Is it true? Is it propaganda? If it's true then Why are they doing this?

  • FidelCastro [he/him]M
    ·
    3 years ago

    If I remember correctly, the “effeminacy” thing China has been gunning against isn’t about gender expression as much as “idol culture”. I’ll see if I can find the threads I was reading on that from a queer activist in China.

    As is typical, the western media happily jumped on trying to use this as a propaganda angle. The thread I was reading had some criticism of other policies because China isn’t a utopia, but it was pretty clear on the intent there.

    Edit: Found it. Thread on the topic from our comrades over at r/GenZedong.

    Another twitter thread on the topic.

    Hexbear thread from Alaskaball

    • fuckwit [none/use name]
      ·
      3 years ago

      ….sounds like…cope? I dunno maybe I’m just a dumbass but that argument just seems to go from ‘it’s all lies’ and then triangulates back to ‘it’s pretty much what you think it is.’

      • FidelCastro [he/him]M
        ·
        edit-2
        3 years ago

        China has plenty of its own social issues with queer / LGBTQ+ rights (eg gay marriage still being illegal) and is not always going to line up with our own cultural indicators either.

        Understanding the context involved with a policy like this allows us to critique it more clearly than the very generalized take on it we’re seeing from most western press.

        Given our media’s vested interest in attacking China from any angle they can, I think it’s healthy to not take these stories at face value when they’re first presented to us.

        Our country is trying very hard to manufacture consent for this latest cold war and none of us are immune to propaganda.

        • fuckwit [none/use name]
          ·
          3 years ago

          what you said sounds kind of condescending tbh i don’t get the thread of logic behind the context itself and I’m not sure why you jumped to consent manufacturing because a policy seems pretty bad.

          • FidelCastro [he/him]M
            ·
            edit-2
            3 years ago

            Not trying to be condescending, sorry if it came across that way. I realize we both know our media/journalism is filtered through the US state. The majority of the articles on this topic when it first showed up a week or so ago were extremely narrow in their reporting and alarmist, which is what raised a red flag for me.

            I’m discussing manufacturing consent in terms of the general aims of the American state when it comes to the information pushed towards us. We’ve all seen examples of that in American journalism, especially over the last 5 years around China.

      • vccx [they/them]
        ·
        3 years ago

        https://twitter.com/ItsMaoCena/status/1434132349176926211?s=19