12 hours a day to make our cheap crap and put all of their money in the bank to loan us money, so we can buy that cheap crap.

That's a good solid prudent way to make money and they have been. They spent decade admiring us, and we spent a decade spending like drunken sailors. When our house of cards fell, we looked East and snarled at China, like some pasty faced Asian cinema Ghost that wants to come out of the dark and get them, because they still have money, and we're broke.

Of course there is Toxic dry wall and other toxic goods, that have came out of China, but really the fault lies clearly on our import regulations, and inspectors to allow these damaged good through. I'd say it's 99% our fault, for every toxic Chinese goods we've ever gotten.

The average person on the street in China is enamoured with the US and all the goodies we have. The currency of choice when tipping is still the dollar (right, Patrick?). They now have a problem (for the first time in their long history) of what to do with their parents when they need help and so old folks homes are proliferating. Female babies are adopted out of country. Male babies are kept (and in some cases, kidnapped and sold at the other end of the country to families who want a male heir). Factory jobs are disappearing (mostly to the inland where the wages are cheaper). They value education. I met more Chinese who could speak English than spoke Mandarin. What do they think of our political system? It's a non-issue for the average person. What do they think of their political system? Another non-issue, part of which is the fear of being reported as a dissident (altho I did meet one person who stated uncategorically that he hated Mao). That watch-granny on their block though does offer some benefits to the average resident--a low burglary rate.

I laughed when I read the comment above about whites being called "Ghosts." Look at the San Francisco newspapers from the 1800s. What were the Chinese called who were transported to work on railroads? Being different is always labeled.

And you want good horror flicks? Try those from South Korea.

maire says

I laughed when I read the comment above about whites being called “Ghosts.” Look at the San Francisco newspapers from the 1800s. What were the Chinese called who were transported to work on railroads? Being different is always labeled.

That was my point, we "White Americans" have always been disproportionately Silver tongued, against other groups that aren't like us.