421–430 of 727 posts
- China: no records about a person is a good thing
- Elsewhere: no records is a very bad thing
- China: records can be corrected and eliminated
- Elsewhere: records are permanentEarlier quoted context omitted.
Not entirely true. People living authoritarian worry about what they say, they self-censor out of fear, they defer to those in power (even at a local level), they accept a hierarchy of power rather than rights. I do not entirely disagree without, but lack of freedom does intrude into day to day life to some extent.
I live in the free and morally righteous West and I self censor all the time. Every single day. My beliefs would have me ostracized from communities and fired from my job.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, if you're in this category in the US (equivalent is being on some kind of arbitrary list that you're not allowed to see and have no way to appeal) your life will also be horrible.
The US being imperfect, or currently on an authoritarian swing, in no way makes it equivalent to countries that are all-in on authoritarianism. The US is still among the very best places in the world to be a minority, politically active, or in legal trouble.
It's actually worse than in China in other ways too: - China: no records about a person is a good thing - Elsewhere: no records is a very bad thing - China: records can be corrected and eliminated - Elsewhere: records are permanent
Although Meta is trying to "fix" that last part of course.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes. I've been to China, daily life for regular people is mostly fine (bad work-life balance notwithstanding, as in other Asian countries). Nothing like the old stories from Russia (written by Russians, mind you) or even the relative material comfort but heavy-handed state control like in the GDR. Daily life can also be fine in fascism if you don't belong to any "unpopular" groups and don't care about any. Until the…
> Until the customary war starts It's good to know liberal democratic progressive countries such like the US would never start a war.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> And do you think American media really distorts the "other" side more than Chinese or Russian media distorts what life in the west is like? having lived for a long time in both china and america: yes. chinese people are given a much more accurate view of life in america than americans are given an accurate view of life in china thats why there was that meme going around earlier this year when tik tok people joined…
A quarter of their population doesn’t even have Internet access.
The issue is that American media/discourse paints a very distorted view of what life under authoritarian rule is like. The truth is in many countries, unless you’re some kind of minority, politically active, or in legal trouble, day-to-day life is mostly similar to life in the west. But people don’t want to hear that, because we want to feel better than them. Like we wouldn’t tolerate that kind of life. Of course the…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes. I've been to China, daily life for regular people is mostly fine (bad work-life balance notwithstanding, as in other Asian countries). Nothing like the old stories from Russia (written by Russians, mind you) or even the relative material comfort but heavy-handed state control like in the GDR. Daily life can also be fine in fascism if you don't belong to any "unpopular" groups and don't care about any. Until the…
> Until the customary war starts It's good to know liberal democratic progressive countries such like the US would never start a war.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is kind of a pointless statement when you make it that broadly. Are you talking about life in North Korea or in China? And do you think American media really distorts the "other" side more than Chinese or Russian media distorts what life in the west is like?
> And do you think American media really distorts the "other" side more than Chinese or Russian media distorts what life in the west is like? having lived for a long time in both china and america: yes. chinese people are given a much more accurate view of life in america than americans are given an accurate view of life in china thats why there was that meme going around earlier this year when tik tok people joined…
"Some Americans reported having their content blocked or accounts suspended for material deemed sensitive by RedNote, as content moderators control what the Chinese audience can see. A search on RedNote for Xi Jinping, China’s leader, comes up blank."
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2025/0129/Ameri...
It seems like the Chinese government works pretty hard to make sure its own citizens don't understand how bad things are in China. Maybe they fail at that but it isn't for lack of trying.
"It's hilarious to me that one side is sharing that Chinese people are convincing Americans that they've been fed propaganda about China, and the other side is saying that no, it's the Americans telling the Chinese that THEY are being fed all the propaganda! This is hilarious and dumb, but not as crazy as what happened on the Tiananmen Square in 1989!"
https://imgur.com/gallery/idea-that-bunch-of-americans-flood...
For all its faults I think I trust America's freedom of speech to make information available better. We should be diligent in protecting it as a principle because although the government is somewhat constrained by the first amendment, others are not.
This rings very true. It's pervasive online, and HN is no exception. The "China scare" is pervasive, "in China they do (some imagined nasty thing that of course the US or Europe would never do, no siree!)".