I remember when the late Reggie White was vilified for saying shit like this.
Now, the New York Times treats it as deep thinking.— Ragnarok Lobster (@eclecticbrotha1.bsky.social) May 24, 2025 at 10:22 AM
The funny thing is NYT already did a definitive piece on why Chinese workers are so much better at managing tiny screws in iPhones back in 2019 and (fun fact) turns out it's not because they have small hands, it's because they have a big tooling industry www.nytimes.com/2019/01/28/t…
— Pwnallthethings (@pwnallthethings.bsky.social) May 24, 2025 at 9:24 AM
China has millions of people who migrate around the country to work in factories as Apple revs up production around a new iPhone. They often work from the summer until Chinese New Year, when production slows down, so Apple’s suppliers don’t have to pay them for a full year of work. They live in dormitories connected to factories with assembly lines longer than a football field, clustered nearby component suppliers.
China has a deep bench of engineering talent. In 2017, Mr. Cook said the country had enough tooling engineers to fill multiple football fields, while the United States barely had enough to fill a room…
It’s not the crime criminally lazy racism, it’s the huffy, self-important how dare you question our objectivity!!! Squid Cloud of Butthurt …
lol I just got momentarily hysterical thinking about the fact that the New York Times got its managing director for communications to confirm on a Saturday that it is standing by its reporting that young women in China have tiny hands and this is why Apple has its factories there
— Julia Carrie Wong (@joolia.bsky.social) May 24, 2025 at 11:42 PM
===
honestly speechless
“Our reporting does not make racial or genetic generalizations, but simply cites experts who have experience with the industrial process in U.S. and Chinese factories.”
like ok but you said “young Chinese women have small fingers” … ?? ?— Julia Carrie Wong (@joolia.bsky.social) May 24, 2025 at 1:34 PM
You know who else has tiny hands? Children. Is the New York Times going to be suggesting that we can only compete w China if we use children in our factories?
— Steph (@observingangel.bsky.social) May 25, 2025 at 12:05 AM
Doesn’t have to be actual children… if we could only produce a steady supply of desperate peons willing to live in barracks & toil six days a week, as during the first Gilded Age…
Jeffg166
Kids have small fingers.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Jeffg166:
Yeah, that’s what Schindler said to convince his German employers to let him keep the kids at the factory.
We can’t call these people Nazis often enough.
scav
“How dare you suggest we play any role whatsoever in this endeavor beyond inking up whatever random shit comes out of the people we choose to interview!”
Mr. Bemused Senior
Do you recall the scene in Schindler’s List where he’s justifying the essential child workers because they can polish the insides of artillery shells?
[Dang, @comrade scotts agenda of rage beat me to it.]
kindness
There seems to be a ‘listserve’ somewhere directing all these people to say these (stupid and racist) things. God knows they think if they repeat something enough times it makes it true. Now why our major MSM companies have signed up to uncork this flood of bullshit on it’s audience, well… they are all owned by the wealthy, so they go there.
jimmiraybob
“You know who else has tiny hands? Children. Is the New York Times going to be suggesting that we can only compete w China if we use children in our factories?”
Well duh. Getting children into the workforce is how the new “manufacturing golden age” is going to work. That is the plan. Forcing women into the role of birthing machines to produce more workers, eliminating migrant labor, and eliminating education goes hand in hand with R-state legislative efforts to remove or nullify child-labor laws.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Mr. Bemused Senior:
Heh heh, GMTA.
Montanareddog
So elite FTFNYT journalist, Tripp Mickle (sic), does not know the difference between an adjective and a preposition.
bbleh
Actually it IS the criminally lazy racism. The huffiness is small beans next to that.
They’re trying to be the Wall Street Journal. Whining about the Orange Guy’s tawdry self-dealing instead of focusing on tax cuts for corporations and wealthy people like he’s supposed to. Busily bothsidesing the ketamine-fueled destruction of the regulatory apparatus that protects public health, workplace safety, data security, the soundness of public finance, and the environment. Engaging in public circle-jerking with Jake Tapper about Joe Biden’s age, fer chrissake.
Failson self-indulgence? Desperate last gasps for market share? Alas for what the Times (oh, sorry, The Times) used to be, but not at all sorry I canceled my subscription a couple years ago (after decades of subscribing).
stinger
Looking at it from a different angle, do the fingers of Chinese women get bigger as the women move into their middle years? What’s the age cutoff for
stewardessestiny nimble fingers?NotMax
Obligatory.
:)
Montanareddog
From Mr Mickle’s NYT bio:
Pity his undergraduate degree in English Literature and his Ivy League graduate degree and his experience didn’t teach him to write English.
trollhattan
Gyna might agree to mail all Uyghur children here to assemble electronics, but only if we agree to reeducate them at the same time as to why Uyghurs suck.
Didn’t Scott Walker already figure all this out?
Baud
I wonder how much finger measurerers earn at Apple.
bbleh
@Montanareddog: and there it is, QED.
trollhattan
@Montanareddog:
His autobiography is Busy Being Woke at Columbia.
trollhattan
@Baud: Great second income stream for phrenologists.
Jharp
I’ve visited several toy factories in China.
And yes the workers migrate from rural China to work in the factories. Yes they might only stay for the season. Yes they live in dorms. Yes they are fed. Yes they are provided medical care. And yes their work clothes are provided.
And yes the work is not pleasant and the wages are low.
Yet at the end of the season the workers are able to save virtually every dollar they’ve earned.
Compare that to the poor slob in America working a McJob year’s end savings……
Baud
There’s an analogous reason why the US is the porn capital of the world.
Ohio Mom
@stinger: On a related note, it’s probably a relatively small window between the time that the average child has enough eye-hand coordination and dexterity to manage such fine work as placing tiny screws and when their hands grow too big.
This is all nonsense of course, the history of the world is full of full-grown adults doing intricate work, think of watchmakers and jewelers, and dentists and those surgeons who re-attach severed fingers. I’m sure there are other examples, these are off the top of my head.
Scout211
Wow. I am so glad I don’t read FTFNYT. My only exposure is what I read here.
It sounds like “Charlie from the comms team” is defending the “facts” in the article with that tried and true defense of “some people are saying.” Seems legit.
///
Baud
I guess someone should ask Apple if they actually did the report mentioned in the article.
LeftCoastYankee
Perhaps all the progeny of the “short fingered vulgarian” should employee their hereditary little fingers making phones for Mr. Apple.
Harrison Wesley
I thought ‘Tripp Mickle’ was the pseudonym of a 1980s porn star. Guess my memory’s going.
Anne Laurie
One commentor pointed out that many adult American men take pride in painting miniature war-gaming figures using tiny brushes.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
I’ve seen the polling and it seems like Americans want more manufacturing jobs but nobody actually wants to do those jobs. So it’s an affectation, like driving a super duty pick em up truck and sporting all the other accoutrements of redneck culture even though you don’t work an occupation that requires a pick up truck or ever really were a redneck. Or, alternatively it’s the temporarily embarrassed millionaire phenomenon – they all think they’ll be the one who owns the factory and they’ll get lots of enjoyment telling all those poor saps to work harder for less money. I’m guessing it’s mostly the former. Everyone wants the return of some golden past industrial age but nobody envisions working those jobs.
Harrison Wesley
In 2019 it’s big tools; in 2025 it’s tiny fingers. We need a follow-up article explaining what changed.
Another Scott
@Ohio Mom: Speaking of history… (a comment on Ken White’s thread):
It’s always convenient how these observations by reasonably well-off white men invariably serve the economic interests of well-off white men, isn’t it??
Grr…
Best wishes,
Scott.
gene108
@Ohio Mom:
And what do all these people have in common? TINY HANDS!
We can repurpose them to screwing in tiny screws to iPhones.
Sure Lurkalot
Here’s today’s example of the FTFNYT showing why their highest and best use is as bird cage liner:
Today, again, a Peter Baker article:
Normalizing activities? Do you ever wonder, Peter, how these pesky activities got normalized?
RevRick
My paternal grandfather was a plant foreman at a precision ball bearing factory and the assembly line was mostly women, because they generally had far better fine motor skills.
gene108
@Sure Lurkalot:
There were other presidents who monetized the presidency while in office? Other presidents who let people have private dinners for the small sum of $5 million?
What Trump’s doing is unprecedented.
Westyny
You know who else has tiny hands? Maybe he can be repurposed.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Anne Laurie:
That was most likely JAFD.
He and I have been involved in historical miniature wargaming for a loooong time (I’m entering my 50th year). We’ve known each other casually for over 20 years although neither of us knew we were in here until a couple of years back. That’s unusual because our hobby is nothing but right wing/libertarian white males.
A quick sample (what I have posted) what you’re referring to:
https://flic.kr/p/2pGzvik
https://flic.kr/p/2pGzvcJ
https://flic.kr/p/2otVFqR
https://flic.kr/p/2nnw2WA
https://flic.kr/p/2mLkDiE
https://flic.kr/p/2kxUpFz
KenK
Precision assemblers in factories don’t handle individual screws. They use auto-feed screwdrivers. They’ve been in use for years, worldwide including USA.
Professor Bigfoot
Police Brutality is Part of Our Democratic Crisis
prostratedragon
@Professor Bigfoot: Just had put that in my linking queue.
lowtechcyclist
@Sure Lurkalot:
And what medium would have reported on (or even occasionally initiated) the blowback?
Nope. He doesn’t wonder. Worthless git.
Chetan Murthy
This is kinda chilling: https://digbysblog.net/2025/05/25/tourists-dont-come-to-america/
Aussie police officer visits her hubs in Hawaii (he’s serving in Army), gets detained, cavity-searched, held overnight, then sent back on a flight to Oz. Degrading treatment throughout.
Fucking disgusted with our country, and feel badly for this woman and her family (mother and hubs). The husband has applied for an honorable discharge so he can move to Oz to be with her. Good on him.
Chetan Murthy
@prostratedragon: I read that, and had to stop, b/c ….. ugh. enough agita.
lowtechcyclist
@RevRick:
I already had another thought for the ‘because’ part, but it should be saved for BJ After Dark.
different-church-lady
“A guy wrote it in a book and that’s good enough for us,” is not the argument ender you think it is.
rikyrah
The United States versus Elon R. Musk (@Needle_of_Arya) posted at 6:06 AM on Sun, May 25, 2025:
I honestly believe that the other major reason why white journalists despised Biden is a class issue: class warfare among white people, between the legacy media, themselves trust fund kids from America’s richest suburbs, despising Biden because he was a working-class ethnic white
(https://x.com/Needle_of_Arya/status/1926595604651577368?t=yiVfv_MICrRdR2mBuMfYtQ&s=03
)
different-church-lady
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
“Let’s you and him
fightlabor.”different-church-lady
Can we get some of these people to tighten the tiny screws in Trump’s brain?
Chetan Murthy
@rikyrah: I remember over at LG&M it was mentioned that one of the important classes of folks who didn’t do better during Biden’s admin, was journos. They were smack-dab in the SES bracket that was becalmed/had it worse. The rich made out like bandits, and the poor got a bit of a bump. these upper-middle-class fuckers were pissed AF, esp. that the poors made more $$, b/c that meant they paid more for all the services they were used to getting.
prostratedragon
@Chetan Murthy: Back at you — good night, where do all these people unveiling on cue even come from?!
Chetan Murthy
@prostratedragon: In case it wasn’t obvious: I started reading the article, and that passage is where I stopped. Wasn’t complaining about your linking to that bit.
Geminid
@different-church-lady: They could try tightening the screws, but the threads are stripped.
Lacuna Synecdoche
Steph, ObservingAngel@Bluesky via Anne Laurie @ Top:
Maybe not NYT, but I’m sure Republicans will.
Melancholy Jaques
@Baud:
I did not know that. I figured it would be some place less obvious.
YY_Sima Qian
I’ve worked in the consumer electronics industry in the PRC for nearly 2 decades. Back in late ‘00s factories did prefer to hire young women for assembly line workers, because on average they had better dexterity, but also better eyesight greater focus, attention to detail, better response to command & ability to withstand the monotony.
However, due to the shifting demographics & changing preferences of the younger generations, manufacturers could no longer limit themselves to young women when hiring. They’ve had to change their production processes to reflect the changing worker demographics. Some decamped to SE Asia, & the rest have spent the past decade implementing ever greater degree of automation in response to rapidly rising wages of manufacturing labor.
It feels like FTFNYT dug out one of their drafts from 2010 & decided to publish it in 2025.
different-church-lady
@YY_Sima Qian: Considering how hard they’re digging 1938 out of their archives…
YY_Sima Qian
@Jharp: Yeah, I’ve made the point before that assembly line work in the PRC, as monotonous & exhausting as they are w/ moderate compensation (at best), offer a path for the said workers to escape even worse monotony & exhaustion on the farms & provide a path to better possibilities eventually. Most people only work on assembly lines for a decade, accumulate savings (as you say, it is possible to save most of one’s wages because most daily necessities are paid for or heavily subsidized by their employers), before using the savings to finance something better (such as a small business).
That is a key distinction between the socio-/political economies of the U.S. & the PRC.
YY_Sima Qian
@Baud: Oof…
YY_Sima Qian
@different-church-lady: Yeah…
NotMax
@Lacuna Synecdoche
Young children were regularly employed in textile factories during the industrial revolution (a href=”https://cdn.britannica.com/17/167717-050-C106E746/boys-mill-Macon-Georgia-1909.jpg”>#1 – #2). They could fit in between or underneath the machinery when things got bollixed up.
NotMax
Rats. Fix for #57.
Young children were regularly employed in textile factories during the industrial revolution (#1 – #2). They could fit in between or underneath the machinery when things got bollixed up.
YY_Sima Qian
@jimmiraybob: Isn’t child labor essentially legalized in Alabama?
rikyrah
@bbleh:
Their professional malpractice is so obvious.
Their continued addiction to BOTH SIDES 😡😡
Gloria DryGarden
@Geminid: before I read from the bottom to get the context, I thought about men, manliness, and stripped screws.
Namely, stripped threads on the lug nuts, overly tightened at the tire store. It’s very inconvenient when one has to change a tire later. Going even further, I was assisted by 3 spanish speaking men, all smaller and shorter than me, but stronger, and they each had a go at it. It took all of them to get that tire off there. Thank goddess for the kindness of strangers, and for people who are strong.
meanwhile, I don’t think it was tiny hands that stripped the loose screws in voldemorts brain. (What’shis name) Maybe his tiny everything, tiny thought process…
Gloria DryGarden
@Montanareddog: with a name like that, the opportunity for limerick writing looms big. Surely someone will write something.
Chris T.
@Scout211:
Some people are saying that Charlie from the comms team has a nose made out of earwax!
Citizen Alan
@rikyrah: i’ve said for many years that the worst thing to ever happen to journalism was the proliferation of the journalism school in colleges. It transformed what had been a blue collar profession into an upper crust elitist white collar profession in which most of the leading opinion makers and trendsetters all came from wealthy families that could pay their way through colombia, without taking out student loans.
Barbarai
What made the article even worse was Charlie Stadtlander from NYT’s Communications sourcing for the claim: if you follow Julia Carrie Wong’s thread [and she is a reporter for the UK Guardian], he uses Patrick McGee’s comments on a podcast with Bari Weiss. So two layers of garbage.
Miss Bianca
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
Or as Bujold’s Miles Vorkosigan so pithily observed, “Everybody wants Gregor’s throne. Nobody wants Gregor’s desk.”
h/t Professor Bigfoot et al for recalling that particular gem to my mind.
YY_Sima Qian
@Barbarai: Patrick McGee is a grifter, & his new book on Apple in China is fully of outright falsehoods that are easily falsifiable. When called out on X on these distortions & falsehoods, his reply is invariably: “I explain it in the book, read the book”.