The Big [Censored] Theory

Well, I'm very interested in Free Speech and the immorality of censorship, so I will take this.

First, I will point out that almost no government, ever and everywhere, isn't full to the core with corruption and lying, like a decaying and rotten fruit left for weeks in a garbage dump.

Some Westerners are deluded with the strange thought that it somehow makes a difference that those who are bamboozling them do it through convoluted interlocking systems of protocols and processes, commonly called Democracy, and not through brute force or other such barbarous means.

From a dispassionate analysis of raw results, however, considering just the outside blackbox behaviour of a country without reference to its internal algorithms and data structures, almost every single thing China or Russia can do to a citizen, USA and Canada and UK And Germany can (and does), just maybe not as frequently and not as publicly (yet).

This rather large caveat\objection aside, I will take the question at face value : what can a (supposedly benevolent) government do in the face of outside propaganda? A lot.

First, propaganda is easy, especially when you're a government. If a foreign country is paying X to propagandize your citizens, you can afford to pay 10X, discounted by all the natural advantages you have when you're propagandizing your own citizens (same language and culture, official capacity to make and enforce laws, privileged position when dealing with media outlets, etc..., you literally rule). Indeed, for the same reason that religions always need a devil and revolutions always need enemies, the foreign propaganda might be a boon to you, a thing to rally against in your own propaganda, food for your propaganda artists.

Second, talk is cheap, and the vast majority of people would rather rage than do anything in real life. So, let propaganda fester, like a harmless fever. This an unfortunate effect of large human populations, known at the smaller scales as the bystander effect. In essence, everybody just says "not my problem" and just keeps shouting (if they do even that), hoping for someone else to actually do something, but everybody is thinking like that so nothing really gets done. This is bad for the people, but it's good for governments, it means most Free Speech is harmless. (which is bad news for any serious Free Speech advocate, because the goal isn't Free Speech in and of itself, but Free Expression, which starts with Free Speech but must end with Free Action. But again, this is all normative land, in actual material fact, most Free Speech is pure thunder without lightning or rain, and nobody loses anything by allowing it unless what they're hiding is truly egregious.)

Finally, returning to the first caveat again, maybe just fuck you, the government? Maybe the foreign government is actually correct and the citizens should revolt and create unrest and become ungovernable till their demands are met?

In summary, don't worry about the poor little governments, they can manage very well, with all the monopoly on violence and money printing and whatnot.

So if the majority of a country vote in a party on their discriminatory position towards minorities, that's all well and good? Legal, sure, but is that ok?

At the end the article claimed that censorship prevented creation of good movies. In Soviet Union a few good movies were made despite draconian censorship.

Then after abolishment of all censorship there were less good films from former USSR. It almost looked like directors tried to put all previously banned sex, violence and cursing on screen but in the process forgot how to film good stories.

That is my primary problem with the show. It's often more making fun of nerds than making nerd jokes (though they have those too, fortunately). It's pretty low-brow humour for a show about smart people.

More likely the CCP intents to collaborate with Russia for various strategic/economic reasons, and media that criticizes Russia would make the CCP look bad by association.