It's what it looks like. China imperialist, free Tibet, and it's not Socialism unless it's perfect.
Oh god, I didn't listen very far into the episode
Please tell me he didn't compare China to the Confederacy
Oh lol you mean the whole point of the podcast
Well, if it helps he does compare it to the US hypothetically absorbing Cuba.
Yeah, but America wouldn't do that anymore like we used to :so-true:
This is why I'm always on the side of the United States, the lesser of two evils
Thank goodness, I was worried this timeline had jumped the shark
Yeah but I have seen libs saying exactly that in the wild
China is not socialism because of the definition but as American leftist we have the potential to explore and construct socialism with no past baggage attached to it tho
Idk, I think we've all got baggage to contend with. Don't get me wrong, I'd expect revolutions in different places to have different characteristics, but the US would have its own unique challenges.
For instance, I don't think the US as a national identity could be reconciled with socialist motivations. But then, I don't think it could hold popular support while repudiating the evils the US has wrought. Luckily, my speculation's not worth much.
Chinese soft power is almost non existent, do they really think that leftists online are being brainwashed by the fucking global times and not the massive military industrial complex here?
I was honestly confused when I read that description cause I was like “Oh wow yeah that sounds great!” Because the idea that when he was talking about Taiwan myths the “nationalists” are the Chinese who want reunification, and not the Taiwanese groups who want an independent nation (hence, nationalists), didn’t even cross my mind
oh for fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucksssssssss saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaakeeeee
this literally has nothing to do with the subject of that podcast wtf. this is the most unsubtle shit i've ever seen. on the other hand, people like robert evans sorta give me hope that the feds could (in some situations) be dumber and louder than we think once shit fully hits the fan
So, basic commentary (was high when I listened last night, so my memory is a little spotty):
- Folks blaming Robert Evans for this should note that he's not on the episode at all. Chris Wong is a long-time affiliate of the podcast and has done episodes on Evans' other podcast, but he isn't an alter-ego of Evans. Probably. Evans could be a stellar voice-actor, I don't know.
- The ultimate position that Wong takes is that self-determination should be the first and only razor on the subject of what nation a given territory is part of, but he then sets that aside and gives a completely separate history of Taiwan that centers the indigenous population up until the late Ming Dynasty, after which the indigenous population gets sidelined more and more (which, at least, does reflect the reality of what happened to the indigenous population of Taiwan, too, I guess)
- The history given is mostly accurate, and doesn't take a particularly fond position on the KMT, who are described as exactly the ultra-nationalist crime-syndicate-cum-political-party that they were. Details are, perhaps, a little sparse in terms of how the KMT fell from dictatorship and was forced to disarm, and the violent takeover of the island is not necessarily given its full due in terms of the sheer horror, but no attempt is made to suggest that the KMT were anything but monsters.
- Wong supports a continuation of the status quo as a practical matter. He indicates that he thinks that independence is the ideal state for Taiwan, but that it just isn't worth the war it would trigger. He disdains the ties between the US and Taiwan, but also says that he can't really blame the "progressive" forces in Taiwan for aligning themselves with the US, given the military threat they are under.
- The PRC is depicted as a continuation of Chinese colonial projects in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Taiwan, specifically as a settler-colonial state that gets to pretend otherwise because of the convenience of geographically contiguous holdings. This seems like a more credible argument with regards to Tibet and Taiwan than it does with regards to Xinjiang, given that the current population of Xinjiang was settled there by a Chinese state in the first place, after the... Ming? dynasty (I think...) effectively genocided the prior population there.
- There's some vaguely interesting discussion toward the end about the fact that the indigenous population of Taiwan tend to support the KMT over the DPP, largely because of patronage networks created by the KMT.
given that the current population of Xinjiang was settled there by a Chinese state in the first place, after the… Ming? dynasty (I think…) effectively genocided the prior population there.
It's the Qing dynasty.
There’s some vaguely interesting discussion toward the end about the fact that the indigenous population of Taiwan tend to support the KMT over the DPP, largely because of patronage networks created by the KMT.
This is a really sore point among DPP supporters. That is when they aren't pretending Hoklos are indigenous to Taiwan.
The settling of thé Xinjiang region started in Tang Dynasty with the western commanderies. The region was “pacified completely” during qing dynasty when the Qing government collaborated with the uighur to liquidate the buddhist ethnics in the region iirc
self-determination
This just seems like weasel words bullshit. There's never been "self determination" for anyone. Either there's a soldier with a gun to your head or a accountant with a gun to your head.
He's the bellingcat guy right? Their one degree of separation from direct CIA funding is the NED, probably their least subtle cutout
Moron who just learned about Taiwan yesterday: I am totally qualified to to teach Taiwan 101
It's not quite that, since he is ethnically Chinese and has family in Taiwan. He's just entirely uncritical about the broader context of American empire as it relates to Taiwan.
Episode isn't by Evans, it is by Chris. It Could Happen Here has a rotating cast of hosts.
Yeah I'm not sure why the nationalists I should be concerned about are the ones halfway across the world whose ideology has no bearing on my reality.
I'm glad he talks about the colonial aspects of Taiwan at least. I just can't listen to Chris getting in anticommunist jabs all the time. Does he talk about the role of the US in Taiwan's de facto independence at all?
I guess I mean moreso about the position of Taiwan as a place where the US would be able to project power over the region, and the early history post WWII pre-recognition of the CPC as a real nation and the Korean war stuff that was informed by Taiwan as well as a desire by MacArthur to force a broader conflict with Communist countries.
Thanks for biting the bullet.
Does it actually go into the views of indigenous people in Taiwan? Specifically, does it bring up how they tend to vote blue, and oppose the DPP on the basis that it itself is a Han-nationalist project?
"It could happen here"
Yeah, an imperialist state taking people's sovereignty away from them sure would suck! Glad it's not the US! (Do not look up how the US was founded or its foreign policy)
they celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day on august 1st so everything's ok now
I was high when I listened to it, but I'm pretty sure it did, if not by name.
Shotgun approach to media and audience grabbing. You create as many different brands as possible and see what hits, then you drop the stuff that didn't work out and focus on the audiences that you did grab.
There is a team behind him it's definitely not just him by himself managing it all.
He's literally an online content creator type. It's what he does. All of his podcasts are basically the same thing. He's the equivalent of those Bandcamp synthwave projects that put out an EP every 5 months.
one day he'll start doing podcasts with Travis McElroy, b/c-list podcast celeb with a similar impulse, immediately creating an infinite podcast generation feedback loop that only ends thanks to the spontaneous generation of a black hole from raw information density
