4 ms·

This is just silly. I prefer to be in none, like a free human being treated with some basic rights. You won't find that in the US or China. As much as it hurts

by A2017U1 7y ago

This is just silly. I prefer to be in none, like a free human being treated with some basic rights. You won't find that in the US or China. As much as it hurts some people's sensibilities think that's a fair thing to say. I'd be terrified to be a black person in many places in the United States. Hilariously think China is actually more free for the average human. Spent fair amount of time in both and as an outsider is my honest opinion. Where is best to be a political dissident is obviously a very different story. If certain people want to repeat ad nauseum their respective propaganda media talking points fine. But the world is watching. History will judge you no matter how salty you get on the internet. Survivorship bias is a very real phenomenon, does anyone disagree that the United States has both the most people incarcerated along with per-capita rates of prisoners? The numbers are right there, are Americans just bad people in general and deserve to be locked up en masse? Don't think that's the case, would love to see anyone defend the status quo as it exists.

waste_monk 7y ago
>Hilariously think China is actually more free for the average human Until you're critical of the party leadership, or have forbidden religious beliefs, and then you get whisked away to a concentration camp (if you're lucky!) or get surgically parted out for organ transplants, often without anaesthetic. The US has plenty of problems, but to say China is more free is a very distasteful and not particularly funny joke.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- A2017U1 7y ago
  Is that not right there in my comment? Y'all need to take a serious fucking step back and evaluate the words said here. I love America and everyone in it. People stateside are incredibly nice people on the whole and sometimes you need a rude foreigner to say some blunt stuff for the sake of honesty. Get a grip on these criticisms mate. I stand by everything said above. It's fucking true and challenge you to prove otherwise. I wouldn't care nor be commenting if I didn't like you guys, leave the nationalism at the door please. China is far more free. 100% stand by that statement. Have you tried living there lately? Its astounding how many people are willfully ignoring what's happening in the biggest country on Earth for the sake of some sort of nationalist pride matter. Do so at your peril. Honestly. The media is straight up lying to you about what's happening there and yet people lap it up.
  - Frondo 7y ago
    I spent a bit of time living in one of the post-Soviet central asian states, and after a while there this was a conclusion I came to, too. Living in a dictatorship, but feeling more personal freedom than I ever had in the US. On a day-to-day basis, there's significantly more curtailment of personal freedom in the US than there was in one of the stans. The one thing I wouldn't feel safe doing there? Openly speaking against the government. Here, however, if I were part of a movement that was gaining any strength or public good will against the political and capitalist powers that run the US, I'd still be afraid for my life. Like how nearly every leader of the Black Lives Matter movement in Ferguson, MO, has been killed over the last few years. That's not a coincidence, not a random series of killings.
    - smsm42 7y ago
      Wikipedia says that BLM founders are: Alicia Garza - alive and well Patrisse Cullors - alive and well Opal Tometi - alive and well Under "key people" - Shaun King, DeRay Mckesson, Johnetta Elzie, Tef Poe, Erica Garner. Of those, only Erica Garner is not alive - she died in 2017 of two heart attacks and the following brain damage. BLM is a decentralized movement, so there are a lot of people that could be called "leaders", but clearly claim that "nearly every leader" has been killed is false. I suspect none were actually killed for any activities related to BLM (I did not check that but consider it plausible), though in large enough group of people there would always be people that die prematurely, either due to illness, or accidents, or crime (many BLM activists live in places where crime situation is not very good). I think you'd better to put down the conspiracy Kool-Aid for a while.
  - smsm42 7y ago
    > China is far more free. 100% stand by that statement. Have you tried living there lately? I haven't but I heard from people that did that you can't even connect to the Internet there without government interference. That's some definition of freedom that you don't find in every dictionary.
  - komali2 7y ago
    The Americans sucking the straw of Fox news propaganda and genuinely believing that the USA is the freest bestest country in the world aren't on this forum man. We get it. I gotta push back on this "China is more free" thing. China is definitely a very free place when you roll in as a white foreigner flush with a high value currency. I've been there, I remember thinking it's crazy what you can get away with there. But this is like arguing you're more free there because you don't have to wear a seatbelt. Sure. Not having the government force you to wear a seatbelt means you are more free, by some definitions of free. But it also means that when I'm driving around I'm not free to relax as much as I am on an American freeway because I have to watch out for shit falling off uninspected, falling to pieces construction vehicles. It means crossing the road is a game of frogger. It means I have to worry about whether my food will put me out for a week. And if I'm native Chinese, I don't get nearly the freedoms in China that white dudes teaching English do. Putting aside the cultural restrictions (your family not letting you study art and shit like that) you actually DO have to worry about what you put on social media, because unlike a visiting white tourist, the PRC will have no problems with whisking you off to a reeducation camp.
- smileysteve 7y ago
  > Where is best to be a political dissident is obviously a very different story

waste_monk 7y ago

>Hilariously think China is actually more free for the average human Until you're critical of the party leadership, or have forbidden religious beliefs, and then you get whisked away to a concentration camp (if you're lucky!) or get surgically parted out for organ transplants, often without anaesthetic. The US has plenty of problems, but to say China is more free is a very distasteful and not particularly funny joke.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
A2017U1 7y ago
Is that not right there in my comment? Y'all need to take a serious fucking step back and evaluate the words said here. I love America and everyone in it. People stateside are incredibly nice people on the whole and sometimes you need a rude foreigner to say some blunt stuff for the sake of honesty. Get a grip on these criticisms mate. I stand by everything said above. It's fucking true and challenge you to prove otherwise. I wouldn't care nor be commenting if I didn't like you guys, leave the nationalism at the door please. China is far more free. 100% stand by that statement. Have you tried living there lately? Its astounding how many people are willfully ignoring what's happening in the biggest country on Earth for the sake of some sort of nationalist pride matter. Do so at your peril. Honestly. The media is straight up lying to you about what's happening there and yet people lap it up.
- Frondo 7y ago
  I spent a bit of time living in one of the post-Soviet central asian states, and after a while there this was a conclusion I came to, too. Living in a dictatorship, but feeling more personal freedom than I ever had in the US. On a day-to-day basis, there's significantly more curtailment of personal freedom in the US than there was in one of the stans. The one thing I wouldn't feel safe doing there? Openly speaking against the government. Here, however, if I were part of a movement that was gaining any strength or public good will against the political and capitalist powers that run the US, I'd still be afraid for my life. Like how nearly every leader of the Black Lives Matter movement in Ferguson, MO, has been killed over the last few years. That's not a coincidence, not a random series of killings.
  - smsm42 7y ago
    Wikipedia says that BLM founders are: Alicia Garza - alive and well Patrisse Cullors - alive and well Opal Tometi - alive and well Under "key people" - Shaun King, DeRay Mckesson, Johnetta Elzie, Tef Poe, Erica Garner. Of those, only Erica Garner is not alive - she died in 2017 of two heart attacks and the following brain damage. BLM is a decentralized movement, so there are a lot of people that could be called "leaders", but clearly claim that "nearly every leader" has been killed is false. I suspect none were actually killed for any activities related to BLM (I did not check that but consider it plausible), though in large enough group of people there would always be people that die prematurely, either due to illness, or accidents, or crime (many BLM activists live in places where crime situation is not very good). I think you'd better to put down the conspiracy Kool-Aid for a while.
- smsm42 7y ago
  > China is far more free. 100% stand by that statement. Have you tried living there lately? I haven't but I heard from people that did that you can't even connect to the Internet there without government interference. That's some definition of freedom that you don't find in every dictionary.
- komali2 7y ago
  The Americans sucking the straw of Fox news propaganda and genuinely believing that the USA is the freest bestest country in the world aren't on this forum man. We get it. I gotta push back on this "China is more free" thing. China is definitely a very free place when you roll in as a white foreigner flush with a high value currency. I've been there, I remember thinking it's crazy what you can get away with there. But this is like arguing you're more free there because you don't have to wear a seatbelt. Sure. Not having the government force you to wear a seatbelt means you are more free, by some definitions of free. But it also means that when I'm driving around I'm not free to relax as much as I am on an American freeway because I have to watch out for shit falling off uninspected, falling to pieces construction vehicles. It means crossing the road is a game of frogger. It means I have to worry about whether my food will put me out for a week. And if I'm native Chinese, I don't get nearly the freedoms in China that white dudes teaching English do. Putting aside the cultural restrictions (your family not letting you study art and shit like that) you actually DO have to worry about what you put on social media, because unlike a visiting white tourist, the PRC will have no problems with whisking you off to a reeducation camp.
smileysteve 7y ago
> Where is best to be a political dissident is obviously a very different story