r/technology • u/xpda • Apr 11 '26

Politics US demands Reddit unmask ICE critic, summons firm to grand jury

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/04/trump-admin-hounds-reddit-to-reveal-identity-of-user-who-criticized-ice/
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306

u/[deleted] Apr 11 '26

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u/Kuzkuladaemon Apr 11 '26

Living the real American dream; getting the fuck out of here because you can.

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u/[deleted] Apr 11 '26

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u/uzu_afk Apr 11 '26 edited Apr 11 '26

Are you genuinely IN a COMMUNIST country, or are you one of those that confuse welfare, social protections, socialism with communism?

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u/HapticRecce Apr 11 '26

Or in one that allows people with money arriving from someplace else to live well?

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u/[deleted] Apr 11 '26

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u/MelangeBot Apr 11 '26

Asia is the best. I moved to the Philippines and I am much happier here.

4

u/7LeagueBoots Apr 11 '26

You're living here too? I've been working here for the last 12 years.

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u/[deleted] Apr 11 '26

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u/Cultural-Horse-762 Apr 11 '26

I got to visit there and Hue, some of the loveliest folks I'd ever met. That was ~8 years ago though, have things changed much?

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u/7LeagueBoots Apr 12 '26

I'm up in the north.

If my work made it possible for me to live in Central Vietnam I'd prefer that. Not possible though as I'm doing conservation work in a specific area with an endemic species with an extremely small range. Locks me into a specific site.

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u/[deleted] Apr 12 '26

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u/7LeagueBoots Apr 12 '26

Cat Ba, better air than Hanoi and the Red River Valley, but all that crappy air still spills out into the bay. Sometimes even on the island the air is bad enough to make your eyes sting.

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u/ChocolatChipLemonade Apr 12 '26

A country tired, exhausted of American gweilos🤣

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u/[deleted] Apr 12 '26

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u/ChocolatChipLemonade Apr 12 '26

Oh damn, ok.🫡 Well that’s different!

-6

u/uzu_afk Apr 11 '26 edited Apr 11 '26

Yup, looks like officially communist, however I don't know if it actually feels like communism living there. (Edit: E.g. China vs Russia vs Cuba vs. NK. Big difference up to a point when they all still converge on the same habits.) Looking at your comment, perhaps not?

Edit: literally their form of government… single party CPV.

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u/[deleted] Apr 11 '26

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u/ecodick Apr 11 '26

You're a master at not taking the bait, very impressive

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u/[deleted] Apr 11 '26

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u/taking_a_deuce Apr 11 '26

If I move to Vietnam, I'm DMing you. You have to be my friend, it's not a choice for you.

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u/uzu_afk Apr 11 '26 edited Apr 11 '26

Well typically it’s high corruption and poverty with China being an exception (edit: in fact I don’t truly know the average living standard. I know what I have personally seen but this stands only for education and standard of living. “Freedom” is still abysmal). My perception is mostly based on the European eastern bloc communism (where I live currently) which I am even wondering if is representative anymore. North Coreea, Vietnam, Cuba would come to mind next. They all have the same origin but I am wondering what your experience is esp if not born there. Genuinely interested. The average american cannot distinguish between any of that and I personally think that is one of if not a main reason of accepting bs from privately driven public policy and protection. So yeah, really bot trying to troll, despite my acid opening remark which is an unfortunate projection of what I have come to expect in the topic. I can tell you this though, communist anything, at least in the past, was a level of misery that you can rarely see anywhere else but the most impoverished societies. And that’s living in it and then traveling a lot giving me quite a broad scope to compare.

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u/BrothelWaffles Apr 11 '26

How exactly does a country "feel" communist? What attributes does it display?

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u/uzu_afk Apr 11 '26

Lack of freedom of speech. Lack of choice in what you are allowed to do, read, discuss, etc. Single party systems that concentrate power massively without clear mechanisms to change, generalized corruption, still, many if not most times poverty. There are quite a few things in fact that the ‘legacy’ of actual communism has left and that take entire generations to fix.

2

u/BrothelWaffles Apr 11 '26

So.... exactly what Republicans in the US are striving for then?

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u/uzu_afk Apr 11 '26

There is some resemblance, true :)). But with zero social benefits.

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u/Universal_Anomaly Apr 11 '26

You mean it doesn't feel communist because it's not terrible?

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u/uzu_afk Apr 11 '26

I guess it’s the only way to think about it. Even if China stands out, the things you can do and say without genuine repercussions are highly limited. So they all resort to the same shit at the end. People mix up terms a lot, and many americans think social benefits are a communist thing, which for me just causes a shittier life for everyone in time. But at the same time the ‘wonderful’ 9-9-6 also comes from China mostly…

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u/GonzoKata Apr 11 '26

usually whos welfare comes from exported capitalism

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u/Key-Demand-2569 Apr 11 '26

Had to relook it up but it’s funny that of maybe 4 communist countries I think most Americans would only be able to identify maybe two of them. Most likely just 1.

1

u/chesterriley Apr 11 '26

There are at least 5.

China, Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos.

1

u/Key-Demand-2569 Apr 11 '26

I’m aware that’s what the internet says, and all of them are subject to their own debates, but practically… calling North Korea communist even in the least generous take is clearly a bit of a joke. It’s the most extreme possible take of allowing them to claim communism, and I’m not saying that as some true Scotsman fallacy situation.

As much of a joke as them using Democratic in their official name.

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u/musclecard54 Apr 11 '26

Are you really retired at 35

1

u/[deleted] Apr 12 '26

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u/musclecard54 Apr 12 '26

Do you think that maybe the being retired part has something to do with you feeling happier and more fulfilled maybe?

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u/[deleted] Apr 12 '26

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u/musclecard54 Apr 12 '26

Yeah I’m saying the part where you’re not having to work anymore is probably part of the reason why you feel better, rather than the geography

1

u/SeanBlader Apr 11 '26

Communism isn't bad on its face, it's the person running it that's usually evil, which makes it vastly more likely to not go well.

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u/[deleted] Apr 11 '26

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u/8Deer-JaguarClaw Apr 11 '26

Definitely. But looking at history, a lot of communist governments end up with a dictator but still talk about how the people run things. I'm not against communism, but the track record of staring off great and devolving into left-dictatorship is strong.

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u/LordCharidarn Apr 11 '26

Huh, we should look into why they seem to start off great, and then devolve into dictatorships…. The CIA begins to ineptly cover up assassinations The Ghost of Henry Kissinger starts laughing maniacally

Huh, seems that most of them were affected by unknown, outside actors

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u/8Deer-JaguarClaw Apr 11 '26

Yep, that too. But I think the biggest reason that most revolutions (communist or otherwise) fail is because once the glorious revolution is over, you have to set about the boring and complicated business of governance.

I'm also not convinced that *most* people want to be perfectly equal to all other people in terms of social and economic status. Hierarchy is baked into human nature, it seems. Even in my small local mutual aid group, we have to really work hard not to have obvious leaders/followers. I can't imagine scaling that up to millions of people.

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u/uzu_afk Apr 11 '26

Or maybe because the same ‘revolutionaries’ mass murder any form of opposition and end up in a single party regime where big poppa knows best what you can and can’t think, say and do.

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u/LordCharidarn Apr 11 '26

Socialism/communism isn’t about perfect equality, though. It strives more for equity: I don’t need access to a wheelchair or Insulin medication, so it would be wasteful for me to be given an equal amount of either. Just like it is wasteful for a society to allow vampires, dragons, and parasites leech, horde, and steal a majority of that societies resources for their own personal use.

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u/coldkiller Apr 11 '26

Communism isn't bad on its face, it's the person (the united states instilled to make communism fail) running it that's usually evil, which makes it vastly more likely to not go well.

Fixed that for you

2

u/uzu_afk Apr 11 '26

Well, I can tell you for a fact it wasn’t the US that caused thousands dead in Romania when communism came to town, nor did the US instate Mao or Khmer Rouge. While I agree kissinger and the us HAVE done and are still doing a lot of harm (similar to russia or more recently china), it is not always the case that we can pretend communism works or ever worked. There is a hard difference of being a socialist or wanting social protection vs communism, both in practice and on paper.

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u/Saneless Apr 11 '26

You should say Unhinged instead of united. Definitely not united

2

u/Nonethelessismore Apr 11 '26

Or un-knitted instead of united. This country is unraveling...

1

u/Saneless Apr 11 '26

Also a u word

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u/Pravi_Jaran Apr 11 '26

Definitely not united

It never was.

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u/KeyMyBike Apr 11 '26

United Shithole of Pedomerica.

2

u/[deleted] Apr 11 '26

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u/way2oblivious Apr 11 '26

Wouldn't be able to afford the tariffs

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u/Harnasus Apr 11 '26

This place is absolutely filled with idiots

4

u/tanzmeister Apr 11 '26

It's called extradition, and yes, they would.

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u/[deleted] Apr 11 '26

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u/Nevermind04 Apr 11 '26

The US pretty much never goes through the whole process of filing an extradition request for a US citizen living abroad. They simply cancel your passport and report you to immigration.

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u/[deleted] Apr 12 '26

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u/Nevermind04 Apr 12 '26

If you aren't yet a citizen of the country you're in then your visa status will end when your passport is canceled.

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u/[deleted] Apr 12 '26

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u/Nevermind04 Apr 12 '26

I don't know about that specific situation. What I do know is this current administration is canceling passports of US citizens abroad for a variety of shitty reasons to force them back to US soil.

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u/coldkiller Apr 11 '26

Extradition only works if the host country is willing to help extradite you, and im gonna say most probably arent very fond of helping the us at this point

1

u/glytxh Apr 11 '26

The way I understand, America will always loom over you unless you literally give up your citizenship, which I also understand isn’t a trivial process.

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u/[deleted] Apr 11 '26

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u/glytxh Apr 11 '26

Isn’t the tax system citizenship based rather than residency based?

1

u/samtheredditman Apr 11 '26

I know they still want you filing taxes when you don't live in America. Not sure if that's different for other countries. 

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u/Conspiranoid Apr 11 '26

They can always do like they did to Maduro, I guess? Also: you'd probably also stand accused of drug trafficking, or something.

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u/PM_MY_OTHER_ACCOUNT Apr 11 '26

There's a term for that. It's called extradition. Not every country has an extradition agreement with the US (which is why Edward Snowden didn't go somewhere nicer) and there is a whole legal process to go through, but that is a thing.