China Is Key

Published at 09:11 on 29 January 2025

China is probably key to halting this global rise in fascism. When will the world realize it? When will China realize it?

I think, in some sense, China already has realized it, but has chosen to word it all very diplomatically… for now. They don’t want to pick fights needlessly or prematurely.

Yes, China is a nasty dictatorship, with approximately zero interest in directly advancing the cause of freedom. But, per the link in the previous paragraph, it is a dictatorship that values stability and the international system, which is more than one can say for today’s USA. Plus, like every nation, China wants greater power and influence for itself.

The part about valuing stability and an international framework is important. It gives other nations something more than “USA #1, suck it, losers!” does. Sure, China is going to advocate an international framework rigged to China’s advantage. But it’s still a framework. There will still be commitment to it. This is still better for the rest of the world.

As such, good old-fashioned self-interest will motivate most of the rest of the world to prefer the Chinese option. This is precisely the sort of soft power that for decades led nations to opt for a framework dominated by the USA, despite that framework being rigged to the USA’s advantage.

In short: China understands soft power. The USA no longer does. This can be expected to work in China’s favour over the long run.

The old American empire is not coming back, either. U.S. allies could wave off Trump I as a one-off anomaly; Trump himself didn’t have any idea how powerful the presidency was, or have a very good idea of what to do with that power. Trump II knows both, and so far as U.S. allies go, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”

Plus, so far as the rest of the world goes, it always makes sense to not put all of one’s eggs in a single basket. In a world with two roughly comparable major powers (which is what it will soon be), national freedom of action is often best maximized by playing one power off another.

Europe is slowly getting over its post-World War II aversion to power, but too slowly to become the major power it might be any time soon. Plus, Europe has its own fascism problem.

So, for the medium term, China versus the USA it is. And China probably has the upper hand.

New Mouse

Published at 15:36 on 19 January 2025

Notice that it’s an old-fashioned corded one. “I wish mice didn’t have cords” is a thought that has passed through my mind exactly never. Bluetooth mice struck me as a stupid idea a dozen years ago, and they strike me as a stupid idea today.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that they still made old-fashioned corded mice, given how long Bluetooth ones have been around. I guess it goes to show that I am not the only corded mouse diehard out there. Maybe I should have purchased a second one just in case the market decides to make wireless mice mandatory before this one dies, but I have enough of an issue with accumulating clutter as it is.

As for keyboards and mice, so for phone headsets, but double or treble.

Again, use Bluetooth and they become battery-dependant. They lose a convenient leash that keeps both earbuds paired with each other, and which makes the whole headset significantly larger and easier to find. I just know I’d be losing headsets, running into dead batteries, and ending up with singleton earbuds if I was stupid enough to buy into the Bluetooth hype.

Furthermore, a huge part of my reason for preferring to use a headset on the phone is to get the phone’s antenna away from my skull. No, there is no definite evidence that low-power microwaves are harmful to the brain, but given that it is so easy to drastically reduce my exposure (thank you, inverse square law), why shouldn’t I?

A long time ago, I worked in the nuclear industry, and they have a policy called ALARA which means as low as reasonably achievable. A canonical example, on posters throughout my workplace, showed a worker tasked with moving a low-level radioactive item from one place to another. A cart was available, and using it meant one could put the item on the far end of the cart and wheel it to its destination, instead of carrying it against one’s body. Moral of the story: use the cart. Always do everything you can to minimize your exposure.

Well, Bluetooth uses radio waves to do its thing, which makes Bluetooth headsets a whole lot less useful for reducing RF exposure, since each earbud has a tiny radio transmitter in it.

And then we have bluetooth pairing, needed to prevent unauthorized devices from connecting to one’s computer. Sometimes this ends up being a tremendous pain. For example, I have never had much luck pairing a smart phone with my desktop computer. I tried it, I thought it would be nifty to download images without using a USB cable. Spent most of an hour getting it to work, it worked for a while, then it stopped working. Blew another hour trying to get things working again, then gave up and used a USB cable (which, of course, worked perfectly). Ever since it’s been USB cable all the way.

Aside for some niche cases (such as keyboards for tablets, which have limited battery power and one or no USB ports), Bluetooth just doesn’t make sense, and comes across as the answer to the question: “How do we take perfectly fine wired connections and make them dramatically worse?”

The Reckoning is Coming

Published at 15:52 on 8 January 2025

The more I think about it, the more it becomes clear that Canada is going to face a reckoning in the next few months, and that most Canadians really have no idea of what is likely coming. It might completely reshape the political landscape before the coming Federal election can be held, it is that much of a reckoning.

The thorough rottenness of the American system is about to be laid bare, and it will become evident that Canadians as well as Americans have largely been living in ignorance of the full magnitude of this rottenness. This will send a real jolt through the Canadian political system.

If Canadians are willing to demonstrate to Trump that, as Jagmeet Singh recently said “If you want to pick a fight with us, it’s going to hurt you as well,” it is likely that Trump’s bluff will have been called. Trump is a classic bully, and bullies engage in bullying not because they are brave, but because they think they can get away with it.

Whatever the cost of standing up to the bullying, it will in the long run (and probably even in the medium run) end up being far cheaper than choosing to not stand up to the bully. It is not resistance but acquiescence that has the highest price attached to it.