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Do you get steamrolled (not figuratively. literally, with a steamroller) in front of your village if you criticize the prime minister? probably not right? Do y

Do you get steamrolled (not figuratively. literally, with a steamroller) in front of your village if you criticize the prime minister? probably not right? Do you get your organs harvested in jail if you oppose the ruling party? Can you open Wikipedia and read articles that challenge the political views of your leadership? Can you go to a library and buy a book about opposing political systems? Can you study such systems in school? Can an academic have a job if he has opposing political views? Can you vote and pick a guy from another party? Do other parties exist at all? Can you start your own party? So no, it's not the same. You can make all the analogies you want, but there's no equivalence, at least not in the extent in which these things are happening. There is surely shady stuff going on everywhere, and corruption and coverups, but it's still not the same. We even have RT, the Russian station that is mostly propaganda for the Russian Federation leadership views, and you can tune into it if you want and watch it all day if so you prefer.

quirkafleeg 9y ago
> Can you vote and pick a guy from another party? Do other parties exist at all? Can you start your own party? All you're illustrating with this one is that the US does a better job of faking democracy. If China had a pro-establishment Democratic Communist Party alternative to a pro-establishment Communist Party, each sharing 99% of the resources, media, power and influence, along with infinite minnow parties that pose no threat to the system or established order because the system doesn't allow them to, it would be as democratic as the US.
- partycoder 9y ago
  Maybe a small party will not make it to the presidency because of the issues you have mentioned (to that also add electoral trickery like gerrymandering). But there are many branches of government that can help influence government, and you can also run for office within your state. Here some states have independent senators. In China you don't really have independent branches of government, it's just the Chairman of the party and whatever he wants is what gets done.
deleted 9y ago
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yorwba 9y ago
> Can you open Wikipedia and read articles that challenge the political views of your leadership? You can actually do that in China, if you know English. Only the Chinese Wikipedia is blocked. > Can you go to a library and buy a book about opposing political systems? If you mean a book that explains the political system of e.g. the United States, sure, you can read that. If you mean a book that proposes an alternative political system for China, probably not. > Can you vote and pick a guy from another party? Do other parties exist at all? There are no other parties, but in theory, you can write in any name you want on your vote sheet. It's just that one of the "recommended" guys always wins. > So no, it's not the same. Agreed. I just wanted to point out that it's not exactly as bad in China as you think it is.
- partycoder 9y ago
  Yes sure, I just wanted to stress some less known aspects of how repressive the system is. There are good things about China, there are things that work and scale more than in the US, for sure. China works very well for you if you are aligned with the party, or you are indifferent and don't get in their way. Otherwise it does not work very well.

quirkafleeg 9y ago

> Can you vote and pick a guy from another party? Do other parties exist at all? Can you start your own party? All you're illustrating with this one is that the US does a better job of faking democracy. If China had a pro-establishment Democratic Communist Party alternative to a pro-establishment Communist Party, each sharing 99% of the resources, media, power and influence, along with infinite minnow parties that pose no threat to the system or established order because the system doesn't allow them to, it would be as democratic as the US.

partycoder 9y ago
Maybe a small party will not make it to the presidency because of the issues you have mentioned (to that also add electoral trickery like gerrymandering). But there are many branches of government that can help influence government, and you can also run for office within your state. Here some states have independent senators. In China you don't really have independent branches of government, it's just the Chairman of the party and whatever he wants is what gets done.

deleted 9y ago

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yorwba 9y ago

> Can you open Wikipedia and read articles that challenge the political views of your leadership? You can actually do that in China, if you know English. Only the Chinese Wikipedia is blocked. > Can you go to a library and buy a book about opposing political systems? If you mean a book that explains the political system of e.g. the United States, sure, you can read that. If you mean a book that proposes an alternative political system for China, probably not. > Can you vote and pick a guy from another party? Do other parties exist at all? There are no other parties, but in theory, you can write in any name you want on your vote sheet. It's just that one of the "recommended" guys always wins. > So no, it's not the same. Agreed. I just wanted to point out that it's not exactly as bad in China as you think it is.

partycoder 9y ago
Yes sure, I just wanted to stress some less known aspects of how repressive the system is. There are good things about China, there are things that work and scale more than in the US, for sure. China works very well for you if you are aligned with the party, or you are indifferent and don't get in their way. Otherwise it does not work very well.