• Frogmanfromlake [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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      9 days ago

      Shows why China needs better soft power. US can do everything worse than what China has ever done and you’ll still have people whining about social credit and Chinese lack of freedom

    • vegeta1 [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      8 days ago

      Power of propaganda. USA got the largest prison population, more military bases than the romans, sanctions that kill millions world wide, software that violates privacy and anonymity like nothing else, designates anti fasicsts and anti capitalists as terrorists, does racial profiling all the fucking time but will be on some dumb family guy gag about “bad countries”.

      • alexei_1917 [mirror/your pronouns]@hexbear.net
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        8 days ago

        I’m not sure whether you’re talking about government software used to spy on people, or about the ways US tech companies bundle spyware into their products for both enterprises and private households, but… yeah, that one’s a Problem.

        But hey, at least the combination of certain companies being utterly shameless about that stuff and the US being viewed as absolutely fucking batshit crazy on the global stage, is causing a lot of federal and regional governments outside the US to do software sovereignty initiatives and try to cut out proprietary software from US corporations, and as a Linux nerd who has a fascination with “Official State Distros”, that trend is really fucking cool to me.

        “Silver lining of US fascism in the digital age: Governments using a better operating system than horribly outdated versions of bad old Microshaft Winblows, lol!”

        • vegeta1 [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          8 days ago

          You know what? That is a silver lining tbh. Another that drives me up a wall is when whistleblowers expose this and they are used as proof of American transparency and praise the US still thats-why-im-confused This is masterclass in brainwashing.

          • alexei_1917 [mirror/your pronouns]@hexbear.net
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            8 days ago

            Funny, for me, that’s literally the most common one of these I’ve heard. Well, other than just “Winblows” on its own. Or the old “a computer is like air conditioning, useless once you open windows” from the pre 9x era. I’ve also heard it as “Microsuck Winblows” which is a good play on “sucks” and “blows”, but doesn’t quite lambast as hard that the company shafts the users of its products, which feels almost more relevant today than it was in '95 when, AFAIK, “Microshaft Winblows” started spreading around.