NONE of this Chinese malfeasance has been 'consensual' or about 'free trade'

Back in the days of their entry into the WTO, we _knew_ the Chinese Communist Party were literally thuggish peasant bandits in suits. Wiser heads knew they absolutely could not be trusted. Yet weak minds, including the Harvard MBA class got greedy little dollar signs in their eyes and thought they could make money. They were led like pigs to the slaughter by people who have never been anything but our adversaries.

The Chinese MSS and the Chinese Communist Party itself aren't even accountable to God.

They seem to have given themselves license to do what they like, but _God forbid_ they're called out for acting less-than-honourably.

Most adults around the world can associate actions and consequences. The incomprehension and entitlement here speaks volumes about the moral and emotional maturity of the Chinese Communist Party and their political system.

The CCP's intolerant, cruel and authoritarian nature is a direct threat to humanity in ways that Peter Thiel could barely imagine in his darkest dreams.

The lack of perspective on show here is astonishing. They are destroying trust with vital Western allies -- trust is gained in drops and lost in buckets -- and Lurch and his dodgy friends are clearly out of their element.

On one hand -- I read the opinion of one anonymous random on the internet posting a Russian-accented sneer, trotting out the usual Russian disinformation talking points, on one hand -- and the combined weight of decades of intelligence estimates of 50+ countries decrying the very real and serious hybrid warfare being waged by this out-of-control rogue state on the other.

So who should I believe? You tell me.

It takes a village to raise a child. It's all well and good for childless techbros to say "Raise your kids" properly, and be subject to the tender mercies of the tech giants, but we stand a fighting chance if parents, schools, child development specialists etc, rally to get some common-sense controls in place.

The internet is a free fire zone today. This needs to change, and techbros just saying "Be a better parent" is a lazy, cynical cop-out.

Zuckerberg apparently does the same.

What do the billionaires know that we don't?

This argument simply doesn't work.

It's silly to say "Get better at parenting", when parents who have no specialist training, are literally facing off against trillion-dollar companies with thousands of industrial psychologists and data scientists hell-bent on making their products as addictive and profitable as possible.

There are huge information- and power asymmetries at play here. Just shouting: "Parent your kids" better is simplistic, stupid and wrong IMHO.

We mustn't forget that the Russians claimed that the internet was created by the CIA to attack Russia and steal its resources -- after a Russian clairvoyant told Vladimir Putin she read Madeleine Albright's mind and said that the US is plotting to weaken Russia and "steal its resources". We also must not forget that Russia is corrupt from top to bottom, and that Russian intelligence and organised crime have effectively merged into a lawless juggernaut that threatens the entire civilised world.

Today, Russian information-warfare specialists and gangsters have turned the Western information space into a free-fire zone. And there is literally NOTHING we can do about it, because weak minds and fifth-columnists on our side demand we unilaterally disarm and NOT enforce mandatory strong ID for activity on the internet.

It's time to see this aggression for what it is.

There are some sly word games happening there.

Although to be fair, it does roll off the tongue better than "Project Jeff Wants Another Yacht".

Can you do better?

I do see this a lot from pro-Russian trolls arguing in bad faith -- and using dirty rhetorical tricks to do so. Please don't stoop to their level.