I've been seeing a huge amount of anti-Chinese sentiment online, from obvious places like reddit, to even misinformed friends on social media falling victim to viral posts filled with misinformation.
What are we to make of this? Is this the slow march to war, by portraying them as pure evil, à la the fake story of Iraqi soldiers killing Kuwaiti babies to help get the public on board with our military response? It seems disadvantageous for the US and their allies to fight China, as we are incredibly reliant upon them economically and don't stand to gain much from the conflict.
Are these the irrational decisions of a dying empire? Or is there something else at play?
It's just to redirect anger at China. The US is in chaos but if white suburban people can be mad at China then they don't have to reckon with how shitty things are here. Maybe in the long term it's to promote divestment but I'd even doubt the feds could pull that together. Regardless its definitely being astroturfed on Reddit.
“My 80 year old father is drowning in his own blood in an overcrowded hospital, but man I’m really worried about my kid posting on that damn tiktok”
This makes perfect sense -- in the reactionary mind, elderly relatives are either a burden or an obstacle to inheritance, and you can never run out of trivial shit to demonize the youths over.