• ShimmeringKoi [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    11 months ago

    Libs be like “this is a totally organic movement with broad local support”

    Take a moment to imagine the absolutely demonic levels of McCarthyism that would be unleashed if it was discovered that BLM or the Green Party were headquartered in Beijing.

    • PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml
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      10 months ago

      Don’t forget they also love Israel. Xinjiang avoided the fate of Gaza and all the people complaining about China being “heavy handed” there should just shut up.

    • Grapho@lemmy.ml
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      11 months ago

      They even have the same fucking graphic design style of the state department fam lmao how are gringos real

    • Espectro Vermelho@lemmygrad.ml
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      11 months ago

      Poor analogy. The US kills muslim people like they were rats. The secretary of offense is covered in tattoos glorifying the Medieval crusades and wrote a book titled “American Crusade” explaining the US is in a “holy war” agains muslims and China.

      So “East Turkestan government in exile” is headquartered in the capital of the empire that is is in a bloodthirsthy fanatical war against muslims. This empire also has “must destroy China” as its foreign policy absolute priority.

      Therefore, the corret analogy would be a separatist Jewish movement that wanted to take away a critical part of the USSR. And it is funded and headquartered in Nazi Germany. Who would believe them? The same people who believe the US is motivated by love of Muslims and only reluctantly funds a separatist movement to take away a critical part of China.

  • Narri N. (they/them)@lemmy.ml
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    10 months ago

    I just gotta pop in and say: thank you, comrades, for absolutely making my morning by dunking on some capitalists’ useful idiots.

    • davel@lemmy.ml
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      10 months ago

      I don’t know what it is about this post in particular, but the threadiverse isn’t sending its best 🤷

      Edit to add: Some of them were so angry that they broke out their alt accounts to downvote some more.

      • MoonMelon@lemmy.ml
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        10 months ago

        I think some of the Reddit refuges honestly think Reddit sucks because Spez Man Bad. There’s no analysis of what creates Reddits and Spezes, and therefore they don’t recognize who made this platform and why.

        I have to believe ultimately some of these people will come around, so that’s good at least.

          • Dirt_Possum [she/her, undecided]@hexbear.net
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            10 months ago

            The Chapotraphouse subreddit was radicalizing a lot of redditors when it was repeatedly hitting the front page of reddit fairly regularly and exposing people to counter-ideologies to liberalism that they never would have seen otherwise. Which is the reason why it (and then a slew of other popular lefty subs) had to be banned*. Despite all the lib-brained nonsense we have to constantly correct on this platform (the fediverse), there are an untold number of lurkers reading these discussions who are getting to see what actual leftist thought looks like when the narrow guardrails on the dominant narrative get removed. That exposure, especially when combined with witnessing the rapid intensifying of contradictions in their irl experiences, is enough to radicalize any thinking, genuinely open person. Lemmy being one of the few spaces on the internet where these things aren’t hidden or removed on sight absolutely plays a role in a lot of users’ leftward political evolution.

            *It’s also why the fed instances like .world and piefed preemptively defederate, block, and continuously slander and demonize all of the leftist instances. They are literally trying to mitigate the spread of leftism that is inevitable when exposure to thought that’s outside the dominant ideology has a chance to get seen and voiced.

            • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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              10 months ago

              Very well said! Far better than I did, haha. I comment a lot on the Lemmy.ml side of things, and have gotten lurkers thanking me in DMs from time to time so I can absolutely back uo what you’re saying. I also just like using Hex to relax, when I don’t want to argue, haha.

  • ShimmeringKoi [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    11 months ago

    Responding to a federated comment because I don’t have a .ml account:

    Okay, but we are talking about a country where you aren’t allowed to form a political party that opposes the CCP, right?

    There are eight other parties in the People’s Republic of China other than the *CPC

    • Grapho@lemmy.ml
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      11 months ago

      What the fuck does this even mean lmao y’all scraping the bottom of the barrel so hard it’s now a tube

      • Dessalines@lemmy.ml
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        11 months ago

        They’re just throwing phrases out like right-wing think-tanks, and seeing what sticks.

  • Avicenna@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    US is in a situation where even the Chinese government can make fun of how undemocratic it is. I think this explains a lot.

  • Zerush@lemmy.ml
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    11 months ago

    China? The US is currently more compeeting with North Corea respect freedom and human rights.

    • ShimmeringKoi [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      11 months ago

      Why believe 1953 America about Korea?

      Why believe 1965 America about Vietnam?

      Why believe 1975 America about the USSR?

      Why believe 1991 America about Iraq?

      Why believe 2001 America about Iraq (again)?

      Why believe 2003 America about Afghanistan?

      Why believe 2014 America about Syria?

      Why believe 2023 America about Palestine?

      Why believe 2025 America about Korea?

    • Dessalines@lemmy.ml
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      11 months ago

      The US killed a million innocent people in Iraq just a few years ago, and is *currently * drone bombing several countries in ME and north africa, and is currently supporting the apartheid state of israel with billions of dollars in military aid.

      The PRC has not been in a war since its skirmish with Vietnam in 1979.

      The US has a network of > 800 military bases across the globe, and has been involved in regime change in nearly every country.

      Which one is authoritarian?

      • Sarothazrom@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Which one is currently genociding Uhygurs? Which one illegally annexed Tibet and Hong Kong? Both countries are authoritarian shit-holes.

        • bdonvr@thelemmy.club
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          11 months ago

          illegally annexed… Hong Kong

          what

          Like I can get not agreeing with it but illegally annexed how do you expect to be taken even a little seriously

          • krolden@lemmy.ml
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            10 months ago

            I keep hearing ‘illegal war’ in the media.

            What the fuck is a legal war? A war faught by lawyers?

          • KSP Atlas@sopuli.xyz
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            10 months ago

            While the transfer of power itself was fine and legal, didn’t they break the basic law they put in by violating people’s rights and freedoms? I do agree that it’s worded badly though

            • Aria@lemmygrad.ml
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              10 months ago

              It’s weird to me that this particular law was the one the colour revolutionaries rallied behind.

              A Hong Kong resident confessed to having committed a murder on Taiwan. China extradites people summoned for court or with arrest warrants issued by the Taipei rebel government to Taiwan as long as it’s for non-political offences. So they would extradite this murderer to be tried on Taiwan.

              Different parts of China have different laws, because it’s a big country with autonomous regions. Hong Kong, not that big, but for historical reasons have their own laws as well. If someone has an arrest warrant issued by one of the other Chinese governments, they will extradite the person to their jurisdiction. If it’s a different country, with which China has an extradition treaty, then they will extradite them to Beijing (the Chinese national government) and Beijing will send them to that other country.

              Taiwan is neither a separate country, nor a Chinese government whose arrest warrants Hong Kong respects. But the guy confessed to murder. He should be tried. So new legislation is required to make it legal to extradite him to Taiwan, either directly or through Beijing.

              That was the initial controversy.

        • Horse {they/them}@lemmygrad.ml
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          11 months ago

          Which one is currently genociding Uhygurs?

          none of them

          Which one illegally annexed Hong Kong?

          the uk, then they gave it back in 97

          most historically literate .worlder

        • ZeroHora@lemmy.ml
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          11 months ago

          Only one country is genociding muslins.

          “illegally annexed” Hong Kong LMAO

        • krolden@lemmy.ml
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          10 months ago

          Lol Tibet was still cutting off boys genitals to serve the lamas when china ‘invaded’

      • MisterFrog@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        I feel like this is shifting the focus to imperialism, where the US is overwhelmingly and undeniably worse.

        However, domestically, if you wanna pretend that someone as a random citizen, has any chance of receiving political representation in China, well you enjoy your fantasy.

        The US and China are both deeply undemocratic places. I’m saying this as someone from neither country.

        Anyone who’s actually been to China would know this. It is authoritarian. It’s not even something viewed as bad by most people in China. It’s just the way things are there.

        There is pretty strong support for the government there, albeit that could be argued as product of censorship, repression and also genuine support. Many see the CCP as having done a lot of good things which they are grateful for, which in addition to the bad things, in fairness, they have done.

        I’m getting kinda tired of some leftists knee jerking “China Good”, just as much as I’m getting kinda tired of the “China Bad” crowd, when the truth is neither wholly good nor wholly bad.

        We can be leftists and not have a hard-on for any country claiming to be socialist, you know

      • arrow74@lemmy.zip
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        10 months ago

        Look up the definition of authoritarianism. Bombing other countries is not the defining feature of an authoritarian government.

        • Dessalines@lemmy.ml
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          10 months ago

          Terms like Authoritarianism and Totalitarianism were defined or entrenched by a lot of western supremacist authors, who needed to twist terminology in such a way that excluded the US (capitalism’s worldwide enforcer and the cause of so much death and destruction) from any wrongdoing, while demonizing the colonial world who fought back against the US for their own sovereignty as “authoritarian”.

          I highly suggest reading Losurdo’s - Western Marxism, for an in-depth analysis of some of these white supremacist authors, and how they demonize the anti-colonial struggle.

          • arrow74@lemmy.zip
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            10 months ago

            That’s cool and all but still irrelevant to the original point. You can be authoritarian to your own citizens domestically without invading other nations.

            The US is both imperialist and authoritarian.

        • m532@lemmygrad.ml
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          10 months ago

          So, authoritarian is when they don’t bomb other countries, and libertarian is when they bomb every day?

          • arrow74@lemmy.zip
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            10 months ago

            Nope didn’t say that at all, nice try though. You can be authoritarian and not bomb other countries and you can be authoritarian and bomb other countries.

            Foreign affairs dont necessarily effect that determination.

            The US I’d say is authoritarian and imperialist.

            A country like Saudia Arabia or North Korea is just Authoritarian and tend to at least only meddle with boarding nations.

          • BiteSizedZeitGeist@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago
            1. No, I didn’t
            2. Are you an ML? If so, why are MLs so antagonistic to non-ML lefties? American Democrats, I can understand, but why be so extremely dichotomous about who your allies are?
            • Bloomcole@lemmy.world
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              10 months ago

              I don’t know you, you could’ve been a US dem or som EU ‘social democrat’ or whatever calls themselves lefties.
              I formulated the general sentiment of that group, overly represented on .world and crying about Trump’s america.
              I’m not antagonistic to lefties, only the pseudo-lefties.
              If you’re not one of then don’t feel targeted.
              You would be part of a small minority here tho.

      • ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        I redefine authoritarianism to “when people want things”, but when I implement authoritarianism I’ll use the more commonly understood description of authoritarianism.

    • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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      11 months ago

      “Authoritarian” is largely a meaningless term. All it really means is one group using force against another group, but it doesn’t say anything about which group is which. In the US Empire, the capitalists use the state to crush the workers, and export genocide and chaos to the global south. In the PRC, the working class uses the state to keep the capitalists in check as they progress and develop along socialist lines. This stark difference in which class is in power is shown with immense popular support in the PRC:

      • AnarchoEngineer@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        11 months ago

        Meta argument: charts like this are basically useless.

        I was raised in a very religious town. If you asked, the people in that town would say “my religion is a religion of love” “people should be as free as possible because it’s an extension of personal agency” and all the while they beat their kids and would rather die than let gay or trans people be themselves.

        They can quote the scriptures and could likely write some pretty strong rhetoric implying they are loving and kind and caring, but it wouldn’t be anywhere near the truth.

        Point is that just because you get phrases pounded into your head doesn’t mean you truly believe them or even know what they imply.

        If your country’s rhetoric specifically states that the government serves the people and says it over and over, regardless of the truth of that statement, people will have a tendency to select it. (Like if your government called itself the people’s republic…)

        If you asked Americans and Chinese if they think personal freedom is important, you’d likely get the reverse pattern in your graph. Is this because America has more freedom? No, more likely it’s because the historical rhetoric we get exposed to emphasizes “freedom” whereas China’s revolutionary rhetoric was centered around “democracy”

        If you asked Americans if they support socialism, you’d get lower bars than if you asked it indirectly. Just using the word socialism skews your metric.

        People will say they support or don’t support concepts they don’t understand, or that they view in a different light than others. Does democracy mean more than two political parties? Does democracy mean no capitalism? Does democracy require freedom to spread information freely? Etc.

        So once again these metrics are useless because I’d imagine most of these countries’ voters would disagree on what the statements even mean.

        • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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          11 months ago

          You’d have more of a point if the fact that the people of China support their system wasn’t regularly proven in various metrics, not just a single poll.

      • chaos@beehaw.org
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        11 months ago

        Okay, but we are talking about a country where you aren’t allowed to form a political party that opposes the CCP, right? How can we tell the difference between “hell yeah, my country is making my life great” and “there is exactly one answer to this survey question that will not get me in trouble”? I always try to keep in mind that I am not immune to propaganda, but I’ve personally known Chinese people who have very explicitly declined to offer any criticism of the Chinese government or go against the party line, even in private conversation, because they didn’t want trouble.

        • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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          11 months ago

          Yes, capitalists are prevented from undermining socialism. If you read the studies, the reason the people of China support their system is because it supports them and represents their interests.

          • chaos@beehaw.org
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            11 months ago

            But it’s also a ban on other socialist parties, not just capitalist ones, and it plays directly into the talking point that socialism is an authoritarian system that is imposed on people, not chosen on its merits. If the CCP really has enjoyed resounding, unwavering support from the proletariat for 75 years straight, why appear so weak by never allowing any competition whatsoever?

      • Synapse@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Better answer the survey correctly when you live in a country that has laws like “disagreeing with the government is a crime”

        • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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          10 months ago

          Although state censorship and propaganda are widespread in China, these findings highlight that citizen perceptions of governmental performance respond most to real, measurable changes in individuals’ material well-being. Satisfaction and support must be consistently reinforced. As a result, the data point to specific areas in which citizen satisfaction could decline in today’s era of slowing economic growth and continued environmental degradation.

          Understanding CPC Resiliance

          The CPC does restrict the speech of capitalists, yes. However, the reason the people support the CPC is because of dramatic improvements in living conditions, not fear of the state.

          • Synapse@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            The data from this article is up to 2016. Things have changed quite a bit since the COVID crisis.

            • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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              10 months ago

              The data from the source I provided on perceptions of democracy is from 2024. The Ash Center Study proves that this isn’t a recent thing, the CPC has broad support and successfully maintains it. Here are even more sources on the matter.

              You have a hypothesis but no evidence that it actually matters.

              • Synapse@lemmy.world
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                10 months ago

                Alright, you did convince me that the Chinese people report strong support to the CCP and report a strong perception of democracy. What I am still not convinced of however, is that PRC IS democratic.

                In my book, for a country to be democratic it needs to have:

                • Freedom of speech
                • Freedom of press
                • Freedom of reunion
                • Freedom of protest
                • Universal access to education
                • Political plurality
                • Universal suffrage
                • Universal respect of human right

                My opinion today is that, I highly doubt PRC qualifies to any of this points, but I don’t know for sure. If you convince me with credible evidence that PRC is better than, let’s say, France, Germany or Norway, on all these points, then I am ready to move to China with you next year.

                Edit: I forgot a few important point on my democratic list of requirements:

                • Laicity (division of state and religion and tolerance for all religions)
                • Division of power (Legislative, Justice, Executive, etc, must be help by different institution regulating each other)
                • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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                  10 months ago

                  First of all, you have a very liberal-minded understanding of democracy. A lot of these values are really only “valid” in as much as they apply to capitalists in the west. For example:

                  1. Freedom of Speech
                  2. Freedom of Press

                  Both of these only exist in the west as far as they can be abused by those with enough money to buy the media narrative. In China, speech of capitalists and misinformation is cracked down on, but the working class is largely left to speak what they want.

                  Freedom of reunion (I take to mean freedom of assembly) is partially valid. As China is a socialist country, and the class struggle is very much still alive, creating groups opposed to socialism is cracked down on more. However, there exist many specialty groups, in fact there are 8 political parties other than the CPC that work cooperatively with the CPC when it comes to governing.

                  Freedom of protest is fine. Protests and public backlash are what caused the CPC to back off on COVID restrictions, even though the CPC was correct. You can’t really aim to overthrow socialism or anything, but protests for example are often supported by the CPC against capitalists.

                  Education is kept extremely cheap in China. Schools are extremely competitive as well, partially because of how many people there are competing for the top universities, but overall education is extremely affordable. It isn’t free as far as I’m aware, but it isn’t a block for the working class.

                  Regarding political plurality, there’s a saying in China: “let a hundred flowers bloom, a hundred schools of thought contend.” I recommend this article on Roland Boer’s trip to China.

                  As for universal suffrage:

                  >All citizens of the People’s Republic of China who have reached the age of 18 have the right to vote and stand for election, regardless of ethnic background, race, sex, occupation, family background, religious belief, education level, property status or length of residence. People who have been deprived of their political rights according to law do not have the right to vote and stand for election. One voter has only one vote in each election.

                  As for universal respect of human rights, China does quite well, and unlike the countries you listed, it isn’t imperialist. France, Germany, Norway, the west in general, all depend on vast looting and plundering of the global south. China doesn’t, it runs on largely its own production, which is why countries in the global south are flocking to China for construction contracts and to join the Belt and Road Initiative.

                  Imperialist countries in the west use vast exports of capital to super-exploit international labor for super-profits, that’s where western safety nets come from. Essentially, you can think of the west as capitalists in country form, exploiting those under their domination, while China is aligned with the global south and doesn’t have that private domination of finance capital that enables imperialism in the first place.

                  I’m not moving to China anytime soon. I can’t speak Mandarin, and I have friends and family where I live. I do organize with communists, though, and would love to bring about socialism in my country.


                  Edit for your edit:

                  Religion is protected.

                  As for “separation of powers,” this circles back to you having a thoroughly liberal understanding of politics. Government should cooperate in a functional society, not work against itself. Capitalist countries rely on this instability of government in order to keep capital on top, but there’s no actual reasoning for it. The churn, the competition, it’s all by design to keep society turned against itself instead of cooperating.

      • zeezee@slrpnk.net
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        10 months ago

        So you consider a state censoring all it’s citizens from discussing certain words and topics to not be authoritarian?

        • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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          10 months ago

          I stated that all states are “authoritarian,” all are methods by which one class exerts authority over another. The only way out of “authoritarianism” is to fully collectivize production, eliminating class distinctions. Until then, it’s better for capitalists to be under the thumb of the workers, rather than the inverse. Like I said, it’s a largely meaningless term.

      • yucandu@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        In the PRC, the working class uses the state to keep the capitalists in check

        The state used the police to crush the working class when they demanded the money from the banks that invested it in a runaway housing scam.

        https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jul/11/china-violent-clashes-at-protest-over-frozen-rural-bank-accounts

        You are believing in a fantasy. There are countless countries around the world that are arguably more socialist than China without even calling themselves such. Quite frankly, I trust actions and numbers more than words.

        • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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          11 months ago

          Using a western, anti-communist news source for a report on how China is supposedly crushing the working class? Color me shocked! You have no points.

      • MisterFrog@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        I’m a big defender of China when the “China Bad” crowd comes out, but this graph is meaningless beyond what people’s perceptions are.

        Real trade unions are banned. All must be part of the party, workers rights are routinely not enforced, and given the lattitude the government has to act, there isn’t really much of an excuse.

        The CCP enjoy massive support, though, this is undeniable. The reasons for this support is debatable and vary from person to person.

        I for one, very much enjoy when the Chinese government does things in line with my socialist ideals. But let’s not pretend like they’re actually keeping the capitalists in check. There are many, many billionaires in China, something that ought not be possible under an actual socialist country.

        It doesn’t take a genius to look at their system of voting to quickly conclude that you don’t really have a say, the People’s Congress functions as a rubber stamp for what the inner party has already decided.

        Again, my opinions aside, people in China generally are supportive of the government at this present time.

        • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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          10 months ago

          The graph shows that people generally feel they have more democratic input in China than peoole do in the US, France, and Britain. That’s a valuable metric.

          Secondly, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions is a real union, it fights for worker’s rights against the capitalists that still exist in the primary stage of socialism they are in. Yes, it is affiliated with the CPC, and that’s a good thing. If unions were allowed to be independent, then they would be directly supported by western governments against the socialist system. China exists in a world where capitalism is dominant and constantly undermining socialism.

          Third, capitalists are kept in check. They exist, including billionaires, because China is in the primary stage of socialism. The point of socialism isn’t to make everything equal, in the context of the overall economy China is still dramatically improving the rights and well-being of its working class as its core focus. As China develops, private property is sublimated into public property, if the capitalists had control then this wouldn’t really be possible at scale.

          Overall, I think you should research more on why China does things you may not agree with on the surface. Usually it’s either for an understandable reason, or is something that is bad, but is improving (like LGBTQIA+ rights).

    • Smackyroon@lemmy.mlBannedOP
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      11 months ago

      Except one country is authoritarian and lying about the authoritarianism of China

      • takeda@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        11 months ago

        Right now the US is led by fan of xi and putin, so no surprise he wants to implement the same things there.

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          11 months ago

          If that was actually true, then NATO would be dissolved and the US would be trying to dedollarize and join BRICS.

          • ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml
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            11 months ago

            I love the liberal fanfic that he’s completely subservient to the bad foreigners, but won’t do the things that would benefit them the most because… uhh… he’s hiding his power level or something? 5D Chess? I dunno

          • takeda@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            11 months ago

            And what do you think is happening when he is saying he won’t honor article 5 of NATO treaty?

            Why is he pushing India (one of biggest proponents of BRICS that didn’t want to get rid of dollar) toward Russia by imposing tariffs so high that are essentially an embargo?

            • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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              11 months ago

              He’s bad at his job and is flailing around because the US Empire is finding the end result of hollowing out domestic industry for decades.

            • Grapho@lemmy.ml
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              11 months ago

              Idk what sort of DuPont/Monsanto/Pfizer cocktail y’all got in your drinking water but I stg I listen to any voting gringo talk politics and y’all start frothing at the mouth with the most unhinged theories. Tinfoil sellers gotta be making a killing over there.

  • SleepyPie@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

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

    • HiddenLayer555@lemmy.ml
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      11 months 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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      11 months 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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        11 months 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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          11 months 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.

      • TrippyFocus@lemmy.ml
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        11 months 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.

    • Amnesigenic@lemmy.ml
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      11 months ago

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

    • Dessalines@lemmy.ml
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      11 months 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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        11 months ago

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

        • KimBongUn420@lemmy.ml
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          11 months 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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            11 months 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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                11 months 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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                  10 months 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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        11 months 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.

    • Smackyroon@lemmy.mlBannedOP
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      11 months ago

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

      • nope@jlai.lu
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        10 months ago

        Nah dude, nobody talked about an in-between. China bad, and America going bad too. In his image op implies people think that because China bad, america cannot be lol. That’s stupid

        • Dessalines@lemmy.ml
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          10 months ago

          Yall would be demonizing the Algerians or Vietnamese people fighting for their independence from France’s ruthless colonial rule as “authoritarian”, and “both sides bad”.

          • nope@jlai.lu
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            10 months ago

            I was gonna reply stuff but I don’t see how I could gain anything from it ? I was initially saying op’s take implied something stupid (note that I’m not saying your scapegoats don’t exist; but if they do they’re probably a minority), and that yours created a kind of “moderate” persona who’s always in between political views to mock that other user’s comment about not everything being all black or white. Which I replied to by affirming China already black and america going darker.

            And now you’re bringing more unrelated shit into athe situation lol. Isolating both china and america they both look like shit, albeit one more than the other. Idk who the fuck is in your “y’all” but it doesn’t really matter to me and I don’t feel targeted. I don’t know enough about the stuff you tried to push on me to properly debate anyways, so I’m just gonna go sleep and enjoy my night lol.

    • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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      10 months ago

      All states are authoritarian, in that they are instruments by which one class oppresses the others. What this doesn’t say anything about alone, though, is which class is in power. In the US Empire, the capitalists are in power, and use the authority of the state to crush workers when workers rise up. In the PRC, the working class is in power, and the state keeps capitalists in check and appropriates their capital gradually.

      The only way out of authoritarian control by any class is to get rid of classes entirely, which requires full collectivization of production. China is actively building towards that, the US Empire is opposing it. Until we get to a classless society, it’s better for the working class to be in charge.

      In other words, class struggle will continue to exist even after the proletariat takes control. All of the tensions from class struggle continue to exist, only they are resolved in favor of the working class. This is what “authoritarianism” looks like, class conflict expressed in state response.

        • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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          10 months ago

          Yes. Democracy isn’t about choosing between parties, but having substantive input on direction that results in the will of the people being carried out. This is true of China, policy is typically driven from the bottom-up, a process called “whole process people’s democracy.” This is expressed, as an example, through Five Year Plans that are the result of mass polling and suggestions among the populace. The CPC has over 100 million members in a country of 1.4 billion.

          The state isn’t a class in and of itself, it can only serve as representative of a class. In the PRC, that class is the working class. The communists beat the nationalists in the Chinese Civil War, and from that point on the working class has been in control.