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This. Try to find interviews with the average Chinese citizen. Things work very differently over there. Most of them are pretty happy to live in their little

by edrxty 5y ago

This. Try to find interviews with the average Chinese citizen. Things work very differently over there. Most of them are pretty happy to live in their little information bubbles in much the same way the those in the west do, though they have quite a bit less autonomy in creating said bubble

GekkePrutser 5y ago
I really can't wrap my head around it. But this is the same image I'm seeing in the media. Very weird. I just can't wrap my head around a people collectively happy with a pretty oppressive government.
- Stevvo 5y ago
  The CCP derives its legitimacy from economic progress, and the progress has been impressive on that front; they have pulled hundreds of millions of people out of poverty into the middle class while building world-leading cities and infrastructure. Being oppressed isn't really a worry when you are the first generations in a country who aren't concerned solely with survival.
- akimball 5y ago
  We compare ourselves to our neighbors. For most people the notion of neighbor is quite narrow. Wrap your head around how oppressive the US is for, e.g., black men, or Muslims, and how happy white evangelicals are about it.
- edrxty 5y ago
  Another way to think about it: the average person has no context for oppressive/non-oppressive, at least relative to our standards. US children have freedom hammered into their heads the second they start in school. This obviously isn't really a thing there. Rather, historically when things go off the rails in china, they go off the rails hard and they have a very long history of that to look back on, an order of magnitude more than the US's. From what I've seen, that's what's taught to them in history class. Conformism/capitulation => stability and safety whereas in the US conformism/capitulation => being a British subject/slave/native on a reservation/interned Japanese/and on and on. Tl;dr: the differences in historical context are vast between the two countries

by edrxty 5y ago

GekkePrutser 5y ago

I really can't wrap my head around it. But this is the same image I'm seeing in the media. Very weird. I just can't wrap my head around a people collectively happy with a pretty oppressive government.

Stevvo 5y ago
The CCP derives its legitimacy from economic progress, and the progress has been impressive on that front; they have pulled hundreds of millions of people out of poverty into the middle class while building world-leading cities and infrastructure. Being oppressed isn't really a worry when you are the first generations in a country who aren't concerned solely with survival.
akimball 5y ago
We compare ourselves to our neighbors. For most people the notion of neighbor is quite narrow. Wrap your head around how oppressive the US is for, e.g., black men, or Muslims, and how happy white evangelicals are about it.
edrxty 5y ago
Another way to think about it: the average person has no context for oppressive/non-oppressive, at least relative to our standards. US children have freedom hammered into their heads the second they start in school. This obviously isn't really a thing there. Rather, historically when things go off the rails in china, they go off the rails hard and they have a very long history of that to look back on, an order of magnitude more than the US's. From what I've seen, that's what's taught to them in history class. Conformism/capitulation => stability and safety whereas in the US conformism/capitulation => being a British subject/slave/native on a reservation/interned Japanese/and on and on. Tl;dr: the differences in historical context are vast between the two countries