The closest thing I've seen is "Oh they're being blatant about it to test us." lol
If Reddit is to be believed, it’s because Chinese satellites are poopoo.
In reality, it probably is a weather balloon or something that drifted off course. America has been following it since it touched Alaska so if it was anything dangerous, they had plenty time to shoot it down or intercept it some other way.
Maybe with a Patriot B-1776 Fighter Balloon that cost $100 million to make and immediately crashed into it.
It's a weather balloon but instead of being full of helium it's full of COMMUNISM :mao-aggro-shining:
China possesses some of the best lens technology in the world outside of space telescopes, I highly doubt their satellites are bad at taking pictures of things.
If Reddit is to be believed, it’s because Chinese satellites are poopoo.
Every single fucking camera that these people have ever used was made in China. Every advanced telescopic tool too. The idea that they don't have excellent camera equipment on these satellites is ridiculous.
What gets me is apparently it was tracked from the moment it ascended in China, but if it was to spy on the US, why not have a spy launch it in America, or at least international waters.
Yeah, nobody with half a brain actually believes this to be some nefarious espionage plot, everything points to this being a weather balloon. The hysteria is pure manufacturing of consent for war with China.
People seem to think china is some stone age country and its really weird. Even if you think China bad, its still a massive economy and does not need to use dumb balloons to spy.
It's telling that the government has been saying the balloon is to take pictures of your backyard (which China already has), becuase the only real reason China would send a balloon is to either test US early warning radar (which to be fair sucks shit in every country) or to get the US to acutally shoot it down to see what the capabilities of US ultra-high altitude interceptors are. The balloon is so high up that planes can't safely shoot it down. It would be interesting to see if either the Patriot system or the SM-6 could actually hit something outside of a testing scenario, and presumably you could take readings of the missile during ascent.
Although hitting a stationary balloon is pretty easy, even for the US's terrible interceptors that constantly fail. So I don't know what anyone could learn from that. I'm pretty sure it's a weather balloon that snapped it's mooring.
I do think it’s interesting the pentagon has said they aren’t shooting it down out of fear for damaging people on the ground. There’s a 0% chance they give a shit about that, and it’s flying over a lot of low population density areas anyway. My guess is they can’t shoot it down.
my guess is that they don't want to shoot it down (even if they could which they couldn't) because they'd rather every goober in Kansas go out to their backyard with a pair of binoculars to look for it. The balloon is on tour generating hype for the tiktok ban.
My hot take is that it IS a plot to test us, and they've confirmed that we're a nation of buffoons who will freak the fuck out over a weather balloon. If they weren't convinced we're all stupid as shit before, they are now.
lol i just wrote a dumb joke comment about this, glad to see we think alike
I'll preface this by saying I'm 110% sure it's what China says it is. Every other explanation I've heard is dogshit but there two that are slightly less dogshit than the others:
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This is just a tit-for-tat move by China. It's part of the "payback" for Pelosi's visit to Chinese Taipei and other various incursions by the US military near Chinese airspace and water. So in this scenario, it doesn't matter if it's just collecting weather data or spying... the goal is just to send a message. On the surface this seems a little bit plausible but it really doesn't mesh with how China tends to respond to these things. Interesting that this theory doesn't even necessarily dispute it's just a weather balloon.
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It really is trying to get data on US missile sites. Because really, the US military is not a threat to ever take over the Chinese mainland. If a war broke out, the only serious threat China faces is US nukes, so they want to get as much data as possible. But this one really doesn't make sense because you have to assume China has some unknown surveillance tech in there, that they directed the balloons in just the right spots, and that they would risk losing this unknown tech (unlikely they would be able to salvage the balloon). And I don't think the balloon ever actually got close to the nuclear sites, anyway.
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The Chinese government's official statement is that it is a civilian aircraft used for meteorological purposes. Is there a credible reason to doubt that statement? Or is it xenophobic fueled hysteria after years of anti-china sentiment.
On NPR they literally said it doesn't make sense to do this ('this' being using a spy balloon as the pentagon is claiming).
"President Xi, this seems like a silly way to scare Americans. A balloon? There's no way they would care. It's just a balloon."
"My trusted advisor and companion, you overestimate the Angloids. They are weak-minded and easily frightened from eating too much burger and fries. Send the balloon, no, make it two, it will prove how easily we may engage in psychological operations when they try to start a war in 2025, as predicted by Mao's hidden texts."
"Yes, sir."
