by alephnerd | 2025-11-30 04:41:02+00:00
> adequate reactions and preparations before war are building up the industrial base, securing energy and primary production, stockpiling arms, planes, subs, drones, recruiting and training military, building fortifications to defend invasion routes, building up air defenses around critical infrastructure

Which most European states are doing and have been doing since 2014 (eg. Poland, Romania).

But counterespionage is equally critical.

> trying to sell China EUV chip technology

1. Said EUV technology is develoepd and manufactured by a US DoE JV which ASML only has nominal control over

2. It was recently alleged that ASML offered to sell EUV tech to China while trojaning offered tech to give western intel visibility [0]

> While also peddling their lies about how those threats require these draconian domestic policies.

A Kantian-esque rules based order only works when all players choose to operate under said rules. Weaponizing asylum seeking, exit visas, criminal networks, and wanton sabotage require a level of visibility that will be viewed as draconian.

And to be brutally honest, this "rules based" status quo is only came to fruition in the 2000s. Western European (and it's only soft Gen X and Millenial techie Western Europeans who are complaining) intelligence agencies were much more draconian until the late 2000s.

> would have been foremost to try to prevent real or perceived need for strong alliances between Russia and China. Instead, all actions of the past 5-10 years have been to drive those two countries closer together, making the threat much bigger

If forced to choose between the entirety of the EU (which is a loose confederation with individual nation states continuing to hold soverignity) or a nuclear armed neighbor with significant resources and technology exports, China would always choose the latter - even for the simple fact that it gives China a pressure point against Vietnam, North Korea, and India, all of whom try to leverage Russian ties against China to develop strategic autonomy.

> The common people do not need to be spied on and monitored and censored, it's not that there is exactly zero threat that could be mitigated or intelligence that could be gathered from doing such things, it is that it is such a minuscule non-issue compared to the gargantuan one next to it of treasonous politicians, intelligence agencies, bureaucrats, corporate bosses - "the ruling class" when it comes to dealings with adversaries.

Legally speaking in European countries, there is no difference between "common people" and "the ruling class". The only way to dragnet the "ruling class" is through such measures.

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Frankly, this is a return to the pre-2010s norms around national security within most European states. And techies on HN and Reddit do not matter. Most of you Western Europeans would desert your home countries the moment s### got real, just like a significant portion of Ukrainian and Russian techies.

Techies who earn significantly more than most other citizens of their countries acting as if they are not part of the "capital class" is just class fetishization.

[0] - https://nltimes.nl/2025/11/20/asml-offered-spy-us-breaking-e...