Here are a few stories that highlight the problem. I find this trend troubling as American companies seem to be willing to trade our freedom of speech for their financial gain. After all who is pushing the ‘Culture Wars’ really?
Is it the government? Not really, it’s companies who seek to benefit the most by exploiting and creating outrage and anger. Cashing in on people’s fears and the keyboard warriors of the world creating click-bait in order to feel mad and compelled to respond. Distilling and filtering our information to keep us on track to hate each other for no reason.
Is this a symptom or a cause? It’s hard to know at this juncture but it isn’t good. Someone is laughing all the way to the bank at our expense. Look at Hong Kong, now think about these stories and a picture begins to emerge…
From the story: "“We apologize,” Rockets star James Harden said in Japan on Monday. “We love China. We love playing there. I know for both of us individually we go there once or twice a year. They show us the most support and love. So we appreciate them as a fan base and we love everything they’re about and we appreciate the support that they give us individually and as an organization.”
Apologize for supporting Hong Kong’s autonomy and freedom struggles? WTF?
There’s more, if you want to find it. It’s a little understandable that China would be doing this, after all they are an abominable communist state looking towards it’s self interest. But American companies selling our souls to make an extra buck and us being none the wiser should scare the hell out of us.
I have been saying for many years that we should tell China to go to hell. We can get any number of countries to make plastic toys for us and they won’t steal our intellectual property. Africa, for example, is ripe for investment. China saw it and is forcing its way in. I am sure many of those countries would rather deal with us. But, it may be too late.
I agree with almost all of your post but this. The time to tell China to go to hell was 3 DECADES ago, when corporate America began to go all in against unions and organized labor and CHEAP LABOR HOOOOOO
If the trade war we’re currently being decimated in, we’ve shown we can’t exert force at our leisure over China anymore.
Definitely too late. The GOP is currently bought into Trump’s nationalism thing, so pouring hundreds of billions into another 3rd world country (that very well one day become China lite) isn’t really viable.
And obviously the Dems aren’t going to support more outsourcing either. They’re too busy failing at reigning in corporate runaway greed.
I don’t think it’s too late for American investment into Africa. I spoke to an African businessman from Ethiopia says they welcome and in fact are begging for American investment. They hate China because roads and infrastructure is not all China exports. They export communism with it. A competative American market can bring African countries to the table.
It’s not about exporting jobs, but importing natural resources Africa has tons of. African countries are dealing with China under threat and lack of options. I say let’s give them options.
Main point is to cut China out of the global economy. Cut them off at the knees. And when the tariffs end, there is nobody who even wants to do business with them. That’s my hope.
With how completely unstable 90% of the continent is (not to mention corrupt), the ability to get raw goods out of Africa in a way that doesn’t murder your share price from the bad PR is very difficult.
I genuinely think the idea is good. The reason American companies haven’t done it is because it’s not a smart economic move given the uncertainty of the entire region. China has the perk of doing it govt style through a collective govt/business push. That’s not something we can replicate imo.
That lack of options is important. Nobody has been keeping these fortune 500 companies out of Africa for raw goods. It’s just really difficult to do any work in the region relative to a more stable region like Asia.
Great concept, genuinely. But we needed to implement it 20 years ago. We’re being murdered in this trade war. It’s not about the dollar values exchanged when both sides just print money and ignore business consequences. It’s about public backlash forcing the hand of the weaker govt.
In a war of attrition where both sides print unlimited money, all President for life Xi has to do is wait Trump out.
Trump is pathetically weak when it comes to standing up to foreign powers. He insulted a basketball coach for not standing up to China, when it is shown that Trump promised Winnie the Pooh that he would stay quiet about Hong Kong’s fight for democracy.
America’s supposed to be the big dog when it comes to world politics.
Of course, I do enjoy watching people lije Steve Kerr squirm under the microscope on this issue when they have no problem taking a strong moral stand on safe issues that don’t affect the bottom line.
Why would we be we wiser? We voted for a person who said make America great again and yet had China make most of his products.
Big business selling their souls to make an extra buck is what they’ve always done. I mean fuck China isn’t something I’m disagreeing on but when your country is based on worshipping profit at all costs it’s not surprising.
Self preservation is how I view it. Talks came out quite quickly that Morey would possibly be fired for his comments. I’m guessing most of us would act the same as Kerr if our million dollar jobs may be on the line for agreeing with a colleagues comments.
I’m quite sure initially at least the NBA made it clear that shutting the fuck up would be the thing to do for the NBA.
I already pointed it out. Haven’t you seen the difference in the treatment when people call out China? Daryl Morey wouldn’t have been in jeopardy for criticizing a US policy because the US isn’t going to can the NBA for his criticism. And therefore he won’t be in danger of losing his job for speaking his mind.
It seems as if you don’t like the things Kerr has previously said (which is fine) and think it’s weird that he is tip toeing here. I was just saying a reason exists why they are all tiptoeing now.
I’m not saying that makes any of it right but I think we’re lying to ourselves if we think we’d all stand up and say something about a potential injustice even if it may cost us our job.
I’m not saying all or most people should or would.
I’m saying Steve Kerr is a coward. He was highly outspoken and quick to judge large swaths of people when doing so was convenient. Now he’s got nothing to say. He’s towing the line of a totalitarian regime rife with human rights abuses that far exceed anything he’s felt the urge to passionately comment on in the past.
Many millions beyond those he already has are to be made inside a totalitarian country, after all.
And I’m saying I think the vast majority of people shut the fuck up when they have a good job and know they need to shut the fuck up. Kerr’s not an idiot he knows the difference in situations. All these people do. Coward or not I don’t know or care, but it’s not even a little surprising. I’m guessing the vast majority of people would do the same thing. Again it seems as if you don’t like the things he has previously said and therefore have a bit more venom for this. Had he previously said things you agree with I doubt you’d feel the same.
Kerr himself probably sees little profit from the future of the NBA in China. This is about the brand and the real big money in the NBA the owners. Kerr’s not even remotely higher up when it comes to who has the coin from b-ball. He makes less than a lot of people in the Warriors.
It doesn’t mean I need to give a pass on behavior I find repugnant. I know I don’t matter to Steve Kerr, but he doesn’t matter to me, either, aside from a few big shots he made when I was a teenager.
Oh I’m not saying you do. But I would keep in mind that it’s not Steve Kerr telling everyone to shut up. It’s the ultra rich NBA owners who are doing it. He’s just following what the bosses say like everyone else in the NBA.
My issue with Kerr isn’t that he’s doing business with China, per se. I do business with China. I have to. There’s no other competitive option for what I’m a part of. We keep everything we can in the USA and local, but we inevitably end up funneling money to China somehow.
My issue with Kerr is his willingness to cast judgment and scorn upon his countrymen while loudly virtue-signalling opinions at every opportunity, so long as they carried little risk. I can understand being passionate about something. I can understand having convictions. I can understand being outspoken about them.
I can’t understand shelving those convictions and those passions just because it is convenient. I can understand shelving them better if you’re talking about survival, but this is no such situation.
I’m not angry. I just think Kerr is a coward who doesn’t really believe any of the shit he’s spouted off publicly. I think most of our loudest public voices fit this bill. He won’t stand behind his own words when it is merely an inconvenience for him.
I can understand these kind of compromises if we’re talking about survival or the difference between caring for your children or living in poverty, but not for whatever likely dilemma Mr. Kerr is presently facing.
Trump does all kinds of stupid shit, but he’s taken enough unpopular opinions out of… well, who the fuck knows why he takes the stands that he does? Convictions, narcissism, personal motives, misplaced ideas about governance, good ideas about governance? I don’t know. I don’t follow the news all that close.
The point is that Trump will at least take a stand on something even when it’s not popular. That’s not a totality of judgment on the man, but you can at least give him credit for not being cowardly in that particular way.