• commiewithoutorgans [he/him, comrade/them]
              ·
              1 year ago

              Imagine for a split second that the strongest government in the world is constantly attempting to cause the overthrow of your legitimately popular government, despite it being popular and significantly beloved by almost all people there. This external, most powerful government in the world tried to cause unrest in every possible way, including funding all opposition groups and organizations regardless of their violent/genocidal intent (e.g. Falun Gong, Islamic terror groups) and cause unrest on your borders (Pakistan, Afghanistan, Korea).

              What do you do? When good faith polling shows that you're popular and fulfilling the needs and desires of your country's working class but a foreign press tries to speak about the terribleness and need for overthrow, do you just let that happen with more money and propoganda than you can possibly provide to support yourself? Or do you censor the BS and report to your population that these images/ideas/orgs are actually subversive and attempting to change the government they legitimately love.

              In this hypothetical situation, what do you propose? Allowing the propaganda but claiming it's wrong has failed in many projects, and resulted in massacres once fascism won (Chile, Indonesia). Just trying to set up a wall of no information works for a bit, but info can cross anyways (USSR). Allowing limited access if you search for it but not allowing it's widespread propagation is the method of china. A VPN allows you to see it all, but it can't be spread too widely before it is stopped from being viral.

              Do you have a better solution? Because this is how China presents itself and how the Chinese population sees it

          • 420blazeit69 [he/him]
            ·
            1 year ago

            Oh I think he's talking about FDR, the most popular president in U.S. history and one consistently ranked amongst the best

              • brain_in_a_box [he/him]
                ·
                1 year ago

                What are you talking about? Of course the people in China have a right to vote.

                Honestly, how did you come to be so confidently incorrect about this? You would have to have done no research at all to think the people of China don't vote, but a normal person who has done no research about a subject will have the humility not to assume they know what they're talking about.

              • GaveUp [she/her]
                ·
                1 year ago

                It's okay to admit you don't know something. Like the other person said, Chinese people can vote

                Learn yourself so that you can make informed opinions

                It's better to have no knowledge than negative knowledge (knowing "facts" that are completely wrong because of a gut feeling assumption rather than any evidence or research)

            • Duamerthrax@lemmy.ml
              ·
              1 year ago

              And in hindsight, not such a great person. Or at least had a lot of negatives to go along with his positives. Probably best to hard code not only a term limit, but an age limit on elected officials. I'm tired of the world being run by geriatrics. Culture seems to be consistently 20 year ahead of government.

              • GarbageShoot [he/him]
                ·
                1 year ago

                Term-limits are blatantly anti-democratic and age limits are clumsy, but a cognitive evaluation and probably an MRI would be good for rooting out cases of cognitive decline.

                There is an informal age limit in China and Xi is still below it, though just barely. I'm curious if he'll go for another term after crossing it. I think he understands that he needs to retire sometime -- no one wants to become a late '60s Mao.

        • Awoo [she/her]
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          Do you not know what the structure of China is?

          Serious question, do you? When I criticise the US I do so from a position of knowing how power works between its three branches of government, how the senate works, how local governance works, how elections work, how the courts work. Do you know how China conducts any of these? Do you know how they govern 1.6billion people?

          • Dr. Bluefall@toast.ooo
            ·
            1 year ago

            It's a one-party state with all candidates chosen by the party.

            It may wear the skin of a democracy, but it is not a democracy.

            • Awoo [she/her]
              ·
              edit-2
              1 year ago

              It's a one-party state with all candidates chosen by the party.

              It may wear the skin of a democracy, but it is not a democracy.

              This is the vaguest description ever and it's not even correct with the vague points. There are multiple parties, and given that there are multiple parties the candidates certainly aren't chosen by one party.

              How are candidates chosen? Who elects them? When are elections held? What is the structure of the elections?

              Do you know any of these things? Serious question. Have you ever investigated and learned this topic thoroughly? You know how the US system works I assume, I bet you vaguely understand some other systems too, like parliamentary ones such as the UK (or not, could be wrong). Have you ever actually investigated the topic or have you just passively repeated vague statements made by other people who are also passively repeating vague statements about it?

              If you want me to I can in fact give you a fairly good summary of how the Chinese system actually works. But do you even want to know? Are you actually open to learning?

              • 420blazeit69 [he/him]
                ·
                edit-2
                1 year ago

                I've investigated Chinese Democracy thoroughly and vastly prefer Use Your Illusion II or Appetite for Destruction

            • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
              ·
              1 year ago

              Democracy is when you vote between red man and blue man, both of whom have the same policies.

                • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  Though, in fairness, red man is actively hostile to LGBT people, migrants, and women whereas blue man is content to let LGBT people, migrants, and women suffer via apathetic neglect instead.

                  Truly a vibrant political system.

                    • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
                      ·
                      1 year ago

                      Weird how democracy didn't stop the genocide of the Native Americans, or the Aboriginal People of Australia, or the First Nations. I guess "true democracy" has just never been tried.

                • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  Two Jews meet on the U-Bahn in 1935. One is reading a Nazi newspaper. His friend asks him "how can you read those outrageous lies about us?!" He replies "If I read a real newspaper, its persecution this and deportation that. But in this paper? We own all the banks, the movies, the government!"

                  • boredtortoise@lemm.ee
                    ·
                    1 year ago

                    Classic but red flag (lol) conspiracy theory vibes in this context. Jewish people owning China or vice versa? Either way fits more in line with qanonists

                    • TheLepidopterists [he/him]
                      ·
                      1 year ago

                      God could the point go over your head harder. That user wasn't engaging in a conspiracy theory that Jews on all the banks movies and government, they were comparing your apparent belief that the Chinese government controls the American government to those antisemitic conspiracy theories.

                      Also zero points in an argument with a bunch of people who can't downvote farquaad-point

                      • boredtortoise@lemm.ee
                        ·
                        edit-2
                        1 year ago

                        Whooooosh lol 😉

                        Would someone actually create a "your apparent belief" in their mind from that

                        • TheLepidopterists [he/him]
                          ·
                          edit-2
                          1 year ago

                          You know what, it's not even apparent, you explicitly stated it:

                          China's red-blue man owns US's red and blue men anyway.

                          disgost

                          • boredtortoise@lemm.ee
                            ·
                            edit-2
                            1 year ago

                            There's actually a looong leap from the known China-sponsored politicians to antisemitic cabal conspiracy theories

                            • commiewithoutorgans [he/him, comrade/them]
                              ·
                              1 year ago

                              I think that in 30 years you'll be considered the anti-Semite of this age, honestly. Sartre once famously claimed something like "if the Nazi didn't have the jew, they would have created him."

                              Sartre, for all his faults, understood that fascism always needed the external and periphery, whether defined geographically or ethnically, in order to sustain itself through expropriation. Who this was doesn't matter as much as that this group is defined as having more than it deserves for bad reasons and is therefore justifiable as a victim of violent expropriation. The values represented have become more progressive™ in that you believe China owns American representatives in order to mistreat Muslims or something. But materially it's identical to "Judeo-Bolshevik" antisemitism

                              Here's a bite-sized analysis from a guy who's pretty good at this:

                              https://twitter.com/RodericDay/status/1495054681579692035?t=gmJyzLx5go9hZWcFJkt5fw&s=19

                              • boredtortoise@lemm.ee
                                ·
                                edit-2
                                1 year ago

                                I remember fascists have been calling antifascists fascists for a long time but "the anti-Semite of this age" is definitely one of the most despicably hateful derogatory things I've seen in a while.

                                Edit: no, I do not open links from Musk's alt-right-landia

                                • commiewithoutorgans [he/him, comrade/them]
                                  ·
                                  edit-2
                                  1 year ago

                                  Actually, I first posted only hog but I'll give you 1 more comment. Before I decide I'm wasting time.

                                  How do you understand the anti-Semitism that defined 1917(?)-1945 fascism? How did this phenomenon arise and what interests were represented by the actions that these beliefs supported? Don't just give me the Ur-fascism definition, or some extra-simplified version (palingenetic ultranationalism) of this unless you can really describe WHY it arises. I wanna know the why behind the entire process, because, like is claimed in the link I sent, anti-Semitism was defined as explicitly different from normal hatred of Jews/judeophobia which unfortunately was around at that time.

                                  But if it seems you didn't read the 2 minutes of screenshots in the link I sent, I will just post hog to you from that point lol

            • GarbageShoot [he/him]
              ·
              1 year ago

              It's a one-party state with all candidates chosen by the party.

              I much prefer all those two or three party states where the candidates are chosen by their respective parties on the marching orders of the capitalist class

            • Kuori [she/her]
              ·
              1 year ago

              lmao dog you shoulda just said "i don't know anything about that, why don't you tell me?"

              it still would have taken you zero effort and you'd have avoided embarrassing yourself

            • AntiOutsideAktion [he/him]
              ·
              edit-2
              1 year ago

              According to their respective peoples, China has an infinitely more vibrant and responsive democracy than the United States.

              I'd hate to think you'd be so blind to the irony of saying such a thing as 'wearing the skin of democracy' if you were living in the west.

              Either way I'd be ashamed to act like you have and speak despite having such ignorance about the Chinese system of democracy.

            • silent_water [she/her]
              ·
              1 year ago

              the representatives are chosen by their parties in most countries, including the US. the difference is that in western "democracies" there's two or more parties all representing the same interests - those of the capitalist class - posing the electorate with a false choice. how is this improvement?

            • PosadistInevitablity [he/him]
              ·
              1 year ago

              Democracy is when the people hate their government and the more they hate it the more democratic it is

    • Fuckass
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      deleted by creator

      • Sinonatrix [comrade/them]
        ·
        1 year ago

        That's because they've been brainwashed by a consistently rising standard of living, they don't have free press like us to tell them how they should really feel about things

        • 420blazeit69 [he/him]
          ·
          1 year ago

          "Sir, their government has brainwashed them by... running the country well enough to consistently raise the standard of living!"

          "Those dastardly Chinese!"

      • masquenox@lemmy.ml
        ·
        1 year ago

        White people in Apartheid-South Africa believed Apartheid-South Africa was a democracy, too.

        • uralsolo
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          deleted by creator

            • uralsolo
              ·
              edit-2
              1 year ago

              deleted by creator

                • anoncpc [comrade/them]
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  Yes, they did. Until some alphabet agency agent co opt the protest, when it's about inflation and economic crisis. Many Chinese peoples still piss at them till this days, at least learn about the country first before spouting shite

                  • masquenox@lemmy.ml
                    ·
                    1 year ago

                    Riiiight... the country that the CIA had famously failed to penetrate - right until it became convenient for tankies to pretend they actually did, eh?

            • anoncpc [comrade/them]
              ·
              1 year ago

              For their peer, they vote for the most competent to run the govt, not some snake oil sales man or senile old man that rely on pr popularity to run the damn country. Look at Nigeria, a drug lord successfully make peoples vote for him and now they're in the brink of war even though peoples don't like it,

              • masquenox@lemmy.ml
                ·
                1 year ago

                For their peer,

                Riiiight... I'm pretty sure Xi Jinping hangs with the over-worked factory people every night and does his share of the sewing.

                Tell me another fairy tale, tankie.

        • UnicodeHamSic [he/him]
          ·
          1 year ago

          I have never looked it up but for them it probably was. That isn't the reason people were upset about the situation.

      • YaaAsantewaa@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        ·
        1 year ago

        No one in China is ever asked what they want or what they believe in because the CCP doesn't care. China is ruled by a military dictatorship, and under that form of government the people have 0 rights and 0 say in any government policy

        • GaveUp [she/her]
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          No one in China is ever asked what they want or what they believe in

          Thousands in China were asked every single year from 2003 to 2016 by Harvard in an intensive study that they've described themselves as "nothing comparable done on this scale, over such a long period of time, and over a large geographic area"

          The conclusion they found is that 95%+ of Chinese citizens are satisfied with the government

          If you tell me Harvard is a Chinese propaganda institution I'll take your word for it though

          • YaaAsantewaa@lemmy.blahaj.zone
            ·
            1 year ago

            Do you care about the Uyghur people China is currently trying to genocide?

            Also The ban was for calling out Chinese racism against black people in Africa, so no, I don't care quite frankly

            It's amazing how you people put on this fake act about caring about racism and bigotry, it's really astonishing

            • brain_in_a_box [he/him]
              ·
              1 year ago

              It's amazing how you people put on this fake act about caring about racism and bigotry, it's really astonishing

              This is very ironic coming from someone parroting Adrian Zenz's cynical atrocity propaganda.

            • Staines [they/them]
              ·
              1 year ago

              currently trying to genocide

              This piqued my interest, since a lot of the Uyghur genocide narrative collapsed years ago to the point that even the journalists that were reporting it began walking it back.

              Taking a look at who is currently reporting on "Uyghur genocide" in 2023, and it's all organisations like Voice of America, Radio Free Asia, United States Institute of Peace - basically (literal) US government propaganda agencies reporting on the US congress proceedings.

        • TheGamingLuddite [none/use name]
          ·
          1 year ago

          China is ruled by a military dictatorship, and under that form of government the people have 0 rights and 0 say in any government policy

          Not even the most devoted ideologue for the US state department would claim something this ludicrous. How do "leftists" arrive at this conclusion?

        • GarbageShoot [he/him]
          ·
          1 year ago

          No one in China is ever asked what they want or what they believe in

          I thought this was a joke at first

    • UnicodeHamSic [he/him]
      ·
      1 year ago

      Democracy ™️ brought to you by Yum brands Inc. Is infact everyone's enemy. The Chinese process is infact more democratic. When you look at the way funds are apportioned and how often the legislation passed reflects the will of the people it is undeniable they actually have more democratic input in their system than we do.

    • Gsus4@feddit.nl
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Meh, our democracy isn't even that threatening to China (Taiwan's is, it showcases a viable alternative to the CPC), they just had to leave us to our "contradictions", they'd keep booming and we'd just keep buying their stuff while we eat each other alive, if China is doing this, they gotta be really desperate to turn Europe fascist again.

      • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
        ·
        1 year ago

        (Taiwan's is, it showcases a viable alternative to the CPC)

        Throwing chairs at each other in the Legislative Yuan over who gets to be America's most loyal running dog isn't seen by anyone thing China as a viable alternative to governance.

        • Gsus4@feddit.nl
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          It's ok, Hu Jintao really didn't mind being dragged off the stage like an idiot in a country where face is everything. China does settle fistfights in private, which does set a good example for the populace, ngl.

          PS: https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%9D%A2%E5%AD%90:

          面子是人際關係中的一种现象,在東方等级观念较强的社会(如中國等)特別受到重視。具体定义不明,基本上意味给社会中每个人的尊重[1][2]。如果不给人面子,即是拆穿別人的面具,可能会引起报复。如果有面子,一般会被认为是社会地位较高,更受人尊敬,然而面子不够大,可能是因为在社会、经济等方面地位低下。“面子”是“社会脸面”,代表着个人在人生历程中由成就和夸耀所获得的名声以及被社会重视的声誉[3]。「厚顏」俗稱「不要臉」。

          • GarbageShoot [he/him]
            ·
            1 year ago

            Aside from the racism of the "face culture" narrative, the guy is a dinosaur and notably not an official, just there as a matter of respect and legacy as a former President. We don't really know what happened, but those meetings are long and the dude is probably senile, so he was probably getting helped off the stage by aides at around the time they expected from the outset.

          • 420blazeit69 [he/him]
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            in a country where face is everything

            In America no one cares about being embarrassed, that's only compatible with the Asiatic brainpan!

            Toss Orientalism on your reading list:

            The term orientalism denotes the exaggeration of difference, the presumption of Western superiority, and the application of clichéd analytical models for perceiving the "Oriental world".

            • Gsus4@feddit.nl
              ·
              edit-2
              1 year ago

              Look, if I find it disrespectful and a scandal to watch that video, I assume that anybody who tends to value and respect the position, wisdom of their elders in an institution (more than us who throw them in nursing homes and ignore them forever) will find this pretty jarring for a well-functioning Chinese democracy.

              But you guys are hilarious, finding offense where none was given, you're an amazing instance, I want you to know that, from the bottom of my heart.

                  • tuga [he/him]
                    ·
                    1 year ago

                    Es portugues ou brasileiro? Tou memo a ver que deves ser um daqueles "comunistas" anti-comunista se fores portugues

          • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
            ·
            1 year ago

            treated like an idiot in a country where face is everything.

            哇,你真懂中国文化。只有我们中国人不喜欢丢脸,不像那些外国政治者。他们热爱在大家面前受困窘。

          • UnicodeHamSic [he/him]
            ·
            1 year ago

            Did that sound like a thing that wasn't wildly rascist when you wrote it? You can delete your comment. You simply can choose not to be rascist, it doesn't cost you anything.