Trump has backed down on most of the outrageous tariffs (200% tarriff on China). The alternative was a false reality that the EU believed because they are scared of Trump and bad at negotiating.

I'm glad the American people at least know how weak the EU is, we should elect someone next time that will bring those tariffs up to 100%, and the EU will have to take it because it's better than a 200% tariff alternative. That's just being realistic, right?

As far as I know (am I mistaken?) the US reduced tariffs to 10% in return for China reducing tariffs to 10%, and reducing restrictions on the exports of rare earths.

That sounds more like China backed down than the US did.

The EU is a lot weaker than China. China dominates critical areas of manufacturing, and does not have the level of dependence Europe (non-EU as well) has on the US - I hardly need remind people here of the dependence in IT systems.

China put retaliatory tariffs in place and placed restrictions on the exports of rare earths, calling the US bluff and forcing them to negotiate down to where things stand today.

Trump may present trade imbalances as a zero sum game, I am pretty sure he does not believe it.

The real thinking is that being a net importer gives you more negotiating power so you can use that to get a better deal.

its well worth looking at what people like Miran and Bessent said (before they were in government) to see what is driving all this.

Expressing themselves by generating boilerplate content?

Creativity is a conversation with yourself and God. Stripping away the struggle that comes with creativity defeats the entire purpose. Making it easier to make content is good for capital, but no one will ever get fulfillment out of prompting an AI and settling with the result.

Check out all the creatives on /r/screenwriting, half the time they are trying to figure out how to "make connections" just to get a story considered. It's a fucking nightmare out there. Whatever god is providing us with AI is the greatest gift I could imagine to a creative.

AI could be useful if used like any other tool, but not as an all in box where everything is done for you minus the prompt. Im actually worried people will become lazy

People will always become lazy with new tools. But not all people.

It'll lower the barrier of entry (and therefore the quality floor before people feel comfortable sharing something "they made" if they can deflect with an easy "the AI made this" versus "I put XY0 hours into this"), but it'll also empower people who wouldn't otherwise even try to create new things and, presumably, follow their passion to learn and do more.

Im sure not all people will become lazy but im worried about the trend in general.

Creativity is an expression. It comes from the heart. Hard work isn't always the greatest vehicle for creativity. We just think it is. I've seen plenty of things that clearly took a lot of execution but fundamentally lack creativity, often becoming an exhibition in technical virtuosity.

Here's something you can try to prove it to yourself. Sit down and write a novel. It'll be like squeezing blood out of a rock unless your heart is ready to do it freely. You'll see that if you force yourself through hard work to do it, you'll just end up with something that people will laud as creative due to the execution but it'll lack everything about free-flowing creativity. Good programmers are lazy, so are good creatives, but now I'm just repeating myself.

It's a lot easier squeezing blood out of a heart, especially for the lazy.

exactly, creatives and everyone else can always do something fulfilling for themselves just like before AI. They can struggle all they want and continue doing it for no capital. because that process is fulfilling to them.

Yes but how many will sign up for that? Im sure few will continue to do so but creativity will certainly take a big hit.

> Yes but how many will sign up for that? Im sure few will continue to do so but crea

It’s not important to me that they do.

> Im sure few will continue to do so but creativity will certainly take a big hit.

I’ve seen the workflows for AI generated films like https://youtu.be/x6aERZWaarM?si=J2VHYAHLL3og32Ix and I find it to be very creative. Its more interesting to me that this person would never have raised capital and tried to direct this, but this is much closer to what they wanted to create. I’m also entertained by it, whether I was judging it for generative AI issues or not.

The entire identity of being pro-Palestinian is one of resistance to power, so it's natural they would view all issues through that lens. The only form of activism for that movement is posting about it online, so it makes sense that it would seem to infest everything.

I don't get this argument. All the cheap, toxic, unsafe, non-lasting crap will still exist, it's just going to be sold on Amazon with 1-day shipping. Consumers want these products and the market just fills the demand. The deregulation that will take place under this administration will lead to even more, toxic, unsafe crap flooding the market, except it'll just be manufactured in the U.S.

The same item on Amazon will cost x2/3 times than Temu, if you will be able to find the same item at all, meaning it cuts a big chunk of the potential buyers of the cheap crap.

The world would have been a better place if we hadn't been allowed to flood the market with cheap crap. Not only it creates enormous waste, it also means that reputable brands now start to cut corners in order to compete with cheap no name crap.