The conversations are amazing

  • Sagittarii@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    There’s a bunch of Chinese posts asking if the stuff about school shootings, fires, homelessness are exaggerated propaganda only to be told otherwise. It’s both hilarious and sad.

    • ubergeek@lemmy.today
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      1 year ago

      People of the US and China are both unsure of what to believe about the other, because both are so propagandized lol

      • Dessalines@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Who told you that the people of China are propagandized, especially to hate other countries and peoples as much as the US does?

        • vatlark@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Woah I never recognized your username in the wild before. Thanks for giving us Lemmy. Huge fan.

        • nick@campfyre.nickwebster.dev
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          1 year ago

          Friends of mine who have moved away from China. One of them had police at their door in China for social media posts that were friendly to Uyghurs (not even anything to do with the genocide, just general friendliness as a “we’re all Chinese” kind of message). Being taken to police stations for even slightly questioning the state narrative is terrifying.

              • zedcell@lemmygrad.ml
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                1 year ago

                Zero possibility that this friend lied?

                Some people love to lie especially if it gets a rise out of people. “Defectors” including the likes of Yeonmi Park from the DPRK also are financially incentivised to lie. I know people that lie about shit in the UK to make things sound worse than it is, and they will swear up and down it’s true after being called out on it.

        • COASTER1921@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          Their access to news is controlled and for some topics all available news is what we’d call propaganda. Particularly anything about Japan or the Taiwan issue. Most people I know there realize this to an extent but without any other information do still believe the core idea even if skeptical of details.

          But at the same time I’d argue there’s no such thing as a population that’s not propagandized. In the US the big news corporations only will present views favorable to their profitability and continued growth. Sure they disagree with eachother, but it’s still always a pro-business view. State news from Russia is (I’d argue rightly) not available on many US platforms to discourage it’s influence for example.

          • FreakinSteve@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            The US does NOT have a free press and is not at all interested in freedom and free speech. Notice that there are no socialists or leftists of any kind on any news channel or in political leadership positions.

            • kattfisk@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              1 year ago

              This is just untrue. There is plenty of legal press in the US of any persuasion, from anarchist to fascist.

              The major US news outlets are in bed with capitalists because that’s where the money is, but there are lots of smaller outlets with other views. In China all news outlets kowtow to the government because anything else is illegal.

              • Eatspancakes84@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Mostly agree with this take. I just wanted to add some nuance. I was talking to a friend about Gaza/Israel-protests in my country and said that the media doesn’t show everything. He then told a story about the protests that was supposedly not covered in the media. However, I had literally just read about that story in my newspaper.

                Point is, there is some freedom of press (at least in my country) and the press is fairly pluralistic. However, to really find out what’s going on you need to read i.) several sources, and ii.) continue to focus on events after journalists took the effort to dig down. That’s a big ask for many people. And the stories that come out first tend to be most biased.

              • davel@lemmy.ml
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                1 year ago

                In China all news outlets kowtow to the government because anything else is illegal.

                This is what our media tell us about their media. In every country the media kowtow to the government to some extent, but I’m not sure to exactly what extent they actually do in China, and I’m not going to take our media’s word for what that extent is.

                • kattfisk@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                  1 year ago

                  If you do not know the extent of pressure asserted on Chinese media that is willful ignorance.

                  Of course “our media” (whatever you mean by that) is the only media that can report on it as Chinese media is heavily censored.

                  If you want to know the extent the information easy to find.

                  Here’s some of what Reporters Without Borders have to say

                  “The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is the world’s largest prison for journalists, and its regime conducts a campaign of repression against journalism and the right to information worldwide.”

                  “The Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party sends a detailed notice to all media every day that includes editorial guidelines and censored topics.”

                  “Independent journalists and bloggers who dare to report “sensitive” information are often placed under surveillance, harassed, detained, and, in some cases, tortured.”

                  Source: https://rsf.org/en/country/china

                  This is from The Committee to Protect Journalists

                  “China has long ranked as one of the world’s worst jailers of journalists. Censorship makes the exact number of journalists jailed there notoriously difficult to determine, but Beijing’s media crackdown has widened in recent years”

                  Source: https://cpj.org/reports/2024/01/2023-prison-census-jailed-journalist-numbers-near-record-high-israel-imprisonments-spike/

                  Here’s Amnesty International

                  “Chinese authorities continued to severely curtail rights to freedoms of expression, association and peaceful assembly, including through the abusive application of laws often under the pretext of preserving national security.”

                  Source: https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/asia-and-the-pacific/east-asia/china/report-china/

            • ubergeek@lemmy.today
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              1 year ago

              You mean how both China, and the US propagandize their citizens? Yeah, I’m fully aware of that already. All states will do it, as a system of control over the working class, in order to continue to exploit them.

              I mean, if controlling the people wasn’t the goal, whats the purpose of the oppression of a state?

    • 小莱卡@lemmygrad.ml
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      1 year ago

      School shootings is something uniquely american. Even México doesn’t have them and we have a decent amount of narcojuniors (rich sons of drug dealers) that would have plenty access to guns, the only time i remember a school shooting happening it was in a private school in Monterrey like 7 years ago, which is pretty much the most americanized part of México.

    • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I’m reminded of that ex Soviet joke about how they always knew the government was lying about their own countries but were shocked to learn it was telling the truth about america

  • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    It’s honestly very wholesome to see this kind of interaction. On top of cute moments like Chinese users telling the new US users that they are their “spies,” seeing a lot of blatant myth dispelling surrounding the PRC is great to help tear down the Red Scare.

  • theneverfox@pawb.social
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    1 year ago

    If banning tik tok ends up galvanizing demand for healthcare reform I’m going to laugh my ass off

  • Jo Miran@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Circle jerking about China is as ridiculous as circle jerking about the US. We’ve been here before with US vs USSR, but this time everyone has a megaphone and an IQ that can be measured with a ruler.

    • rando895 [she/her]@lemmygrad.ml
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      1 year ago

      I mean isn’t this more "circle jerking " about dismantling state propaganda? Interacting with those you were told are your enemy?

      Besides, people should always celebrate the positives, and look towards them as something that is possible in their country too.

      And as an fyi: when we were here before, the workers revolution in Russia was new. The achievements were so profound that workers in North America began demanding similar concessions from our governments. There was a real threat of overthrowing the existing power structures. And what happened? Weekends, literacy, healthcare, just generally improved living conditions. To dismiss cultural exchange as circle jerking is to ignore history and the power that comes with knowing things are better elsewhere, and that you can have that too.

    • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      You keep on coping there little buddy. What’s happening is that regular people from both countries are now talking directly to each other, and finding out what life is actually like.

      • ThirdConsul@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Uhhh, not exactly regular people. From what I’ve seen from the Rednote, at least my feed is wealthy upper-middle or upper class, while the Americans are from low to middle class.

    • Erika3sis [she/her, xe/xem]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      If what you’re trying to get at is that whereas it is very important to unlearn the lies and exaggerations one was told about a country, that people also need to avoid replacing these lies with an overly simplistic and uncritical understanding of that same country, and that the current social media landscape makes it very difficult for many people to have the necessary nuance to avoid this pitfall… Then I would agree with you, but I’d also tell you that mentioning the eugenicists’ favorite way of measuring “intelligence” is a very bad way of phrasing this idea, and that your standards of what counts as “circle-jerking” about a country are probably not nearly as inviting of nuance as you’d think.

  • caboose2006@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Eh, there’s truth and lies on both sides. Coming from someone that lived in china for 4 years and was able to engage with Chinese primary news sources. But basic healthcare in china is faster and cheaper, but then again I went to get a wart removed and they prescribed me acorn paste that accelerated the growth of the wart. So win some lose some.

    • Derpgon@programming.dev
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      1 year ago

      Everyone pretending Europe doesn’t exist? Most countries have most healthcare for “free” (mandatory healthcare taxes).

      • Pili@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Eh… as someone living in western Europe, I can’t say it’s free. I would say that it’s subsidized at most. We still have to pay a part of our healthcare, we can get a private health insurance to complete the government coverage, but it’s still not enough to cover all of it.

        Mental health isn’t covered at all, ophtalmology barely (still gotta pay 200€ for a pair of glasses, after public + private coverage), dental only the very basic is covered…

      • djsoren19@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        1 year ago

        The kinda people joining Rednote right now are not the same kinda people who know alot about geopolitics, or honestly anything beyond their personal bubble. Yeah, they’re just gonna keep pretending Europe doesn’t exist.

  • Clbull@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    It’s funny that Xiaohongshu is popping off right on the cusp of a TikTok ban. They’re not even flocking to established US alternatives.

    • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      The fact that Xiaohongshu is Chinese is the point, it’s a protest against banning Chinese Social Media without holding US-based Social Media to the same standard.

  • passiveaggressivesonar@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Few things blew my mind even though I’ve been a big fan of Chinese economic and political policy for a while

    They actually really like Soviet Culture, the marching soldiers and flags etc. Soviet rock like Kino and the like is very popular!

    They’re casually Marxist, its not something they have to fight to learn about so socialism is a casual existence for them. I figured the youth would be “too cool or hip” but doesn’t seem to be the case

    They’re very similar as gamers, they really like shooters like battlefield and cs go. I assume their MMOs are different but I’m asking about that

    It truly is a massive cultural exchange the likes of which have never been seen before. I’m trying to find out if they grew up on the same games, Morrowind Deus Ex Thief Ultima Online D&D etc

    • Alsephina@lemmy.mlOP
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      1 year ago

      Oh yeah they really like Soviet culture. My first post on there is of some Soviet artwork and it got 1.3k likes, on a brand new account. Wouldn’t see that happening on Insta or Xitter.

  • davel@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Reporter: [REDACTED]
    Reason: Misinformation

    Truths you find inconvenient are not misinformation, reporter.