China has turned Xinjiang into a police state like no other

Post by bilbo0s » Sun, Jun 03, 2018, 5:04 AM UTC

UncleEntity wrote: post #174

nomass wrote: post #132

As a European I hope we find the courage and the strength to allow ourselves to be militarized as we where at the beginning of the 20th century. I think to a certain degree a military conflict with China would not be a bad thing. Here we have achived quite a few things of which each of his own would be worth dying for. Typical western values are seriously underrated and are not taken seriously.

> Here we have achived quite a few things of which each of his own would be worth dying for. What, like nuclear bombs? Because that's what most likely will kill you in a large scale conflict between superpowers. There ought to be a law that you can't advocate for war unless you've actually been to war...

Post by threatofrain » Sun, Jun 03, 2018, 5:54 AM UTC

oblio wrote: post #78

tc wrote: post #58

In the West we have a false sense of security that totalitarianism will inevitably fail. We've seen so many examples of fallen tyrannical states. But many ideas fail the first few times they're tried. China seems committed to making totalitarianism "work." It's hard to think of any more dangerous invention. Even nuclear weapons aren't as dangerous as a sustainable model for modern tyrannical government. This is an in…

One could argue that “totalitarianism” was the default government form for most of history. The problem is, the higher we go on the Maslow pyramid, the more likely it is for it to fail. You just can’t have a huge mass of creative, inventive people without them complaining about leadership (and wanting to improve it). And totalitarianism by definition has problems accepting criticism. The only way for totalitarianism…

Post by kazagistar » Sun, Jun 03, 2018, 7:20 AM UTC

oblio wrote: post #78

tc wrote: post #58

In the West we have a false sense of security that totalitarianism will inevitably fail. We've seen so many examples of fallen tyrannical states. But many ideas fail the first few times they're tried. China seems committed to making totalitarianism "work." It's hard to think of any more dangerous invention. Even nuclear weapons aren't as dangerous as a sustainable model for modern tyrannical government. This is an in…

One could argue that “totalitarianism” was the default government form for most of history. The problem is, the higher we go on the Maslow pyramid, the more likely it is for it to fail. You just can’t have a huge mass of creative, inventive people without them complaining about leadership (and wanting to improve it). And totalitarianism by definition has problems accepting criticism. The only way for totalitarianism…

Post by ahartmetz » Sun, Jun 03, 2018, 7:40 AM UTC

woodandsteel wrote: post #217

ahartmetz wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't ignore the different philosophical foundation of Asian societies. Confucianism is quite different from the Western line of tradition starting from the Greeks. Confucianism emphasizes community and obedience more, which is more compatible with mass surveillance.

What Xi is doing is not Confucianism. Confucianism had an elaborate set of rules that everyone, from the top down, was required to follow. Xi is basically making up the rules as he goes along.

Post by sullyj3 » Sun, Jun 03, 2018, 8:21 AM UTC

adventured wrote: post #124

CapacitorSet wrote: post #26

The fact that this is done under the guise of antiterrorism ought to ring some bells to American readers.

The situations don't compare well, even though the US too often uses terrorism as a guise to pursue global political goals. Domestically there are 3.3 million Muslims in the US. There are ~50 detainees at Guantanamo Bay, with most of the former detainees having been released without charge. Some of them were charged as enemy combatants and or terrorists. And Guantanamo is widely considered a black mark on the US repu…