Quote:
Originally Posted by Fuzz
Are you suggesting people should trust the CCP? Because, you know, that's not a very good tactic. It's like, kind of a big thing they do.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_in_China
Also hilarious how "recognizing facts" is akin to "ideological bias". There is nothing wrong with being cautious around an adversary who regularly uses deception. |
I'm not really suggesting. I'm directly making the point that your statement "It's not really possible to over-react" is substantially misguided, to say the least. It basically says that when it comes to China, any reaction, no matter how extreme and disproportionate, is justifiable. Any rational and thinking person would recognize that's pretty dumb and that careful and measured responses should obviously always be what we hope for between the US and China.
Unfortunately, in this case we saw the negative impact of overreaction when a high-level diplomatic trip to improve relations was canceled and a tonne of public hysteria about the Yellow Peril was whipped up over a balloon that wasn't even collecting any data. It was basically nothing. The overreaction to it has made relations worse. That's a bad thing.
Also, if anything is hilarious, it's deflecting to "China lies" in response to early media hype around unsubstantiated 'facts'. Of course China lies. So does the US. So does Canada. Every country lies. But this incident looks like the media grabbing a story and building a fear narrative because the real facts aren't as exciting. This narrative has been so effective that terms like "spy balloons" are now being thrown around by politicians in both the US and Canada, leveraging this fear narrative for their own interests - another negative consequence of overreaction.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Coach
In fairness to JohnnyB, the Pentagon also said it wasn't doing anything.
Both historically reliable sources of truth, the CCP and the Pentagon.
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For sure, the Pentagon could be lying about it not having been recording anything, but why tell
that lie? I don't see the motive. It seems more likely that the reports at the time saying it was a balloon maybe sent near Guam which had then been blown way off course into the US are more credible. Biden has also recently said the Chinese government was embarrassed because they didn't even know it was there. Now the Pentagon is saying it wasn't even recording over the US. Maybe they are lying now, but it sure looks like the most likely explanation, just the most boring narrative and one without any utility in getting either ratings or political support as compared to talking about "CCP Spy Balloons!"