Attorney General Barr Accuses Hollywood, Big Tech of Collaborating with China (reuters.com) 224
U.S. Attorney General William Barr took aim at Hollywood companies, including Walt Disney on Thursday as well as large technology firms like Apple, Google and Microsoft over company actions with China. From a report: "Corporations such as Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Apple have shown themselves all too willing to collaborate with the (Chinese Communist party)," Barr said. He added that Hollywood has routinely caved into pressure and censored their films "to appease the Chinese Communist Party. I suspect Walt Disney would be disheartened to see how the company he founded deals with the foreign dictatorships of our day," Barr said in a speech at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Michigan.
Barr chided U.S. companies for being too willing to take steps to ensure access to the large Chinese market. "The Chinese Communist Party thinks in terms of decades and centuries, while we tend to focus on the next quarterly earnings report," Barr said. "America's big tech companies have also allowed themselves to become pawns of Chinese influence." Barr suggested that Apple iPhones "wouldn't be sold (in China) if they were impervious to penetration by Chinese authorities." He suggested American tech companies were imposing a "double standard."
Barr chided U.S. companies for being too willing to take steps to ensure access to the large Chinese market. "The Chinese Communist Party thinks in terms of decades and centuries, while we tend to focus on the next quarterly earnings report," Barr said. "America's big tech companies have also allowed themselves to become pawns of Chinese influence." Barr suggested that Apple iPhones "wouldn't be sold (in China) if they were impervious to penetration by Chinese authorities." He suggested American tech companies were imposing a "double standard."
No duh. (Score:2)
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They also collaborate with German. And Israel. And *gasp* EVEN THE UNITED STATES ITSELF!
They all thought that if they traded with China, China would change. They were wrong all they did was make the ccp rich and powerful and they are behaving even worse, now they realized it and are trying to back out COVID19 is just the excuse to decouple from china and even some of those companies have realized long term it best to move from china
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I'm sick and tired of people always brigning up the false equivalence of China vs Other western nations.
Israel, Germany and yes, even the U.S. are democracies.
China is a brutal, murderous, genocidal totalitarian regime.
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And yet that doesn't remove the requirement to work with the Chinese government in order to sell your products in China.
Re: No duh. (Score:2)
Mod up. Although the USA and Israel are severely disfunctional democracies, at least they're trying.
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Re: No duh. (Score:2)
Well, what if the profits can be higher by not doing business with just the *USA* instead of obeying the USA's wishes to not do business with China or maybe soon half the world?
Trump doesn't exactly offer anything in return but "... and we won't bully your business".The math might not go in his favor.
You mad bro? (Score:2)
Just wait until Hollywood starts producing drama/documentaries about Trump/Barr's time in office.
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After Trump's presidency is over the last thing I am going to want to see is a movie about Trump. I would much rather see Trump on trial.
"Impervious to penetration"? (Score:2)
How cute. Bill Barr thinks it's possible to make consumer devices impervious to penetration by national intelligence agencies.
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How cute. Bill Barr thinks it's possible to make consumer devices impervious to penetration by national intelligence agencies.
Or this is just a charade of him stating these things to signal that they can't while we (here) all know they've been able to break through Apple's encryption.
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How cute. Bill Barr thinks it's possible to make consumer devices impervious to penetration by national intelligence agencies.
Or this is just a charade of him stating these things to signal that they can't while we (here) all know they've been able to break through Apple's encryption.
Taking your statement literally, I'm quite confident that it's false. Apple uses standard, well-proven cryptographic primitives, and has competent cryptographers to assemble them in secure ways. Their encryption is almost certainly unbreakable by anyone in the world, as is the encryption used by every other major platform. BUT, where are the keys? I'm sure Apple mixes entropy stored deep in the chip with entropy provided by the user in the form of the user's password to derive the root key that is the basis
Re: "Impervious to penetration"? (Score:2)
Uum, Apple can remote-update its OS. Somebody at Apple has to write that code. Apple is a US company. National security letters exist. QED.
Also, there is no such thing as unbreakable encryption. Unless you count XORing with true random data, and then completely destroying thst random data too. Ye olde $3 wrench breaks quide a few cyphers. ;)
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Uum, Apple can remote-update its OS. Somebody at Apple has to write that code. Apple is a US company. National security letters exist. QED
You should read about NSLs and the scope of what they can be used to do. What you're implying is not authorized under the law. And if it were, the FBI wouldn't have had to fight with Apple about decryption of the San Bernardino killer's phone.
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How cute. Bill Barr thinks it's possible to make consumer devices impervious to penetration by national intelligence agencies.
Or this is just a charade of him stating these things to signal that they can't while we (here) all know they've been able to break through Apple's encryption.
Taking your statement literally, I'm quite confident that it's false. Apple uses standard, well-proven cryptographic primitives, and has competent cryptographers to assemble them in secure ways. Their encryption is almost certainly unbreakable by anyone in the world, as is the encryption used by every other major platform. BUT, where are the keys? I'm sure Apple mixes entropy stored deep in the chip with entropy provided by the user in the form of the user's password to derive the root key that is the basis of all of the data encryption. But the entropy in the chip can be dug out with the right equipment and expertise, and the user's password just doesn't have many bits, so once you extract the bits from the device the rest is a simple low-cost brute force search.
Yes, I was intending the comment about breaking the encryption to reference that they've found ways to get data off of iPhones that Apple and/or the end user hasn't unlocked for them, but your statement brings up a valid point.
Re:"Impervious to penetration"? (Score:4, Interesting)
That's not really his point, though. Apple goes out of their way to make it difficult for western governments to access the contents of the phone itself. (They happily hand over anything that exists within iCloud to anyone with a warrant, so don't think your iMessages are safe because they're encrypted on your phone.)
But they can't do that in China. So they happily give China direct access, while forcing the US to look for exploits. (Luckily for anyone in the US who wants to break into an iPhone, there are plenty to choose from.)
It's kind of hypocritical, but anyone used to Apple should be aware that their privacy stance is all a marketing gimmick.
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So they happily give China direct access, while forcing the US to look for exploits
Cite?
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Apples moved datacenters used for Chinese users to China years ago [nytimes.com], and they aren't alone.
Russia has the same laws [lexology.com], which are being abided.
Once the data is on Chinese (or Russian) soil, the local governments have full access with mandatory backdoors [eff.org] — it is much easier for them to do it (legally), than it is for Western ones.
I cannot prove, that Apple et al are happy to do that, but they do that, as _xeno_ said.
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I think you need to learn a little more about how cryptography works, how phones work, and how software in general works.
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First, you need to spend some time reading up on how cryptography works.
Second, you should probably realize that Apple doesn't have to distribute exactly the same iOS in every region.
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Encryption is worthless if it's stored unencrypted in the cloud...
Although presumably it is encrypted in the cloud. Which doesn't matter if the key is also stored in the cloud. iMessages from iCloud have showed up as evidence in court cases before, which is how we know that both Apple has access to them and that they'll share that access with law enforcement. (That and you can restore the entire contents of an iPhone backup on a brand new phone even after the original phone has been destroyed, so we know th
You're playing the false equivalence game (Score:2)
1. China is a one-party-rule state with a controlled economy and no dividing between that one political party and ALL levers of government including the military, the police, the spies, the "businesses", the courts, etc. While the US tried to emulate some of that under the previous admin, with the party in power using the CIA the FBI the IRS and the StateDept to got after the candidate of the other party, they did not come close to the China model.
2. China passed a law last year making it illegal to encrypt
citation needed (Score:2)
You make several factual statements which I find hard to believe without a citation. Where can I find a reference to the law that China passed last year which forbids encryption for which the government does not have the key? Do you have a citation to support the assertion that the China-censored version of movies is being distributed to other countries?
I'm all-in for allowing consumer devices to be secure, but subject to search in response to a court ordered sworn-out valid warrant, but the game Apple has played by refusing legitimate US searches of a dead terrorist's phone while happily complying with the demands for each and every search the Chinese "request" (or perhaps secretly have been able to do at any time with keys and a back door...) is a severely warped position that cannot be seen as anything less that either anti-US or pro-Chinese-dictatorship.
I would also like to see a citation for the claim that Apple complies with China's requests for encrypted data. Even if it is true that China has a law t
Hollywood? He's right about that... (Score:4, Interesting)
He's right about Hollywood movies. I recall ID2 (aka "Independence Day: Resurgence") had a significant vignette of a China space force squad saluting the PRC flag. So a movie that used to be American scifi, turned into a PRC-heavy story. Should be retitled "In-dependence Day".
Even shows like 'Hawaii Five-0' make it known that their Chinese bad guys is not a state actor, but a renegade spy.
Re:Hollywood? He's right about that... (Score:5, Interesting)
There are a number of investment groups with ties (Score:2)
to the CCP that control significant portions of both movie theaters and studios.
It's not an accident that Hollywood sucks CCP cock when CCP puppets have seats on, or outright control the board (as a former AMC shareholder, that is the case there, as an example).
This isn't solely done because "OMG CHINESE MARKET SO BIG" but rather because they have influence over governance.
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The US military has been doing the same thing since the 40s - https://www.wsws.org/en/articl... [wsws.org]
Given the amount the original relies on fighter jets and military locations one has to image the pentagon had a pretty significant influence on both films.
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He's right about Hollywood movies. I recall ID2 (aka "Independence Day: Resurgence") had a significant vignette of a China space force squad saluting the PRC flag. So a movie that used to be American scifi, turned into a PRC-heavy story. Should be retitled "In-dependence Day".
Even shows like 'Hawaii Five-0' make it known that their Chinese bad guys is not a state actor, but a renegade spy.
Also well publicized was the removal of the Taiwanese flag from Tom Cruise's bomber jacket for Top Gun 2. Of course, plenty of content producers have to adapt for countries they are trying to sell product in (language/nudity in the US, violence in Europe, Nazi imagery in video games for Germany, etc).
China only needs local root exploits (Score:3)
In China you're pretty much forced to have some apps on your phone and keep them updated after Corona (ie. wechat and alipay). They can thus push compromised updates at will. So China only needs a local root exploit to own people's phones, which as always are much more abundant than remote root exploits. They also don't have any freedom of information acts or pesky requirements to show how evidence was gathered to quickly make this kind of scheme open knowledge.
US law enforcement could probably just force Google/Apple to push a backdoored update to a single device right now, with existing laws, to get similar results. But it would immediately become open knowledge (maybe not if done via NSLs, but that doesn't help for "normal" crime).
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Apple probably just gives them access to iCloud servers in China.
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Won't do diddly for say iMessage, even if you allow backups to iCloud they are device specific encrypted.
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Does Apple use the same encryption, or any encryption at all, in China?
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Nevermind, I was wrong. Apple never turned on end to end encryption for iCloud backups. Oops.
https://support.apple.com/en-u... [apple.com]
"Messages in iCloud also uses end-to-end encryption. If you have iCloud Backup turned on, your backup includes a copy of the key protecting your Messages. This ensures you can recover your Messages if you lose access to iCloud Keychain and your trusted devices. When you turn off iCloud Backup, a new key is generated on your device to protect future messages and isn't stored by Apple.
But most of all, Collaborating with the U.S. (Score:2)
How stupid do these politicians think people are?
I am getting increasingly convinced that the sooner we are rid of the 'pre internet' crowd that grew up on a misinformation diet of cold war propaganda, the sooner we can start seeing some SANE behaviour out of government.
American exits stage right ... (Score:2)
... as other state actors fill the void.
The Great Experiment has ended badly and the citizens don't care.
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I suspect Walt Disney would be disheartened by our very own dictatorship. As someone who lives in a glass house of cards, Barr should not be throwing stones.
Even worse: They are collaborating with *everyone* (Score:2)
Since biggest profit means biggest whore. Just ask at your local whorehouse. ;)
Oh, and don't worry. The USA is still its biggest fucker. ;)
butwhatabout... (Score:2)
Even if this were to be true, which it is not, do tell us Mr Barr whether this is better or worse than colluding with the Russian government to become a well-known and apparently wealthy game show host and later President of the USA?
Inquiring minds want to know.
um, who did that? (Score:2)
You cannot possibly be implying Trump, can you... because that would be very dishonest. The Meuller team, which consisted entirely of hand-picked Democrat lawyers nearly all tied to the Obama admin or the Hillary campaign, spent years chasing that myth and ultimately reported officially that no American colluded with Russia - Not Trump, nor his family, nor anybody on his campaign, nor anybody in his administration - NO American.
It's right there in the official report.
Oh, and if that's not good enough then
Re: um, who did that? (Score:2)
"We have all the money we need, coming out of Russia." -- somebody named Trump
In retrospect it was pretty silly to think that one Republican could be trusted to investigate another, so you certainly have a point there.
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The context is as clear as day [foreignpolicy.com]. After a colossal string of bankruptcies, no US financial institutions would give Trump a free toaster for opening a checking account, much less any more loans.
CCC requirements (Score:5, Interesting)
Of course we all thought it was ridiculous given the amount of IP theft and counterfeiting happening in China at the time.
What's my point? Even spending $30-50k every couple of years was beneficial to do business in China. American capitalism favors profit above all else... so it's really ironic that a puppet AG for an extremely conservative president is complaining about certain industries complying with local laws in order to do business. Now I wish these companies would grow a pair and simply cut China off.. but that's not going to happen as long as there is profit to be made. Hurray for American capitalism!
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they'd send over a government official over to a manufacturing facility in the US
This is known as pre-shipment inspections [proqc.com] and it is a standard practice in international trade. Different countries can set different laws on how that can be done. For U.S. customers, these are typically done by the (large) importers such as Apple or GM. But why is it any different than custom official inspecting your shipment at the port? Besides, the US also mandates their own cross border inspections [proqc.com] for various causes. In fact, the US even has USDA field offices [usda.gov] in China. Maybe it is better for the Chin
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Like I said, it's been around 15 years since I was involved. The process and requirements may not be the same anymore. All I know is that at the beginning
You've got about five years (Score:5, Interesting)
China has more money than the USA, more power, more people, more global influence, more presence in other countries these days, more stability, and more control of its population. And like this article says, China thinks in decades not days.
The USA has a culture of "we're the best". But over the next five years, you're going to need to choose a course.
Your first option is to fight China. They're only better than you if they defeat you right? It would seem that you're trying that tactic now. It would seem like you're losing. How will the USA culture change once you've been proven to be not-the-best?
Your second option is to ally with China. They're better, you want better friends. I can't imagine you'd take that approach. How would the USA culture change if you just submit to the better nation?
Of course, your third "option" is to do nothing and watch the world choose your course for you. That choice will likely be abject redundancy. That means "poor", by the way. And that's consistent with what we're seeing these days -- lots of very wealthy and powerful americans, lording over the unwashed masses -- just like any poverty-stricken, unstable nation, run by gangs, criminals, dictators, hate, and fear.
Vote carefully, but know that unless your government actually makes the right decisions, you're basically giving your vote to the rest of the world. I can't imagine you'd prefer that.
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That's quite interesting, analyzing the GDP as you've done. I'm curious about one thing though.
Does the $10k per person include the payments being received from the USA? And does the $65k per person include the same payments being made by the USA?
Given that China's population is far larger than the USA, and that the USA is literally paying China in hard dollars, I'd want to ensure that we're comparing economies equally.
Do your GDP numbers consider national debts and collections?
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While I'm very happy that the US is a great place to live (contrary to what you read on the Internet) and by far the best place for me to live, I applaud other countries moving towards or achieving parity.
Our problems stem from the very high degree of freedom we cherish. Freedom is a double edged sword and does not always lead to ideal
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Your second option is to ally with China.
This was what the US was doing in the 1970s and 1980s when the US dumped Taiwan ROC and befriended the "communist"/PRC, but not because the US was afraid of China or wanted to change China for the goodness of the Chinese people. The US did that because they couldn't win against then the number two superpower -- the Soviet Union. China developed the nuclear weapons by then and, in the game of the Romance of Three Kingdoms [wikipedia.org], two will unite against the third. There is not much different today except China has a
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So back to my point then. What does that mean for the USA's culture of "we're number 1!"?
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China doesn't want friends they want vassals. Which is why they will end up alone ... or with small band of "friends" like North Korea, Russia and Iran. Good luck with that.
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I have a hard time with "median income" being a valid measure in the USA. Costs of living are far higher in the USA than in most first-world countries. Even higher is the rainy-day fund necessary to secure your family in foreseeable hard times.
In my country, a savings account of zero dollars doesn't risk your family's health at all. Food is free, healthcare is free. Our building standards are (by some measures) so ridiculously high that any home-like shelter is going to be adequate for your family's sur
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I think you're massively underestimating the benefits of waging war. We're long-past the era where war benefits the victors.
Victors used to get spoils. They used to conquer lands and peoples. They would then have more land and more people.
That's no longer the case.
Today, if you wage ware on Russia, and let's say you win (you won't, because China's closer to Russia than you are), then you will have spent a few trillion dollars to hurt Russia. Russia will suffer a lot. You will suffer a little -- just ca
The con artist should go first (Score:2)
If the con artist is so upset about China and its actions, then perhaps the con artist should stop having his name brand clothes made in China.
Perhaps he and his corrupt family should stop trying to get trademarks approved in China.
Perhaps he should stop doing business with the Bank of China.
Perhaps he should stop hiring Chinese companies to work on his failed golf courses.
Perhaps the con artist should lead by example.
Then again, as we're seeing with the covid-19 pandemic, leadership is the last thing, next
I'm not sure I understand the problem (Score:2)
We have to follow their rules and laws if we want to do business there.
I had expected Republican leadership to remove impediments for doing legal business. Oh well...
Outsourcing (Score:3)
We outsourced pretty much all manufacturing to China, and they took advantage of this.
Unlike other poorer countries where you were allowed to build your own factory and use cheap labor, China only allowed partnerships. You would need to have a 51% Chinese partner, and you would need to teach how everything worked. Over time they were building the factories, tools, and even the products themselves directly, and US was left behind.
It only took US 40 years to recognize what was going on. I estimate we could come up with a coherent response in the next 5-6 decades or so...
Walmart, Wall Street and more (Score:2)
Numerous US companies are linked to China. Any major retailer and the majority of manufacturers and many of the major financial/Wall Street firms.
But Barr picks the industries that are perceived to be on the left to bash.
Well no shit Sherlock (Score:2)
well, tbh ... (Score:2)
Barr suggested that Apple iPhones "wouldn't be sold (in China) if they were impervious to penetration by Chinese authorities." He suggested American tech companies were imposing a "double standard."
... i never believed for a second that they actually were really impervious to penetration by us authorities.
this us nationalist frenzy is spreading and escalating really quickly.
btw, does mr barr also have a problem with free speech being violated in saudi arabia, or is that not considered a foreign dictatorship for some reason?
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Is Orange man paying him to say that as part of the Whitehouse "Yellow People Bad!" campaign?
I just saw a Youtube pre-roll ad saying Trump is subservient to China, and went easy on them during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. So, which is it?
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Which way is the wind blowing?
Re: Lost in translation (Score:2)
I just saw a Youtube pre-roll ad saying Trump is subservient to China, and went easy on them during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. So, which is it?
Is that why our AG is half-assed trying to guilt companies into pulling out of the Chinese market instead of enacting penalties for doing business with China? They want something like the Cuban embargo without the going through the effort of passing legislation? Why are they seriously asking for help here, unless their hands were tied diplomatically.
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Wars need a propaganda build up and a casus belli to get started, so do cold wars. What's the point in introducing legislation when it will just get stuck in commission with the media not talking about it? If you want to get something passed in a short time frame against the wishes of powerful behind the scene forces, it needs massive support to the point that the commissions have no choice to pass it or face extreme backlash and loss of power.
Or it could just be his personal opinion.
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He's trying to do to them what Trump and various Republicans have been doing off and on to journalists ever since Spiro Agnew: paint them as the enemy. You should only get your news and spoon-fed opinions from trusted sources, and Hollywood is just another part of the mainstream / left-wing / jewish conspiracy which can't be trusted by go
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Basically, this is an Administration that talks a lot, but really doesn't have a sufficiently coherent policy on China to even enact anything. The naval policy in the South China Sea is the invention of previous Administrations. In fact, the whole idea of containing China was largely dreamed up by the Obama Administration, which formulated the Trans-Pacific Partnership as part of a general strategy to firm up and enlarge the pro-US alliance in the Pacific region specifically to force China to the table by c
Re: Lost in translation (Score:2)
Well, yeah.
Trump does essentially want to not do.any business with China whatsoever, but can't say it in one go. So this is the start of your slippery slope.
I don't know where it ends, and he may half-ass it or quietly forget it again, but interestingly, this reminds me of when China quickly closed itself off from the rest of the world in the 13th century.
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this reminds me of when China quickly closed itself off from the rest of the world in the 13th century.
I remember that, too. Terrible business move.
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political correctness is such a bore
Invented by the communists and now effectively used to stop any free thinking unless its left think https://www.britannica.com/top... [britannica.com]
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You can still use the word blacklist. It is not racist.
You should avoid using the word redline / redlined / redlining.
Re:Red Scare 2.0 (Score:4, Interesting)
That's kind of AG Barr's point - there already IS a Hollywood Blacklist; it's just from Hollywood, and blacklists those who do not toe the accepted political position line, nor that as demanded by the Chinese Government [nytimes.com]. When you kow-tow to a power that has no regard for freedom of speech, you end up blacklisting lots of people and banning ideas. No US Government interference needed.
PS: Can we say "blacklist", shouldn't we say "denylist" or "imperialist capitalist pig list"?
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That's kind of AG Barr's point - there already IS a Hollywood Blacklist; it's just from Hollywood, and blacklists those who do not toe the accepted political position line, nor that as demanded by the Chinese Government [nytimes.com]. When you kow-tow to a power that has no regard for freedom of speech, you end up blacklisting lots of people and banning ideas. No US Government interference needed.
PS: Can we say "blacklist", shouldn't we say "denylist" or "imperialist capitalist pig list"?
So basically what you are saying is that Hollywood is blacklisting those who do not toe the accepted political position line of the Chinese Communist party and you, Barr and DJT think that's unfair because Hollywood should be blacklisting those who do not toe your, Barr's and DJT's political position line instead? ... it being obvious of course, that you three are the only wellspring of acceptable political opinion in the universe?
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So basically what you are saying is that Hollywood is blacklisting those who do not toe the accepted political position line of the Chinese Communist party and you, Barr and DJT think that's unfair because Hollywood should be blacklisting those who do not toe your, Barr's and DJT's political position line instead?
Nice strawman! The first part is correct; the second you made up completely, to try to push an agenda/viewpoint. Faux outrage over "Hollywood Blacklist!" while ignoring Hollywood's own INTERNAL blacklist - driven by the CCP - is pretty darn hypocritical, and - dare I say - downright evil.
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So basically what you are saying is that Hollywood is blacklisting those who do not toe the accepted political position line of the Chinese Communist party and you, Barr and DJT think that's unfair because Hollywood should be blacklisting those who do not toe your, Barr's and DJT's political position line instead?
Nice strawman! The first part is correct; the second you made up completely, to try to push an agenda/viewpoint. Faux outrage over "Hollywood Blacklist!" while ignoring Hollywood's own INTERNAL blacklist - driven by the CCP - is pretty darn hypocritical, and - dare I say - downright evil.
No this really is all about you and your ultra right wing friends being pissed at Hollywood for toeing the line of the Chinese govt and leaving things out of their movies the Chinese govt and consumer does not like while steadfastly refusing to shower DJT with mindless adulation. Basically you hate Hollywood for thinking for itself, concluding DJT is colossal moron and saying it out loud.
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Because you're bringing up logical flaws with your reference of the "straw man", it should also be noted that correlation is not causation: just because the ideals being observed within "Hollywood" (whatever that actually means) happens to coincide with some talking points or policies of the Chinese Communist Party, doesn't mean that "Hollywood" (again, whatever that means) is taking orders or even suggestions from the Chinese Communist Party.
In the post-McCarthy era, it's usually good to show some evidence
Positions arent' equal (Score:2)
Communism is the single most-murderous school of thought known to humanity [reason.com]. Even the much-maligned Nazism is but a distant second.
So, yes, advancing the view of Communists — be that CCP, or BLM [nypost.com], or whoever — is not just "unfair", but wrong. Because, where that view prevails, there is murder for many — and economic misery for survivors.
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Foreign dictatorships have no right to speak in the US, not without notice anyway. If Hollywood censors at theor behest, you deserve a disclaimer at the beginning of your next Hollywood movie, "Warning. This movie was altered to censor according to a foreign dictatorial power, China."
Hollywood has free speech. But this is not free speech. It is foreign censorship of speech pretending to be free, so you don't notice the change.
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Of course the other way to look at this is: "if you want anyone in China to see this movie, and by 'see' I really mean 'pay for', then you should probably not piss off the Chinese government with your script."
Nobody is forcing producers of motion pictures to not have a scene of tanks driving over people in Tienanmen Square. Producers are choosing to do this, in order to expand their viewer market by a billion sets of eyeballs.
What's next, screaming and bitching because producers aren't glorifying cross bur
Re:Red Scare 2.0 (Score:5, Insightful)
Clint Eastwood has been working in Hollywood longer than many folks posting here, and haven't been denied work. Neither has John Malcovich or Robert Duvall. There may be some political bias in Hollywood, but the primary bias is profits. Plenty of actors of the "right" political alignment can't get work either, and it's mainly because the bean counters have decided their names won't sell movies. Let's face it, the real bias in Hollywood is age, beauty and sex. If your a male actor, and you keep yourself in reasonable shape, you can keep going for a long time. If you're a woman, you're often dead in the water by your mid-40s. There are exceptions, but those exceptions are usually actors of such significant renown, or more wisely, like Clint Eastwood and Robert Redford, have their own production companies and act as their own executive producers, and thus have a helluva lot more clout when they go out looking for cash to make a film.
As to editing films for various markets, that's been going on for decades. China may be the most visible form of that, but producers are also mindful of countries like Malaysia, Singapore and the like where domestic censorship and decency laws means they often have to recut films, sometimes redubbing lines, sometimes outright filming alternate scenes, just to get past the censor.
This all boils down to one thing. Hollywood has only one bias; and that's money. The same town that could produce an anti-establishment film like Easy Rider could pump out what could only be regarded as the greatest pro-war film ever made; Patton, and all within a few years of each other. And you know why? Because someone somewhere thought "I bet these films can make money".
If the likes of Vince Vaughan and Tim Allen have a problem, it's simply that no one is very interested in seeing their films (I feel bad about Allen, because, after all, he made Galaxy Quest, the best Star Trek movie ever made).
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Yeah, but what about Scott Baio, huh? You don't see him in any blockbuster oscar-winning Hollywood films. That's proof that there is a blacklist against conservatives, because otherwise Scott Baio would be playing Thor.
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I'm ever so grateful to Hollywood for crushing Baio's aspirations. I'm old enough to remember Joni Loves Chachi. In fact, I know there isn't a God, because a lightning bolt didn't kill Scott Baio on the evening of the premier. In a universe built on justice and good taste, he would have been as fried as bacon.
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"The Green Berets" starring John effn Wayne, 1968. 32 Million (still a commercial success). "Easy Rider" 1969 starry a host of lefties. 60 million. I'd like a side of toast.
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I'd argue it's largely because by the late 1960s, tastes had changed and Wayne wasn't the bankable name he'd been at the beginning of the decade. He was hardly the only star from his era to find his movies less palatable. Easy Rider, like Bonnie and Clyde, were part of a new wave of post-Contract Era movies that drew audiences, and more to the point, were often cheaper to make. It wasn't until the mid-70s, with films like Jaws and Star Wars, that you saw a shift back towards bigger productions.
Besides, Gree
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There is a difference between editing a movie for a different market and editing the original version of the film to appease a foreign government.
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It's only crap like Transformers that tries to appeal to China, and it does even worse to appeal to Americans. Every movie has some American military worship, loads of flags, and a family friendly rating.
Well apart from Bumblebee, that one was actually decent.
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Re: Red Scare 2.0 (Score:2)
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EXACTLY.
Surely nobody is ignorant enough to fall for this cold war style narrative anymore.
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Google does/has in fact worked with China on a restricted search engine.
Disney does, in fact. censor their films to the specification of China.
There is no argument here. These firms do everything Barr says they are.
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For the last quarter century Western governments have been bending over backwards encouraging Western investment in China (not to mention doing all they could to encourage Chinese firms to reciprocate). And, of course, all companies love a profit, that being the entire reason they exist, and China represents a glittering golden city with hundreds of millions of people wanting to consume Western products and services.
In the last decade, the US government, under both Obama and Trump, has began to sour towards
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The US did try to effect change in Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union. First of all, it swooped in to protect the Soviet-era nuclear stockpiles, out of fear that fissionable material or outright nukes themselves would end up in the wrong hands. It offered a helluva lot of financial and political support to Yeltsin, but even if Yeltsin had been twice the man he was, the economic collapse in the immediate post-Soviet era was too severe for there not to be a conservative takeover. And, of course, Yeltsi
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You racist. You think Venezuelans can't implement a social credit system to aid dictatorial control without help fro Chinese?
Oh, wait. [reuters.com]
Exporting dictatorship tools.
Aka Yellow Scare 3.0 (Score:2, Insightful)
Does anyone remember those posters from WW2, and the concentration camps for east-Asians?
Although now it just happens as a distraction, if things don't go well at home.
Tankies need their 50 Mao cents (Score:3)
"East-Asians"? That's a weird way to try to lump China and Japan together despite the fact that China was at war with Japan [wikipedia.org] back then.
It's also weird how you're more worried about non-existent concentration camps than the real Uighur concentration camps in China [npr.org], which various US companies are supporting by supporting China. What's up with
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You know that the Attorney General is not a functionary of Congress, right?
In fact, there's a great many members of Congress that would love nothing better than the removal of this AG from office, except maybe removing his boss from office at the same time.
Re: This is not how I envisioned the Internet in 2 (Score:2)
Are you trying to make people oppose the views you are spamming all the time?
Because that is what you are doing.
Please stop it. Let us agree with you!
Try posting normal replies/comments, and seamlessly work any bullet points in that fit the topic. Don't be repetitive. Learn from replies amd pondering, to impove the way you say it, so it fits with the mindsets of more people and becomes a better argument.
Oh, and regarding yelling to thousands of people every night, you need to watch this: https://youtu.be/XC [youtu.be]
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