Re:Klein's a Leftist with an agenda, not a journal
on
China's All-Seeing Eye
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· Score: 4, Informative
"To see the illogic of this, all one has to do is see that the countries that are the freest also tend to be the most capitalistic. The ones that are the most politically repressive also tend to be the most anti-capitalist."
Sadly, you're so blinded by your ideology you don't even see the lack of factual accuracy in this statement.
There is a long tradition of authoritarian capitalism, here are just a few, for your reflection:
Tsarist Russia
The Second Empire (Napoleon III)
Prussia, later Germany
Nazi Germany
The authoritarian/fascist states of central and eastern Europe between the wars and during WWII
Spain under Franco
Greece under the Colonels
Iran under the Shah -- a violent and repressive regime if ever there was one
Chile under Pinochet
Brazil under authoritarian military rule
for that matter, all other Latin American dictatorships: Mexico, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Peru, etc. etc.
Indonesia under Suharto
South Africa under Apartheid
The Philippines under Marcos
South Korea under Military Rule
So as you see, the correlation between capitalism and true democracy is actually quite weak. I don't think the facts can be accused of being "illogical".
Boy, a lot of rhetoric flying around here ("loony", "paranoid"), but let's take a look at these comments in detail.
1) The story is not about the fact that a communist state is spying on its citizens; that's not the news. It's about the use of new technologies that provide the regime with a huge amount of integrated information, using technologies that are also being deployed in the West.
2) The claim isn't that the adoption of new surveillance techniques is caused by IBM et al. They are the enablers. The connection to capitalism is actually at another level: that modern China represents a form of authoritarian capitalism whose efficiency is quite remarkable. This point unhinges the tired old 20th century right-wing crap that tried hard to present capitalism and democracy as necessarily intertwined. In fact, as we know from Napoleon III's regime, there are historical counter-examples to this notion, and modern China is a shocking refutation.
I wouldn't be so sure you understand history much -- remember, all that TV watching is bad for you.
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Sadly, you're so blinded by your ideology you don't even see the lack of factual accuracy in this statement. There is a long tradition of authoritarian capitalism, here are just a few, for your reflection:
- Tsarist Russia
- The Second Empire (Napoleon III)
- Prussia, later Germany
- Nazi Germany
- The authoritarian/fascist states of central and eastern Europe between the wars and during WWII
- Spain under Franco
- Greece under the Colonels
- Iran under the Shah -- a violent and repressive regime if ever there was one
- Chile under Pinochet
- Brazil under authoritarian military rule
- for that matter, all other Latin American dictatorships: Mexico, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Peru, etc. etc.
- Indonesia under Suharto
- South Africa under Apartheid
- The Philippines under Marcos
- South Korea under Military Rule
So as you see, the correlation between capitalism and true democracy is actually quite weak. I don't think the facts can be accused of being "illogical".1) The story is not about the fact that a communist state is spying on its citizens; that's not the news. It's about the use of new technologies that provide the regime with a huge amount of integrated information, using technologies that are also being deployed in the West.
2) The claim isn't that the adoption of new surveillance techniques is caused by IBM et al. They are the enablers. The connection to capitalism is actually at another level: that modern China represents a form of authoritarian capitalism whose efficiency is quite remarkable. This point unhinges the tired old 20th century right-wing crap that tried hard to present capitalism and democracy as necessarily intertwined. In fact, as we know from Napoleon III's regime, there are historical counter-examples to this notion, and modern China is a shocking refutation.
I wouldn't be so sure you understand history much -- remember, all that TV watching is bad for you.