Yikes, I was specifically referring to Muslims, but yeah looks like America isn’t even better than that.

Ah yes, insults, the highest form of conversation. Always indicates you are correct. Good job.

Ah yes, because we aren’t allowed to compare things right? It would be terrible if your country looked worse than the ones you demonize so hard.

Okay for me but not for thee

We put a lot of stock in personal stories, but we also pay a lot for incriminating evidence against China.

Do you know about the 1 child policy (That was recently ended?) And how that affects this? Because I actually looked into it. But I bet an online personality won’t change your mind. So I won’t even bother.

Remember America didn’t forcefully sterilize anyone. We just straight up bombed them, raped them, and shot them.

Your biases are showing.

It was a neutral way to summarize a long article.

Sounds like a threat. Fuck off.

And the argument from ignorance continues.

All I have to say is read more and be online less.

So… No, it’s not like Russia at all. But that nuance is too long for me to explain right now. Short answer is that Russia is capitalist, and China is 50/50 capitalist/socialist, depending on definitions, and yeah a lot of nuance.

But China is run by the people, their authoritarian politics keeps their billionaires and induatry in check. Their local politics is a negotiation with the national politics.

And… How exactly is China antagonizing nations abroad? Because a lot of countries are choosing to work with China because they AREN’T antagonizing them as much as America and Europe. So… The reality is the opposite.

Who were you replying too? Lost? Got a bit overzealous with your keyboard warrior persona today?

I found this to be a decent enough primer: https://medium.com/@bobbyarlan/a-case-study-in-racist-anti-chinese-sentiment-fuelled-by-american-bots-and-western-propaganda-f0a69978d568

A decent TLDR: The article argues that anti-Chinese propaganda spread by the U.S. and Western media is fueling racist sentiment. Claims of mass detention of Uyghurs are based on flawed studies and sources like Adrian Zenz, a far-right Christian fundamentalist. Atrocity propaganda is a common tactic used by the U.S. to justify wars. The U.S. is threatened by China’s economic rise and technological progress, so it is trying to portray China negatively and prepare public opinion for a potential conflict. However, most of the world sees China positively and as an economic opportunity, making a new Cold War against China unlikely to succeed

In short, a lot of information about China that has come out of Western news media has been proven to be based on known biased sources, known anit-China rhetoric, and/or outright lies. It’s difficult to prove/disprove of any information specifically, that takes time and reporting, but a lot of people see the anti-China pattern in BBC reporting, and tend to dismiss it because of known history.

Wow, what? Communists talk openly about propaganda… You have no idea what you’re talking about.

We are well aware what our biases are. We are trying to get westerners to see their own biases. Being called out as hypocrites feels like an attack, but when we say everyone have biases, we know it’s true about us too.

Absorb news from a wide variety of sources, including sources from other countries, and you’ll see that the BBC is in fact biased against China.

It takes time, and reading a lot, and you won’t get it from Lemmy/Reddit/twitter(or X or whatever now)/FB. Even ground news only has so many sources. And you know what, the BBC does great coverage for a lot of things, they are a pretty high quality source for a lot of news. But yeah, everyone has biases, and the BBC is biased against China.

This is so key to propaganda. When researchers do a study on 58 people, you can barely claim you have a good representation of the population. And even in that case, if they are good, high quality researchers, they aren’t pushing any opinion, just stating facts. It’s just that 58 people can’t represent the population well, It’s just a starting point.

Now if we’re talking about an opinion and not just stated facts, 58 people is hardly representative, easy to manipulate, especially when you don’t have to cite specifics, just conclusion.

Okay, let’s assume these are facts. 58 people were threatened, etc. This is still propaganda. Opinion, and interpretation can push the conversation in one direction or the other very heavily.

For example, let’s draw a comparison to a system that people find more familiar (For westerners, at least), such as the united states police system or the FBI. How many US citizens are threatened to stop talking when pushing the limits of conversation publicly (Say, about calling out the inhumane treatment of others by the US military)? How many people have talked publicly about being approached by the FBI, or said they can’t comment on their interactions with the FBI, or of some private corporation that paid them off to keep their mouths shut about some insider deal, money laundering, or underage sex scandal? Governments and even private citizens coming after people who are talking shit publicly happens in capitalist states all the time.

And that’s just taking into account regular people who live in western countries. How about an even more direct comparison? The Uyghurs are Muslims that participated in terrorism in China, but the United States had Muslim terrorists of their own, what did they do? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_post-invasion_Iraq You can find all kinds of resources about the human rights violations that the united states participated in against the muslin people, even in western sources such as wikipidia, and others https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/03/iraq-20-years-since-the-us-led-coalition-invaded-iraq-impunity-reigns-supreme/ have lots and lots of facts surrounding this.

“rules for thee, but not for me” comes to mind.

Sorry didn’t mean to unload on you. I’m vehemently agreeing!

The people you wish to dunk on built this platform. Feel free to leave…

Wow, talk about conspiracy theories…

“Every person who doesn’t participate in Sinophobi is paid off by the Chinese government”

Like, really? You actually believe that? Was 911 an inside job? How hot DOES jet fuel get??? Is Q-anon real? Is the earth flat?

If you’ve ever debunked a conspiracy theory, you should reconsider the idea that maybe, just maybe, not everyone hates China. It’s probably more likely than you think…

Edit: And then they edited their comment to be more defensive instead. Perfect.

I’ve reconsidered my use of the term brainwashing. I think this explanation is a good one:

https://redsails.org/masses-elites-and-rebels/

But yeah the bootlickers sure feels like they are brainwashed.

++1 TikTok is only political because Americans want to own everyone’s data exclusively.

You noted that the ballot box is the best way to do this, but that we also have to eat the rich. The big problem is that the ballot box is controlled by the rich. Both sides of the I’ll are paid off by corporate interests… And they don’t care about climate change…

The ONLY solution is to EAT THE RICH… The ballot box will actually be taken care of when corporations can’t pay off politicians anymore.

You’re missing the forest for the trees. Why do people drink Coke products? Well once upon a time they were filled with cocaine! But now they’re only filled with tons of sugar and caffeine, those are only the two most addictive legal substances besides tobacco and alcohol, which are simply more regulated than sugar and caffeine.

I’m not saying that people should not try to self-regulate drinking Coke. But I am saying that you will never, ever fix this problem by convincing individuals to drink less Coke. Especially since it’s not just about Cola, it’s about literally everything you do.

If you live in the suburbs, you absolutely have to use a car to get around. If you aren’t rich you cannot afford and ev, and if you want a cheap ev you won’t get much range or convenience (thought that is changing painfully slowly).

And you can’t live downtown if you have kids, or if you can’t afford the high rents or condo prices… so if you don’t have a lot of money, you then have to live in the poor run-down suburban neighborhood, which is a food desert. Now your only choices for food are Dollar general, Wallmart, or corner stores that have bars on the window because they are broken into so often.

Those people do not have a choice, they have to live in the world that they live in. In fact, we all do. Even having a choice to buy high quality products is a luxury.

The politicians on the ballot have all been given vast sums of money by organizations that sell you stuff. Politicians don’t have to listen to you, they have other priorities.

Can you find a company that is not greenwashing? But is actually trying to make sustainable change?

And does that company eventually get bought by one of these larger corporations that don’t give a shit?

Good luck voting with your wallet, you can spend a dozens and dozens of hours trying to find a clothing company that isn’t using child slavery… only for their use of child slavery to just be covered up really well, and actually they are the same as everyone else…

Could you completely avoid buying Coke products? Sure. But then again, you can’t control all of the restaurants that provide it by default, and it’s such a cheap product that it doesn’t require a lot of sales to be worth it.

Do you know what business idea doesn’t work so well? Creating products that cost more but are no better than any other products, but at least you aren’t using child slavery and environmentally destroying tactics! But then again, nobody can actually afford your product because most people are actually quite poor. Even if they wanted to, they couldn’t by your stuff. So since your prices are going to be high anyway, you market to only rich people. But then again, most of those rich people don’t have the time or energy or even care about how green your product is, therefore it’s just bad business to spend more caring about how green your product is. Once you become a public company, nobody cares about anything except for your profits and stock price (usually based on your current or projected profits…). So… You ditch the green thing… There’s no incentive to be green, at all.

Trust me I’m trying, and it takes those dozens of hours to figure out that there’s even a problem like this, let along finding even 1 company or politician that isn’t contributing to the problem…

But… Being more green requires buying and using less things, which is bad for the economy. Unfortunately we cannot just switch to green energy, we have to drive less, consume less, etc.

And who do you think is going to push back on that? How about the people who sell us stuff…

And how much money do you have to donate to politicians? Because it’s probably not billions of dollars… but they have it, and they will use it.

I am not saying we should not try, but I am saying that we shouldn’t ask, we should demand, that things change. But when politicians won’t listen to you because of the fat stacks of cash stuffed in their ears… We will inevitably be closer to step 3, and if that happens, we’d better be organized and ready to build something better.