It's just hard, because I know the people I'm referring to are generally good, empathetic people who care about social justice. They just have unfortunately had their consent manufactured in favor of these pro-imperial/US talking points. They genuinely think there's a humanitarian crisis and that China is killing a minority. They simply just don't realize everywhere they're being informed by is steeping in anti-communist, right wing sources vying to create propaganda.
It's honestly so much easier dealing with a shitty reactionary than a liberal who simply doesn't recognize their own biases. And you trying to reveal said propaganda to them comes off as you being a heartless freak trying to justify some terrible act, no matter how legitimate your proof against said narrative is.
Like, what if I am wrong? Idk, sometimes it just feels like I must be, because I'm so outside the narrative. For instance, people trying to justify Israel's treatment of Palestine is complete BS to me, so isn't that how my defense of China sounds to said liberal? I just get worried sometimes that I'm the one brainwashed and on the wrong side of history. I don't want to be the bad guy, I'm just trying to do what I beleive to be right. But isn't that how every shitty side in history feels?
A glimmer of hope on the topic is how the "Iraq has WMDs" propaganda completely disintegrated. Of course there are counterexamples (people still believe all sorts of wild shit about the USSR), of course we aren't going to occupy western China and have a highly-publicized search for evidence, but it is possible for a manufactured narrative to come undone, and to come undone in a way that the lie becomes common knowledge.
Say 10-15 years from now there are undeniably still Uyghurs in China, and their population has even grown. That would take a lot of wind out of the story's sails.
Not to be a doomer, but living in a neoliberal hellscape I still hear people say things like "All the signs said they had WMDs we made an honest mistake!" or "They deliberately tricked us into thinking they had WMDs!" or even "They just moved them somewhere else/still have them"
The :cope: can be powerful
Sorry kid, can't give you a dime for healthcare/college/living wage.
War with China over the Uyghurs? Blank checks for all military contractors!
[10 years later] whoops my bad lol, sorry proles
You definitely still get some of that, but it's a small minority position, especially among people who aren't full-blown chuds anyway.