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After 'South Park' Censorship Episode, China Deleted the Show from the Web

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Re: After 'South Park' Censorship Episode, China Deleted the Show from the Web

#151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China right now is national socialism like Hitler could only dream of implementing. It is eerie how directly parallel developments are, and how little this is remarked.

Hitler implemented "National Socialism." Hitler may try to argue that it is 'national socialism', but all fascists will lie to your face if it can empower them. >The term "National Socialism" arose out of attempts to create a nationalist redefinition of "socialism" The Nazis got to define National Socialism as they liked, even if the meaning drifted slightly from what you could consider a national socialist ideology.…

Is 'national socialism' a thing outside of Nazi Germany? I thought the term was basically invented by the nazis.

Re: After 'South Park' Censorship Episode, China Deleted the Show from the Web

#152
post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Comedy has always been a place you'd look if you want to see someone speak truth to power, for millennia too, and South Park has always done that. No, not always. They sometimes do that. Calling vegetarians pussies [0] is not speaking truth to power. It's punching down. South Park's approach is more the "try to piss off everyone" approach, which while funny, is a bad way to find your moral compass. 0 - https://www.yo…

“Punching down” itself is a concept they would, and should, make fun of. That term is just a way of framing speech that you disagree with in order to censor it for being anti-virtuous.

Calling the term "punching down" just a way to frame speech that one disagrees with in order to censor it just sounds like a way for you to censor people who criticize you for punching down.

Re: After 'South Park' Censorship Episode, China Deleted the Show from the Web

#153
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, and as upsetting as it is for Americans to hear this, chances are Europe would be at least as pluralistic and free as it is today had either of those happened.

In the counterfactual where the Soviets conquered Europe, I could easily see the USSR surviving to today... No liberal democracies on their borders to compare with, no need for a huge military on the western border, and increased resources would go a long way.

What makes you think the USSR would have been more successful had it been stretched even more thinly, across a much larger land area and population, where the vast majority of those people would hate their occupation overlords?

Re: After 'South Park' Censorship Episode, China Deleted the Show from the Web

#154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Look at countries that fell into the US sphere of influence... Europe, South Korea. Things aren't to bad in those places huh? Here in Europe we are very thankful, if it wasn't for America we would still be a third world country living in tents. Thanks for democracy, freedom, art, philosophy, medicine and so on. I only wish Europe had any of the smart minds that you have, maybe we could come up with them. Oh wait...

I'm pretty sure that without the US, the 20th century would have seen Europe united under either Nazi Germany or the USSR...

True. No one is suggesting here that the US is 100% bad. South Korea is an example of a place where things worked out pretty well due in large part to US intervention, just like WWII (though there's an argument to be made that the US got involved much later than it should have). But... is that it? How does that balance out Vietnam, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Afghanistan (80s and today), Iraq, Kuwait, etc.? On the whole, I believe US interventionism has been a net negative on societies we've interfered with.

Re: After 'South Park' Censorship Episode, China Deleted the Show from the Web

#155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are misunderstanding what I said.

> Socialism calls for the democracy of the workplace. > What China has done is replace the authoritarian bourgeois with an authoritarian government. In other words, China is not Socialist. Presumably, neither was the National Socialist German Workers Party while it was in control of the country. The question then becomes, why is this relevant . Why say "that's not true Socialism!" in response to someone comparing Naz…

Then it is I who misunderstood. No biggie, everyone makes mistakes. Just ignore my comment and carry on.

Re: After 'South Park' Censorship Episode, China Deleted the Show from the Web

#156
post #74

I love how a single episode of a show can piss off the government of a country. Just recently Saudi Arabia banned an episode of "Patriot Act" and now this. Tyrants are really sensitive I guess.

> Tyrants are really sensitive I guess. Here's a fun game to play: close your eyes and imagine yourself in their shoes, hanging on to power day after day by a thread, relying on fear and coercion to keep on going. Now comes such an episode making fun of you in front of the people you scare for a living. What do you do?

You don't ban it, cuz it shows that you habe been hurt by it.

Re: After 'South Park' Censorship Episode, China Deleted the Show from the Web

#157
post #76

Make no mistake, China knows South Park doesn't give a fuck about this. This is about sending a very clear message to everybody else. You can be as big and well known and South Park, yet be cancelled in one second.

> You can be as big and well known and South Park I think you’re overestimating South Park’s popularity, especially when compared to the NBA. They cancelled it because they don’t like being made fun of.

i'd say 99% Chinese people don't know or don't watch South Park. yes, its popularity is very much overestimated.

Re: After 'South Park' Censorship Episode, China Deleted the Show from the Web

#158
post #60

I see lots of Anti-China sentiment. I would be very careful here into not falling into the trap of making ourselves China's "Enemy". China in its current form needs an "Enemy" to survive, without it, it has to deal with difficult questions like "censorship", and in order to survive will need to change - and that's what really scares them.

I don't think that setting up an enemy is what Chinese government needs to survive after 1979. it might be used to. on the contrary, what they need to survive now is to keep their economy stable and strong to prove/maintain their legitimacy to rule the country.

Re: After 'South Park' Censorship Episode, China Deleted the Show from the Web

#159

Good, good....the more the merrier. Maybe finally the world will stop cuddling with China like they did in past 3 decades and start treating them for what they really are. A tight grip censorship dictatorship that has thrown dust in the world's eyes posing as softies while behind the scenes they amassed a lot of wealth riding West blindness.

Let's be honest, we all know why they're banning South Park. It's because they showed Winnie the Pooh... P.S. While this trending topic isn't directly related to technology, great to see the masses in tech taking a stance against censorship.

I was surprised to hear that that Winnie the Pooh was banned in China for some ridiculous reason.

Then I did my verification. And turns out it is not the truth.

baidu is dominant search engine in China. you can see that the search results do show Winnie-the-Pooh both in Chinese and in English.

http://image.baidu.com/search/index?tn=baiduimage&ps=1&ct=20...

http://image.baidu.com/search/index?tn=baiduimage&ps=1&ct=20...

I don't understand why some people say it's banned and others seem truly believe. simply a joke? you have your judgement.

Re: After 'South Park' Censorship Episode, China Deleted the Show from the Web

#160
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The message of South Park is to point at people with any conviction and say “ha! Look at these idiots with an ideology. The only correct way is to be edgy and make fun of everything” It’s basically about nihilism.

"It seems to be a hangover of the Medieval Catholic era that causes most people, even the educated, to think that everybody must "believe" something or other, that if one is not a theist one must be a dogmatic atheist, and if one does not think capitalism is perfect, one must believe fervently in socialism, and if one does not have blind faith in "X", one must alternatively have blind faith in not X or reverse of X.…

yes however it goes without saying taking a stand to not believe is also a belief position
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