• anthropicprincipal [any]
      ·
      edit-2
      4 years ago

      Until the mid aughts or so liberals portrayed the Chinese as trapped in poverty under communism, and if only liberalism and free markets could swoop in and beat up the mean CCP they would be saved. The narrative shift began around when Chinese GDP per capita began increasing faster than the United States .

      All of the sudden liberals stopped separating the CCP from the Chinese people, and all sorts of nasty stereotypes of all Chinese being thieves, baby killers, and brainwashers began.

      Conservatives and liberals are now united in denigrating the Chinese people, because they both loathe that the Chinese are creating wealth faster than liberal democracies with free markets.

      • hogposting [he/him,comrade/them]
        ·
        4 years ago

        All of the sudden liberals stopped separating the CCP from the Chinese people, and all sorts of nasty stereotypes of all Chinese being thieves, baby killers, and brainwashers began.

        These nasty stereotypes were always there; they just got more attention and airtime starting around the time you identify. It's the whole "emphasis is the atomic unit of propaganda" bit.

        spoiler

        I am very smart and developed this idea all on my own, with no input from Hexbear's official podcast.

        • anthropicprincipal [any]
          ·
          edit-2
          4 years ago

          You are absolutely correct. I meant to imply that liberals only picked up those stereotypes to use in their narratives recently; whereas before that they had usually treated the Chinese people as sympathetic victims.

          It was mostly the conservatives who wanted to battle the "Chinese menace". The liberals really thought they could export their shit political system to China by saying nice things about them.

        • p_sharikov [he/him]
          ·
          4 years ago

          “emphasis is the atomic unit of propaganda”

          Oh, I like that. Very snappy