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The Big [Censored] Theory

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Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#241

Post by wrs »

sudhirj wrote: post #58

We have this kind of censorship in India as well, even the in weirdly innocous places. In James Bond movies, and I think Gone Girl as well, scenes were by zooming into character's faces or just straight cuts. This is probably the only reason I maintain a US iTunes accounts (used to have to buy gift cards from sketchy sites online to keep this going, but I recently discovered that my Indian Amex card works fine with a…

There is a home version of this called ClearPlay that auto-redacts movies and TV. It actually started with DVD players (!) but now does streaming.

Ref: https://amazon.clearplay.com/

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#242

Post by concordDance »

mftb wrote: post #212
ALittleLight wrote: post #10

I can see how this might backfire. You notice a censored jump and start to feel the itch of curiosity as to what it concealed. I had to watch several of the censored scenes whereas I would have never just randomly watched clips of the show. Also, love the presentation on this page.

It absolutely backfires. No one is as successful at selling US culture as the US, except all those countries that censor exported/imported US culture.

This seems untrue. Do more than a fraction of a percent of Chinese people watch the uncensored versions of things?

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#243

Post by briantakita3 »

sadgrip wrote: post #194
briantakita wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not Bullshit. If the Government & Corporations care so much about others censoring, they should lead by example. Lectures by hypocrites will otherwise be ignored...even if the censorship that you may like is categorized as being justified by you. If you don't like China's censorship policies, then appeal to China's sensibilities as their censorship is categorized as justified by them. Otherwise, the Chinese governmen…

What censorship are you referring to? Streaming services as far as I know can show anything that isn't illegal. Is that not the case?

Streaming services can show anything...sometimes with supply side cartel repercussions that completely undermine the company...such as the case with Parler.

Content providers are censored by streaming providers for political reasons. Hate speech laws in England & Europe criminalizes (jail time) people for saying the wrong things about protected political groups.

Banks & the Canadian government have criminalized people donating to the Trucker protest. The protest leaders are still held in detention. Also journalists have doxxed the people who donate.

January 6th protesters are help in prison & finances ruined by having to fight a federal case for attending a protest. And if you want to call it an insurrection to excuse the authoritarian response China does the same against people who protests there.

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#244

Post by Bakary »

pnemonic wrote: post #188
joe_the_user wrote: post #171

It's worth noting that American censorship in, say, 1960, was at close to the same level. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_censorship_in_the_United_...

Is it just as worth noting then that China is more than 60 years behind the US in terms of social progress?

Social progress is somewhat of a loaded term, but for instance abortion has been legal for longer and is still more widely available in China than in the US. The controversy surrounding abortion is in itself different, since instead of Christian concerns you have sex-selective abortion and population management that determine policy in this era.

Homosexuality actually became less tolerated in the 19th and 20th century through Western influence. Now the West has done an about face in the span of one or two generations and China is comparatively less tolerant.

All this to say that it's difficult to quantify since

- assigning a teleological direction to social mores is perilous at best

- comparing entire societies means you overlook specific cases that often aren't even evaluated along the same axis

- Societies ebb and flow at unpredictable rates and with meandering paths and influence each other in often bizarre ways

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#245

Post by AnonCoward42 »

ALittleLight wrote: post #10

I can see how this might backfire. You notice a censored jump and start to feel the itch of curiosity as to what it concealed. I had to watch several of the censored scenes whereas I would have never just randomly watched clips of the show. Also, love the presentation on this page.

It's also unnecessary to cut them so badly. It's really disturbing.

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#246

Post by concordDance »

welshwelsh wrote: post #155
darawk wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is right. If people vote for censorship in a democracy, that's a perfectly fine form of governmental heterogeneity. What's happening in China is not that.

I completely disagree. An individual's rights should have nothing to do with the people who happen to surround them and what they happen to think. If different countries allow different things, that would mean that what a person is allowed to do would depend on where they happen to live, which is usually close to where they happened to be born. That doesn't make any sense to me- the lottery of birth should have no im…

A reason to allow different people groups to do different things could be uncertainty about what is harmful. Letting the various restrictions and allowances play out can give a better understanding of the consequences of these.

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#247

Post by Kye »

andruby wrote: post #123
ALittleLight wrote: post #10

I can see how this might backfire. You notice a censored jump and start to feel the itch of curiosity as to what it concealed. I had to watch several of the censored scenes whereas I would have never just randomly watched clips of the show. Also, love the presentation on this page.

We (the HN crowd, often living in less-censored societies) would be very curious. I’d like to know how curious this would make non-HN people, and those living in more censored places. My assumption is that they take it for granted and just continue to watch the show. It might be hard for them to even find the uncensored clips.

I still encounter people who don't know "Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles" was a heavily censored version of the real show. They realize how weird the edits are in retrospect, but it didn't register much/at all for them at the time.

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#248

Post by vkou »

planb wrote: post #206
pnemonic wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it just as worth noting then that China is more than 60 years behind the US in terms of social progress?

“Behind” implies that they’re following and moving in the same direction. Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s the case.

No, behind implies that they are currently in the opposite direction of the current direction of western cultural movement. If the direction of our movement changes, they will, without lifting a finger, become ahead of us.

Social progress is inherently subjective (because progress in one value system is actually a regression in a different value system), and the observer always grounds their claim of 'behind' or 'ahead' in their culture's viewpoint.

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#249

Post by [deleted] »

lwansbrough wrote: post #78

Interesting to see what passes for a joke on The Big Bang Theory. I knew the show was bad but wow. Perhaps just as surprising is the author's suggestion that a xenophobic remark about a Chinese restaurant is "harmless". I'm not even particularly sensitive when it comes to race relations, but that's just such a negative stereotype it's hard to ignore. I despise Chinese censorship, but I would support the Chinese gover…

[deleted]

Re: The Big [Censored] Theory

#250

Post by throwaway5752 »

jedberg wrote: post #107
throwaway5752 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who posted that video, and was it unedited? If we're going on a single piece of anecdata, I think it's fair to question if the creator had any biases or was trustworthy. And not all racism / bias is equal. Maybe you are right that Chinese and Chinese-American people would not be offended by this, but it seems completely reasonable that they would be, and the onus on you would be to get data that they wouldn't. It rea…

> and the onus on you would be to get data that they wouldn't. FWIW I have a few data points -- this is something my Chinese wife has literally said inside a Chinese restaurant, and some of her other family members have said similar things about not trusting that the food being served is what they said it was.

And I did not know if you were Chinese or otherwise of east or south-east Asian descent, either. A group is not obligated to be a monolith in what they feel is offensive or not. And sometimes can be empowering to steal a slur / stereotype, but it feels a lot differently if the same word or joke is made in other circumstances.

I don't know the right answer, but I definitely think it would be understandable if someone didn't appreciate that joke. And worst of all, it's just in service of the cheapest, blandest kind of humor. The writers should be ashamed of such lazy work, regardless of bigger issues. "Would it work without a laugh track" clearly fails badly here, as it does pretty frequently in TBBT.

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