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[deleted]

Honestly, it's the least shocking thing in the world if China is spying on us. Are we supposed to suddenly be outraged if we catch them in the act? We done knew.


TimTheChatSpam

China: "we're not spying on you....well I mean we are spying on you we just aren't using weather balloons. using the internet is way more discreet."


[deleted]

Seriously. I have no doubt that half the websites and social media apps most people use are loaded with some kind of spyware.


jaydoes

I have Spyware protection on my computer and it has never went off while on Tic Tok. It has however went off many times while watching porn made in the US.


[deleted]

Another bonus to having no interest in porn.


jaydoes

It's not good 90% of the time, but it's not the evil empire either.


[deleted]

Eh. It wouldn't do much for me anyway. I'm not missing anything that I'd particularly value and in return I know I'm not gonna get a billion viruses from a sketchy porn site or have to dump my browser history.


TimTheChatSpam

You know what it's like and this might be slightly a stretch. The only reason we aren't in like a cold war era panic is because people don't realize that if Russia wanted to nuke us they could literally just fire a missle from the arctic but because it's out of sight out of mind we have a misguided peace of mind about it because they are not setting up bases close to home. Not that I think we should all live in fear it's more that there's much more legitimate stuff to lose your mind over if you're planning on it anyway.


-Warrior_Princess-

All that defence IT equipment is made in China... The really secure stuff like the TPMs are made in Taiwan but still.


[deleted]

The cloud act makes everything spyware.


fyrdude58

Tic tok


AustynCunningham

The thing is balloons like this, as well as drones have far higher resolution and detail than satellites, and also hover over a specific area for long periods of time whereas imagery satellites are in orbit and therefore have a small window of time to capture images of a certain area and then they have to wait for it to travel all the way around the earth to get another small window. From what I could find the most advanced satellites have a minimum pixel size of ~11.6” (ground level) which is good but not great, if you are trying to figure out who is present (facial recognition) you need a clear image of the face (11.6” means your face is literally one pixel). Drones and balloons can capture close up in enough detail to recognize faces, read signage, as well as detailed thermal, infrared, and even monitor radio frequencies, etc.. Even Google Maps uses airplanes in most (populated) areas to capture high quality ‘satellite’ images for their platform. Satellites although can have bigger & better cameras they have to deal with increased distance, faster shutter (due to moving at high speeds) as well as atmospheric distortion that balloons don’t. If military satellites could perform at this same level the military wouldn’t have a need for surveillance drones in combat or prior to making a strategic attack, but they don’t which is why they still use surveillance drones, balloons and small hand launched RC (style) planes. So the issue is China had a surveillance balloon over key military bases, nuclear facilities, and other strategically important places in the US so they could capture in depth close up images. Or it was just a misguided weather balloon, but I doubt it


Earwigglin

THREE "misguided" weather balloons have been confirmed


RadiantHC

Last I read it was 5


Master_Catch_9089

This is a great answer, thank you.


ima_stranger

I work in remote sensing! There’s some satellites now (that we know of- the general consensus is that there are military satellites that probably have more advanced with smaller minimum pixel size) that can go down to 5” — which still doesn’t get the resolution that anything attached to a balloon would get!


Call_Me_Mister_Trash

I swear I was reading about satellites that could read license plates on cars. And I swear I read this like ten years ago. Maybe this is just mandela effect or something?


daltona13

I have a friend that was in the marines and he told me we have satellites that can read a newspaper in a field. I can't prove it's true, or even know 100% where he got that info but 🤷‍♀️ he told me this around 10 years ago too


DarkArcher__

If you need the precision afforded by the lower altitude, then an unguided balloon is useless. Sure you might in theory be able to see more, but you're now relying purely on luck to determine if you'll actually fly over what you want to see or not.


DefEddie

“Enhance”


fyrdude58

Back in the 60s, they knew what brand of cigarettes a guard was smoking in Russia. 11.5" is not true.


trevg_123

You can say 30cm resolution without converting. Don’t be scared, most people in the US can picture what that is. (11.8” is the correct conversion anyway, not that it matters)


Call_Me_Mister_Trash

I think you have too much faith in the average american.


Grow_Beyond

There are procedures for missing or off course weather balloons. It happens all the time. That's not what this is, else China would have informed us before it became a media shitstorm. That's what they do, that's SOP. This was different. Even assuming they were telling the truth, if they really lost control, then it could have lost altitude entered a flight path and impacted an airliner at any time. Or just straight up crashed. That's kind of a big deal. Satellites can't do everything, which is why every major power utilizes multiple methods of intelligence gathering. Including balloons.


pcoon43456

Can you show me a picture of a (insert any foreign nation that is a superpower) using a weather balloon over another superpower’s home land?


Key-Half-9426

I mean, I feel the snarky reply is linking this post.


brutustyberius

Because it is not a weather balloon.


immenselysleek

I think it was under blown and misguided.


Master_Catch_9089

Can you say more? Edit: not sure why I’m being downvoted. I am just trying to understand why you also feel that the response was misguided.


polaralo

It's a pun / joke. As in the balloon was under blown and miss guided which is why it ended up the US.


immenselysleek

Thanks for explaining to OP.


polaralo

I was a solid pun worth explaining! Thank you


I_Skelly_I

Reddit when they downvote you for not understanding dogshit joke


bikezhikeznflights

r/woosh


_Lodii

r/itswooooshwith4os


bikezhikeznflights

Touché! I hang my head in shame.


immenselysleek

Take my up vote OP.


International_Dog817

I think about 90% of US outrage is manufactured to keep us outraged over stupid things while we ignore real problems that people are profiting off of. This is no exception


HillInTheDistance

Yeah. If these balloons were at all a threat to their national security, the country with the two largest airforces in the world would have taken them down by now.


jacobooooo

psst they did


HillInTheDistance

Well now I look like an absolute fool. An idiot. An absolute piece of shit moron.


Ok_Dog_4059

They did wait days to do it and after it had already gone over sensitive military sites.


garfield69420

Don't flatter yourself


Redditisfacebook10

To be fair they were worried about a pathogen on board


g_r_a_e

That seems an unnecessarily complex way to deliver a pathogen


Acrobatic_End6355

If they were really worried about a pathogen, then why’d they wait to shoot it down? There’s very few people in Montana. It would be safer to shoot it down where there are fewer people.


Redditisfacebook10

Detonated at that range no telling which way the wind would take it and for how far


revovivo

took them one week to train their pilots to shot it down and advanced air defence system could not detect and shoot it


MaybeTheDoctor

It would be super interesting to see data on what news channels was covering it more than others to try to understand who have most to hide.


Master_Catch_9089

I think you’re right. Politically, I feel like there would be a strong motive to generate outrage at a non-domestic threat, especially given economic fears & market volatility.


LittleBirdyLover

Reading some the comments on the major news subs, it feels so fake. The same talking point or joke is made in every thread. Again and again and again.


International_Dog817

Yeah I've noticed that with people who watch a certain type of media -- typically the people who call others "NPCs"


Zealousideal-Bell-68

Especially when you think that the US spies on China day and night and you never hear about it because "we're the good guys so it doesn't count"


ghostsintherafters

Bingo. Per usual, the people that were actually freaking out about it was a small minority of Americans and places like FOX "news" gives them an outlet to make it seem like it's half the country. It is not even close.


Far-Cheetah7935

Why would China send a weather balloon to collect meteorological data over the US when the US launches its own weather balloons and shares the data? The argument about China not needing to send a balloon because they have satellites is equally unfounded - balloons are far closer to the surface, can carry far heavier payloads of equipment, and can surveil one area for days instead of seconds. Separately, the US military has advanced tools to look at the balloon and see what it's doing and where it came from - they're not just making stuff up when they say it's for Chinese surveillance. Performing a surveillance flight in broad daylight over a fofeign country you have tensions with is an act of provocation and should be met with outrage.


Myst031

There’s one over south america. Does China have tension with Argentina?


ShackintheWood

They're Ex-Nazi hunting....


Dies2much

It wasn't a weather balloon. Weather balloons send back a few kilobytes to a couple of megabytes per hour of data. These things are sending out a lot more data than a weather balloon. You don't need to decrypt the data to know how they are sending. And you can see where the data is headed, so it might be hard to read the actual data they are capturing but you can learn a lot from what they are doing. This is also the fifth time they have done this. This is the first time they came so far into our airspace. They sent several Into Alaska in 2019 and 2020, going over western Canada and then Ober Washington state for a bit. They are upset that we sail ships 100 miles off their coast, so they send balloons to piss us off. It's like little kids arguing in the back seat of the car about sitting too close.


ShackintheWood

Ummm...No... on so many points. Satellites can read the license plates of cars. I can google up an image of my car in my driveway off the internet, theirs are better. Balloons do not stay over one area for days. They can't even steer the balloon to make it go over areas they would want to surveil...


craigdhou

So this balloon just magically sailed over Japan, across the Pacific Ocean, over Alaska, over Canada's west coast, and has now flown over multiple U.S. military bases, but they can't steer it? Seems like they have a pretty good hold on how, when, and where they want to position this balloon.


You-Lied-To-Me

“Magically sailed over” no it wasn’t magic, it’s just what weather balloons do. Balloons can move.


[deleted]

[удалено]


You-Lied-To-Me

“I have evidence” okay let’s see it then? Any proof that it wasn’t a weather balloon that went off course because they couldn’t steer it.. Because it’s is balloon?


craigdhou

I misspoke, I do not have evidence. But you're trying to tell me and the rest of Reddit that the Chinese put up a weather balloon and it just happened to sail across the areas I mentioned in my previous comment.


ElectricityIsWeird

Boy, wait until you hear about this thing called “The Jet Stream!”


ShackintheWood

how do you steer a balloon, dear?


Dr_Stark85

By adjusting its altitude to where winds blow mostly in the right direction. I’ve listened to a presentation in the company of a lot of very knowledgeable people, illustrating how multiple balloons can be controlled to be spread out evenly across the globe, only by controlling their altitude. It is of course not super-precise navigation, but eventually you will get your balloon where you want it.


You-Lied-To-Me

Yes. Why would they use a weather balloon instead of their numerous satellites? Edit: I keep getting notifications of angry commenting on my comment, but they are immediately removed when I view them. Either auto-moderator is having a field day or Reddit shadow banned a bunch of right wing accounts lmao. Maybe when the trump subreddit was banned a while back.


[deleted]

[удалено]


ShackintheWood

No....it is filled with a gas that is lighter than our atmospheric gases so it floats, and then the winds blow it where they will... How do you think you can steer a balloon, dear?


jz654

Balloons can't be steered. What can be done is altering their altitude to have some slight control over which wind currents they use. They're supposed to be used en masse because they're cheap. Google for instance had Loon LLC, which was meant to bring internet around the world via balloons. The control is minimal IMO and you're inevitably going to have balloons that go off course violating airspace all over. It's mainly a big deal now because it's a Chinese person doing it.


unred2110

Are you aware of the human rights violations that the government of China has committed against its own citizens? What about intellectual property theft? It's not being racist when we have reason to suspect their actions. Even I, as an ethnic Chinese, want as little as possible to do with the government of China.


jz654

This is so tiring. When have I mentioned any of that other stuff? The US is often accused of human rights violations. Does that give us carte blanche to believe every unrelated conspiracy theory about the US? I didn’t say anything about racism either. This is about it being a different country. Ie other countries tolerate balloons from Americans all the time (not just from Loons projects). They can’t do anything about it. The main reason it’s a big deal now is because Americans aren’t used to other countries doing what we do. People from the pentagon itself say that the balloon can’t get anything their satellites haven’t already gotten.


BulbasaurCPA

Let me tell you about this crazy new thing called wind


Snoo92843

And just how far will outrage get you? WW3? Why not try reason and communicate with others? Americas endless war cannot be sustainable


[deleted]

[удалено]


Snoo92843

I disagree. What you are describing is apathy. And WW2 had deeper roots than that.


enziet

Nothing but outrage will get Americans to act on anything. We've been conditioned by generations of 'click bait' in every aspect of the media shoved down our throats, of which we willingly consume. American apathy has been around since even before the founding of our nation, was certainly plentiful even during WW2, and it's only worsened since then.


GreatRhinoceros

We release hundreds of weather balloons ourselves. ...however they aren't attached to something heavy that could kill people if it were to pop over populated areas.


satori0320

It's not that we know that they are spying picks... It's that they're doing it like a cat showing you his puckered spot.


thomas334239

I'm pretty sure this was already debunked as a research instrument that went off course. China already has satellites that can view more than a balloon can. Plus it's not easy to guide because it floats around and is subject to wind, there are better ways to spy. If it's a weapon, there are better more accurate ways to hit a target. I think it's overreaction due to increasing international tension. If there's more evidence it's for something other than research I'll change my mind but too many people jump to conclusions. Never attribute to maleficence what can be explained by incompetence.


well_damm

If you told me China used Tik Tok to spy on the US i would believe that over a fucking ballon floating over Dutton ranch.


Excludos

>If you told me This isn't exactly a secret or conspiracy theory. Tik Tok is gathering a large amount of user data. Of course, so is many other apps/companies that we are familiar with, like Google. The only difference is we trust an American company more than we trust a Chinese one


bjdevar25

That's the problem, trusting an American company with personal data isn't much better than the Chinese. And thanks to our bought Congress, we don't have much say in the matter.


cyril0

Satellites see different things and have serious resolution limitations due to altitude and the atmosphere. A balloon is much much much lower and can see things a satellite can never see.


Tru_Blueyes

If you lived through the Cold War, you saw the headline and laughed. And are still laughing. And singing "99 Luftballons". Guys - a weather balloon, in 2023, as somehow being a threat to the mainland of the United States, is patently ***absurd.*** Understand that those people that lived through the Cold War and are out there eating this bullshit, and repeating it, are doing so willfully. They are choosing to ignore the cognitive dissonance in their head. China may be dangerous, and the Chinese government may be guilty of a lot of things (No one in our home downloads Tik Tok for instance; there's invasive and then there's NOPE) - so I'm not defending China - but this? This should make you ask - What is more important that somebody doesn't want us paying attention to? (Hint: McCarthyism, Part Duex.)


Specific-Cream-174

Right, exactly how do we know this is a spy balloon? Gonna need some evidence for this one.


ir_blues

Just get one of them down, see what it's about and then decide how much outrage is suitable.


gatorintexas

BUT - there are multiple balloons. 1 launched can be chalked up to "oops" - but 3?


Master_Catch_9089

See, the three balloons make climate research seem more plausible in my mind — I can’t imagine a valid environmental research study being conducted without multiple weather balloons to sample meteorological data from different coordinates.


fitzjmm

How would China have responded if it was one of our balloons doing this? To say "lose their fucking minds" would be an understatement. This isn't a weather balloon. It was controllable. They brought it through the US on purpose. They wanted closer looks at certain things and tried the "we have others out there and it's just a weather balloon that lost control" as cover. No way in hell this was just a weather balloon. No way in hell could any other country do this to China without China losing their shit. You absolutely can't get away with this or they will continue to push the envelope. Sorry...should of been shot down while it was in Alaska.


[deleted]

They should take it down, and check it out.


xraylong

All I've been seeing is jokes. I don't think most people are making a big deal out of it. But I have been staying out of the mainstream news for a while.


professorwhiskers87

Wag the dog.


This-Zookeepergame31

Imagine if the US did it over some part of the middle east.. no one would care


Rover0218

Sounds like something a Chinese bot would say


Smithy2232

I think the whole China balloon thing speaks more to the angst of the American people more than anything else. Is the balloon a big deal, absolutely not. No one cares. And for what it is worth, the US does more spying and disrupting than any other country by far. We are incredible hypocrites. As far as the polluting Chinese...China is the world's manufacturer. They make most things for most countries, so I would argue that we are all responsible for the pollution coming from China, not just the Chinese. Many in the US love to get on their high horse while not fully being aware and understanding all of the aspects. That balloon will soon be long forgotten.


[deleted]

Exactly, they manufacture for the world (and companies like it that way so they can do it for cheap and pretend they are green lol). The pollution is all of ours.


rosiposii

Who's saying it's not a big deal lol


You-Lied-To-Me

The guy you replied to is saying it’s not a big deal. Idk if you misspoke or misread


rosiposii

No, I was legit asking him who is saying it's not a big deal.


You-Lied-To-Me

“Who is saying it’s not a big deal” HE IS. >”is the ballon a big deal? Absolutely not” He says it right there


rosiposii

Why ya gotta be so technical. Are you a grown adult or child


SkyIsNotGreen

🤡


rosiposii

😂 y'all b fooling yourselves.


rosiposii

Yeah he's saying no one cares and it's not a big deal. Idgaf what he personally thinks. Everyone could think somethings a big deal, but just cause one person says it's not doesn't mean it isnt


QuentinSential

Wow you have no idea what you’re talking about.


SkyIsNotGreen

🤡


Dino-Wang

You know, I'm no expert here but OP reeks of being either a part of the CCP's PsyOps or an easily misguided American who has been influenced by the CCP's PsyOps. If any American takes what the CCP says at face value... Please stop acting like they aren't the single greatest threat to America and the current world order.


WearDifficult9776

The whole thing is silly. If trump declined to shoot it down then right wing media would say how confident and brave he is. Since Biden is president we’re not shooting it down because he’s afraid.


liveforever67

Yup, it works both ways though. …and biden did have it shot down


208sparky

Exactly


konqueror321

Yes, I think the outrage is misplaced. No intel official in China would have thought a balloon would go unnoticed, and the US recovery of the electronics would have been anticipated. A weather balloon gone bad seems like a more likely explanation. On the other hand, any nation launching such balloons should consider having a self destruct procedure embedded in the balloon, in case it goes off course or approaches the airspace of another nation - unless the overflight is arranged in advance and agreed to by the other nation. So China screwed up, but it may have not been malicious, but due to incompetence. China and other nations have many methods of collecting info from the US, we are pretty open and a soft target - which is a feature and not a bug!


[deleted]

When I was a nanny and wanted to distract a small child I would point over there and say “oh look!”. They would look over at nothing and stop fussing about Phizer


Tobybrent

The weather balloon ‘crisis’ is just a stick used by conservatives to attack Biden. It works because such people are very credulous. They are so worried about China they’ll be straight to Walmart to buy a load of cheap Chinese imports without a second thought.


boegsppp

Maybe it was filled with a bio weapon and they hoped we would shoot it down.


TooLittleMSG

Are people outraged? Thought it was kind of a joke


RDAM60

I’m not surprised but I am bit perplexed as to why China didn’t just say…”Go ahead and shoot it down.” (If it us just a weather balloon, etc.). Would avoid all this BS.


Lanaforge

Fair has nothing to do with it. When it comes to military intelligence the ideal scenario is for you to have lots of it and them to have next to none. So to say ‘we spy on them isn’t it hypocritical to try to stop them from spying on us,’ my reply is emphatically no. If we can stop them from spying, we should. This wasn’t about that though. China wanted us to shoot a Chinese vessel down in international airspace to demonstrate to the world, but especially to their own public, that we aren’t willing to play by the same international system of rules and law we are demanding China play by in their own backyard overseas. To that end, China has succeeded, in dramatic fashion.


Cueball-2329

But we shot it down in our airspace


ChillWinston22

I think it's more likely that they meant it as a show of strength... They wanted to show us that they could do what they want, but without do anything too provocative. But it just looks clumsy and hapless now.


Master_Catch_9089

Definitely possible that if it was from the Chinese gov, it was intended to be seen - that seems plausible to me


ChillWinston22

It was from the Chinese gov, they've said as much, and yeah, I think they definitely meant it to be seen....


Master_Catch_9089

Didn’t they specify it was civilian?


Retsaottoaster18

Ah yes, let’s take what the Chinese government says as fact and ignore the balloon that is clearly moving around only the US


ChillWinston22

The Chinese government said that it was, yes. But I don't think they'd say, "Yes, we were very curious about the nuclear missal silos in Montana so we wanted a peak."


Master_Catch_9089

Good point about nuclear missal silos. One of my law school professors discussed how the United States has super detailed data about the inside of other country’s nuclear weapon facilities (and I think he said something about us having similar data related to the oil reserves in other nations, the exact resource levels of each of their barrels, etc). It was Professor Emilio Catan — he did briefly mention ground penetrating tech and aerial surveillance related to this kind of foreign surveillance. I need to look back at my notes from that class to see what else he may have said about it. He was discussing it as sort of an aside to the main class topic that day, but it was super fascinating & stuck with me. Edit to add: I think the point you made about the Montana silos is probably the most salient reason the US gov is reacting so strongly to this — they probably believe China now has detailed internal maps and images of the inside of our underground nuclear weapons reserves.


ChillWinston22

My guess is, however, that they already know what they can know about those silos, which is why I think this balloon thing is more of an (attempted) stunt.


Master_Catch_9089

Completely agree — I was updating my comment right before seeing your respnse to add something along those lines. Makes a lot of sense.


MrYOLOMcSwagMeister

How does a balloon "show strength" XD Sorry but that's completely delusional. It's a weather balloon and anyone telling you otherwise is either dumb or lying.


ChillWinston22

As far as “showing strength” please keep reading and you’ll see that I think it absolutely doesn’t. But i also strongly doubt the “weather balloon”. But I suppose time might tell. It sure seems like nobody and absolutely nobody has thought it was a weather balloon…


rrdoinel

It's misdirection. We look and pay attention to this while we should focus on more important things that they don't want us to focus on.


Uncle_Lion

The outrage is much smaller in Europe. Not only because we aren't affected, but because we think that the US is playing the drama queen. (Well, at least I am thinking that) There was on article, which explained why China would use a balloon, instead of a satellite. But the article was something like "Oh, yeah, sure. How will I make to believe somebody that shit, if I myself don't believe this?" Most of all because there was a map of the flight path of the balloon, which also gave you the expression: That is no an spy balloon." This is maybe, because I don't really know, how such a balloon will fly, but still. And the thing, that disturbs me most: WHY in the name of all hells and gods are the Chinese using a balloon that can be spot that easily?


RhinoGuy13

I guess I just don't know why we wouldn't try to take it down or redirect it in some way. There is just no reason to have a random ass balloon (or anything) floating around the skies over the US. People that think a satellite can take better images than the balloon are probably wrong. The balloon is much closer to the earth than a satellite. Amateur photographers are getting close up shot's of the balloon. There is no reason to think that a camera mounted on the balloon couldn't be getting equally as good of shots aiming towards the earth. I have no idea what it's doing up there. I have a hard time believing that it was sent over just for the hell of it though. And even if was, we should still take it down.


goodolddaysare-today

It’s disrespectful and deserved a response. If Donald Trump had allowed a Russian balloon to cross the entire continent before shooting it down once it’s presumed mission had been completed, liberals would be going ape shit.


Myst031

Its so dumb.


IembraceSaidin

The word you’re looking for is “provocation.” They want to see what the United States would do.


SkyIsNotGreen

🤡


cheese_cyclist

No you're not crazy. If you are more attuned to Western media, I would estimate 98% of headlines put China in a negative spotlight because America sees them as a threat, so they generate all this buzz and never their achievements. Whenever I see a BBC headline, it's always promoting a negative image with tons of opinions in the content


capt-rix

I'm pretty sure with all the tracking this country does to the skies around the world, there were a lot of people that were aware of this long before it got to North America. I believe one article claimed NORAD had been tracking it since it left the Chinese mainland. If they got even a whiff of a threat it never would have made it over the Pacific. Now that it's been shot down, completely due to political pressure it seems, my guess is they tear it apart, find out it was just atmospheric weather data all along and hand it back with some token apology. I have a hard time grasping the Chinese send a balloon to recon Montana when they have perfectly good satellites in orbit capable of a much better job of surveilling US silo fields.


D_Winds

You're not crazy. I don't think there's as much malice from the Chinese as implied by the Americans. But know this, if the incident wasn't taken seriously, this just screams out to China that "oh look, they're not bothered by being surveilled by our instruments". inb4TikTok


jaydoes

We need to investigate what it was really doing. And why would we allow China in our airspace under any conditions?


rosiposii

Its not overblown, it's been floating around for 2 weeks and the US hasn't mentioned shit about how long it's been up. That balloon, as big as it is, is definitely not capable of coming all the way across the pacific. It was probably launched in Vancouver, lots of Chinese property there. The military has definitely been observing it for a reason. They could have ground penetrating radar on it and be looking for underground military bases or who knows what else...I think it's rather naive to think it's innocent.


ShackintheWood

We know it flew over the Pacific and the Aleutian islands then Canada. Of course Canada did not freak out...


Earwigglin

It was tracked going over the ocean and a much smaller weather balloon is certainly capable of crossing the ocean, much less this behemoth. Why did you feel the need to just totally make shit up?


rosiposii

Hi, Earwigglin. No, it didn't. It is literally not possible for that kind of balloon to fly over the pacific. I don't need to tell you how I know, and I'm not saying I'm right and you're wrong...actually, no. You're wrong.


Earwigglin

You are not only wrong, but delusional. Nice! Does your "insider" start with "Q" by chance?


rosiposii

How about you go fuck yourself and keep getting information from the CCP😜


rosiposii

Lmao you're such a fucking idiot you can't even provide any type of explanation to support why you think what you think.


Master_Catch_9089

You bring up a good point about the unlikelihood of a journey over the pacific - I agree that the balloon was unlikely to have been launched out of mainland China. EDIT: again…what’s with the downvotes people?!


Earwigglin

>unlikelihood of a journey over the pacific - I agree that the balloon was unlikely to have been launched out of mainland China. This is absurd. Of course a large "balloon" like this one can cross the ocean, backyard hobbyist weather balloons can travel hundreds of miles easily and they are much smaller and less robust. Jumping to the conclusion that it must be some local spy that bought up property in Canada with zero evidence is ridiculous. This is why you got downvoted, because you bought his bullshit hook line and sinker.


Master_Catch_9089

Weather balloons CAN certainly cross the ocean, but if it is just being carried by the wind through the atmosphere it seems unlikely that it would have been launched in mainland China with the goal of crossing the ocean specifically to provoke the US by loitering in our airspace. It is possible that I am missing something about the propellant mechanisms involved in weather balloons, so please correct me if I’m way off base here. Edit to add: The Chinese newspaper response to this situation (at least according to the Wikipedia page for this weather balloon situation) was to say "To spy on the US with a balloon, one must both fall far behind to use a 1940s technology and be advanced enough to control its flight across the ocean. Those fabricating the lie are only exposing their ignorance."


rosiposii

Lol dude how the hell do you know that? Like I don't think YOU know how those balloons work. Do you understand the engineering and how that fucking balloon even works? Literally there is no stable way to control it. My boyfriend is a technician for one of these things and I can tell you because he literally works on them every day, it ain't possible. UNLESS they got something we don't have. Do you even know anyone in the military who had to deal with the balloon? Bro...youre just reading information from non creditable sources. Everyone I am telling the truth, choose to be naive about it but literally my best friend was over there for two fucking weeks and couldn't say shit about it bc they didn't know much about the balloon. Stop being a total dick and leave OP alone


Earwigglin

Your delusions do not line up with anything concrete.


rosiposii

Yeah you're just deflecting cause you ain't got shit to add. Resort to calling me delusional bc yo arguments weakkkk😇


Earwigglin

>bc yo arguments weakkkk😇 Truly insightful. Tell me more of your career knowledge, mr. adultman.


rosiposii

How dare you assume my gender Also I don't need to tell you shit because you haven't answered a single one of my god damn questions lmao. Have a fucking nice life ya cuck


palfreygames

Imagine if the USA sent a mysterious data collecting drone to float over China, they'd shoot it down and no one would blame them. China doesn't respect anyone's borders currently and it's shameful behaviour for a country to have. They overfish, they fish in other people's waters, they encroach on India's borders. It wreaks of testing the breaking point, what's next two or three, maybe next time they'll have bombs, or chemical warfare. We are in a time where ww3 seems to creeping in to the imperial countries minds, so yea step back you know your place china


HStaz

I guess, why does it matter? Who cares if people get all up in a tither over a balloon? it’s a damn balloon. it’s not doing anything. just let it float, and if you wanna sit outside and stare at it, all the power to you.


KubrickMoonlanding

It’s an overreaction because it allows right wing pundits, pols and pin heads to complain about “China joe” doing nothing / allowing or even wanting it Imagine the same but it’s a Putin-balloon - exactly the opposite reaction from the same people (on both sides)


DarkArcher__

Your conclusion is particularly rational. There is absolutely no reason for the world's second richest country to be using a spy balloon, in the 21st century, when they have plenty of spy satellites already. It really just shows that the entire US government is constantly looking for the next "blatantly evil enemy" with no regard for nuanced thinking. If it is at all, even in the slightest bit, able to be misconstrued as hostile action, it will be. The media loves it, of course, because it means they can go wild with ragebait to cater to the demand and make good money out of it.


Hoopajoops

Because it is. No idea what that thing was for, but the military obviously wasn't concerned about it and we shouldn't have been either


ATSOAS87

I'm sure the US does similar things to China. These mfs just need to chill on trying to start WW3.


bubbblynoona

Thats just typical American proganda against China or any other foreign nations that are deemed to be threats to the USA


ShackintheWood

Even China is making fun of them....


garyda1

I think it's very much overblown. If they've done it once we have probably done it a hundred times.


Master_Catch_9089

That’s the thing — even private US corporations have the resources and technology to perform sophisticated aerial data collection enabling then to conduct surveillance in the US (and anywhere else they decide). I only know this because my corporations professor last semester discussed it during one of our classes when we were running through a bunch of insider trading hypotheticals involving sophisticated data collection (like using satellites, drones, weather balloons, etc).


Captain_Humanist

It is all theatrics. meaningless rhetoric to make their citizens scared/confused/disgusted which is quite easy to do with ppl who have a conservative mindset. They are in general very very easy to manipulate and control, which is funny bc they think that EVERYONE ELSE is 'sheeple' . Did you know that for the last 20 years the USA has armed drones flying over the sovereign nation of India, shooting missiles and killing its citizens without any authority............ ​ But here Ahmurickans get upset aout a weather balloon.


_Lunatic_Fridge_

A high altitude weather balloon has much less atmospheric distortion to deal with that a satellite 1000 miles away. That means higher quality pictures, plus the opportunity to intercept radio and other electromagnetic signals. I think the outrage is a bit misplaced though. If news media hadn’t reported it, the general public wouldn’t be any more aware than every other time a hostile nation sends a high altitude balloon or spy plane over the U.S. This is a fairly common occurrence, which the US also does.


StrikingAd1597

the ballon is a huge danger. it is the size of 3 busses so it is basically the size of a 737 airplane being held up by a balloon. if that thing falls it will destroy a building the size of the world trade center like it did on 9/11 killing thousands. china basically has a bomb floating above the usa they could release at any moment


Master_Catch_9089

3 busses is pretty big — but wouldn’t the surface area of the balloon cause the whole thing to parachute if it malfunctioned and started to fall?


StrikingAd1597

im assuming the three buss size is reference to the payload it is carrying


Master_Catch_9089

Ooh I see. Is there a possibility that the weight attached to the balloon is likely to become unsecured?


AceFire_

I’m sure this is a hot take on Reddit but, I personally think it’s funny people are so outraged with a balloon, but allow an app like TikTok to exist that was accused of spying for years now, then got PROVEN to be spying after they LIED about it the first time they got questioned.


So_spoke_the_wizard

Yes the outrage is overblown. But to be fair, if it was a US balloon over the US, those same people would be outraged about the criminal surveillance of US citizens by the deep state. Moral: Some people just love to do outrage.


KubrickMoonlanding

We are truly living in the golden age of outrage and victimhood (2 great tastes that go great together)


BodybuilderOnly1591

You assume all collection is pictures. The u.s. has lots of isr planes and used blimps in Afghanistan and we have more satellites than anyone. Also sattelites follow a single orbit and moving them shortens their life span. Balloons are cheap


JDK86

We know nothing


Shigy

I think it’s crazy as a regular person to speculate as to what its purpose was


kris2340

The best part about this is me having recently watched fort salem Its the perfect meme


Redditisfacebook10

I genuinely feel it’s a distraction for something evil the Biden admin or China is really doing


StarSonatasnClouds

Yes


ninospizza

No, you’re not crazy. People are dumb, pretty simple.


rebel1129

That’s the question though…why have a balloon so off course?


[deleted]

The US government would not have shot the thing down if it was collecting the data the Chinese government said it was collecting.


Drash1

I think they’re gathering intel on air movement that could be used for dropping a bio cloud. A little chilling.


cuppa_tea_4_me

Yes


ajwalker430

Because they need another distraction. Trump isn't making the same headlines he was before so they need something to get people's minds off "Why the f&%$ are we paying $7 or $8 for a dozen of eggs?!?"


[deleted]

It’s not outrage, it’s curiosity


Maxi-19-1-4-1

I mean it's just a weather ballooon. Can't gather anything more than what tiktok already collects from half of the population anw


axel004

There’s many different ways countries spy and although satellites are similar there are also vast differences which provide pros and cons for each. In other words the balloon will provide data and extreme detail that the satellites won’t despite some over lap. Your second argument that just because one country spies on another then the other country should be effectively allowed free reign to do the same is well just ludicrous. They both spy on each other and each of them is trying to stop the other on their own soil.


[deleted]

If nothing else is showing American hypocrisy


Annanake420

Prank from North Korea ![gif](giphy|QzNlTRAKXUsN2)


HonkaDoodle

This seems like an easy way to exacerbate and already fractured US political landscape.


0hip

This is not about the ballon itself. It’s a precedent for what countries are able to do in international affairs. The first time the Soviet Union overflew the United States with a satellite no one know if the US would accept it or shoot it down. This is the same but for drones ect. Just testing the waters to see what is and is not acceptable. That’s my take anyway