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Sounds a lot like everywhere else, like America. I bet if Americans and Chinese looked, we have more in common with each other than we have with our politicians
by lambda_obrien 6y ago
Sounds a lot like everywhere else, like America. I bet if Americans and Chinese looked, we have more in common with each other than we have with our politicians.
- ericmay 6y agoI definitely agree that THE PEOPLE have a lot in common. Almost everyone all over the world just wants to enjoy life.
- leesalminen 6y agoThis is why the us vs them dichotomy is so important to those in power. Dividing us is the only thing that keeps them in power. Unfortunately there are so many values of “us” and “them” now that it’s obscured the only definition that really matters.
- Gene_Parmesan 6y agoI agree 1000x. Noam Chomsky has a great quote about this from The Common Good: "Now that ... workers are superfluous, what do you do with them? First of all, you have to make sure they don't notice that society is unfair and try to change that, and the best way to distract them is to get them to hate and fear one another."
- Gene_Parmesan 6y agoI have a Chinese coworker -- fairly young. He's an awesome guy, we hit it off very quickly and ended up sharing a lot of interests. One of the things that we settled on early was that, if nothing else, the people of the world can agree on at least one thing: a dislike and distrust of politicians/elite leaders. He wasn't foaming-at-the-mouth angry or anything, but he also wasn't fawning. Fawning over China as a cultural entity, yes, but we were able to have a good number of fairly frank discussions. Of course, there are still topics that felt totally taboo in such half-personal/half-professional relationships; Hong Kong was a sticking point that we avoided, for instance, and I never would have dreamed of bringing up Tiananmen.
- dwohnitmok 6y agoFWIW I'd wager Tiananmen would be less controversial to discuss with him than Hong Kong.