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Browsing the Broken Web: a Software Developer Behind the Great Firewall of China
troyhunt writes "While we've long known that China takes a fairly aggressive stance on internet censorship, I thought a visit to Shanghai this week would pose a good opportunity to look at just how impactful this was to software developers behind the Great Firewall of China. It turns out that the access control policies make life very difficult at all sorts of levels when accessing simple technology resources we use every day from other countries. But I also found an amazing level of inconsistency with sites and services intended to be off limits being accessible via other means. It's an interesting insight into how our developer peers can and can't work in the country with the world's largest internet population."
...but, maybe that's a key element to the kind of growth they experience. America is a foul-mouthed brat who can't be reasoned with. The economy is a downer. China jails people who stir shit up just for the sake of it. Their economy is on the rise. Perhaps a clean-cut image is an important part of success, be it a true reflection or not. China isn't clean-cut by any means. But, they're not pointing out their every minute flaw, making mountains out of mole-hills, lessening their national image. The Chinese are team players. Americans put the "I" in "team."
I wonder if they have stand-up comics in China? And, if so, are they as politically charged as American comedians? I don't bother with stand-up comedy — or any form of comedy — in the United States of America, because they make me feel bad about being an American. I am from the mid-Western United States. We are a constant target of their rhetoric. Somehow, I doubt the Chinese would stand for such demonizations. It wouldn't heighten their chances of success to allow that. They'd spend all their time laughing and applauding hatred that has been masked in a performance piece. It would be counter-productive, to say the least.
Now, Freedom of Speech is something I believe in 100%. But, I do wonder if it has ill-effects on the imagery of our Nation to allow such blatantly biased and expertly constructed forms of propaganda to exist. Heck, my usage of the term "our Nation" within my previous sentence is a form of propaganda. As an American, I can construct propaganda on the fly! Steve Jobs was the world's foremost practitioner of it, in my opinion. Being exposed to it in so many forms has made us all students of Joseph Goebbels.
The Chinese put their efforts into national structuring. A strong American pastime is to erode the national structure. And, to think, many Americans are puzzled as to why the Chinese are so strong at the moment. They aren't injecting artificial weakness into their every strength.