tweet link -> https://twitter.com/AP/status/1447147267669037057?s=20
archived -> https://web.archive.org/web/20211012141845/https://twitter.com/AP/status/1447147267669037057?s=20
For the records, here is a NED official tweet mentioning they have been "funding Uyghur groups" since 2004:
img -> https://i.imgur.com/Wr8EOYS.png
tweet -> https://twitter.com/NEDemocracy/status/1337063301113581568?s=20
archived -> https://web.archive.org/web/20211012142639/https://twitter.com/NEDemocracy/status/1337063301113581568?s=20
Here is a video someone posted below the tweet -- of a guy discussing this shift in narrative (using this article, specifically). He makes the case that the *actual* cultural genocide occurred/was occurring when Salafism was injected into the region and supported by outside actors in the Western axis. I think the video is pretty good, and, among other things, he shows that NGO internal memos refer to the "concentration camps" as 'vocational centers' -> https://youtu.be/78s7yP2BdF0?t=0
Here is Lawrence Wilkerson spilling the beans also -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrufheMU-WQ&t=0s
Imagine writing this as your own country still imprisons Mexicans on the border.
I didn't look very carefully at the post, read "the barbed wire is coming down, the armored personnel carriers are almost gone..." and genuinely thought the post was going to be about how "look, Biden is improving things at the border!"
constant genocide of Native Americans for over 400 years is what I'm thinking about, but this too.
Ah, see, the Chinese got bored of doing genocide and took everything down before we could get the real proof. Listen, it definitely happened, and you can't prove us wrong now, but they totally just, like, got bored and left, so you gotta trust us that it definitely was happening at some point. -CIA Jim
turning a big dial taht says "Genocide" on it and constantly looking back at the audience for approval like a contestant on the price is right.
- China exempted Uyghurs and other minority groups from the one child policy for decades.
- China -- for some reason -- did a 180 and decided to genocide Uyghurs, but not other Muslims, and not other minority groups.
- China -- for some reason -- decided to do another 180 on Uyghurs.
Surprised this hasn't been posted before. Twitter was raving about it. A lot of weird takes but the stupidest type I've seen was "they've stopped because they've finished what they've started, the Uyghur culture is kill."
Americans say that and then are like "Native American cultures are thriving and we don't need to change anything."
They will unironically say it was a real genocide, but America heroically shamed them into stopping. :amerikkka-clap:
You can push back on that, though.
"Do you really think a nuclear superpower did a 180 on a major policy because of criticism from NATO? If so, why doesn't the U.S. do the same thing when they receive much broader international condemnation (e.g., on Cuba)? Do we ignore criticism while China accepts it and changes?"
This is the type of thing where they'll go "yeah, that makes sense" after you spend an hour arguing, then go back to their regular beliefs the next day. For many people, "west good else bad" is an orthodoxy that they're not even aware of.
Some people can be convinced more easily than others, yeah, and these are good arguments that will at least force them to think for a moment. But I mainly meant that the first response of these types would obviously be to maintain they were right the whole time and that it only stopped because America intervened, despite how ridiculous that is. You can (and should, unless it's not safe) always offer pushback, as you say.
You're absolutely right. Changing someone's mind on a topic like this takes repeated convincing and involves lots of backsliding. I think understanding this from the jump will help us get less frustrated.
I think understanding this from the jump will help us get less frustrated.
Yeah, for sure. People often tend to think everyone came by their beliefs rationally, but it's generally not true. Commensurately, it's hard to rationally argue people out of them.
The expectation should be something like:
You're going to have to talk to most people about this stuff a dozen times for it to really stick. Between each of those conversations they're going to backslide at least a little. And maybe half the people you talk to aren't going to come around no matter what you say.
Exponential growth is a nice thing to think about with this. If the size of the left doubles each year -- that is, if each leftist convinces only one other person to become a leftist every 12 months -- it won't take long to grow real big.
I know this is more or less the worst possible emoji for this, but :to-the-moon: radicalize those friends, coworkers, and relatives.
In addition, :sankara-shining: :
As revolutionaries, we don’t have the right to say we are tired of explaining. We must never stop explaining. We know that when the people understand, they cannot help but follow us.
I think that Sankara quote is incredible. A damn shame he was taken so young. :france-cool:
Unironically the extent of most liberal antifascism until their hands are forced.
The mental gymnastics around this astound me. If it were a real genocide, these people were still cool with doing business with them through its duration? And doing nothing about it after? Like, if it were a real genocide, shouldn't they have wanted to liberate the "camps" like Auschwitz or something? :blob-no-thoughts:
I mean there were people saying or at least gesturing toward that stuff the past couple years
I mean, we managed to pivot on a dime from "Muslim Bad! Law Enforcement Good!" to "China Bad! Muslim Good!" That's not even mentioning how easily the entire 20 year occupation of Afghanistan swirled away down the memory hole.
I just don't know how invested the US Media is going to be in sustaining the narrative now that operations for escalation have dried up. In another six months, how many people will be able to point to Afghanistan on a map?
This is just like the #SOSCUBA shit. It was a thing for a few weeks and then it didn't work and so now its not a thing anymore and nobody cares. The American mind isn't going to give a shit about any of this atm, because we're facing down a giant Treats Shortage. So its time to talk about that, instead.
It doesn't even matter that it doesn't matter. Not like PRC's rise is going to be halted by whatever level of xenophobia that exists in the US. Nice to have a pseudo-retraction, but at this point I care very little whether they walked back on their narrative or not. None of us were relying on western media to suddenly find their integrity anyway.
PRC’s rise is going to be halted by whatever level of xenophobia that exists in the US
Nuclear missiles are always a thing.
The worst plausible scenario is that China treated Uyghurs like the U.S. treated black people during the War on Drugs. But China started maybe ten years ago and has already stopped, where the U.S. started fifty years ago and is still going.
I think its curious how "Uyghur Genocide!" was a narrative that got cooked up just as we were departing Afghanistan. And now that we don't have a bunch of military assets in the neighborhood, we're being told that everything is settling back down again.
Really big :soviet-hmm: moment.
I'll be even more curious to see how Chinese bureaucrats interface with the new Taliban government, and whether Americans rediscover their fear and loathing of Muslims as a result.
