Twitter Will Set Them Free

How profit-seeking businesses advance democratic principles in China

David Harsanyi | June 10, 2009

(Page 2 of 2)

Selling the 298 million Internet users in China sub-par American computers is the best way to advance our values. Even better, we won't have to "impose" a thing.

David Harsanyi is a columnist at The Denver Post and the author of Nanny State. Visit his Web site at www.DavidHarsanyi.com.

COPYRIGHT 2009 THE DENVER POST
DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.

Comments

|6.10.09 @ 12:02PM|#

Oh God not another Axel Rose thread. Can't that guy overdose already?

Xeones|6.10.09 @ 12:05PM|#

Oh God not another Axel Rose thread.

Awesome.

|6.10.09 @ 12:10PM|#

Just shut down the thread. No one is going to top John.

Seriously, shut it down and just walk away.

Warty|6.10.09 @ 12:19PM|#

Nothin' lasts forever, even cold November rain...

Warty|6.10.09 @ 12:20PM|#

Let's make this thread even worse and talk about how Rand al'Thor would have dealt with this porn filter.

Xeones|6.10.09 @ 12:23PM|#

Shut the fuck up, Warty.

|6.10.09 @ 12:29PM|#

Ya know, "Truth Porn" would be an awesome name for a blog.

|6.10.09 @ 12:37PM|#

...how Rand al'Thor would have dealt with this porn filter.

No sweat.

Warty|6.10.09 @ 12:38PM|#

The Light burn you, Xeones, you wool-headed man.

Jeff P|6.10.09 @ 12:41PM|#

And we diplomatically recognize this country because...?

Xeones|6.10.09 @ 12:43PM|#

And we diplomatically recognize this country because...?

...we owe them a fuck-ton of money?

Tomcat1066|6.10.09 @ 12:43PM|#

Gotta love the Asain Mail-order Bride banner ad in this one :)

EJM|6.10.09 @ 12:58PM|#

How about a free Dr Pepper for everyone who comments in this thread?

(This comment is not officially sanctioned by Dr Pepper Snapple Group or its bottlers and distributors.)

BTW, don't forget to check out Rebecca MacKinnon's blog for more.

|6.10.09 @ 12:59PM|#

This has been brought up before and I will bring it up again: The Chinese censor's task seems to be hopeless.

If the word 'freedom' is forbidden, couldn't the Chinese bloggers substitue 'fr33d0m' instead (or whatever the Chinese language equivilant is)?

|6.10.09 @ 1:10PM|#

"If the word 'freedom' is forbidden, couldn't the Chinese bloggers substitue 'fr33d0m' instead (or whatever the Chinese language equivilant is)?"

They use a sympbol for each word rather than a letter. You would have to substute another whole word for that to work.

|6.10.09 @ 1:37PM|#

"They use a sympbol for each word rather than a letter. You would have to substute another whole word for that to work."

I guess they can substitute ones that look similar.. like instead of 自由 "Freedom," 目油 "Eye Oil"

|6.10.09 @ 1:38PM|#

If you're gonna live in China, learn to speak English.

Gimlet|6.10.09 @ 1:50PM|#

"If you're gonna live in China, learn to speak English."

Your Kung Fu is most powerful Slackhopper.

Someone Who Doesn\'t Want to L|6.10.09 @ 2:12PM|#

Warty:

Let's make this thread even worse and talk about how Rand al'Thor would have dealt with this porn filter.

When your only tool is balefire, everything looks like a forsaken.

Rex Rhino|6.10.09 @ 2:20PM|#

Also, how can we complain about China wanting to censor the Internet, when virtually all western democratic governments are trying to legislate to do the same?

The only reason western democracies haven't been as successful as China, is the western democracies are run by lawyers and such, who are pretty clueless about the technology... while China is run by efficient technocrats with engineering degrees. European countries, as an example, have all banned a bunch of political topics from the internet, it is just that those politicians haven't the first clue what a "firewall" is in order to demand a national firewall.

Chinese internet censorship isn't because they are any less of a liberal society, it is simply because western politicians are no longer competent enough to run a proper police state.

Obama|6.10.09 @ 2:27PM|#

"western politicians are no longer competent enough to run a proper police state."

Yes we can!

Jonas|6.10.09 @ 7:48PM|#

Obviously Tomcat1066's comment is the most perspicacious.

Paul|6.10.09 @ 8:00PM|#

What's twitter?

Paul|6.10.09 @ 8:03PM|#

Chinese internet censorship isn't because they are any less of a liberal society, it is simply because western politicians are no longer competent enough to run a proper police state.

Very interesting perspective. I think you're on to something.

Cal Lipigian|6.10.09 @ 9:03PM|#

I guess they can substitute ones that look similar.. like instead of 自由 "Freedom," 目油 "Eye Oil"

No it's easier than that. For each Chinese characters, there are many that have the same pronunciation. Instead of Freedom, you could say "剚鱿" (erect cuttlefish) which sounds identical. There are 250 different combinations with this sound. If you allow the tone to be different, the number of combinations goes into the thousands.

|6.12.09 @ 11:56AM|#

This is why I'm ambivalent about "boycott Chinese Products!" movements: While I don't like the idea of my money being used to advance the communist Chinese government, I also know that money and technology do more to advance the cause of freedom worldwide than all the balloon-juice issued forth by all the politicians in the world.

d|6.12.09 @ 9:36PM|#

Can't they just wipe the Windoze off of their machines and install Linux? Ooops. Spy programmie gone. (Nothing against the corporation, which does excellent research; it's just that their OS happens to suck hard donkey balls.)

|6.14.09 @ 6:15PM|#

Wow. It took twenty-seven posts for some basement-dwelling Linux trendoid to chime in with oh-so-fashionable MS-bashing (psst: You forgot to spell it "M$"). That's pretty slow, in terms of Hipster Response Time; maybe a couple more cans of Rockstar are in order.

Mr Bill|6.19.09 @ 1:48PM|#

I support Microsoft as a company and hate the "anti-monopoly" action that has been taken against them...

But I agree that Windows is pretty lousy nowadays.