Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Blanked-out spots on China's maps helped us uncover Xinjiang's camps

buzzfeednews.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

291–300 of 316 posts

Re: Blanked-out spots on China's maps helped us uncover Xinjiang's camps

#291

Post by versteegen »

frequentnapper wrote: post #285
versteegen wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's bad that certain groups (especially that one) will downvote/flag HN comments for political reasons, but I dare say the reason your comment got flagged was because of its emotional/aggressive tone, e.g. "so that each and every one of them can be prosecuted after China loses the third world war".

if we're not allowed to be emotional about genocide, then I'm not sure we are allowed to be human at all.

No one could disagree. My inane comment was just a distraction from the topic, sorry. I really only wanted to say that a sober suggestion could convince more people than a crudely aggressive one. Try again?

Re: Blanked-out spots on China's maps helped us uncover Xinjiang's camps

#292

Post by James_Henry »

free_rms wrote: post #269
James_Henry wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The phrase Sinicization of Islam is Xi Jinping's, or at least the CCP's. It does sound grand and oppressive, especially when you consider that it is about more than just a considerate plan to minimize the threat of violent sects of Islam and includes stopping Islamic finance, mosque-run schools, religious Arabic-language schools, and more much worse as we've heard reports of (bits of which are reported in the article…

Religion is a part of daily life for many, many Chinese. It's different, not Abrahamic, more of a syncretic blend of taoist, buddhist and localized icons. Monks and nuns take their roles seriously. Xi's government, in contrast to the communist governments 60 years ago, leverages it in a standard social conservative way rather than being against it on communist grounds. It's all over their propaganda. Anti-communist t…

I understand that religion is a part of daily life for many, many Chinese. I do admit that I don't know that much about China except the little I have learned from reading and talking with people. I've been mostly asking about the things that these Buzzfeed articles articulate. I'd like to know more, hence my questions, reading about it, etc. I'm not that much more invested than the average interested person, and I've been somewhat interested in China for quite some time, but haven't had (or made, really) the opportunity to visit.

I have a Christian Chinese friend with whom I've talked about the role of the Chinese government in curtailing the free-expression and practice of religion. The 80's are certainly not the 2020's, but as is obvious to even someone who "clearly knows very little about the place" the CCP still works against religions that it sees as threats to their power. I get that this can be framed as a difference in "cultural norms" and this is something that I'd like to understand more fully.

Short of living in China, do you have any good advice, books or whatnot to read, or whatever that would be good to do/read in order to learn more?

Re: Blanked-out spots on China's maps helped us uncover Xinjiang's camps

#293

Post by kube-system »

dumb1224 wrote: post #289
abj wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the link, that's too bad. I remember watching his videos years ago. He seemed to really like living in China.

Yes his early videos were not political but his content changed dramatically in the last two years. He was under scrutiny by other western youtubers in China e.g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiOOC1Exk7o to question his recent contents. Not commenting on his opinions just to provide information from both sides.

Given the situation in HK, I find it very believable that it would not be in the best interest for a foreigner living on the mainland to get involved in political criticism — at least - until they leave the country.

Re: Blanked-out spots on China's maps helped us uncover Xinjiang's camps

#294

Post by angry_octet »

angry_octet wrote: post #265
grogenaut wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

generally downvoting happens when you talk about voting in the meta, which is against the rules and spirit.

I can't talk about why I might have downvoted your comment.

The karma cycle of life. Humourless slashdot 4 eva.

Re: Blanked-out spots on China's maps helped us uncover Xinjiang's camps

#295

Post by free_rms »

James_Henry wrote: post #292
free_rms wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Religion is a part of daily life for many, many Chinese. It's different, not Abrahamic, more of a syncretic blend of taoist, buddhist and localized icons. Monks and nuns take their roles seriously. Xi's government, in contrast to the communist governments 60 years ago, leverages it in a standard social conservative way rather than being against it on communist grounds. It's all over their propaganda. Anti-communist t…

I understand that religion is a part of daily life for many, many Chinese. I do admit that I don't know that much about China except the little I have learned from reading and talking with people. I've been mostly asking about the things that these Buzzfeed articles articulate. I'd like to know more, hence my questions, reading about it, etc. I'm not that much more invested than the average interested person, and I'v…

RE: religion, the impression I've gotten is that it's specifically organization that the government sees as a threat. So, without the context of Urumqi riots or bombings, they'd probably default to seeing catholics or certainly falun gong as a bigger threat than disorganized Uyghur muslims. Protestant christians less so, if they knew enough to discriminate.

I don't have any great reading materials for 2020 daily life, there's laowhy86 and serpentza on youtube who I haven't watched much but they've been recommended.

Books: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005MHHREI/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?...

Mao, the unknown story, fantastic original research but you've gotta discount for a LOT of bias as the author is clearly still butthurt over the civil war. Not to say that Mao was a nice guy, but if you're refusing to use pinyin in the 21st century, calling Beijing 'Peking', you've got some baggage.

https://www.amazon.com/Concise-History-China-J-Roberts/dp/06...

Longer run of history, makes you realize all of the cultural context that they have which differs from ours and makes conversation impossible at times.

Re: Blanked-out spots on China's maps helped us uncover Xinjiang's camps

#296

Post by James_Henry »

free_rms wrote: post #295
James_Henry wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand that religion is a part of daily life for many, many Chinese. I do admit that I don't know that much about China except the little I have learned from reading and talking with people. I've been mostly asking about the things that these Buzzfeed articles articulate. I'd like to know more, hence my questions, reading about it, etc. I'm not that much more invested than the average interested person, and I'v…

RE: religion, the impression I've gotten is that it's specifically organization that the government sees as a threat. So, without the context of Urumqi riots or bombings, they'd probably default to seeing catholics or certainly falun gong as a bigger threat than disorganized Uyghur muslims. Protestant christians less so, if they knew enough to discriminate. I don't have any great reading materials for 2020 daily life…

Thanks!

Re: Blanked-out spots on China's maps helped us uncover Xinjiang's camps

#297

Post by dumb1224 »

kube-system wrote: post #293
dumb1224 wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes his early videos were not political but his content changed dramatically in the last two years. He was under scrutiny by other western youtubers in China e.g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiOOC1Exk7o to question his recent contents. Not commenting on his opinions just to provide information from both sides.

Given the situation in HK, I find it very believable that it would not be in the best interest for a foreigner living on the mainland to get involved in political criticism — at least - until they leave the country.

Sure if you believe you're at certain risk. But these channels were talking about Serpentza and his behaviour telling untruth about other vloggers. It has nothing to do with political criticism.

Re: Blanked-out spots on China's maps helped us uncover Xinjiang's camps

#298

Post by sieabahlpark »

systemvoltage wrote: post #228
aluminum96 wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is truly remarkable how many replies in that thread consist of bad analogies, denials of clear third party reporting, and whatabout-ism.

Same thing happens here btw on HN. Since I just said something against HN, I guarantee this comment will get downvoted into oblivion.

First time? It's being going on for years.

Re: Blanked-out spots on China's maps helped us uncover Xinjiang's camps

#299

Post by free_rms »

James_Henry wrote: post #296
free_rms wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

RE: religion, the impression I've gotten is that it's specifically organization that the government sees as a threat. So, without the context of Urumqi riots or bombings, they'd probably default to seeing catholics or certainly falun gong as a bigger threat than disorganized Uyghur muslims. Protestant christians less so, if they knew enough to discriminate. I don't have any great reading materials for 2020 daily life…

Thanks!

Thank you!

Re: Blanked-out spots on China's maps helped us uncover Xinjiang's camps

#300

Post by jandrese »

Melting_Harps wrote: post #258
aluminum96 wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is truly remarkable how many replies in that thread consist of bad analogies, denials of clear third party reporting, and whatabout-ism.

> It is truly remarkable how many replies in that thread consist of bad analogies, denials of clear third party reporting, and whatabout-ism. Those are the the typical tactics, and they're pretty bad at it, but it must be noted that there are several long-standing wumao accounts on here that will brigade on posts that are deemed to be anti-CCP. The jokes on them, as I couldn't possibly care less about fake internet p…

I find my posts will dip into the negative territory while the thread is young then slowly creep back up as it ages. Pros know that only the most recent content matters.
Post reply on HN