The :citations-needed: boys seem like good kids, but listening to them, they haven't completely eliminated their :LIB: :brainworms: .

One manifestation of this is that they seem to be deliberately avoiding a China episode, on the eve of a new cold war and in the middle of a propaganda storm. It appears that Adam has written many articles debunking anti-China stuff, so it doesn't look like it's bias. Please offer your speculation on why there's no episode of CN about it in the comments.

Anyone got any thoughts?

  • SolidaritySplodarity [they/them]
    ·
    3 years ago

    I suspect they're avoiding China in the podcast because it's a difficult topic to cover.

    1. There's a lot of background to go through for debunking sources and claims. They'd basically need a short series to cover even one talking point.

    2. There's also sinophobia on the left so they'd need to do a stellar job and very carefully craft their position. This is assuming they wouldn't feel the urge to both sides it a bit, in which case they also need to avoid alienating people sick of that crap.

    3. There's often very little in the way of information to displace various claims. Information out of China is limited, particularly in the English language. We mostly get heavy-handed bullshitting from Westerners with links to US state dept, military, and intelligence. This makes it take even longer to explain/debunk because you can't just say, "no actually this happened", you have to more subtly explain why the claims are so dubious that they should be rejected even though you don't know more about on the ground conditions after acknowledging this.

    • LeninWeave [none/use name]
      hexagon
      ·
      3 years ago

      Yeah, this definitely makes some sense as a motivation, good point.

      This is assuming they wouldn’t feel the urge to both sides it a bit, in which case they also need to avoid alienating people sick of that crap.

      :cringe: hope not

      • SolidaritySplodarity [they/them]
        ·
        3 years ago

        "We're not saying China never does bad things, far from it. [A list, part of which drives you crazy]. But there's a uniquely insidious way in which the media spreads [rephrasing of the topic of the episode]."

        You know it would have to happen, lol. It's their formula.

        • LeninWeave [none/use name]
          hexagon
          ·
          edit-2
          3 years ago

          See, these are the :LIB: :brainworms: I was referring to in the OP. Also, lmao that sounds exactly like them.