you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 142 points 1 year ago (82 children)

I lived in china for 4 years and Winnie has Def never been outlawed. Chinese censorship is much more sophisticated than "hey, that's illegal." There's not a list of pictures or memes or phrases that if you're caught with you'll get a visit from the police. No no no. There are hundreds of thousands of people monitoring social media for the latest "subversive" trends. When a new trend develops that content is blacklisted and just not allowed to be spread. You'll send your friend a picture and it never shows up on their phone. There's no indication on your end that it didn't send or they didn't get it. You can have this content on your phone, the CCP doesn't care. They care about it spreading. And you'll never get in trouble for trying to spread it because the system doesn't allow it to spread.

  • source
  • hideshow 82 child comments
  • [–] 53 points 1 year ago (50 children)

    That's actually kinda cool in a techno dyatopian kinda way.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 50 child comments
  • [+] 27 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (48 children)
  • [–] a comment that isn't shown here: deleted, from someone you've blocked, or on another page. view the thread from it
  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago

    Should openly fascist people be allowed to vote [for government] in your opinion?

    Why should they? As in, materially, how does society benefit from that? How does the democratic decision-making tool become more useful from it? I consider democracy to be a decision-making process, so I don't care for vague idealistic assertions like "every adult should have the right to vote" unless there's a benefit from it. And allowing an explicitly anti-liberal, anti-democratic, bad-faith opportunist (and fascism is explicitly and openly all of those) to vote is harmful to the democratic process and increases the odds of it making a bad decision.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 13 points 1 year ago (43 children)

    If that was the only thing they censored then I don't think as many people would mind

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 43 child comments
  • [+] 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (43 children)
  • [–] a comment that isn't shown here: deleted, from someone you've blocked, or on another page. view the thread from it
  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (25 children)

    the censorship is so deep and so good that the vast majority of the Chinese never find out how extensive it is, because it’s not just your WeChat, it’s ALL MEDIA.

    Have you considered it's actually the other way around?

    The problem is the censorship is so deep and so good that the vast majority of westerners never find out how extensive it is, because it’s not just your nazi.world, it’s ALL MEDIA.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 25 child comments
  • [–] 10 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    Yes. But like I said, I lived there for years. True, the western media gets a lot of things wrong. But china is heavily censored, there's no way around that reality.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 5 child comments
  • [+] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)
  • [–] a comment that isn't shown here: deleted, from someone you've blocked, or on another page. view the thread from it
  • load more comments (1 reply)
  • [–] a comment that isn't shown here: deleted, from someone you've blocked, or on another page. view the thread from it
  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago* (2 children)

    I honestly can't tell if you're just too prideful to admit you're wrong. I don't believe any present minded, awake person could be naive to the concept of a discovery algorithm. So you setting the bar at 'you can literally find it if you know what you're looking for and try' for government control of thought and discourse seems genuinely in bad faith.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • load more comments (1 reply)
  • [–] a comment that isn't shown here: deleted, from someone you've blocked, or on another page. view the thread from it
  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago* (8 children)

    If you're implying that there is no substantial amount of censorship in the west you're kidding yourself. e.g. RT/TASS, Genocide in Palestine, Leftists/Communist thought, Removing TikTok is in the talks, etc. come to mind. Not like only one side is locking off their internet.

    Also, not wanting western Nazi (social) media platforms is just self defense.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 8 child comments
  • [–] a comment that isn't shown here: deleted, from someone you've blocked, or on another page. view the thread from it
  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    But the information is there if you search for it.

    Goes for China too if you use a VPN

    The fact that you’re typing the words “genocide in Palestine” and I am reading those words pretty clearly

    I guess you never heard of shadow banning before. That never happens in the west right?

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] a comment that isn't shown here: deleted, from someone you've blocked, or on another page. view the thread from it
  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (2 children)

    Being subject of western imperialism tends to do that. The US uses various think thanks and it's media landscape to produce narratives with the intend to destabilize the countries like e.g. China. Also any state goes into censorship when it's hegemony is threatened. Also chinese people on average seem way more informed about current events than the average European or American

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] a comment that isn't shown here: deleted, from someone you've blocked, or on another page. view the thread from it
  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    Cope. I guess you had a different experience when you were there. I got asked about NATO, Russia/Ukraine, Iran/Israel, US Tariffs and saw it analyzed in CCTV also when revisiting earlier this year. CGTNs quality of analysis is way higher and objective than other (state) media.

    What are topics that didn't make it past the censors in your opinion?

    I'm not questioning that censorship is happening, it's just happening differently than in western societies. Classifying it as "way worse" is just your subjective experience

  • source
  • parent
  • load more comments (1 reply)
  • load more comments (1 reply)
  • load more comments (3 replies)
  • load more comments (7 replies)
  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (7 children)

    You don't think they mind the censorship or what do you mean

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 7 child comments
  • [+] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (7 children)
  • [–] a comment that isn't shown here: deleted, from someone you've blocked, or on another page. view the thread from it
  • [+] 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)
  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago* (2 children)

    Sure, I was thinking all the other stuff, like I mentioned

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [+] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)
  • load more comments (-1 replies)
  • [–] a comment that isn't shown here: deleted, from someone you've blocked, or on another page. view the thread from it
  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 child)

    What do you even mean here?

    Any decision about censorship is a compromise of some kind between open communication/access to information and the prevention of the spread of content that could be deemed harmful in some way or another.

    Maybe I'm just being thick right now but I'm really not sure who are supposed to be the "children". It seems it could just as easily be the CPC for being uncompromising in their censorship of the internet, fascist trolls who say they should have a right to use slurs and disinformation to incite violence, or liberals who are unwilling to accept that a hardline stance needs to be taken to censor the fascists.

    I'm unsure if this is an enlightened centrist take, you saying the CPC (and similar) do what needs to be done or that we need our freedom and the commenter above is the child. Whatever you mean, your comment (at least to me) comes across a bit rude and unconstructive.

    Ok your comment successfully ragebaited me so tbh I'm probably the child.

    Edit: changed CCP to CPC because that is the technically correct term, even though for some reason most English language outlets use "CCP"

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • load more comments (1 reply)
  • load more comments (-1 replies)
  • [–] a comment that isn't shown here: deleted, from someone you've blocked, or on another page. view the thread from it
  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

    Buddy, I lived there for years. My sources are the hundreds of Chinese people I spoke to in their native tongue for years. Not the propaganda from my country. True, SOME Chinese people have VPNs. Most do not.

    And I think the more poignant question is this. Why do they need a VPN to access the wider internet in the first place?

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • load more comments (-1 replies)
  • load more comments (3 replies)
  • load more comments (-1 replies)
  • load more comments (-1 replies)
  • [–] 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (27 children)

    Seems more like Huxley than Orwell.

    They get you with inconvenience instead of brute force.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 27 child comments
  • [–] a comment that isn't shown here: deleted, from someone you've blocked, or on another page. view the thread from it
  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    How dare people use novels used to express political thoughts when political topics come up.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago* (19 children)

    Getting too close to comfort for you?

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 19 child comments
  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago* (16 children)

    no, it's a novel, it's a work of fiction, not a piece of theory or history that you can quote, the ending and the world is entirely built by the writer, there's no study it's literally arguments made up by the writer based on no sources or research, anyone can write a dystopian story, I could write a dystopian story and quote it right now, it's not argument, it's stupid.

    You know, in my novel of people who quote novels ending up as nazis, you do resemble it a lot.

    /\ as valid as using a novel like 1984 or animal farm or whatever else as an argument

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 16 child comments
  • [–] 11 points 1 year ago (7 children)

    1984 and Brave New World are allegories based on real life social observations and events. So, yes, they are based on history. They are famous for a reason. It is just that you find it too close to comfort.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 7 child comments
  • load more comments (4 replies)
  • load more comments (8 replies)
  • load more comments (2 replies)