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==== Why did Ciro Santilli start his keyword attack?
Ciro Santilli
committed
The last straw that led <<ciro-santilli>> to start the <<keyword-attack>> on <<stack-overflow>> was when on March 2015 his girlfriend's mother was arbitrarily kept 15 days in jail for doing <<falun-gong>>. He posted about this at:
* https://twitter.com/cirosantilli/status/579270450984984576
* https://www.facebook.com/cirosantilli/posts/952661734753174
He then continued because he hate political <<censorship,censorship>>, and because <<does-ciro-santilli-hate-china,I love China>>.
Every time Ciro thinks about this, he notices how stupid humans are. We see the forest fire smoke, and just never think that it will ever reach your home on the border of the forest.
Until it actually does, and then you are really fucked.
So in a sense it was a good thing that Ciro had this little backyard fire with this mother-in-law, as it woke him up further to how serious the CCP thread was, and led him to action.
Because before that, he was one of the majority who just constantly hears about the increasing mountain of evidence of human rights violations, and does nothing about it.
Ciro Santilli
committed
The https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darkest_Hour_(film)[Darkest Hour (2017) film] comes to mind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA1Uz_TMzhs[]. The movie shows that Britain was truly hesitant whether to negotiate or fight Hitler, even after the Nazis had already started invading other European countries, and would clearly not stop. Luckily, we are not at a position of war yet, and might never be due to nuclear weapons. But still, a similar blindness applies. <<covid>> woke up many people, but even then some haven't faced it.
[[ciro-santilli-mother-in-law-jail]]
===== Ciro Santilli's post when his mother-in-law was put into jail
Maybe some people would be happy if their mother-in-law were put into jail. But unfortunately, this wasn't the case for <<ciro-santilli>>.
.<<ciro-santilli>> with his soon-to-be mother-in-law before his wedding in 2017. Annoying? Sometimes. But threat to the fucking Chinese State? How fucked does your political system have to be for the answer to be a "yes"?
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Ciro_Santilli_with_his_mother_in_law_during_his_wedding_in_2017.jpg[height=600]
====== Jail post en
My girlfriend's mother, a 63 year old lady, was kept 15 days inside a Chinese "correctional facility" because she does Falun Gong.
She had to stay all the time in a small room with a bed and a toilet, under video surveillance, being fed three meager meals a day.
I see Falun Gong https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falun_Gong as just another <<flg-religion,moderate religion>> which causes no harm to its believers. The only reason that it is unofficially outlawed in China is because the communists fear it as a political competitor.
There was no trial and no explanation. She was going to take a train to visit her sister. But she didn't know that there was an important political event happening in the capital: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12th_National_People's_Congress So the police at the station, who already knew she did Falun Gong, took her away.
When she came back home, the house had been searched and was all messed up. Her religious books and computer were missing.
I'm glad she was not physically harmed. I find it fascinating how even well educated Chinese support a government which simply does not represent some of its people. How will you feel <<intolerance,when something like that happens to your own family, and there is nothing you can do about it>>?
====== Jail post zh
Translation by <<why-does-ciro-santilli-love-china-so-much,my wife>>:
我女朋友的母亲，一位63岁的女士被监禁在一个中国的"劳教所"，只因为她炼法轮功。
她被迫待在一个小屋子里面，只有一张床和一个排泄的地方，一直处在监视器下，每天两个窝头一碗只有几个白菜叶的汤。
我看过法轮功https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falun_Gong 只是一个和平的信仰，对相信它的人没有任何坏处。它在中国被非官方的定为违法（其实没有一项明确法律禁止），唯一的原因就是工产党害怕它是一个政治竞争对手。
没有审讯没有任何解释。她正准备坐火车去看她的姐姐。但是她并不知道那个时候有重要的政治会议正在首都进行：https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12th_National_People's_Congress
所以那些知道她炼法轮功的铁路警察把她带走了。
当她回到家中时，房子被搜查过了，四处一切混乱。她的信仰书籍和电脑都没有了。
我很庆幸的是她身体并没有受到伤害。我觉得很意思的是一些受过良好教育的中国人怎么能够迫害一部分它的人民的政府呢？如果这样的事情发生在你的家庭，而你什么都不能做，你会怎么想？
====== Jail post pt
Translation by myself:
A mãe da minha namorada ficou 15 dias num "centro de correção" chines porque ela faz Falun Gong.
Ela ficou o tempo todo num quarto pequeno com uma cama e banheiro, sobe videovigilância, recebendo 3 refeições pequenas por dia.
Para mim, o Falun Gong https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falun_Gong é apenas mais uma religião moderada que não causa nenhum problema para seus crentes. A única razão pela qual ele é proibido na China é porque os comunistas tem medo dele como competidor politico.
Não houve julgamento nem explicação. Ela ia pegar um trem para ver sua irmã, mas ela não sabia que teria um evento político importante na capital: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12th_National_People's_Congress Então a polícia da estação, que já sabia que ela faz Falun Gong pegou ela.
Quando ela voltou pra casa, a casa tinha sido procurada pela polícia e estava uma bagunça. Os livros religiosos e seu computador foram confiscados.
Eu fico feliz apenas que ela não sofreu abuso físico. Eu acho fascinante como mesmo muitos chineses educados apoiam ainda um governo que não representa parte do povo. Como você vai se sentir quando algo do tipo acontecerá com a sua família, e você não pode fazer nada sobre isso?
===== Further details about Ciro Santilli's mother-in-law's persecution
March 2015: 15 days in jail for no reason: https://www.facebook.com/cirosantilli/posts/952661734753174
June 2017: 3 cops came to her house. She was there. They asked if she still did Falun Gong. She said yes. They took photos of her Falun Gong books / posters. They were polite.
October 2017: 7 - 8 cops came to her house _at 11PM_. They knocked the door strongly and made noise, and questioned neighbours of her whereabouts. Luckily she was not there.
=== China is fine as it is, stop making it worse
Welcome to the wonderful world of democracy, a world where people can have different political opinions than you :-)
If you are so fine, why are you reading this at all? Go back to being fine.
See also:
* <<why-end-dictatorship>>
* <<preconceived>>
[[i-like-my-dictatorship]]
==== I like my Dictatorship 我喜欢我的独裁统治
It must feel good to have <<li-hongzhi,absolute truth>> in the <<ccp-cult,Cult of Xi>>, and let the black police <<against-censorship-and-flg,get rid of weirdos for you>>.
But when the dictatorship turns again you our your family, will you fight, or will you just let them do whatever they want because they can never be wrong? See also: <<intolerance>>.
And when your son <<man-in-the-high-castle,betrays you or sacrifices himself for the Dictator>>, will you just smile and accept it?
See: <<seventeen-moments-of-spring>>
[[seventeen-moments-of-spring]]
===== Seventeen Moments of Spring (1973)
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventeen_Moments_of_Spring
* https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Семнадцать_мгновений_весны_(телефильм)
<<russia,Soviet>> mini-series about about Stierlitz, who is an undercover Soviet spy acting as a Nazi officer in <<nazi,Nazi Germany during WW2>>.
As a fun note, it seems that <<putin>> is a Stierlitz fan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stierlitz#cite_note-Sakwa-5[], and Putin also served in Germany like Stierlitz, but in Dresden, which was in East Germany.
A scene from the awesome mini-series comes to mind when thinking about <<i-like-my-dictatorship>>.
In Episode 7, Stierlitz travels on a train with a Nazi officer.
No democracy in our Reich!
Any democracy in our country is doomed to end up with one thing: the dictatorship of small shopkeepers.
The more freedom we have, the sooner we want to be controlled by SS troops again.
And then we want our the secret police back, and concentration death camps again, and the universal fear everywhere! Only then we feel calm and secure.
Ciro Santilli
committed
No need to prove your point of view in defending the fate of the homeland.
Ciro Santilli
committed
Just raise your hand in honor of him, <<xi-jinping,who will take care of everything for you>>,
Just shout out "Hail Hitler!" and everything will become understandable.
.https://youtu.be/pc6DP1jNEec?list=PLHiAMOiVIvsD2u8g0RLwvdRScEe9yiUr5&t=1527 Seventeen Moments of Spring (1973), Episode 7, general confession scene.
video::pc6DP1jNEec[youtube,height=400,width=600,start=2086]
Ciro Santilli
committed
It is amusing to see Soviet series criticizing dictatorships, given that the Soviet Union was itself a major dictatorship!
.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xoM6-1SWl4&t=191 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Living_Dead_(TV_series)[The Living Dead] Episode 1: On the Desperate Edge of Now by Adam Curtis (1995) describes how the <<nazi,Nazis>>, disilusioned by both <<western-democracies-are-not-perfect,democracy>> and communism, built Nationalism by creating a mythical past. In Nationalism, the individuals would <<flg-cult,surrenders themselves to the State>>.
video::4xoM6-1SWl4[youtube,height=400,width=600,start=191]
===== Most Chinese people like their dictatorship (中国大众支持他们的独裁)
It is easy to reach an agreement, when <<chinese-dissidents,everyone who disagrees>> goes to jail or gets killed for to <<inciting-subversion>> or <<picking-quarrels>>.
This is exactly <<goring-nuremberg,Herman Goring said in his appearances on the Nuremberg trials>> to justify <<nazi,the atrocities of Nazism>>.
Also ask the millions of people who were affected by <<tiananmen>>, <<falun-gong>>, <<xinjiang>> or <<dissidents>>.
One is reminded of the game https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Happy_Few["We Happy Few" (2018)], which which people are forced to be happy. <<nineteen-eighty-four>> also comes to mind of course.
The interesting thing, is that even those pro-CCP are much more likely to stay anonymous because:
* you never know when something you said will become a sin against some new trend of the dictatorship
* when the dictatorship inevitably falls, you would be persecuted by the victorious freedom fighters
.Westerner: "How is life in China?" Chinese: "Oh, we can't complain." Westerner: "That's awesome." Chinese: "No, seriously... we can't." is a word play between the more common "we can't complain because everything is great" and "we can't complain because <<xi-jinping,Xi>> will <<censorship,make us disappear>>". https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3933168[Source]
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/We_cant_complain.jpg[height=600]
.Translation of the above.
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/We_cant_complain_zh.jpg[height=600]
[[scarfolk-public-displays-of-personal-distress-are-unpatriotic]]
."Public displays of personal distress are unpatriotic" spoof poster by <<scarfolk-council>> (2017). https://scarfolk.blogspot.com/2017/10/illegal-public-displays-of-emotion.html[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Scarfolk_public_displays_of_personal_distress_are_unpatriotic.jpg[height=500]
.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xoM6-1SWl4&t=1606 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Living_Dead_(TV_series)[The Living Dead] Episode 1: On the Desperate Edge of Now by Adam Curtis (1995) comments on how interviews with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Göring[Hermann Goring] (https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/赫尔曼·戈林[赫尔曼·戈林]) during the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_trials[Nuremberg trials] (https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/纽伦堡审判[纽伦堡审判]) went: "Again and again, Jackson accused Goring of corruptly using his powers to commit crimes. Each time, Goring replied that such acts might be considered crimes in a democratic state, but that in Germany, democracy had failed. Eliminating the political opposition was necessary, to fulfill a higher principle: that of the Nation. And that it had worked, Goring insisted. It had brought order and prosperity to Germany". Jackson asks: "Well, if you wanted a certain people killed, you would have to have some organization that would kill them didn't you?". Goring replies: "This was the only possible form of government at the time and it proved that Germany could be pulled out of the abyss of misery, poverty and unemployment and withing a short space of time be made flourish and bloom." This is _exactly_ the justification given by the <<ccp,CCP>> for oppressing minorities and <<censorship,freedom of speech>>: the CCP is indistinguishable from the <<nazi,Nazis>>.
video::4xoM6-1SWl4[youtube,height=400,width=600,start=1606]
.Presumed Chinese people giving the middle finger (https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/豎中指[竖中指]) to various <<ccp>> symbols, most notably <<xi-jinping>>. Even if this was made by the CIA, it perfectly illustrates the point that obviously no one speaks against the CCP because otherwise they will be put in jail. If you are going to do this, for Fuck's Sake please cover your fingers, like the ones using gloves, or the banknotes, because if the photo resolution is good enough, you could be identified by your fingerprint. A <<reddit,r/China>> https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/obmgdh/not_all_of_us_are_brainwashed_沉默的大多数/[repost]. This photo seems to be the result of a campaign started by https://twitter.com/GFWfrog[] in response to the 100th anniversary of the Party in 2021. This was also explained at: https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/667778.html[] on <<china-digital-times>>. Related: <<anonymous-account-ban>>. https://twitter.com/GFWfrog/status/1410927334719430662[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Anonymous_middle_fingers.jpg[height=800]
.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_y2FIqfIpiw (https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues/409[GitHub reupload]) Give <<xi-jinping>> the middle finger silly GIF by GFWfrog 给习近平竖中指由墙国蛙蛤蛤傻逼视频. https://twitter.com/GFWfrog/status/1408805483679469579[Source].
.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zndzntIDLFE IGN review of the "We Happy Few" (2018) game.
video::zndzntIDLFE[youtube,height=400,width=600]
[[chilling-effect]]
====== Chilling effect (寒蝉效应)
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilling_effect
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/寒蟬效應_(法律)
It is really interesting to see how many people star the <<mirrors,GitHub repository>>, and then a few minutes later they think about how they might get put in jail, and then unstar it.
<<ciro-santilli>> is able to see this because the star notification remains in the GitHub dashboard even after unstarring. It does not seem to be publicly visible permanently unlike other events which forever remain on the events API.
Unstarring events are exceedingly rare in Ciro's other repositories.
The expression https://www.quora.com/What-does-the-expression-two-steps-forward-one-step-back-mean[two steps forward, one step back] comes to mind.
Luckily in this case, it does not seem possible to view who unstarred a repository after the fact:
* https://stackoverflow.com/questions/51072418/how-can-i-determine-when-a-user-unstarred-a-repo-using-the-github-graphql-api
[[my-paranoia-as-a-russian-youtuber]]
.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-hCdbsyWw0 "my paranoia as a Russian YouTuber" by <<nfkrz>> (2020) talks about the <<chilling-effect>>
video::_-hCdbsyWw0[youtube,height=400,width=600]
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[[intolerance]]
===== Most Chinese people don't care about the minorities
How can you be that certain that your children won't have dissident ideas and be punished unfairly for them?
Intolerance is a risky way to live. Everyone is part of one minority in one way. If all minorities were oppressed, everyone would be oppressed.
Dictatorships crush minorities much more than democracies.
Do think the majority of the Chinese people would vote to put 50 year old <<falun-gong>> meditating <<ciro-santilli-mother-in-law-jail,aunties in jail>>, if the CCP hadn't made a huge propaganda campaign and used an iron fist?
Are the Chinese really that selfish to vote for this oppression, even as the <<censorship,free media>> would show videos of meditating old ladies in jail on national television? <<ciro-santilli>> does not believe this.
Minorities are put in jail because the CCP fears them. Dictatorships can only survive if there is zero difference in opinion in the population.
The famous https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came_...[First they came ...] text comes to mind in which <<nazi,the priest Martin Niemöller regrets not having supported the rights of his opponents that were unfairly treated by the Nazi Government>>:
[[first-they-came]]
____
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out +
Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out +
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out +
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me +
and there was no one left to speak for me.
____
See also:
* <<rule-of-law>>
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intolerance_(film)[Intolerance (1916) film]
====== This is Ciro Santilli's personal problem, we have nothing to do with it, stop punishing us for it
We have to fight for justice for our fellows, or else when injustice happens to us, no one will fight for use either: <<intolerance>>.
Every form of protest incurs some damage. E.g., if we manifest on the street, it generates a traffic jam.
<<ciro-santilli>> doesn't like it, but he thinks it is worth it.
If you just work to make money and have a good life, without any plans to improve the government, you are just making the economy of the dictatorship stronger, then when they start a <<war,war>> or kill yet another minority, blood will also be on your hands. See also: <<what-should-western-countries-do-about-china>>.
[[stability]]
====== If anyone disagrees with the government they must be punished to keep the stability of the country
Destroying diversity is the best way to reach a point where everyone can agree to start <<war,a new big war and destroy everything>>.
The CCP thrives on the excessive <<evil-west,fear it instigates into its own people>>.
How can society improve, if we are never allowed to try new things out?
Change in democracies does not require <<violence,violence>>. Violence happens because the government punishes any dissidence, even if pacific, to retain its own power.
In democracies, radical policy changes happen without dropping a single drop of blood. People vote, and policies change, end of the story. In https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy[JFK's] words:
____
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable
____
See also:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonviolent_revolution#As_it_relates_to_democracy
* https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Address_on_the_First_Anniversary_of_the_Alliance_for_Progress
.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXRG7yiqR3I Passage of Kennedy's discourse that contains the quote "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable".
video::Iwpr55PZEJ8[youtube,height=400,width=600]
=== There are bad things happening all over the world, why doesn't Ciro Santilli fight for those causes as well/instead?
We have to choose the one we think is the worst, and focus on it.
What is worse is a subjective choice. For <<ciro-santilli>>:
* he <<why-does-ciro-santilli-love-china-so-much,loves China and Ciro's Chinese wife>>, see also: <<bias>>, and doesn't want it to get fucked further by the CCP
* he hates dictatorships, and China is the largest one by population/GDP/link:https://www.ploughshares.org/world-nuclear-stockpile-report[nuclear stockpile], and therefore <<war,the most dangerous>>
Ciro <<keyword-choice,SO username>> and <<better-to-do,protest time>> are not infinite.
However, it is good that different people have different interests, and someone will surely be fighting for whatever cause you care about.
See also:
* <<russia>>
* <<thailand>>
* <<western-democracies-are-not-perfect>>
That is definitely true.
Nothing is perfect in this world.
<<ciro-santilli>> just believes that they are way better than a <<dictatorship>> like China, and that the Chinese government <<evil-west,brainwashes its people to think that the West is evil to stay in power>>.
As link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_from_authority[Churchill] once brilliantly link:https://richardlangworth.com/worst-form-of-government[put it]:
____
Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.
____
However, this is all obviously subjective, and believing that dictatorship is a better form of government is also a valid belief, e.g. <<dictatorship-variability>>.
If you find an event on a Western democracy that you would like to highlight, send a pull request.
We will not however include events that are not currently censored.
Every country did fucked-up things in the past, the question is if they currently allow discussion about it or not.
Posts that only mention <<evil-west,"evil West">> non-censored events without adding anything to the discussion will be marked as <<shitpost>> and treated as such, since spamming those is the primary <<wumao>> technique to stop intelligent discussion.
The reason why "Evil China" posts are not shitposts in general on the other hand, is that they have one specific purpose: <<why-keyword-attack, to destroy censorship>>.
Ciro Santilli
committed
This "Western censorship https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copypasta[copypasta] string" https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/gct0ox/all_moderation_services_suspended_for_the_next_24/fpeends/[was posted automatically] by a bot during <<anti-ccp-info-sources,r/China>> purge day:
____
North Dakota Access Pipeline Protests 北达科他州接入管道抗议 +
Ferguson Riots 弗格森暴动 +
2017 St. Louis protests2017 年圣路易斯抗议活动 +
Nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll 比基尼环礁的核试验 +
Unite the Right rally 团结右集会 +
Charlotte riots 夏洛特暴动 +
Attack on the Sui-ho Dam 袭击穗河水坝 +
Milwaukee riots 密尔沃基骚乱 +
Shooting of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile 奥尔顿·斯特林和菲兰多·卡斯蒂利亚的射击 +
Occupation of the Malheur NationalWildlife Refuge Malheur国家野生动物保护区的占领 +
death of Freddie Gray 弗雷迪·格雷的死 +
Shooting of Michael Brown迈克尔·布朗的拍摄 +
death of Eric Garner, Oakland California 奥克兰奥克兰市埃里克·加纳（Eric Garner）逝世 +
Operation Condor 神鹰行动 +
Occupy WallStreet 占领华尔街 +
My Lai Massacre 我的大屠杀 +
St. Petersburg, Florida 佛罗里达州圣彼得堡 +
Kandahar Massacre 坎大哈屠杀 +
1992 Washington Heights riots 1992年华盛顿高地暴动 +
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No Gun Ri Massacre 无枪杀案 +
L.A. Rodney King riots 洛杉矶罗德尼·金暴动 +
1979 Greensboro Massacre 1979年格林斯伯勒大屠杀 +
Vietnam War 越南战争 +
Kent State shootings肯特州枪击案 +
Bombing of Tokyo 轰炸东京 +
San Francisco Police Department Park Station bombing 旧金山警察局公园站爆炸案 +
Assassination of MartinLuther King, Jr. 小马丁·路德·金遭暗杀。 +
Long Hot Summer of 1967 1967年炎热的夏天 +
Bagram 巴格拉姆 +
Selma to Montgomery marches 塞尔玛到蒙哥马利游行 +
Highway of Death 死亡之路 +
Ax Handle Saturday 星期六斧头 +
Battle of Evarts 埃瓦茨战役 +
Battle ofBlair Mountain 布莱尔山战役 +
McCarthyism 麦卡锡主义 +
Red Summer 红色夏天 +
Rock Springs massacre 岩泉大屠杀 +
Pottawatomie massacre 盆大屠杀 +
Jeju uprising 济州起义 +
Colfaxmassacre 科尔法克斯大屠杀 +
Reading Railroad massacre 阅读铁路大屠杀 +
Rock Springs massacre 岩泉大屠杀 +
Bay viewMassacre 湾景大屠杀 +
Lattimer massacre 拉蒂默大屠杀 +
Ludlow massacre 拉德洛屠杀 +
Everett massacre 埃弗里特屠杀Centralia Massacre 中部大屠杀 +
Ocoee massacre Ocoee大屠杀 +
Herrin Massacre 赫林大屠杀 +
Redwood Massacre红木大屠杀 +
Columbine Mine Massacre 哥伦拜恩矿难 +
Guantanamo Bay 关塔那摩湾 +
extraordinary rendition 非凡的演绎 +
Abu Ghraib torture and prison abuse 阿布格莱布的酷刑和监狱虐待 +
Henry Kissinger 亨利·基辛格
<<iranian-coup-1953>> +
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight-Nation_Alliance[Eight-Nation Alliance] (https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/八國聯軍[八國聯軍]) (1900) +
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unequal_treaty[Unequal treaty] (https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/不平等条约[不平等条约]) (1842-1933) +
See also:
* <<richer>>
* <<preconceived>>
* <<bias>>
* <<the-united-states-has-recently-started-several-wars-and-killed-millions>>
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_imperialism
.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signe_Wilkinson[Signe Wilkinson] 2017 Free Speech "Can you just move it so it doesn't cover them?" (TODO proper translation, with a quickly fixed up Google Translate: 你可以移动雨伞以使其不会遮盖住他们吗？) umbrella cartoon. Ciro once saw a <<wumao>> post this. It made him smile. If the cartoon were about <<dictatorship,dictatorships>>, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_Sam[Uncle Sam] would be instead <<intolerance,decapitating and raping the people on one half of the umbrella>>. Of course humans are <<flg-intolerance,shit in democracies as well>>, but at least that system makes it harder for them to oppress each other. http://www.cartoonistgroup.com/store/add.php?iid=161799[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Free_speech_umbrella.jpg[height=400]
.At https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues/260 ((https://archive.ph/mtZeM[archive])a <<wumao>> posted this image of <<amnesty-international>> protesters outside the American embassy in London in September 2008 protesting against the Guantanamo Bay camps. The wumao used this to criticize Guantanamo bay, saying that it was like <<xinjiang-re-education-camps>> but in the USA, apparently unaware that this was a staged protest. So it actually has the exact opposite effect than intended: because there is no <<censorship>>, here people in the West can together to denounce something they don't like. Imagine if a crowd of 100 people in China got together to denounce the Xinjiang camps! They'd go to jail immediately. Furthermore as Ciro repeated a million times: Guantanamo bay detainees are not American citizens, and democracies cannot fully protect people who can't vote. In China however, no one can vote, so everyone can be oppressed. https://kids.britannica.com/students/assembly/view/171145[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Guantanamo_bay_protest_London_2008.jpg[height=600]
[[henri-meyer]]
.French political cartoon from 1898 by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Meyer[Henri Meyer] showing leaders of Western powers, Russia and Japan splitting up China between them. The CCP would arguably <<not-chinese,not have raised to power if not due to Japanese interference>>. Maybe the West deserves the <<nazi,Nazi>> CCP they helped create, much like post World War I treaties helped create Nazi Germany. Colonialism was horrendous. As a Brazillian, <<ciro-santilli>> knows this all too well. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:China_imperialism_cartoon.jpg[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/China_imperialism_cartoon.jpg[height=500]
Ciro Santilli
committed
++++
<span id="the-west-is-racist-against-black-people">
++++
[[two-wrongs]]
===== Two wrongs don't make a right (积非成是)
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_wrongs_don%27t_make_a_right
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/積非成是
Ciro Santilli
committed
[[racist-west]]
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism_in_the_United_States
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/美国种族主义
Label: https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3Aracist-west[racist-west]
<<wumao,wumaos>> notably mention:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_George_Floyd[George Floyd]
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/乔治·弗洛伊德之死[乔治·弗洛伊德之死]
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_can%27t_breathe
+
<<wumao>>'s started posting "I can't breathe" everywhere, to which some people on Twitter replied "I can't tweet" and <<rebel-pepper>> made a cartoon: https://www.rfa.org/english/cartoons/twitter-china-cartoon-06052020164712.html
The murder video went viral and was not taken down (would have been in China), all four officers were charged, and the event sparked nation wide protests:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Lives_Matter
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Lives_Matter (黑人的命也是命)
Of course there is racism in the West. And we must recognize that, and fight it.
But <<ciro-santilli>> feels strongly that the Chinese are also obviously at least as racist against blacks, if not more, based on conversations he's had/overheard, and other circumstantial indications:
* https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/25/coronavirus-exposed-china-history-racism-africans-guangzhou
Oh, and the USA, and other Western countries besides Germany, were also racist against Jews, e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Feynman[Richard Feynman] could not be admitted in certain universities due to a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_quota[Jewish quota], even though he was not a believer himself, therefore based on race alone!
.Racism in the West vs racism in China. Of course there is racism in the West against black people. But the people have the choice to speak up against it to try and change things. In China however, speaking up against Muslim racism, means going to jail. Image sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:George_Floyd_neck_knelt_on_by_police_officer.png[murder of George Floyd], https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:George_Floyd_protests_in_Philadelphia_02.jpg[George Floyd protests in Philadelphia], https://mvslim.com/re-education-camps-for-muslims-chinas-muslim-community-the-uyghurs-are-facing-a-new-level-of-oppression[Xinjiang prisoners], https://www.reuters.com/world/china/what-people-said-hong-kong-tiananmen-anniversary-2021-06-04/[Tiananmen Square on 2021-06-03], the anniversary of <<tiananmen>>.
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Racism_in_the_West_vs_China_George_Floyd_vs_Xinjiang.jpg[height=700]
[[we-dont-hire-blacks-by-aaron-dewitt-2020]]
====== We Don't Hire Blacks by Aaron Dewitt (我们不雇用黑人, 2020)
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This amazing video was originally uploaded to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d81mEbL8Yw8 by <<aaron-dewitt>> on 2020-09-21 but it was down as of 2021-06-21. Last <<wayback-machine>> archive as of that date: 2020-11-03.
The video description was:
____
This is an exposé of racist companies that I worked for, some of which operate in the United States and Canada, all of which are headquartered in China.
____
In it, Aaron describes his experiences with the recruitment team of one of his former employers, an unnamed "Chinese ed-tech company in Beijing", for which he worked in human resources. In another also deleted video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6uFGGunRxc he mentions that he cannot mention the name of the company because he was under NDA.
Notably, in that video, he gives several screenshots of Google Sheets spreadsheets with explicitly racist reasons why people were not hired, one of which is <<we-dont-hire-blacks-screenshot,reproduced here>>. Examples of such reasons include:
* "Skin color"
* "Non-Caucasian"
* "62-years old"
* "elderly"
* "Hispanic"
He mentions:
____
On the first day at this company, I had an orientation with my supervisor Ng, who is the head of the training department. She told me:
"We hire blacks. Obama black is OK. But no darker, or they'll scare the kids. The kids will think they're some kind of monster!"
____
which would lead parents to just go to a competitor instead. Then he mentions about the Google Sheets documents that:
____
They shared this document with the entire management team in Beijing, and everyone not only knew, but expected this discrimination to take place.
____
In the video he also explains how he once went to a 2 week holiday to Bali, and when he came back with his skin darker due to the tanning, he was reprimanded by a manager, who said that he could not work looking like that.
He explicitly mentions later the video that https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VIPKid[VIPKid], for which he did not work, is a similar company in nature, but not the one he is talking about.
Wikipedia mentions about VIPKid
____
Its online-classroom portal enables students to receive 25-minute English language lessons from fluent English-speaking teachers.
In March 2019, VIPKid fired two American teachers for discussing the 1989 <<tiananmen>> and <<taiwan>> with their students in China. Teachers have also reported witnessing child abuse when teaching lessons, but they found little recourse to report such issues.
____
As of 2021-05-05, the banner image of VIPKid's website explicitly includes a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokenism[token black person]: https://web.archive.org/web/20210505045920/https://www.vipkid.com/[], so their PR department clearly caught air of this. This is however only a frontend for hiring American teachers. The real Chinese client website https://www.vipkid.com.cn/[], rest assured, contains no black people: (https://web.archive.org/web/20210424032446/https://www.vipkid.com.cn/[archive])
VIPKids had a 3 billion valuation in https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/21/chinas-vipkid-which-links-native-english-speakers-with-online-learners-raises-another-500m-reportedly-at-3b-valuation/
Wikipedia links as one of its sources to this 2019 article https://www.wired.com/story/when-online-teaching-job-becomes-window-child-abuse/[] which mentions:
____
Of the dozens of companies vying to cash in on the tutoring business, it is by far the largest, having raised $825 million in investment capital since its founding. Other major players include Qkids, Magic Ears, DaDa, and Gogokid, all based in China.
____
so it is overwhelmingly likely that one of those is the one mentioned Aaron is talking about:
* Qkids
* Magic Ears
* DaDa
* Gogokid
Later in the video Aaron mentions that the company in question "basically went bankrupt".
He also mentions that he later worked for https://www.forbes.com/companies/offcn-education-technology/?sh=6d49822b4e45[offcn], which is run by the Chinese Government, and they would absolutely not hire black people.
[[we-dont-hire-blacks-screenshot]]
.Screenshot of the video <<we-dont-hire-blacks-by-aaron-dewitt-2020>> showing a list racist job interview candidate rejection reasons.
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/We_don_t_hire_blacks_by_Aaron_DeWitt_2020.jpg[height=500]
===== Western democracies have invaded other countries and crushed separatism
Yes, <<western-democracies-are-not-perfect,Western democracies are not perfect>>.
What matters is that citizens can disagree with those actions, publicly say it, vote accordingly, and not go to jail, so that policy will be changed if the majority so wants.
In China, the minority controls the majority, and the majority cannot say anything even if they disagree.
If the majority wants to do evil however, evil will get done, it is impossible to prevent that.
People from other countries don't vote for your politicians in democracy. Therefore, democracies cannot protect them.
What democracy does do well is to <<brainwashed-by-usa,reduce the chance that enough of the population will be brainwashed>> into <<war,starting war with other superpowers and destroy the world>>.
Do you really think <<chinese-politicians-really-care-about-the-chinese-citizens,China wouldn't invade a country they need resources from because they are more humane>>?
<<too-young-too-naive>>. China is already invading its own citizens right now as of 2020 to obtain resources! <<xinjiang-re-education-camps>>. And it is using the exact same excuse as the American politicians: terrorism!
Even when the US invades another country, the people who support the US enemy can still pick up arms and fight. And Russia can send help if they want to annoy the Americans, making local resistance stand an actual chance. But when you oppress your own people, they are completely defenseless, and 100% certain to be fully oppressed, since no foreign country would risk world war 3 by sending help.
Do you really think that the CCP would give a fuck about invading other countries? And furthermore, China is specifically oppressing Islamic people in Xinjiang, exactly the same religion of people who live where? In the Middle East.
Xinjiang _is_ China's Middle East.
The reason the USA has invaded countries in the Middle east and China hasn't yet is a mixture of:
* the USA is more developed, and has greater fuel needs, and greater capacity to carry such a war.
+
Although as we've seen, they've been essentially losing those wars quite often now, by not saying long enough to establish a new stable government.
+
Part of their defeat is also due to <<russia>>, and increasingly China, helping the other side however.
* the Middle East is full of dictatorships, and <<dictatorships-tend-to-work-together,dictatorships are natural allies of other dictatorships>> therefore it is more likely that they won't invade one another.
* the Cold War is still fresh in the American mind. Oil is crucial to fight a war. Countries will do anything to survive, even if it means killing others.
<<ciro-santilli>> is not saying that any of this justifies the actions of the Western powers in the Middle East. But simply that it has nothing to do with democracy or non-democracy.
See also:
* <<separatism>>
* <<richer>>
===== Western democracies also censor subjects such as child porn and hate speech
First, child porn and hate speech are also banned in China, so shut up. <<china-has-more-freedom-of-speech-than-the-usa,every type of speech>> is less free in <<dictatorship>>.
Second, if you don't think child porn should be banned, there isn't much point in arguing with you.
Now, hate speech is a very complex subject. <<ciro-santilli>> does feel that we should be very careful when banning hate speech, and he is not sure if it should be banned at all, as perhaps it might just make matters worse.
But of course, there is also censorship in Western democracies, and there is a gray area between what should be censored or not.
<<ciro-santilli>> only argues that there is on type of speech that must never ever be <<censorship,censored>>: political speech.
This way, the majority can always discuss and vote to change what can be censored or not.
In China, however, trying to discuss such changes in laws <<internal-censorship,puts you in jail>>, so bad laws cannot be changed. This lack of freedom <<most-chinese-people-like-their-dictatorship,also gives the impression to many brainwashed Chinese>> that dicatorships are better because you see less conflict online. Which is great, until your human rights are violated, and you've got no one to talk to.
The lack of ability to discuss political problems leads to extremely serious problems:
* <<corruption>>: politicians can <<internal-censorship,censor>> anything bad that they did to stay in power
* <<war>>: if the CCP leaders decide that a war must be made, everyone who opposes it will go to jail, and the war will be made
* <<intolerance>>: if the CCP decides that <<xinjiang,some minority>> is <<falun-gong,a danger to their power>>, this minority gets fucked
Deciding on hate speech, means having to decide what level of hardcoreness we are willing to accept, and there is no clear right or wrong answer.
For example, which of the following do you think should be banned:
* This scientific study suggests that white people do less well in IQ tests.
* This scientific study suggests that black people do less well in IQ tests.
* I'm an idiotic irrational racist and I dislike white/black people. I won't kill them, but I dislike them, and I can't change that, I'm really sorry.
* Let's all gather together and kill our black/white/gay/straight/Muslim/Christian neighbours tomorrow.
* Let's all gather together and kill our oppressive dictator/president tomorrow.
Ciro believes that none of the above should ever be censored, because any form of "hate-speech censorship" immediately opens a precedent for political censorship.
If someone is idiotic enough to organize illegal acts like hurting someone publicly before doing it, it will just make it easier for them to get caught.
And if its just empty words, just block those idiots to not see their posts, or downvotes their posts to reduce their impact.
And if the majority supports idiotic acts like killing someone because of their race, it will get done in a democracy regardless, because that's what democracies do: they cater to what the majority wants.
There's not point in censoring them. Such censorship only makes things worse, as the perpetrators will use that as publicity for their cause.
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window[Overton window]
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fake_news
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/假新聞
When a government controls all information to make it look good, and no one can challenge it, you cannot trust _any_ of the news produced by that country, as anything could be fake.
It is much better to have some fake news, but also few sources that are likely telling the truth.
<<ciro-santilli>> is also extremely critical of Western social media companies such as <<twitter>> and Facebook which have censored "fake news" from real legitimate accounts or real people, which is a point that Trump has justly criticized in Ciro's opinion.
If it is from a Chinese/Russian botnet, sure, destroy those accounts.
But from legitimate accounts of citizens? The people have to decide for themselves what is fake or real, not you, Twitter and Facebook. If the majority is made of idiots who believe in fake news, then so be it, that's how democracy works.
Censoring any citizen, no matter how stupid you think they are, creates a precedent for dictatorship, and even an <<luxor,incentive to terrorism>>.
More interesting case is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight_First_Amendment_Institute_v._Trump[]. Ciro feels strongly that people who try to have meaningful discussions on Twitter should automatically lose a lawsuit, and that people should be able to block whoever they want from their personal controlled accounts or forums. It is only the companies who provide the forum service that must be neutral.
** 2021-03-31 https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2021/03/31/conservatives-blast-facebook-for-removing-trump-interview-with-daughter-in-law/ "Conservatives Blast Facebook For Removing Trump Interview With Daughter-In-Law". This perfectly illustrates why it is unreasonable to ban someone from social media. You end up having to ban anyone who supports them as well.
** 2021-01-09 https://techcrunch.com/2021/01/09/the-deplatforming-of-a-president/ "The deplatforming of President Trump" has an overview: Twitter permaban, Facebook indefinite time, Google store removed Parler from App Store, Apple store soon followed: https://techcrunch.com/2021/01/09/apple-suspend-parler-from-app-store/ <<tiktok>> censorehttps://techcrunch.com/2021/01/07/tiktok-bans-videos-of-trump-inciting-mob-blocks-stormthecapital-and-other-hashtags/ And Amazon announced a Parler block with 24 hours advance: https://techcrunch.com/2021/01/09/amazon-web-services-gives-parler-24-hour-notice-that-it-will-suspend-services-to-the-company/
+
All of those banning should not be done. If the people want to rebel, they must be allowed to communicate and rebel.
* 2020-10-12 https://techcrunch.com/2020/10/12/facebook-in-a-reversal-will-now-ban-holocaust-denial-content-under-its-hate-speech-policy/
* 2020 https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2020/06/20/trump-says-he-wants-to-punish-flag-burning-with-a-year-in-prison/#4d00781b3404 "Trump Says He Wants To Punish Flag Burning With A Year In Prison". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_desecration#United_States[]. If this were to pass, Ciro would be very temped to upload a GIF. Flag dessacration laws are bullshit.
* 2020-08 Kevin Cernekee fired from Google for conservative views
** 2020-08-27 https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/06/google-whistleblower-cernekee-pushed-alt-right-views-former-colleague.html "Internal Google memo claimed conservative whistleblower promoted alt-right views"
** It appears to be legal in the US for companies to fire employees based on political beliefs:
+
*** https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/can-employers-discriminate-based-on-political-beliefs-or-affiliation.html
+
<<ciro-santilli>> however believes that discussing politics at work is not an efficient way to go about it, because you will be discussion amongst a small group of people since companies are opaque to the outside. Unless maybe if you feel that you employee is directly attempting to influence politics in a way that you feel is unfair.
+
Ciro believes without evidence that unfortunately anti-discrimination-hiring laws are likely inefficient, as it is too hard to convict anyone. And that providing equal education through scholarships to unprivileged groups and university entry selection where examiners cannot see the applicant's race is the only way.
** 2020-12-09 https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/9/22165355/youtube-biden-election-victory-misinformation-rules-remove-content-oan "YouTube will now remove videos disputing Joe Biden's election victory".
*** YouTube's announcement: https://blog.youtube/news-and-events/supporting-the-2020-us-election
** 2020-11-24 https://techcrunch.com/2020/11/24/youtube-suspends-and-demonetizes-one-america-news-network-over-covid-19-video/ "YouTube suspends and demonetizes One America News Network over COVID-19 video"
* Facebook
** 2020-11-10 https://techcrunch.com/2020/11/09/parler-app-store-facebook/ "'Free speech' social network Parler tops app store rankings following Biden's election win"
** 2021-01-08 https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2020/suspension.html "Permanent suspension of @realDonaldTrump" Archive of suspended account: https://archive.vn/SSHX6
** 2020-10-06 https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/5/28/21273241/section-230-explained-trump-social-media-twitter-facebook "Section 230, the internet free speech law Trump wants to repeal, explained". While repealing the law entirely would be stupid, Trump is right that it has given platforms too much control over the media. <<mark-government-controlled-social-media,Except for dictatorial foreign governments>>, or explicitly illegal material, social media platforms should never remove or comment on any content.
** 2020-05-29 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-52846679 Twitter "hides Trump tweet for 'glorifying violence'". The people elected that idiot, Twitter leftists have to swallow that.
** 2021-01-11 https://www.irishexaminer.com/world/arid-40204808.html "Angela Merkel sees Twitter's cancelling of Donald Trump as 'problematic'"
* Amazon
** Twitch 2021-04-07 https://techcrunch.com/2021/04/07/twitch-off-platform-harassment-policy/
Minor:
* https://techcrunch.com/2021/04/30/basecamp-employees-quit-ceo-letter/ 2021-04-31 Basecamp sees mass employee exodus after CEO bans political discussions
====== Censorship of "politically incorrect speech"
<<ciro-santilli>> strongly believes that this is a problem with Wester social media. For example in <<stack-overflow-forbids-criticizing-the-character-of-genocidal-political-leaders-like-xi-jinping>> Stack Overflow forbade Ciro from saying:
____
I think Trump is disgusting as a person
____
because they thought Trump would become sad and cry.
Western governments should pass laws that prevent this kind of arbitrary political censorship by companies.
But of course as usual: <<censorship,censorship in a dictatorship like China is always a million times worse>>.
[[please-enjoy-this-politically-correct-cartoon]]
."Please enjoy this culturally ethnically religiously and politically correct cartoon responsibly" cartoon by Michael Shaw from the New Yorker (2006) makes a reference to the fact that all humour is a criticism of something, and that excessive political correctness can be used as a way to limit free speech.
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Please_enjoy_this_politically_correct_cartoon.jpg[height=400]
.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiqDZlAZygU Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean) defending freedom of speech in the context of the http://reformsection5.org.uk/[Reform Section 5] campaign to remove all criminalization of insults. The campaigns slogan was "Feel free to insult me!". He then quotes: "The strongest weapon against hateful speech is not repression, it is more speech" from https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2012/09/25/remarks-president-un-general-assembly[an Obama speech].
.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNjYSns0op0 Munk Debate on Political Correctness (2018) features Stephen Fry and Jordan Peterson speaking against political correctness. Those dudes are awesome. https://youtu.be/rJOMYEXK6cs?t=150 summarizes it well.
video::MNjYSns0op0[youtube,height=400,width=600]
Exactly! And this is something <<ciro-santilli>> fights daily against through his open source contributions.
And politicians don't really care enough. Partially because:
* the poor don't have access to proper education and vote less often
* corporations pay for their election campaigns
* many of the politicians are rich themselves
But do you really think that further increasing the power concentration as done is China is going to help reduce inequality?
If so, you have been <<stupid,brainwashed beyond reason>>. Increasing the concentration of power <<chinese-politicians-really-care-about-the-chinese-citizens,will obviously make society even more unequal>> and <<corruption,corrupt>>, never less.
.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHFrhIAj0ME Can't get you out of my head - Part 1 (2021) documentary by Adam Curtis for the BBC. This awesome documentary suggests and explains why Western politicians care less and less about the people, and why Western companies have gained more and more power. It also mentions how after China gave up on communism and became a capitalist country, it completely lost any guiding ideal. The West still had the ideal of democracy. But for China, there was only one thing left: money. Our dear <<xi-jinping>> is of course doing his best to instill nationalism into China to fill that void. What could <<war,possible go wrong with that>>?
[[life-of-brian-1979]]
===== Life of Brian (布莱恩的一生, 1979)
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Python%27s_Life_of_Brian
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/蒙提·派森之布莱恩的一生
This movie was almost banned in Britain at the time due to lobbying by Christian groups as shown in <<the-secret-life-of-brian-2007>>.
Key scenes:
* <<life-of-brian-nazi-jew,Nazi Jew scene from The Life of Brian>>
====== The secret Life of Brian (2007)
Documentary about <<life-of-brian-1979>>.
Key points:
* <<sacred-cows>>
video::hdU_6jUQI9s[youtube,height=400,width=600]
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/爱德华·斯诺登
Censoring anyone who says "my president is shit", which is what China does, is much, much more serious than censoring intelligence leaks.
The problem with dictatorships, is that they make _every_ information that makes them look bad a "state secret". Including any information that hundreds of thousands of people have witnessed, or economic performance metrics! See also: <<internal-censorship>>.
The level of unknown surveillance that Snowden uncovered is a bad thing about the US.
Snowden's prosecution was inevitable. Countries need secret services. Secret services need laws that prevent leaking classified information that was produced by government officials.
<<ciro-santilli>> has never and will never criticize China or any other country for spying or prosecuting spies.
If Snowden were Chinese, the Chinese government would ban talking about him or anything he uncovered. A <<keyword-attack,keyword attack>> with "Snowden" in the West has no effect.
It is obvious that the level of surveillance in any dictatorship will be infinitely higher, since the Government has much more power and no-one can criticize.
On the West however, the debate Snowden sparked cannot be censored, and has helped to control excessive and secret state power.
Ultimately, Ciro thinks camera surveillance is somewhat inevitable, because people will always want to fight crime and terrorism and surveillance technology keeps getting cheaper and cheaper.
He also believes that a good solution to balance out government power is the <<second-amendment>>. It is better to have more school shootings and less full-blown dictatorship led genocides / mass human rights violations.
In 2019 China amusingly censored passages Snowden's "Permanent Record" autobiography book, which Snowden then published on Twitter:
* https://twitter.com/snowden/status/1194092273170038784 (https://web.archive.org/web/20191112083232/https://twitter.com/snowden/status/1194092273170038784[archive])
* https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/dv5q8o/china_censors_edward_snowdens_new_book_he/ (https://web.archive.org/web/20191112083147/https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/dv5q8o/china_censors_edward_snowdens_new_book_he/[archive]).
As a https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/dv5q8o/china_censors_edward_snowdens_new_book_he/f7axckl/[Redditor put it]:
I don't think they understand that what Snowden stands for is completely the opposite of what the Chinese gov is lol
Snowden then later released the entire Chinese version of the book for free online with the censored parts underlined: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/02/10/snowden_china_censorship (https://web.archive.org/web/20200213001653/https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/02/10/snowden_china_censorship[archive]), link to the book: link:++https://a.temporaryrecord.com/Permanent_Record_-_CN_edition_with_underlined_redactions.pdf++[] (https://web.archive.org/web/20200212144108/https://a.temporaryrecord.com/Permanent_Record_-_CN_edition_with_underlined_redactions.pdf[archive]). One wonders why he didn't just do that in the first place for all versions, maybe he needed to pay the writer that helped him?
.Snowden highlighted defects on abuses of power in a Western democracy, and the discussion he sparked helped to control such abuses. <<to-obey-is-to-betray,To obey is to betray>> comes to mind. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Edward_Snowden-2.jpg[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Snowden.jpg[height=500]
===== Bad things have been done in the name of freedom
E.g.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks[September 11th].
Bad things have been done in the name of anything.
It's just that <<war,much>>, <<xinjiang,worse>> <<tiananmen,things>> are done without freedom than with it.
Democracies cannot necessarily protect weak countries from powerful ones either. No political system can do that, because humans are trash essentially.
What democracy do is to protect its own people against its own government. Because when the government turns against part of the population in a dictatorship, that part of the population gets crushed entirely, without any chance to fight, because they don't have an army or ally countries like other countries do.
Here are some images that <<wumao>>'s like to post:
* Left Right Slaughterhouse comic: https://9gag.com/gag/ayn7KmW?ref=fbp
[[ccp-evil]]
=== Is the Chinese government evil? 中国共产党是邪恶吗？
Obviously not, just <<richer,inefficient>> and <<war,dangerous>>.
It is just another non-democratic empire like the Qing Dynasty, we might as well cal it:
____
共产朝 +
The Communist Dynasty
____
Expression previously mentioned at: https://web.archive.org/web/20161025220242/http://tieba.baidu.com/p/752094668
Like any other organization and individual everywhere in the entire world, they are just doing everything that they can to maintain their own power.
It just happens that China's the current is political system allows the CCP to do really bad things.
And it should also be noted that <<henri-meyer,it is in part the West's fault>> that China currently has this shitty system.
<<falun-gong>> thinks otherwise of course, they think the CCP is actually made up of real actual devils in some dimension: <<does-ciro-santilli-believe-in-or-practice-falun-gong>>. E.g. on the https://endccp.com/ Falun Gong lead campaign:
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The demon CCP has plundered the ancient land of China
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==== Chinese politicians really care about the Chinese citizens
Sometimes people say Ciro Santilli is naive.
Politicians are the same all over the world.
Some might have good intentions, but most don't give a shit about anyone else.
But all must play a careful political game, and sometimes betray their own beliefs to not lose power entirely.
Even those that genuinely care might have to play such political games.
China's problem is not its politicians.
It's the current shitty political organization, which allows/convinces those politicians to do really bad things: <<richer>>, <<war>> and <<corruption>>.
Western politicians don't care about the people either: <<western-society-is-extremely-unequal>>. But at least they have to pretend a little.
By John Kenneth Galbraith, possibly based on an earlier <<soviet-union>> joke https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/ocasio-cortez-capitalism-quote/[]:
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Under capitalism, man oppresses man. Under socialism, it's just the opposite.
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==== Is Chinese politician X evil?
The term evil does not make sense unless you are <<falun-gong,religious>>.
The best definition of evil is a psychopath with zero empathy for anyone: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathy although this can be better characterized as a disease or extreme personality trait.
The huge majority of those politicians are just regular dudes with a knack for politics but brought up in a fucked up political situation.
Just like you, Ciro Santilli and other politicians in any country.
As of 2020, the <<ccp>> is much more like Nazi Germany than it is like the <<soviet-union>>.
Both share the same basic ideology: <<little-pink-american-dream-vs-chinese-dream,love your country/leader mindlessly>>, work hard, <<most-chinese-people-like-their-dictatorship,throw any dissidents under the bus>>, and <<overlook-human-rights-for-profit,everyone will become richer>> (except the dissidents who will be in jail).
The CCP is possibly less bad as of 2020 it has less of "this minority (Jews) is the cause of all our problems/racial supremacy approach". But everything else, and arguably the key points that got most German people on-board in the first place, are so similar, that it has to raise huge red flags.
We must however be careful not to demonize the Nazis, as that is not a helpful way to learn from the past.
The Nazis were also people like us, and that is the scary thing we must never forget, thus we should never fall for:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reductio_ad_Hitlerum[Reductio ad Hitlerum]
* https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/希特勒歸謬法[希特勒归谬法]
Notably, it can be argued that the Nazis did bring economic growth and stability to Germany, which the people desperately needed, see also <<goring-nuremberg,Goring's appearance on the Nuremberg trials>>.
* Xitler (习特勒). 习 "xi2" is very close in sound to the Chinese name of Hitler: https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/阿道夫·希特勒[希特勒] (xi1 te4 le4)
* Chinazi (赤纳粹 Chi Na Cui). TODO why 赤. Means Red, which is a reference to Communism, although red was of course it was also the color of the original Nazis. But where else is it used? Chi is also chosen to achieve the sound "Chi Na" as a variant of <<shina>>
* <<young-pioneers-vs-hitler-youth,Young Pioneers vs Hitler Youth>>.
* http://yashalong.blog.caixin.com/archives/188877 这么好的人民，不倒点霉都对不起他们 "These are such good people, if they have a bit of bad luck, excuse them." article by yashalong 押沙龙 published on <<caixin>>. The article discusses how Nazi Germany propaganda worked, without mention to the CCP, but it was still apparently https://www.bannedbook.org/bnews/baitai/20190816/1175647.html[banned in China].
https://www.southbankresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2020/01/ZHA-issue-2510-free.pdf has a good quote:
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Would you have stood up to Hitler when he came to power? Or would you have been an appeaser, like Chamberlain? Or perhaps even a supporter of fascism, like the Daily Mail's owner at the time?
We all like to imagine we're courageous enough to stand up to tyranny and persecution. That we would have stood up to the villains of the past. Seen them for what they really were, even helped rescue their victims from danger. We certainly don't like to think we would have bought their goods or funded, invested in their economies...
TODO some failed attempts at ASCII art flags:
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卐 卐卐卐卐卐 卐
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....
.Photoshopped <<xi-jinping>> with raised fist with Nazi uniform and flag on the background. https://www.reddit.com/r/HongKong/comments/cuf3p7/chinazi_xitler/[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Xi_Nazi_war_flag.jpg[height=400]
.Likely original or similar image of <<xi-jinping>> with raised fist as he took oath when coming into or renewing office. http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/2018-03/19/content_50723040.htm[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Xi_raised_fist.jpg[height=400]
.German's 1938-1945 war flag called the "War Ensign of Germany" in English or "Reichskriegsflagge" in German. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichskriegsflagge[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Nazi_war_flag.png[height=400]
.Hitler has of course a few raised fists on Google Images, but they tend to be more aggressive, and less compatible with Xi's apathic poker face. http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/adolf-hitler-practised-his-body-language-assessing-hitlers-bizarre-gestures-and-postures/[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Hitler_angry_rehearsal.jpg[height=400]
.Photoshopped cover of Mein Kampf with Xi's face on top of Hitler's and other modifications such as Mian instead of Mein, likely the same 面 (mian4, face) as the Chinese character at the bottom right. <<xi-jinping-thought>> also comes to mind. https://foreignerinformosa.typepad.com/the_foreigner_in_formosa/2017/07/president-xitler-of-china-murders-political-dissident-liu-xiaobo.html[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Xi_mein_kampf.jpg[height=400]
.Original cover of Mein Kampf. link:++https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Adolf_Hitler_-_Mein_Kampf_(855._Auflage,_1943).pdf++[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Mein_kampf.jpg[height=400]
.Photoshopped photo of Hitler giving the Nazi salute from a car with Himmler on the background with Xi's face on top of Hitler's. https://chinhdangvu1.blogspot.com/2017/09/xitler-chinazism.html[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Xi_Nazi_car_salute_photoshop.jpg[height=400]
.Original photo of Hitler giving the Nazi salute from a car with Himmler on the background. This photo shows them reviewing SS troops during a Reichsparteitag (Reich Party Day) parade in Nuremberg (1938-09-05 - 1938-09-12). https://aboutholocaust.org/en/facts/who-was-adolf-hitler[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Hitler_Himmler_salute.jpg[height=400]
.Chinazi flag (赤纳粹旗) by <<2019-hong-kong-anti-extradition-bill-protests,Hong Kong protesters>>. Seen https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/2019/08/【盛世一景】赤纳粹旗（chinazi-flag）/[on streets]. https://www.reddit.com/r/HongKong/comments/dbrken/google_bomb_china_flag_search_query_into_chinazi/[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Chinazi_flag.png[height=400]
.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wD53MEbLDIE <<serpentza-laowhy86,laowhy86>> video "Can We Compare China to Nazi Germany?" published on 2020-04-29. Good side-by-side video comparisons. Says that China is more like Nazi than <<russia>>, but Ciro disagrees, all three are <<is-chinese-politician-x-evil,evil dictatorships>>.
video::wD53MEbLDIE[youtube,height=400,width=600]
.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn1VxaMEjRU https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitchell_and_Webb[Mitchell and Webb] "Are we the Baddies?" Nazi Sketch. In this sketch, Mitchel, a cute self-conscious Nazi, starts to wonder with Webber, his Nazi friend, if they aren't on the side of evil, particularly due to the usage of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totenkopf[Nazi skulls (Totenkopf)] on their uniforms. This echoes <<goring-nuremberg,Goring's appearance on the Nuremberg trials>>. Like the CCP, many Nazis thought of course that they were doing great things.
==== Hitler Has Only Got One Ball (希特勒只有一个蛋, 1939)
We have to make a <<xi-jinping>> version of this!!!
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler_Has_Only_Got_One_Ball[Hitler Has Only Got One Ball]
** https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/希特勒只有一个蛋[希特勒只有一个蛋]
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Possible_monorchism_of_Adolf_Hitler[Possible monorchism of Adolf Hitler]
There's even an https://en.uncyclopedia.co/wiki/Hitler_Has_Only_Got_One_Ball[Uncencyclopedia page for it].
.http://bodylanguageproject.com/xarticles/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Hitler-8.jpg[Left source], https://en.uncyclopedia.co/wiki/Hitler_Has_Only_Got_One_Ball[right source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Hitler_has_only_got_one_ball.jpg[height=400]
.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1tF-Yrwe3U A version of the "Hitler Has Only Got One Ball" song.
video::w1tF-Yrwe3U[youtube,height=400,width=600]
.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1DWJQkOJew The Armstrong and Miller Show "Hitler Has Only Got One Ball" sketch depicts in a funny way the imaginary creation of the song.
video::Y1DWJQkOJew[youtube,height=400,width=600]
==== I want to take my chances and make a shitpost in cirosantilli/china-dictatorship (屎帖子)
So, have you reached the conclusion that your https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shitposting[shitpost] is link:CONTRIBUTING.md[worth the risk of getting blocked]?
Remember that shitposts can also be creative: if you are going to insult Ciro Santilli, at least do it in a creative way, or else you look like an even bigger idiot than you really are.
A collection of shitposts for you to take inspiration from can be found at: https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues?q=label%3Ashitpost+
Also, when opening a shitpost you may mark it clearly such with the shitpost issue template which automatically assigns the shitpost label. Doing so will make you look like less of an idiot.
While we require polite replies to polite posts, no matter what which side they are defending, if a post is marked as a shitpost, things are much more relaxed and fun, and you can generally get away with telling the OP to fuck themselves link:CONTRIBUTING.md[without getting blocked].
.Real shit photos may be posted in reply to shitposts. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Human_Feces_(cropped).jpg[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Shit.jpg[height=400]
.Amazing shitposts may recieve a Golden Shit award and the https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/labels/golden-shit[golden-shit label]. The image is from a Japanese https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kin_no_unko[Kin no unko (金のうんこ)], which is likely inspired by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sycee[golden Sycees]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kin_no_unko.jpg[Source].
.To <<censorship,censor>> or not to censor good shitposts: that is not the question, <<ciro-santilli>> will never censor them! https://imgur.com/gallery/rA0K90g[Source].
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Like_shitposts.jpg[height=600]
.The legendary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grass_Mud_Horse[Grass Mud Horse (草泥马, caonima)] is also said to appear in shitposts from time to time.
image::{china-dictatorship-media-base}/Caonima.jpg[height=600]
==== I am going to write a huge wall of text to prove my point