• SleepyPie@lemmy.world
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    24 hours ago

    Yes, both countries have serious problems. At least Americans can discuss theirs openly.

    • Dessalines@lemmy.ml
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      19 hours ago

      The freedom to shout into the void and have none of your concerns addressed.

      Not to mention the fact that China has far more open discourse than the US and its media organs / capitalist controlled platforms allow.

      • stickly@lemmy.world
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        17 hours ago

        I’ll take “things foreigners say when they’ve never been to China” for 500 Alex

        • KimBongUn420@lemmy.ml
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          15 hours ago

          I’ll take “sexpat that’s been to China, never left his bubble and is a China expert now” for 500 alex

          • stickly@lemmy.world
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            15 hours ago

            Never claimed to be any kind of China expert but it’s absurd to claim “much more open discourse” if you’ve spent any appreciable amount of time in the countries being discussed. You can literally just walk + talk in public and see the difference.

            Like all these asserted freedoms it just magically happens better and free’er but you definitely can’t verify it because “media”. The open political discourse I see and hear in major EU/US cities pales in comparison to the uh… hidden… open discourse in T1/T2 Chinese cities? Definitely heard some first/second hand political discourse but it was never, ever, ever a public forum.

            By all means, give me evidence to the contrary. Maybe I just keep catching China with a bad case of the Mondays. Have you been? Can you point to any discourse on domestic politics? Where is the asserted diversity of opinion on hotbed issues? Can you show me any strong opposition to the party line on a public stage?

              • stickly@lemmy.world
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                15 hours ago

                I have! Have you been on it in China? Have you contrasted the foreign feed to a citizen’s? Have you seen the coordinated response to genuine spreading political discontent vs mundane petty scandals? Because it kinda sounds like you haven’t if you think that’s a killer response.

                • KimBongUn420@lemmy.ml
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                  13 hours ago

                  I have! And I have my Chinese friends feed too. Inside and outside of china. There’s definitely differences, but that’s how algorithms work

                  Have you seen the coordinated response to genuine spreading political disconten

                  Yes i have seen it. They solve things pretty fast e.g. COVID lockdowns when minor protests broke out, petit bourgeois real estate protests, etc. doesn’t look like you pay attention to things like that

                  • stickly@lemmy.world
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                    4 hours ago

                    COVID lockdowns when minor protests broke out

                    “Solve” is an interesting verb for suppression of legitimate mass discontent at being physically locked into their apartments. That “solution” worked so well for those “minor protests” that they decided to do a 180° turn from the Zero Covid policy to no restrictions overnight.

                    Truly a bastion of free speech, except for any real discontent is labeled capitalist subterfuge so we’ll just disregard that.

    • Amnesigenic@lemmy.ml
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      22 hours ago

      You’re free to discuss anything you want as long as it doesn’t actually threaten the status quo in any way lol

      • TrippyFocus@lemmy.ml
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        23 hours ago

        And it’s not like those were one-offs, COINTELPRO was crazy in scope and did massive damage beyond just the murders.

        It’s not like that’s all in the past either, just look at how the Palestine protests were handled as well as the Floyd protests.

    • HiddenLayer555@lemmy.ml
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      23 hours ago

      At least Americans can discuss theirs openly.

      Lol have you seen what’s been happening to pro Palestine protestors? BLM protestors? Anti Trump protestors? Julian Assange? Edward Snowden?

    • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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      24 hours ago

      So do Chinese citizens, though. The state exerts control over private media and the speech of wealthy capitalists, but there’s broad diversity in political thought and discussion.

      • yucandu@lemmy.world
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        19 hours ago

        Really? So Chinese citizens can go out and publish an article about why they believe Xi Jinping is actually betraying socialist ideals?

        • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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          19 hours ago

          Some have. They’d be wrong, so it’s not super common, but it’s possible, assuming they aren’t a wealthy capitalist or something.

      • stickly@lemmy.world
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        17 hours ago

        Complete list of banned books in the US

        Lmao what? Do you know what “banning” a book means? It’s just not on offer in schools or a library for that specific state. It’s completely normal to just buy it for yourself and there are even organizations dedicated to distributing banned books.

        It’s hilarious to try and dunk on America with this of all things. Media restricted/censored in China is entirely unavailable. It’s actually very interesting how the censorship manifests in daily life, but I imagine any .ml reader will discard those anecdotes (or any verifiable reports) and try to redirect back to the West somehow.

      • yucandu@lemmy.world
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        19 hours ago

        People in China are heavy controlled by the Gov, but they have more civil rights

        You guys are completely brainwashed if you believe this. They can’t even form a union or strike.

        • Grapho@lemmy.ml
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          19 hours ago

          It always amazes me how gringos can just say the dumbest, fakest shit with such confidence then call you brainwashed.

          If the State Department said Chinese people can’t play guitar you’d call us brainwashed if we showed you a video of one of them playing.

          • stickly@lemmy.world
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            16 hours ago

            Crazy how you can literally just look this stuff up and find out what’s true instead of discarding arguments.

            Independent trade unions are illegal in China. The single, state sanctioned trade union is widely criticized by international trade union orgs for not faithfully representing its workers. By most accounts it exists to funnel labor disputes through a bureaucratic meat grinder of mediation to maintain the status quo. With the exception of a handful of actions for international leverage, all strikes are wildcat.

            If you’re actually interested in labor relations in China I’d recommend this article for starters. It’s older but the situation hasn’t improved under recent leadership.

    • Smackyroon@lemmy.mlOP
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      23 hours ago

      Chinese average citizens can freely discuss what they want, the “disappearing” is just western propa