While it is true that insane propaganda is off the charts, for example in my own country Australia we’re chaining ourselves to the fading star of the usa and the UK militarily despite having:
different trade interests
different geopolitical interests
different cultural interests
all while the usa government tries it’s hardest to undermine our economic policy, erase our culture, and distort our politics towards their own demended lines.
There is zero evidence the chinese government does not want to do the same. They have interfered in our media, our education systems, there has been stupid petty trade squabbles with both “sides” using us for their own ends.
When chinese diplomats speak to our media, even in excruciatingly fair interviews, the pattern is the same slimey deny deny deny and legal quibble that usa diplomats engage in. Their media is insanely critical of Australian life too.
There are no good guys in this power struggle and looking for one is childish thinking.
Even this article refuses to address the notion that the chinese government has ever conducted itself in a condemnable manner.
As an American, I thought our cultures were relatively similar being both former British colonies. What different cultural interests are you referring to?
Not Australian or American, but hey it’s the internet so why not voice second hand knowledge: I heard Aussies pride themselves on being (relatively) egaliatarian, despising individuals elevating themselves above others. Seems to me about as antithetical to US mentalitity as it goes :)
AU and USA share in a foundation belief that they are “classless societies.” I think this is probably true of many ex-British colonies since class is such a dominant and suffocating aspect of British culture.
Australia, like the USA has severe inequality, and the rich there like to flaunt their wealth. A disproportionate number of the crypto grifters ended up being Aussie. And while Australia does have a better social welfare state than the US it is both 1) under attack and 2) was put together almost entirely by one socialist prime minister in 1975 who was taken out after only a few months by a coup.
A lot of the Aussies you’ll chat to on the internet don’t realise how recent there was heavy segregation even among people broadly considered white now.
If you look at the last names of powerful people even now you’ll find that while they’re general all white dudes Irish last names are underrepresented, despite being around as long as English ones. A lot of migrants from Greece/Italy/Poland etc were heavily sidelined too.
Lets not even get into treatment of native peoples and non white migrants cause we’ll fucking be here all day.
This country is definitely heavily divided by class, last oecd report I read found 4 generation median time for bottom quartile income to next quartile up. That’s bonkers.
we elected a socialist in the 70s. It ended in a constitutional crisis and his successor was groomed by the CIA. rhymes with certain things no?
we had a publicly owned transport system, telephony, healthcare system, a thriving public service. Then we started getting leaned on.
We had a collectivist culture, government funding for our own media with our own values, then we started getting leaned on.
It goes on.
Even our slang is being replaced, people are pronouncing things your way, the media of the usa is replacing everything and that’s intentional government policy.
We had a collectivist culture, government funding for our own media with our own values, then we started getting leaned on.
This is hilarious to point out when you consider Rupert Murdoch has done more to change American politics than probably anyone else in the last 50 years, but you’re gonna complain about the US “leaning on” Australia? Sorry but that just screams of shirking responsibility for your own country’s problems.
Everything is feedback cycles. Yes there’s homegrown bullshit but it’s naive to ignore how that is encouraged by for example the usa exporting neoliberalism and encouraging/bullying other countries to deregulate their own markets (like media ownership that lets people like Murdoch rise) for favourable political treatment.
It’s naive to ignore that when usa media, usa products, usa megacorps all arrive somewhere that they wont swing the culture.
The usa has almost certainly interfered in our elections ffs.
Being a country the usa has military interest in is incredible corrosive. It’s not just Australia where this has happened.
I’m not anti-China, I genuinely wish the best for the people of China. I’m anti-CCP.
I don’t think China will really be able to engage or cooperate with a world community in any meaningful way until the CCP is out of the picture. There’s simply zero trust there from anyone.
The government of the United States is also highly untrustworthy, but plenty of other nation’s governments engage and cooperate with the US. This isn’t whataboutism, it’s evidence that there must be other factors.
In some ways, yes, certain factions within the US government have been untrustworthy. However, I think people do not understand that China is still on a completely different level. There’s a reason that the US is broadly trusted by its allies (or was, largely, up until the recent decade of overt campaign of internal sabotage).
To compare the US and China is like comparing Kent State to Tienanmen Square. Were they both violations of fundamental human liberty? Yes. Are they at all comparable as reflections of the viability of each respective state’s potential to sustain human liberty? No.
The US is in a conflict with itself, between far-right, corporate factions and those groups that actually defend some semblance of democratic liberty. This fact is the proof of the difference, that some meaningful element of democracy does exist in the US. The US has the ability to course correct. In China rule has been consolidated under a single man, unchallenged now, who has created hundreds of prison camps and a surveillance state unmatched even by the US. He ran literal execution vans in his run up to power.
Convincing people that the crimes committed by China against its own people and those they’ve colonized are normal is a way of lessening the seriousness with which those crimes are regarded. You have to ask yourself if that’s really the goal you want to be serving. You’re not required to sing the praises of the US, but acknowledging the meaningful degree of difference is critical to preventing the world sliding further into an authoritarian paradigm.
certain factions within the US government have been untrustworthy.
between far-right, corporate factions and those groups that actually defend some semblance of democratic liberty.
This just sounds like a whole lot of liberal US apologia. It isn’t actually far off from regressive phrases like MAGA or A Few Bad Apples. There was no golden time when the US has been a bastion of freedom and human welfare and it mostly shows signs of getting worse, and you cannot fix the US by removing a few politicians.
Are they at all comparable as reflections of the viability of each respective state’s potential to sustain human liberty? No.
I don’t see what the point is of picking two specific events when we are discussing nations and governments as a whole. Taken in totality the US does not and has not ever shown signs of sustaining liberty as you put it. The law and order system is a joke, human welfare is a joke, safety is a joke, education is a joke, foreign policy is a joke. A lot of these fundamental issues are completely ignorable for the privileged, and the last one ignorable if you live in the US itself, but I am not looking to have liberty for some and not others.
You’re not required to sing the praises of the US, but acknowledging the meaningful degree of difference is critical to preventing the world sliding further into an authoritarian paradigm.
I disagree. I think what you’re doing right now is what strengthens authoritarianism in “Western” countries. Always framing Western countries, especially the US, as the lesser of two evils just justifies nationalism and militarism and downplays the need for radical change. What’s the point of this liberty you speak of if we don’t use it to criticize our own governments, and why stop at just criticism? The truth is you’ll only realize how thin your liberty actually is when you actually pose a threat.
But I’m not sure how we got on this tangent. I was simply responding to the notion of geopolitical trust and how that relates to the US and China. The US reneges on international agreements all the time or simply does not adhere to them. The government also partakes in the manipulation of foreign governments, extrajudicial murders in foreign countries in “times of peace”, and sabotages countries with embargos. All of this should make the US untrustworthy, but the unspoken part is that when we talk about trust we are taking about among Western countries. These nations have some shared geopolitical goals and because the US’s violations aren’t against these nations but against ones where say the common religion is different or the people have a darker average complexion they can be ignored.
What’s the point of this liberty you speak of if we don’t use it to criticize our own governments, and why stop at just criticism? The truth is you’ll only realize how thin your liberty actually is when you actually pose a threat.
You’re conflating a comparison with an endorsement.
One can say the US is unquestionably better than China while still acknowledging the US has issues.
I’d challenge you to find any country that’s truly “trustworthy.” That doesn’t mean I think it’s impossible, I just think historically humans suck at governorship.
As for what’s different between the US and China, your original point, I think a lot of it is just what’s available/who has the better deal. The US historically has the better innovations, the better weaponry, and in the case of Europe, bidirectional cultural influences, and there’s just a lot more history with the US as a partner and a lot more families with folks in both locations.
This is an important difference that always gets left out in these articles.
Of course people will be anti-China when the CCP is making the movies (edit, I meant “moves” but movies works too haha). It’s one thing to ask for companies to make a version of media specifically for your country, but using your weight to make that the version? That is an insanely big red flag when Tencent has roots in everything and also goes by the whim of the party.
On the flip side, my friend from college moved to China a couple years after we graduated and he’s been doing really, really well. He loves it there. Ironically he ended up getting a job with Tencent and is a pretty big part of their last released Synced. So I’m glad he’s doing well, but it’s also been weird talking about certain topics with him. It was also weird when I was asking about how he was talking with me and he’s like “oh I just have to get on a VPN and etc so I that’s why I’m not around much, but it’s cool lol.” Kinda freaky when I also just see the articles about a company getting fined for using a VPN. I’m sure he’ll be fine but it’s still slightly worrying.
Which ultimately kind of sums up the situation. My friend loved his experience in China so much so that he moved back there seemingly permanently and set himself up with a nice life with the culture seeming to be a big part of that. And then there’s the actions of the government. Many of the same criticisms can absolutely be held toward the U.S. regarding housing and towards a not-so-small portion our political actions, however it seems the difference is that we don’t have a knitted corporate government quite yet. I dunno, the sway of Apple, MS, whoever else just doesn’t have the same weight as the CCP and Tencent. That generally seems to be peoples issue
I dunno, the sway of Apple, MS, whoever else just doesn’t have the same weight as the CCP and Tencent.
The fact that you name Apple and Microsoft makes me think there is a blind spot here. If you are taking about big tech with it’s tendrils in US policy I’d go for Google and Facebook. Big pharma and the military industrial complex are even bigger issues. These industries don’t just undermine the US but harm the global community as well. Then you have think tanks, often funded by capital, shaping narratives and foreign policy.
I more just didn’t want to list more than 3 companies, hence “whoever else”. You’re right that Google and Facebook are closer to the tendrils of Tencent than MS or Apple, or well, Apple at least.
Yes, and this is why the experience of individuals can’t be taken as an indication of whether there is or isn’t a problem.
China is a huge country with a long history and cultures of its own, the people there are like anywhere else mainly concerned with just living their day to day life. But we learned from the middle of the last century that people can be living a relatively normal life directly adjacent to some of the most heinous crimes against humanity our species has ever seen.
There’s a lot of value that the people of China could contribute, culturally and economically, if they were in a position to actually freely and openly engage with the rest of the world in an honest way. Some incredible cinema, for example, came out of China prior to the new age of censorship and hyper-aggressive information control brought in by Xi. I just wish that the CCP was out of the picture so that could happen again, China has so much more to offer.
Given enough exposure to propaganda you can get the working masses to believe whatever you want.
I’ve seen this first hand in Hungary. 20 years ago everyone was pro EU. Kids such as myself were dreaming about eventually becoming part of the US of Europe & while that was never realistic, the adults were also hoping for a better future in the EU. Before Covid we finally -kind of- got that better future, things have improved tremendously, but slowly over time propaganda completely turned the public opinion around. I’m convinced most people really don’t like thinking on their own about issues… Now even my 10-12 year old nephews know & believe that Brussels is the worst city on Earth with all the people being certifiably insane there. These days whenever I hear people talk politics It always starts with ‘EU bad’… (Though I too am reluctant to talk about my views openly nowadays, so no chance of anyone hearing that)
Perhaps Taiwan or even the US should invest more in more targeted western propaganda to counteract the Chinese influence, but this just sounds horrible, I effin hate propaganda.
Westerners? I’m foreign-born Chinese, and you couldn’t pay me to enter China. My anti-ccp sentiments combined with their sense of ownership of all Chinese people regardless of birth nation means I’m probably on a low priority list somewhere.
I also found it ridiculous. Turns out, you can hide bot posts in your account settings if you login into the web version of your instance (vger doesn’t display the option for example).
Ok I succumb to the summary illness: (in broken english via chatGPT (just for the fun))
In Spain, October start this year very hot. The weather guys say it’s hottest ever. Almost 40% of weather machines show more than 32 degrees Celsius (that’s like 90 Fahrenheit).
Our autumn, usually nice and cool, no good this year. Summer had four super-hot times in 24 days. They say humans make world warmer, you know?
On October 1st, it was like summer here! Way hotter than normal, 7 to 14 degrees more. They broke like 100 records for heat. Two cities in the south, Badajoz and Montoro, hottest ever in October with 38 C. Before it was 37.5 C in Marbella in 2014. Even in Madrid’s Retiro Park, the old weather machine tied the record from 1930, 30 C.
The climate guy from AEMET said it’s because of climate change. He thinks future summers will be even hotter and last longer into our usually nice rainy autumn. Not good, huh?
Ty for this, just did it. Like hell im going to trust some summary from a glorified autocomplete algorithm, ive seen them get it completely wrong and interpret it in biased ways.
It’s not like this will keep happening every year. No, it’s much worse. Temperatures will keep getting even hotter for decades until greenhouse gas emissions reach zero. In a few decades we will wish it was only this hot.
At some point even stopping emissions won’t keep it from getting warmer. Even if we stop tomorrow it will take decades for the co2 in the air to disappear.
How about forcing France and the other western powers who repeatedly pillaged and extorted Haiti to disgorge the hundreds of billions in value they effectively stole from Haiti?
And, while they are at it, how about making them re-green that end of Hispaniola?
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