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Valid points but a lot of frustrations and injustices you hear about in the USA are told by our own press because freedom of press. We are a very transparent pe
by ryaniscool 4y ago
Valid points but a lot of frustrations and injustices you hear about in the USA are told by our own press because freedom of press. We are a very transparent people. This is not the case for other places.
My brother lived and worked in China for many years as a professional photographer and basically made the same points as you when we would ask him about what life is like over there. That was until he fell under suspicion at some point because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time taking pictures. He was under house arrest for over a year. They confiscated his passport but eventually let him leave because of Covid. He had zero due process. It was decided by the local police that he should be under house arrest. My family hired a lawyer but he had to present the lawyer to the police as a "concerned family friend who lives in China".
That anecdote is relatively tame compared to what some people go through in authoritarian countries. If the government targets you in one of those countries, your life is over with near zero chance of getting out of trouble.
- Laaas 4y agoWhat did your embassy in China say? Did they not try to help?
- ryaniscool 4y agoYes, they helped us find the "lawyer" and told us based on their experience that it was very likely he would spend time in a Chinese prison regardless of guilt or innocence. He got lucky in one sense because this was right before Covid hit. When everything started going a little crazy over there because Covid was spreading, they decided to let him leave for whatever reason.
- yamtaddle 4y agoSure, I wasn't trying to be all "rah, rah, authoritarianism!" in my post (though several posters seem to have taken it that way, so maybe I wasn't clear enough). My point was more that our notions of freedom can sometimes be rather myopic, and miss the forest for the trees, such that we can become so un-free that even (some!) authoritarian states can feel much freer (until, as you note, you piss off the wrong people, which is obviously a huge problem—or you happen to be of the wrong ethnicity, or wrong religion, et c.—I am not trying to defend authoritarianism).
- themitigating 4y agoHow do authoritarian states feel more free? They have rules as well. Your list of grievances has some small issuss. Why do you think an authoritarian state would better. For example in Sir Lanka chewing gum is banned. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chewing_gum_sales_ban_in_Singapore https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chewing_gum_sales_ban_in_Sin... That's a easy one because it's mentioned often but I guess my question is how do you know the US is less free than other countries? What if you are being manipulated to feel anger at the government?
- Laaas 4y agoYou probably meant to say Singapore.
- pessimizer 4y agoThere's no element of this story that couldn't have happened in the US, and no reason presented to believe that your brother wasn't involved in something shady under Chinese law, other than the fact that the situation was resolved in his favor. > He had zero due process. Are you saying that Chinese law wasn't followed?
- ryaniscool 4y agoMaybe but it's a lot less likely to happen AND it might make the news over here if it did happen. That was my original point. You aren't going to see many (or any?) media stories that are critical of the government or laws in China.
- foobarian 4y agoThat might sound worse than US but is it? If the government here targets you, you end up with a felony record and at that point your life is effectively over as well even if you don't go to prison.