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I don't think people on HN are afraid to criticize the Chinese government. I just don't think they understand how bad the situation is. This is partially becaus

I don't think people on HN are afraid to criticize the Chinese government. I just don't think they understand how bad the situation is. This is partially because the Chinese government has been extremely successful at censoring both domestic and international press, and partially because most people just don't care. I hate the discussions on Chinese culture on Reddit because the "discussions" are really just westerners regurgitating common myths and stereotypes they read elsewhere on Reddit. I can't count the number of comments I've read on HN in the past few months from white Googlers who have never been to China linking some medium post from a Chinese citizen "Asking for Google to come to China", as if that justifies Dragonfly. This is just my personal observation and I'm biased in my heritage, but in America I've noticed that the problems afflicting Asians get noticeably less attention and sympathy. In public school, the Japanese detainment camps were almost completely glossed over in history class. Casual racism against Asians is still socially acceptable even at a time when society is more sensitive to prejudice and discrimination. Very people care about the human rights situations in North Korea and China even though, objectively, they're more serious and older than more recent conflicts that get more attention.

jacobolus 8y ago
> In public school, the Japanese detainment camps were almost completely glossed over in history class Don’t worry, American schools substantially whitewash (or sometimes just skip altogether) a long history of racist and often horrific American government policy towards Native Americans, Africans, Latin Americans, Catholic Europeans, Jews, Filipinos, Pacific Islanders, Chinese, Middle Easterners, ... (Not to mention current ongoing racist policies toward many countries and people.) There’s nothing unique about the way we specifically gloss over treatment of Japanese Americans during WWII. Similarly, there is plenty of “casual racism” (not to mention the decidedly not-casual sort) toward a wide variety of groups today. Try talking to people from pretty much any kind of ethnic or religious minority and you’ll hear ugly stories. I wouldn’t say Americans on the whole care especially more or less about human rights in North Korea or for ethnic minorities in China compared to e.g. Yemen, Turkey, Ukraine, South Sudan, or Honduras. Which is to say, some Americans care a whole lot about human rights around the world, and most couldn’t be bothered. Before we rag on Americans too much though, it’s not clear that people or governments in other countries are especially more enlightened.

jacobolus 8y ago

> In public school, the Japanese detainment camps were almost completely glossed over in history class Don’t worry, American schools substantially whitewash (or sometimes just skip altogether) a long history of racist and often horrific American government policy towards Native Americans, Africans, Latin Americans, Catholic Europeans, Jews, Filipinos, Pacific Islanders, Chinese, Middle Easterners, ... (Not to mention current ongoing racist policies toward many countries and people.) There’s nothing unique about the way we specifically gloss over treatment of Japanese Americans during WWII. Similarly, there is plenty of “casual racism” (not to mention the decidedly not-casual sort) toward a wide variety of groups today. Try talking to people from pretty much any kind of ethnic or religious minority and you’ll hear ugly stories. I wouldn’t say Americans on the whole care especially more or less about human rights in North Korea or for ethnic minorities in China compared to e.g. Yemen, Turkey, Ukraine, South Sudan, or Honduras. Which is to say, some Americans care a whole lot about human rights around the world, and most couldn’t be bothered. Before we rag on Americans too much though, it’s not clear that people or governments in other countries are especially more enlightened.