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Tell that to Snowden and the other whistle blowers
by phyrex 5y ago
Tell that to Snowden and the other whistle blowers
- seibelj 5y agoIn America we have people like Snowden, and other political prisoners like Ross Ulbricht. However reasonable people can debate about what they did. I would say both deserve to be free. In China the rule is Snowden. Everyone becomes Snowden if you speak any truth whatsoever to power.
- fidesomnes 5y agoRoss Ulbricht is not a political prisoner and he would have been deleted by the Chinese by now.
- jim-jim-jim 5y agoDoes that distinction speak for the liberal charity of Western governments, or the utter uselessness of most dissent? Maybe the feds are chill with our social media posts and placard waggling because they know nothing will come out of it. But see how quickly they move when they're compelled to.
- seibelj 5y agoSaying stuff on social media is not relevant to society. The only things relevant to society are groups of people. If you have millions of Twitter followers then saying something online matters because you can influence a large group. If your ideas start a movement and those people vote, then politicians will listen. You could also hire lobbyists and use financial resources to influence. The point is ideas without influence might as well never have existed. In China however they police and censor even individual social media posts, let alone allow influencers to gain millions of followers if they disagree with government policy. This is a deeply paranoid and illegitimate government that uses fear and violence to get its way. Very different from western democracy.
- rosege 5y agoYes I was thinking Assange might disagree. He's probably a better example since he was only a publisher of US war crimes.
- piiswrong 5y agoEpstein would be a better comparison
- cybernautique 5y agoAnd thankfully we can! Is this to imply that an Edward Snowden, similar in all the relevant aspects but for being a Chinese national, would fare better under their sinofascist regime? I'd much rather get the opinion of the Hong Kong journalists that were detained by the CCP, or any of the millions in detainment camps- whose "crime" was religious or ethnic affiliation!
- yuy910616 5y agoWell, at least you wouldn't get shot for saying Snowden.
- sydthrowaway 5y agoYou will never have a Chinese Snowden. The loyalty to the regime is too high.
- systemvoltage 5y agoWhy do you think loyalty is too high? I would have guessed just from the sheer number of people working in gov, there are probably dozens of resentful people of not hundreds/thousands.
- sydthrowaway 5y agoBecause China practices kin punishment. Do you want to see your entire family killed/purged just because of your ideology?
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- systemvoltage 5y agoThe amount of anti-US things I can say as a US citizen is astounding. News and media has pretty much no fear of criticizing the US gov.
- frogcoder 5y agoAre the families, friends and supporters of Snowden constantly harassed or threatened by the US government?