• downvote_hunter@midwest.socialEnglish
    7·
    1 day ago

    Is this one of those brain games where you have to find 6 differences between the two drawings? Let’s see

    1. Fake tan
    2. Where are the Epstein files?
  • culpritus [any]@hexbear.netEnglish
    284·
    3 days ago

    sicko-pog

    Any info on the Xi photo? Because it is amazing.

    This would be like a photo of Netanyahu sitting down to a meal with Gazans if you actually believe all the ‘China is doing a genocide’ propaganda.

    • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
      163·
      1 day ago

      They quite literally have, the people in the bottom photo smiling with Xi are Uyghur, you can tell by the doppa hats and architecture. I recommend looking more into the situation in Xinjiang. The best and most comprehensive resource I have seen so far is Qiao Collective’s Xinjiang: A Resource and Report Compilation. Qiao Collective is explicitly pro-PRC, but this is an extremely comprehensive write-up of the entire background of the events, the timeline of reports, and real and fake claims.

      I also recommend reading the UN report and China’s response to it. These are the most relevant accusations and responses without delving into straight up fantasy like Adrian Zenz, professional propagandist for the Victims of Communism Foundation, does.

      Tourists also go to Xinjiang all the time. You can watch videos like this one on YouTube, though it obviously isn’t going to be a comprehensive view of a complex situation like this.

        • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
          122·
          1 day ago

          Akshually, it’s CPC! 🤓

          Well, yes, actually, it is CPC. The standard formatting of communist parties is “Communist Party of X.” This is the international standard, the CPC goes by CPC and not by CCP as CCP is more nationalist than internationalist.

          And no, I’m not a CPC member, as cool as that would be to be one of those 100 million members, though I do organize (lightly so far) with a communist party in my country.

    • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
      207·
      1 day ago

      Is there any proof that Xi’s photo is staged, or are you just assuming people don’t like him? He has overwhelmingly high approval rates in China, upwards of 95%, so it wouldn’t make sense that they would stage such a photo beyond how they frame it (as all political pictures would have).

            • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
              7·
              1 day ago

              Is there any proof that Xi’s photo is staged, or are you just assuming people don’t like him? He has overwhelmingly high approval rates in China, upwards of 95%, so it wouldn’t make sense that they would stage such a photo beyond how they frame it (as all political pictures would have).

              • Devconsole@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
                22·
                1 day ago

                Fair callout. I suspect we pretty much agree then beyond debating semantics of where you draw the line between staging and framing.

                • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
                  6·
                  1 day ago

                  Staged, to me, would imply complete fabrication with no actual basis in reality, ie paid actors and an invented setting. Framing would imply angles, selective moments, even seating arrangements in order to be more flattering and positive, but may not necessarily be wholly divorced from reality.

        • Devconsole@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          27·
          1 day ago

          Anyone who disagrees with this along the lines of “Oh but Trump/Obama/Xi/Trudeau/Macron/Stalin/Hitler is really loved!” then you should put get off the Internet until you grow a bit.

      • WbrJr@lemmy.ml
        59·
        1 day ago

        I literelly don’t know which “side is right” in this argument. In a country where there is propaganda and social media is strictly moderated by the government and not a lot of independent journalism (like YouTube or blogs even get pressured to shut down) and which has a social score controlling your life and thougs - how would one make a actually independent and fair survey? There is no democracy, so why turn against it if you have no way of changing it?

        Of cause we are a bit brainwashed by the west and Chinas enemies and I think trump helped a lot to remove the elusion of a “good and strong america”. But it still feels like the people are more free in the west, we have democracy and solid education and independent social media and journalism which is very important to me.

        And its very impressive what China achieved in the short amount of time, compared to the west, industrially speaking. But socially (like what the government does) I really would not want to live there at all.

        I feel like many people here on Lemmy have just the same black and white thinking of “china good, murica bad”, which is maybe just as delusional as all the MAGA idiots.

        Plus there are many other western countries that are quite solid and doing well mostly, which often get overlooked in this debate

        Any thoughts?

        • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
          144·
          1 day ago

          I think you have a great opportunity to learn more about the PRC, and how socialism works in the real world. No, it isn’t black and white thinking. You can find good socialist critique on Lemmy, I normally focus on exposing holes in the lazy critique or outright slander because that’s what’s dominant in the west. Socialist spaces already have discussions on China, and since we communists already spend a good deal of time trying to study it as well as communist theory and history, it helps elevate discussion beyond what’s normally had in the west.

          A good example here is your claim that China isn’t democratic. This is wrong, though a common misconception. China has a comprehensive, whole-process people’s democracy based on gathering input from the people and laddering decisionmaking upwards from the local level. The top of the CPC is like the brain, while the different regional and provincial organs make their own decisions and inform the brain. Chinese citizens are overwhelmingly satisfied with their democracy as a consequence:

          There’s a lot of western polling supporting this as well. This should come as no surprise, though, the west seeks to understand why the CPC enjoys such positive support so they can undermine it. A fun place to start learning about Chinese democracy is Democracy is not an Ornament by Xi Jinping himself!

          • WbrJr@lemmy.ml
            1·
            8 hours ago

            Thanks for your reply!

            I know about the distribution of power, that has a kind of pyramid shape, sorry for the lack of vocabulary. I have also seen videos, of cause one sided, from people that lived in China for some time and displaying their view. One very popular story is the “they paint their grass green”, which I understood as follows: There is the goal of having a certain amount of green land in the country, so each region trys to reach that goal and show the higher ups how good it is going by having green grass and hills. This is of cause a very simplified scenario, but I have read a few other things that aren’t so great. Of cause you can say the same thing about many other western and global north countries, but very few people are so emotional and strong opinionated as supporters of China, some north korea or Russia. I feel like i have not read a comment with such a strong opinion about any other country here on Lemmy.

            I see that the view of most westerns is shifted from reality, but I have not read a comment that seems to see both sides of that country, it seems very extremistic.

            Now when I think of China, these things come to mind:

            • the Uighurs
            • not quite working democracy
            • extreme surveillance
            • stories of people getting herassed by the police for criticising the state or being different (Naomi Wu on yt for example)
            • impressive industrial development in the last few decades
            • high working ethics
            • creativity in engineering
            • skilled labour
            • high building rates of solar and renewable energy sources
            • also high coal production and high building rates of coal power plants
            • high censorship, as it can be seen with deepseek and other AI or media
            • stories about testing radioactivity on a village
            • striving for higher environmental regulations in the industry
            • affiliation with Russia, that invaded Ukraine (after the Nato got closer of cause, which might be seen as a provocative move)
            • affiliation with north korea, which is a different conversation
            • their problem with Taiwan and tsmc
            • hard working conditions in factories (owned by western companies sometimes, but the government is supposed to protect the citizens in my view)

            Now this is of cause not at all everything and I am aware its a view fuelled by western media. But if half of those things are true, its still not going great.

            I don’t want to talk China down, I want to understand why so many people in this space are pro china, when I see the government as pretty critical. I know the us is putting a ton of effort into discredit other forms of government or markets, and there are for sure a few points in this list that is heavily influenced by them.

            • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
              2·
              7 hours ago

              To be short, communists support China because it’s a socialist country, and is one of the three states that the west puts as much misinformation on as possible. Considering the PRC is much better than western countries, there’s a lot of discussion on it.

              Some of these points you raise are true, but good, like maintaining positive relations with the DPRK. Others are partially true, partially false, as an example censorship is usually for capitalists. China still has capitalists, so it restricts their ability to influence society. Others are misleading, China does use coal but it’s also rapidly electrifying, outproducing everyone on solar panels, and actually exceeds its climate goals with low per-capita emissions.

              I recommend looking more into the situation in Xinjiang. The best and most comprehensive resource I have seen so far is Qiao Collective’s Xinjiang: A Resource and Report Compilation. Qiao Collective is explicitly pro-PRC, but this is an extremely comprehensive write-up of the entire background of the events, the timeline of reports, and real and fake claims.

              I also recommend reading the UN report and China’s response to it. These are the most relevant accusations and responses without delving into straight up fantasy like Adrian Zenz, professional propagandist for the Victims of Communism Foundation, does.

              Tourists also go to Xinjiang all the time. You can watch videos like this one on YouTube, though it obviously isn’t going to be a comprehensive view of a complex situation like this.

              Returning to China in general, though, there’s a lot to like about it thanks to socialism, and it’s important to dispel mythos used as justification for souring relations between China and the west.

            • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
              144·
              1 day ago

              It’s a speech, not a “personal propaganda book.” Secondly, why would you not want to understand the perspective of the head of state of China on democracy when trying to research democracy in China? It isn’t the only thing one should read, but it’s a good speech and elaborates on the Chinese position well, helping contextualize the positive perception around democracy in China compared to western countries.

                • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
                  143·
                  1 day ago

                  Any speech trying to push a viewpoint is propaganda, ie pretty much every political speech. Propaganda can be good or bad depending on what it’s pushing, it isn’t synonymous with “lies.” I still see no reason why one should avoid reading Xi Jinping’s viewpoint on democracy and how it’s used in China, it’s not like after reading it your brain turns you into a Maoist sleeper agent. It takes 14 minutes to read, that’s nearly nothing.

  • Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works
    1123·
    2 days ago

    The Authoritarian on the bottom appears to be Chinese, while the Authoritarian on the top appears to be an Oompa Loompa.

    • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
      102·
      1 day ago

      Is there a “non-authoritarian” head of state, in your views? Does it matter at all if said state is capitalist or socialist, or do you see no relevant distinctions between the two modes of production?

    • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.mlOP
      194·
      2 days ago

      Calling a state “authoritarian” is a childish distraction. All states rule through a monopoly on violence and the only difference is which class they’re pointing the guns for. Western “democracies” serve the capital owning class. Meanwhile, so-called “authoritarian” states like China, direct state power toward working-class interests, which is why leaders like Xi actually enjoy popular support instead of mass discontent.

      The binary is a fantasy. The only real question is: who does the state work for?

      • ZeroHora@lemmy.mlEnglish
        142·
        2 days ago

        Like fuck the third image is clearly not the same person, people are so fucking dumb jesus christ

        • causepix@lemmy.ml
          3·
          22 hours ago

          I’m not certain the first is the same as the others either… they just cherry picked images that had a blonde middle aged slavic woman standing in putin’s vicinity

        • Samsuma@lemmy.ml
          17·
          2 days ago

          it’s vindicating to know that there are white people that can’t distinguish white people from white people…

    • Aria@lemmygrad.ml
      231·
      2 days ago

      Someone else already pointed out that you confused different women for the same person, but the man is different too. The top picture in OP’s post is Donald Trump, the USA guy. In a closer photo he looks completely different to Putin.

      • causepix@lemmy.ml
        1·
        22 hours ago

        I think they’re alluding to the idea that xi’s picture with the uyghurs is a fabrication, like the blonde lady is a paid extra to make putin appear friendlier to women or something

        • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
          182·
          2 days ago

          But as @Samsuma@lemmy.ml already pointed out, this isn’t true. These aren’t all the same woman, and one of the women he is known to be in photos with is Larisa Sergukhina, a regional deputy that has actual political reasons to be there and isn’t just some extra.

          • Samsuma@lemmy.ml
            122·
            2 days ago

            and even if it was the same woman, it’s such an unimportant detail to get all pearl-clutchy over… Wait a second… Hold on… I’m getting new reports of something equally as suspicious… That mysterious guy that was and still is present in almost every meeting that Donald Trump was in turned out to be… some guy named “JD Vance” 😱