The original article says women. Unless they are using women with small hands as code for children.

I would hope a social studies teacher would understand the pitfalls of Western orientalism and Western cultures obsession with describing other groups as ‘its’ rather than as whole persons.

But if we’re going to objectify people, why don’t we get real technical about it. Why not move manufacturing to other east Asian countries? Even outside of East Asia, you can find many countries with less labor protections and large populations where you can select for millions of people with small hands. Why China? Anyone who is being intellectually honest knows that hand size was not the central reason.

If this is widely accepted then Western culture has a long way to go when it comes to facing its history of racial objectification. Because this sounds less like a valid rationale and more like modern phrenology presenting itself as business and engineering acumen.

Young Chinese women have small fingers, and that has made them a valuable contributor to iPhone production because they are more nimble at installing screws and other miniature parts in the small device, supply chain experts said. In a recent analysis the company did to explore the feasibility of moving production to the United States, the company determined that it couldn’t find people with those skills in the United States, said two people familiar with the analysis who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/23/technology/apple-iphone-trump-india-china.html

They’re supposedly paraphrasing “supply chain experts” but they could definitely paraphrase better.

Western culture is built on a foundation of race based hierarchical brain rot and isn’t it remarkable how it always finds a way to remind us of that?

That itself is an indictment on the US.

Also, that is less than half of those in military service. Many of them, regardless of their income level, get radicalized towards white nationalism due to the culture of the institution.

Don’t get me wrong there are good people that have served and I don’t doubt that the US government has taken advantage of their desperation.

But normalization of a culture that portrays a black colleague as a slave or downplays sexual assualt is unacceptable in my view (regardless of tax bracket).

You have to be below a subaverage intelligence level to join, not dissimilar to law enforcement, CBP or ICE so this is not at all surprising.

Republicans certainly have no intention of meaningfully addressing the deficit and they never have. Their appetite to drive the deficit up to fund tax cuts for the rich has only grown since Reagan.

The fact that this was blocked is mildly surprising at best. It means very little when we know all they’re looking for is to cut funding for key public services even further.

The US’ credit rating has already been dropped from triple A with the deficit being cited as a key reason.

The goal is to cut funding and services as fast as possible to accelerate the process of returning to feudalistic times. One where you and I fight over ‘limited’ resources due to artificial scarcity while they live lavishly in their palaces.

Exclusionary and traditionalist politics are gaining steam in Australia as they are in the rest of the Western world. This election was no doubt a good outcome but, just like in Canada and the US, support for conservatism and far right politics is growing among young Australian men. This will become problematic in the next 10 to 15 years as historically this demographic inherits control of the institutions.

Unfortunately, many Western countries are inching towards fascism due to failed neoloberal policies and rising antiimmigrant sentiment.

Canada and Australia were able to at least delay it in their most recent elections.

I don’t engage with them being outside the US but we do have a ‘Maple MAGA’ here which is similar.

Terrifying to hear that there are many in the US that are eager to do this type of work.

Americans are completely disengaged politically. Most are too busy consooming, side hustling or paying healthcare bills.

The rest are getting their news from Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

I haven’t met a GenZ American that’s media literate.

You and I both know they select those least likely to think for themselves. But one can hope.

How does America have so many cowards willing to do this job?

Finding an excuse to use their toys is literally America’s ethos a nutshell. This guy is just a microcosm of that.

Fascism and efficiency generally do not go hand in hand.

Don’t know if that’s widespread knowledge outside of the US but it would be interesting if that was widely known within the US.

Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.

Prison stocks about to blow up.

One can only wonder how many white nationalists gravitate towards those jobs, especially ICE agents.

I think many of us are shocked that the US has an army of ICE and CBP agents that were this ready to go full Gestapo. That suggests some alarming underlying issues.