• ConcreteHalloween [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    12 days ago

    NGL I’m skeptical of all these “I went to China and everything and everyone was BASED!” posts.

    I think China is a geopolitical force for good on the world, but it’s also a big country that I’m sure has lots of disfunction and people who are assholes.

    • Venia Silente@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      12 days ago

      China doesn’t have to be BASED, and likely isn’t. It just has to be better enough than the US, which in the 2020s is an embarrassingly low bar to pass.

      • Bobby@leminal.spacedeleted by creatorBanned from community
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        11 days ago

        China isn’t better than the US, it sucks equally, but in totally different ways.

        • 秦始皇帝@lemmy.ml
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          11 days ago

          Care to elaborate on what China has done that even comes close to

          -Killing millions through sanctions regimes

          -Killimg millions through direct military intervention

          -Killing and impoverishing hundreds of thousands of not more through enforcing austerity and privatisation on the third world through institutions like the IMF

          etc.?

          • Bobby@leminal.spacedeleted by creatorBanned from community
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            11 days ago

            So you’re saying that China is exactly like America, almost 1:1, except it’s more densely populated and everybody’s Chinese?

            • 秦始皇帝@lemmy.ml
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              11 days ago

              No that’s not even close to what I said? You’re the one who said they were exactly equally bad which is just plainly false

              • Bobby@leminal.spacedeleted by creatorBanned from community
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                11 days ago

                Holy shit you mean that both countries kinda suck? Man, that’s heavy. I mean sure I think my country sucks worse, because only a total fucking bootlicker would gargle the balls of a government that was openly screwing them over, right?

                • 秦始皇帝@lemmy.ml
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                  11 days ago

                  China has issues (but I would say has done far more good than bad so suck isn’t an accurate descriptor anyway) but trying to equate China’s issues with Amerika, who have spent the better part of the last century raping and pillaging their way across the world is fucking stupid.

                  • Bobby@leminal.spacedeleted by creatorBanned from community
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                    11 days ago

                    China has good things and bad things, America has good things and bad things. You can probably end up in a black prison or a work camp in either country, depending on who you are and the context of why you’re there.

                    I do not believe that China is a person, so it cannot do good or bad. It is a location and a government entity.

              • Bobby@leminal.spacedeleted by creatorBanned from community
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                11 days ago

                This bullshit doesn’t deserve a response. That person is Chinese, or at least speaks Chinese. I am sure they know what problems their own country has.

                  • Bobby@leminal.spacedeleted by creatorBanned from community
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                    11 days ago

                    I see many Americans not seeing the US for the vile garbage it is.

                    There isn’t really anything in my posting history or comments to indicate I’m one of those people, so there is absolutely no reason to come at me sideways. America sucking doesn’t make any other country suck less. I don’t believe in comparisons.

        • Cowbee [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.net
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          11 days ago

          No county on Earth is perfect. China has genuine problems, like the urban/rural divide, hukou systen, and more. At the same time, it’s a constantly progressing country, among the fastest in the world, with a system that ensures the working classes are the primary beneficiaries of this progress.

          The US empire is a genocidal settler-colony. It engages in constant war and genocide, plunders the global south of their social surplus, preventing it from being reinvested in development, brutally oppresses ethnic minorities and indigenous populations, and can’t even afford to bribe the white settlers any longer. The spoils all go to the wealthiest imperialists as the country continues to decay and die away.

          China, meanwhile, is a progressive force for the global south. It is helping the global south develop, entitling them more to their social surplus and assisting with south-south trade. It’s uplifting themselves, while undermining imperialism, which uplifts others. China is equipped to deal with its problems and is working on them, the US Empire is exporting its problems to the global south and reaping the rewards.

          Equating China and the US is imperialism denial and genocide trivialization.

    • 秦始皇帝@lemmy.ml
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      12 days ago

      I think it makes sense when you remember that alot of the bad is being controlled out of it through people being tourists and likely not speaking high level or in many cases any Chinese.

      Tourists are not really going to interact with many/if any of the systems with real issues like the hukou system but will have daily interaction with systems that work incredibly well like the metros.

      And then through not speaking the language spotting assholes becomes exponentially less likely.

    • CloutAtlas [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      11 days ago

      You’d be surprised, some people are actually completely unaware of how a bunch of basic things work in the west. My younger cousin, who had never left China and is also extremely offline (for a zoomer), once asked me what’s the deal with lawns. Like “Who maintains them? Is it like plants in parks? Why are they there?”. The more I explained it, the more confused she got.

      So you can’t not have grass, everyone has grass. But it also can’t be too long. And you have to spend extra money keep it alive in a drought (which Australia experiences fairly frequently). And you have to spend money on equipment to cut it, or spend more money hiring someone else to cut it. If you’re renting, not maintaining the landlord’s grass will get you in trouble and possibly evicted. And you have to keep weeds out.

      Now, she was 19 at that point in time, so fairly naive. But still.

      • LeeeroooyJeeenkiiins [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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        11 days ago

        i got away without it for a bit because it wasn’t raining and my yard was all dead but it’s been raining for days and now it’s all fucking needing to be mowed soon

        I don’t live in an hoa area but i don’t want mice and ticks and shit all up in my yard so i gotta

    • ExistentialNightmare@lemmygrad.ml
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      11 days ago

      Instead of having this feeling of skepticism and judging China through unserious posts like these, watch some videos of people travelling and/or living in China, watch a documentary and/or read about how their governance works, listen to the Deprogram podcast episode on China they did a few months back. Then you can have a real, nuanced personal opinion formed through your own marxist judgement and factual analysis.

    • SickSemper [she/her, they/them]@hexbear.net
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      11 days ago

      I don’t think that’s what this post is saying. A very real phenomenon on Xiaohongshu is Chinese citizens just straight up not knowing how bad it is in America. Of course there are assholes, but this post isn’t about how all Chinese ppl are saints (plenty of anti black and anti Indian racism), it’s about how by and large America isn’t understood as the predatory capitalist hell that it is. When I joined the app, it was a common misconception that every American owned and lived in a McMansion style home, and some Chinese users straight up called people liars for describing experiences with poverty, homelessness, medical bills etc

    • Bobby@leminal.spacedeleted by creatorBanned from community
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      11 days ago

      I haven’t been to China in over a decade, but I always ask the same question and follow up with the same comment when Westerners ask about it. I usually use this to dissuade them of saying paranoid things.

      “You ever been to Flushing?” Yes…? “It’s like that, except with more lights.”