China's growing threat to academic freedom • Hacker News Board

Re: China's growing threat to academic freedom

#61

Post by Bayart » Thu, Nov 28, 2019, 2:57 PM UTC

pasabagi wrote: post #49

dtwest wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is interesting. I wish there were more data points, they only show opinion in France in 1945, 1994 and 2004. The USSR may have saved Europe from Germany, but the USA saved Western Europe from the USSR. The French in 1945 were likely aware of this.

The French in 1945 voted the communists into power - so I'm not sure they generally had the same views on the USSR as modern people do.

The Communist Party was very influential but the government after the war was center-left and Republican (in the French sense of the word), and the political program agreed upon by all the political currents that formed the Resistance was a compromise across the entire spectrum (the Resistance started on the very right and integrated Communist elements after the USSR went to war with Germany). While it pains people to acknowledge it, the Vichy government itself passed a lot of social reforms prior to 1945.

They were a social and ideological force to be reckoned with but they never really went into power, De Gaulle saw to that.

Re: China's growing threat to academic freedom

#62

Post by kd3 » Thu, Nov 28, 2019, 5:45 PM UTC

dang wrote: post #50

kd3 wrote: post #16

This is disgusting. I felt sick just reading the headline. What an absolutely disgusting country.

Obviously you can't post like this to HN, regardless of how strongly you feel about any country. We've banned this account for repeatedly breaking the site guidelines and ignoring our requests to stop. If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future. They're at https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html if you wa…

No dang, I love myself too much for self censorship. Until we meet again

Re: China's growing threat to academic freedom

#63

Post by Mediterraneo10 » Thu, Nov 28, 2019, 6:51 PM UTC

dtwest wrote: post #51

pasabagi wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The French in 1945 voted the communists into power - so I'm not sure they generally had the same views on the USSR as modern people do.

That is true. That said, the French Communist Party and Stalin aren't exactly the same thing.

The party line of the French Communist Party in the 1940s was Stalinist. It wasn't until the Soviet crushing of the Hungarian uprising in the following decade that French Communism saw a schism between pro-Soviet and anti-Soviet sides.

Re: China's growing threat to academic freedom

#64

Post by igravious » Fri, Nov 29, 2019, 12:16 PM UTC

kd3 wrote: post #45

igravious wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You got a bit of a bee in your bonnet about China judging from your comment history.

I don't think people realize what kind of serious damage is done to all of humanity by censorship and destroying knowledge of history in this way. It's an enormous tragedy.

Funnily enough, you'll find that I'm very pro free speech – I defend speech that many (most?) find deplorable. By that token I object to censorship, here and in more totalitarian places like China.

I cannot, however, abide by the inflamed rhetoric that is tolerated in many media (mass and social) concerning the so-called "enemies" of the West, namely: China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, etc.

If you cannot express your disapproval of this singular example of academic censorship without resorting to “This is disgusting. I felt sick just reading the headline. What an absolutely disgusting country.” then maybe you need to take some time to figure out how to express yourself better.

First off, where's your sense of proportion. Secondly, academic censorship and some jail time does not usually elicit tangible revulsion.

I have been guilty of the same in the past. I try now to express my disapproval in a more measured, even-handed, less emotional, less name-calling way. It's tough when you see red to take a breath or two but for the sake of public discourse we all gotta try.