I have a lot of very left-leaning friends (although most of them are still liberals, which I am not of course pls believe me) and they're all heavily anti-China.

Occasionally I push back on this and they always bring up the Uyghur "genocide". As a German person, I feel insanely uncomfortable claiming that there is not actually a genocide happening. And like, as a matter of fact, I don't know what the truth, but at the same time I don't feel comfortable just letting US propaganda go uncontested.

I am compiling my own list of sources but I would greatly appreciate help on this, please give me the clearest sources and arguments you have, because this is an important topic to me.

Just saying "RFA and Adrian Zenz bad" isn't very convincing, not even to myself, the best I have is the letter by the Muslim nations.

  • Dyno [he/him]
    1·
    4 years ago

    I think there is a 'passive angle' in which you don't bring anything up - you wait for them to press you.
    It's how I got my right-libertarian friends to mellow on the Soviet Union and China - let them get intrigued and ask questions, then you let loose - they're less likely to shut off because they actually want to hear you, i.e. it is provoked vs. unprovoked. Example

    In this case, I would not proffer anything - I would wait for them to ask my opinion and then start simple with something like "I don't believe it's happening" - the expected response is one of reasonable incredulity - "But why?! All the evidence?!" to which you say your piece on Zenz and the US funded RFA.

      • Dyno [he/him]
        ·
        4 years ago

        You're never gonna convince someone out of an entrenched position in a single exchange - it's a battle of attrition.
        Getting them to essentially concede 'defeat' with an 'okay I guess' is a minor victory in the short term, but it all adds up - the point is to plant the seeds of doubt; to set the foundation for a larger change of perspective.

        I've had further IRL conversations with this person on China and the USSR and they've shifted from the standard position of western antagonism to one of respect for their material achievements.