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My hope is that as a new generation grows up with the internet, censorship will become increasingly intolerable. They banned the big bang theory and everyone ju

• higherpurpose 12y ago
  Completely agree. The real problem with China's censorship right now is not really the government. Yes, it's a government that's highly skilled and efficient at censoring stuff, but this would only take them so far if it wasn't the Chinese culture that allowed them to do it. In other words, the vast majority of Chinese are still fine with this type of censorship, because they truly believe the government is protecting them and creating a better life for them. Surely an American can understand this, too (post-9/11 National Security brainwashing). Until most Chinese start believing their government is evil, and that there is a much better, more free way to live, not much will change.
  • __P 12y ago
    > Until most Chinese start believing their government is evil, and that there is a much better, more free way to live, not much will change. Is their government evil? It seems to me that their government has been hugely successful in bringing about economic growth and spreading that wealth effectively. There is corruption within the government and the equivalent of a dynasty going on at the leadership level, but evil seems an incorrect assessment. Also is there an example of a much better more free way to live (that continues to work at China's scale)?
    • bitJericho 12y ago
      > Is their government evil? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_19...
      • ameister14 12y ago
        With such a simple response, you make it seem that you don't know what you're talking about. The reaction to the Tiananmen Square protests wasn't black and white; characterizing it as flat out evil is a serious mistake.
    • GregBuchholz 12y ago
      >Is their government evil? I suppose people can argue about how things are different now compared to the past, but I once worked with a man who was the sole survivor in his village. The rest of his family and village were starved to death. The cleanup crew found that he was still barely alive and nursed him back to health. He eventually smuggles himself to the U.S. It is one thing to hear about abstract atrocities in far-away lands, that happened a long time ago, but it is quite another thing to look someone in the face who has suffered from them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Chinese_Famine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Chinese_Famine http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jan/01/china-great-famine-book-tombstone http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jan/01/china-great-fam...
      • notahacker 12y ago
        Calling the current Chinese government "evil" for what happened during the late 1950s is arguably less reasonable than blaming the Obama administration for the Jim Crow laws and McCarthyism that existed during the same period, especially given the relatively sweeping systemic changes that have happened in China since then. There are no shortage of living victims of various US administrations' foreign policy errors either. The present Chinese government might have many flaws, including a reluctance to acknowledge past misdeeds even happened, but starving the population to death through intervention in agriculture is not one of them.
• tomp 12y ago
  I hope the same thing about the West (replacing "censorship" with "draconian anti-piracy laws").