Larssen wrote:
Uziq, the dismissal of these tensions in the country is just...
If the EU were to decide that it will annex iceland by force, you will still be able to posit the notion that 'the majority of Europeans are pro-EU!'. Doesn't really ring true in iceland though does it, but I guess the conquest of their island now makes them EU citizens? Tough luck for the Icelanders I suppose.
I think we've established long ago that jay and dilbert suffer from lesser mental ability, I expect them to make retarded statements.
they are not trivial issues. but pointing them out in the context of this discussion, of chinese people's view of their government, and the government's approval ratings, is legerdemain.
chinese people value stability, continuity, and respect for the state. these values have been formed in the crucible of some very unpleasant, violent and disruptive recent history. what shocks and outrages us here in the west, like the annexation of crimea, or, yes, god forbid, iceland being invaded, does not have the same purchase over there. people are by default inclined to favour authority and the state, and to trust in it. their cultural values run completely counter, and counter-intuitively, to our own. this same notion of a 'difference' is abrogated when jay refers to them as a 'hive mind', in some racist trope, whilst denigrating the fact that i've actually interacted with chinese people and had proper conversations with them on these topics (i'm not saying this makes me an expert, either, but it gives me a sympathetic understanding which he clearly does not have; all he can proffer is racist generalizations).
multiple surveys have cited 90%+ approval ratings from the chinese people. both with survey volumes in the 10,000s. are all those people being oppressed, forced to give answers, or living in fear? or is it just possible that the chinese like their government, and consider sacrifices to their freedom and suppression of minorities a worthwhile price for continued stability and prosperity?
americans were all too happy - delighted, even - to see innocent muslims in detention centres and extradited to egypt or cuba to be tortured. they reveled in it. even when most of the detainees were innocent, and victims of profiling/racism (many of them even US and UK citizens). the majority of chinese take the same blase attitude to groups creating problems on the far fringes of the country. i'm not saying i agree with this attitude - i am a conscientious westerner, after all - but it's not so hard to see the analogy. a 'so what? they're terrorists' or 'that's the price to pay for our safety and stability' attitude has been used in the west for most of the 2000s. good little liberals justified terrible, illegal wars with the same rationale.
i'm mentioning this by way of explaining that, yes, even with their issues and many existing tensions,
the chinese people can still be widely supportive of their government. what affronts us and strikes us as a crime against humanity does not have the same import there. i have posted here on d&st, passim, about how the uighur situation is the greatest crime against humanity currently ongoing in the world today, and a disgrace to all civilized governments who don't apply more pressure over it.
i'm done with this discussion now. if people can't accept the facts right before them, that the chinese support their government and are happy about their place in the world and their prospects for the future, then you'll have to take your objections to a search engine. you will soon be disabused of your notions. and, yes, the post-truth trump era has been a boon to chinese conservatives. it has aided the CCP in trying to undermine democracy's credibility. how can it not? trump is an embarrassment to the west, as you've said many times yourself. how do you think he is received in a place that wants to downplay the strength of the west? the vast majority of chinese are not envious of the west (pace dilbert/jay), it's really that simple.
Last edited by uziq (2020-05-15 12:34:53)