Originally published at: An owner of the Golden State Warriors claims "no one cares about the Uyghur Muslims" | Boing Boing
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They didn’t care with the still ongoing genocide of the Rohingya in Myanmar. They didn’t care when it happened in Rwanda in 1994. They didn’t care when it was happening in Nazi-occupied Europe.
People not caring makes these kinds of tragedies possible, and the perpetrators know it. China would not be doing this if they believed that the world cared enough to hold them accountable.
History needs to know that there are people who care so that history will not forget. Otherwise, these tragedies will continue until there is no more history at all.
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I’m utterly shocked that an early facebook executive(allegedly regarded as a ‘bully’ even in that context) and venture capitalist/SPAC enthusiast would be a raging asshole.
What’s extra impressive is not even blinking when you yourself grew up in Canada, rather than getting to enjoy the Sri Lankan Civil War; because apparently some people do take humanitarian considerations into account.
I know that it’s traditional to pull the ladder up after you; but still.
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I feel the need to add the entire nation of Tibet to this list. Carry on…
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Humanitarian of the year he is not, but asshole of the year he’s running in the top 5.
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I think he’s just trying to appeal to racist basketball fans in China with those comments 
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He’s an asshole, but sadly he’s not as wrong as I wish he was.
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A similar situation is emerging in the golf world…I know, I know, it’s just golf, but still. Saudi Arabia is desperate to rehabilitate its image by hosting the world’s best golfers at a significant event and the same situation is developing.
There are wealthy golf pros who say, “I want to compete against the best golfers in the world, and I don’t take political stances that get in the way of that.” Others say, “I would not have played in a tournament in South Africa during apartheid, so I won’t play in SA while it butchers journalists and oppresses women.”
My sympathies lie with the latter. And Chamath may be right about the world ignoring the Uyghurs, but he is wrong about not caring.
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Big sporting events are to authoritarian regimes what museums are to the Sackler family. There’s also this year’s World Cup in Quatar and, of course, the Olympics from 1936 in the Reich to 2022 in the PRC.
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I mean - the reality is for most people/companies/nations, they will continue to do business with a sovereign nation that does bad things if they clearly benefit from it.
It is easy to not do business with Russia in America, their GDP is shit. Other than cheap steel cased ammo and nesting dolls, what else do they export that Americans want? But Europe has to deal with Russia for their natural gas and oil. Same with Iran, easy to condemn them when they don’t have anything we want (other than oil, but we can get enough from other places we don’t have to import from them.)
China we are tied to economically whether we like it not. And while we can tut tut them on internal policy, the truth is, we won’t do anything about it. Some don’t like the instability with the recent tariffs under Trump (did those get largely repealed?) and moved some manufacture to other countries, but that won’t happen for everything.
Just like everyone does business with the US despite our human rights issues we have internally and abroad.
So it would be nice if we lived up to principles, but at the end of the day we don’t. This guy is a total asshole for saying it so bluntly - but he is right. I “care”. I don’t like at all what China does to the Uyghurs and other marginalized groups in China. Or making celebrities disappear if they don’t toe the party line. Or their looming threat of Taiwan. But I can’t personally cut my indirect ties off with China, and neither can businesses who want to be part of what is literally the largest market in the world. 
I was listening to Ben Shapiro talk about this last night ( I know, I know, I took the day off and tried to return some presents) and he was saying things that were mostly true facts, with bad opinions based on thme. H was unironically coming down on the NBA and others for the exact thing he supports. He was saying the NBA doesn’t care about Uyghurs or even “Black Lives Matter”, they are going to do what ever makes them the most money. Though he said their support of BLM and other “woke” issues is because of the loud outcry of the minority that would exist if they didn’t. I can’t tell if he is stupid for thinking that, or knows he is wrong, and the reason they support such issues is because the balance has tipped and it makes more economic sense to support broadly supported issues publicly - not just the “minority of the woke”.
But yes, he is unironically coming down on these businesses who are making what to them is the decision to make the most money - while also supporting civil rights issues domestically. And that is a “bad” thing because they are greedy corporations - when he is a raging capitalist who supports profit over everything else all the time! Pick a lane, Ben. You don’t give a shit about these issue either, you just want to attack China and the “woke”.
Bleh. I will stop ranting. It is just a mess.
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Good examples. I’d throw Cuba into the mix of “countries we have sanctions against because it’s easy, politically expedient, and has no impact on our economy.”
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How ironic.
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It would be interesting if anyone had any suggestion for what to do that would actually make a difference. A realistic suggestion for how to make China change. Or, if you prefer that, a suggestion for a foreigner how to make USA change.
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It’s not even the first fucked up location.
Is it really impossible to have nice things and keep them that way?
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Right?
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When communist regimes fell around the World, Castro sat safe. Sanctions may have made Cuba poor and the people suffer, but they certainly haven’t achieved the goal of getting rid of the communists, at the contrary, US hostility only made his position stronger. Che Guevara even thanked a US diplomat after the Bay of Pigs fiasco. Same with the blockade of Venezuela and Iran.
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See, when has that ever worked? The US has thrown its weight around in the past. Allies have put pressure on the US in the past. But I can’t think of a single instance in the last 100 or so years were foreign influence has enacted direct change in America.
It would be hubris to think we could do the same to a near peer like China.
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No one cares about the Golden State “Warriors”.
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According to the laws of thermodynamics: Yes.
Without further expenditure of energy.
Translation: we have to fight to keep nice things, and we have to fight harder to get them.
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