This is SUPER fucked up.
Gas Bandit's Political Thread V: The Vampire Likes Bats
- Thread starter GasBandit
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The World's Most Punchable Face is in trouble again.
Oh and they've been talking about using it like a credit score, basically making it so you can't get certain products, services, or JOBS if you don't have a large enough score. It's not like that at the moment, but Sesame Credit will become a mandatory program for all Chinese citizens by 2020.
China is gamifying patriotism among it's people with a program called Sesame Credit. This program does things like monitor all of your net traffick, lowering your score when you report on tragedies and corruption in the country unless it's from state sponsored sources, in which case it will raise your score. It examines all your social media activity and you get perks for towing the party line (or rather lose them if you don't)... but you can also lose them by being connected to people with low scores. It essentially makes being a "good citizen" a game but your actions can affect the people you know. They are hoping to use Sesame Credit to stem revolution by making it impossible to avoid punishing your family for your actions.
Oh and they've been talking about using it like a credit score, basically making it so you can't get certain products, services, or JOBS if you don't have a large enough score. It's not like that at the moment, but Sesame Credit will become a mandatory program for all Chinese citizens by 2020.
Problematic, but highly effective and intelligent. Gamifying household chores for XP was already a thing and I know some employers are moving towards similar systems to incentivize working late, doing things by the book, etc. It only makes sense. Games, especially mobile ones, have shown how easy it is to make people want to be part of a skinner box experiment.
Imagine if Big Brother put out a social media game.
Insurance companies do it too ("What is YOUR step count today?") but they also offer you rebates if you walk enough. This does the opposite: makes patriotism (or at least obedience) a REQUIREMENT for a sustainable life. You won't be able to buy certain things without a alarge enough score. You won't be able to get into certain schools if you or your parents don't have a large enough score. And you can be denied opportunity by a low score.
I used to think the Communist government of China was in it's last age before forming a new government but now I'm forced to consider that system might be fascism.
I've always had a hard time recognizing the practical differences between the two.
There was a "social experiment" type reality tv show on here this season, called "Dictator" - a bunch of young people willingly subject themselves to the rules of a dictatorship, and the one who best "plays along" and/or rats out the others, and whatever, won. There was an accompanying mobile app game. The tag line was "Do you want to experience life in a dictatorship too?". It was one of the most popular games in Belgium in the past months. I don't understand why anyone would want to live in a dictatorship. And in case you're wondering, part of the game was, indeed, things like "you must wear blue pants today" or "you must comb your hair on the left side today", and you could "report" other players who didn't follow the rules.
I could see Chinese playing along with it, if only to gain benefit, but its not going to produce some generation of loyal citizens. It'll probably be, and likely already is, being mercilessly mocked. Let's not also forgot the truly massive amount of people going to and from abroad, and it's increasingly harder for the CCP to control public opinion. Maybe this is one of their methods to try and plug that particular hole in the dam.
That being said, here's another lesson kids, why you don't want to hand over to much power to the government lest you allow them to do shit like this.
That being said, here's another lesson kids, why you don't want to hand over to much power to the government lest you allow them to do shit like this.
Roleplaying is fun. Deriving enjoyment from obedience to an external authority is not an uncommon personality trait. Having additional in-groups feels great, even if membership threshold is low.
Reminds me of this SMBC comic
Having worked with a bunch of companies in China, as horrifying a step as that system appears to be, all it is actually doing is putting a publicly-visible social layer on top of a system that already existed.
The very, very first thing I was told by Chinese companies was that US/EU-style business networking did not work in China because social convention frowns down on you if you make the wrong connections at all, regardless of the right ones. In the US/EU, no one cares if you did a project with Joe from ThisCompanySucks, LLC if you did more projects with Amy from WeRockAllTheTime, Inc. In China, just the association with Joe will sink you, regardless of the work you did with Amy.
The same thing exists for social connections, and has for decades.
All this really does is push the existing social peer pressures for this system more in to the open and less obviously on the government. At core, it's the same game as usual, this version is just probably somewhat more energy efficient and precise.
Is it bad and a bit Orwellian? Oh, hell yeah, it's fucked up. But on a practical level, like @Terrik said, this is something that will be privately mocked by pretty much everyone, and (if the behavior of Chinese mobile gamers is anything to go by) work-arounds and exploits will become things of legend among social circles and easily applied.
The very, very first thing I was told by Chinese companies was that US/EU-style business networking did not work in China because social convention frowns down on you if you make the wrong connections at all, regardless of the right ones. In the US/EU, no one cares if you did a project with Joe from ThisCompanySucks, LLC if you did more projects with Amy from WeRockAllTheTime, Inc. In China, just the association with Joe will sink you, regardless of the work you did with Amy.
The same thing exists for social connections, and has for decades.
All this really does is push the existing social peer pressures for this system more in to the open and less obviously on the government. At core, it's the same game as usual, this version is just probably somewhat more energy efficient and precise.
Is it bad and a bit Orwellian? Oh, hell yeah, it's fucked up. But on a practical level, like @Terrik said, this is something that will be privately mocked by pretty much everyone, and (if the behavior of Chinese mobile gamers is anything to go by) work-arounds and exploits will become things of legend among social circles and easily applied.
GasBandit
Staff member
Yeah, I'd be curious to get her take as well. I heard from her a little under a month ago. She's "relatively OK" and wishes she was back.
GasBandit
Staff member
Seems kind of pointless to be arguing about 10,000 Syrian refugees when 100,000 Syrians have already come to the US since 2012.
Well that's good to know at any rate. I was going to ask next time we talked on Vent or Steam.
Lawyer for Martin Shkreli hikes fees five thousand percent in wake of his securities fraud troubles.
You would know, Punchy. You would know.
Oh I know. But it's fun to think of none the less. I sometimes wish we had a political humor thread for this kind of thing.
[Picture of Fry, his eyes narrowed]
[Shaka, When the Walls Fell]
So yesterday's DNC kerfuffle was supposed to be a major blow to the Sanders campaign, but it seems to have backfired ATROCIOUSLY and damaged the Democratic National Committee's standing and especially Hillary's campaign.
Here's the short version:
On the other hand, the Sanders campaign fired Josh Uretsky, their national data director, for accessing the Hillary campaign files improperly. Uretsky claims that he was investigating the extent of the gap of security but data logs show that he and his team were able to run numerous searches on Hillary's collected campaign data, including levels of support of probable voters. Apparently the data was organized rating voter support on a scale from 1-100, and Uretsky's team did searches on voters rated 60+ (indicating very strong Hillary supporters unlikely to vote for Bernie) and >30 (indicating weak supporters who might be very open to Bernie). The data logs are here: http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2015/images/12/18/merged_document.pdf
The end result has been a further boost of support for Sanders and an erosion of support among establishment Democrats. In the past 24 hours, over 250,000 people have donated to support the Sanders campaign.
Here's the short version:
- The Sanders campaign finds a flaw in the security of the campaign data, leaving both the Sanders and the Clinton campaigns' files accessible, and reports it to the DNC. Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver claims that their concerns about security go back to October. "We were very concerned that large amounts of our own data was being downloaded and we contacted the DNC to remedy the situation," he said. "We talked to them and we were assured that this was going to be taken care of. But apparently they are not competent in terms of maintaining the security of their data between the campaigns."
- The data file software in question was created by NGP VAN, whose CEO, Stu Trevelyan, worked on the 1992 Clinton-Gore campaign and was a staff member of the Clinton White House. He is considered to be a close personal friend to the Clintons, and he has been openly supporting her current campaign.
- NGP VAN's VP, Creative & Marketing, is Aharon Wasserman. Wasserman was part of the 2008 Obama campaign, during which he became frustrated with the cumbersome task of tallying voter registration and tracking campaign data. He, and fellow volunteers Justin Lewis and Edward Saatchi, developed a software system called NationalField in order to more easily coordinate campaign data and communication between teams. Wasserman was the president and CPO of NationalField until it was acquired by NGP VAN in 2014.
- The DNC, headed by Debbie Wasserman-Schulz, accuses the Sanders campaign of breaching the firewall protecting the Clinton campaign data and revokes his access to the DNC's national voter database, which identifies registered voters and polled supporters.
Without access to this information, it is far more difficult to organize an on-the-ground campaign in the few weeks left before the primary. This database is supposed to be available to all Democratic candidates. Wasserman-Schulz demands proof that the Sanders campaign "doesn't have their data".Debbie Wasserman-Schultz said:
Sanders files suit against the DNC for blocking him from this information. Taking this to court would almost certainly involve a full audit of both campaigns data as well as NGP VAN's software security.- The DNC *immediately* restores the Sanders campaigns' access to the voter database.
On the other hand, the Sanders campaign fired Josh Uretsky, their national data director, for accessing the Hillary campaign files improperly. Uretsky claims that he was investigating the extent of the gap of security but data logs show that he and his team were able to run numerous searches on Hillary's collected campaign data, including levels of support of probable voters. Apparently the data was organized rating voter support on a scale from 1-100, and Uretsky's team did searches on voters rated 60+ (indicating very strong Hillary supporters unlikely to vote for Bernie) and >30 (indicating weak supporters who might be very open to Bernie). The data logs are here: http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2015/images/12/18/merged_document.pdf
The end result has been a further boost of support for Sanders and an erosion of support among establishment Democrats. In the past 24 hours, over 250,000 people have donated to support the Sanders campaign.
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While we'll never be completely sure if the Sanders campaign ends up using the data downloaded, the fact that the DNC backed off so quick makes it clear that they are ether liable for the security breech or engineered it on behalf of Hillary and they aren't sure if there is paper to that effect.
that version wasn't short at all
If 6 bullet points isn't short and condensed enough for someone supposedly interested in politics, I fear for the future of our nations. An elaborate explanation with all links and points would be 20 pages.
I've already read all the long versions, I was just ribbing.
It turns out that part of the reason for the lawsuit was that the DNC violated its own rules regarding access. Essentially, in a contract between the DNC and Sanders campaign, if either party feels there has been improper access, a formal warning is required before taking action, and the party at fault is supposed to have 10 days to address the problem. The DNC, instead, while being responsible for NGP VAN and its security software, revoked the Sanders campaign's access after essentially 1 day, not 10. Between jumping the gun to smear the Sanders campaign and breaking their own rules, it is very clear that the DNC is acting as an arm of the Hillary campaign, not an impartial body.