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As a Chinese person the thing I find most dispiriting is that, if this comment had been made in a slightly more subtle and polished way (without a Hitler compar

As a Chinese person the thing I find most dispiriting is that, if this comment had been made in a slightly more subtle and polished way (without a Hitler comparison right at the start, for one thing) it would have received a lot more upvotes and given a lot more credence

Archio 8y ago
I agree that the comparison to Hitler is a non sequitur. However, as a citizen in a democracy, I am pretty sure the writer of that posts intends it to be a criticism of an authoritarian dictatorship and not China's people or people of Chinese descent.
- scarcely 8y ago
  I'm sure he's not a monster. Thing is, Americans find it very hard to see us as anything other than monsters. It's exhausting to try and have a conversation when the interlocutor is ready to terminate it at any point because s/he decides that you are either evil or brainwashed. (To me, that's where the real prejudice lies - the inability to imagine other people as moral, not just intellectual, equals) I should also say that the distinction between "criticizing government" and "criticizing people" is routinely not observed, even by Democrats. When Obama was making a case for the TPP, one of the main argument he gave was "The TPP would let America, not China, lead the way on global trade". Zero-sum language like this sends a signal to Americans that if doing something X is bad for this other group of humans, then that's an argument in favor of doing X, not (crazy thought!) an argument against doing it. That's how you get to where we are now where prominent Democrats like Chuck Schumer can say "we must be united in our fight against the Chinese" and not a single American, liberal or conservative, even took issue with that kind of language.
  - abecedarius 8y ago
    As an American, I'm sorry and I agree with your criticism of that rhetoric.
guelo 8y ago
Us Americans consider any non democratic government to be immoral and can't imagine putting up with it. Even if the Chinese population is ok with it we still think it's evil. Those are our values.
alabato 8y ago
Well China is doing total surveillance, even the most dystopian sci-fi are now an everyday reality of China, some BlackMirror episode like the one on Social Credit which were meant to be sci-fi are now more of a documentary on China's Score system. And now China announced they edited a baby's gene not to cure him but just to test if they can buit a new generation of more resistant humans. Please tell me how this is not completely screwed up ? (I'm not defending the US, they are in the top of the most mass surveillance countries too, I'm just defending some basic notion like "We should not use non-consenting people as guinea pig to build a stronger race of human" and this kind of stuff...)

Archio 8y ago

I agree that the comparison to Hitler is a non sequitur. However, as a citizen in a democracy, I am pretty sure the writer of that posts intends it to be a criticism of an authoritarian dictatorship and not China's people or people of Chinese descent.

scarcely 8y ago
I'm sure he's not a monster. Thing is, Americans find it very hard to see us as anything other than monsters. It's exhausting to try and have a conversation when the interlocutor is ready to terminate it at any point because s/he decides that you are either evil or brainwashed. (To me, that's where the real prejudice lies - the inability to imagine other people as moral, not just intellectual, equals) I should also say that the distinction between "criticizing government" and "criticizing people" is routinely not observed, even by Democrats. When Obama was making a case for the TPP, one of the main argument he gave was "The TPP would let America, not China, lead the way on global trade". Zero-sum language like this sends a signal to Americans that if doing something X is bad for this other group of humans, then that's an argument in favor of doing X, not (crazy thought!) an argument against doing it. That's how you get to where we are now where prominent Democrats like Chuck Schumer can say "we must be united in our fight against the Chinese" and not a single American, liberal or conservative, even took issue with that kind of language.
- abecedarius 8y ago
  As an American, I'm sorry and I agree with your criticism of that rhetoric.

guelo 8y ago

Us Americans consider any non democratic government to be immoral and can't imagine putting up with it. Even if the Chinese population is ok with it we still think it's evil. Those are our values.

alabato 8y ago

Well China is doing total surveillance, even the most dystopian sci-fi are now an everyday reality of China, some BlackMirror episode like the one on Social Credit which were meant to be sci-fi are now more of a documentary on China's Score system. And now China announced they edited a baby's gene not to cure him but just to test if they can buit a new generation of more resistant humans. Please tell me how this is not completely screwed up ? (I'm not defending the US, they are in the top of the most mass surveillance countries too, I'm just defending some basic notion like "We should not use non-consenting people as guinea pig to build a stronger race of human" and this kind of stuff...)