this post was submitted on 12 Jan 2025
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I guess I was right in being suspicious of western urbanists who were always deafeningly silent on massive projects in China but won’t shut up for weeks about the Dutch king taking a bike-shaped shit. This is how they respond when they are forcibly confronted with the topic.

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[–] OrionsMask@hexbear.net 77 points 4 months ago (2 children)

In which China can you say you disagree with the government?

Meanwhile in the U.S.: You disagree, you protest, you vote, and nothing ever changes for the better. That's true freedom.

[–] PorkrollPosadist@hexbear.net 66 points 4 months ago (1 children)

And the second the government actually is on its back foot, the national guard is deployed, they have prison riot squads deployed to brutalize protesters, and thousands of social media accounts are deleted.

[–] ShimmeringKoi@hexbear.net 45 points 4 months ago (1 children)

The DHS will dissappear you into an unmarked van

[–] nandos_house_of_glues@hexbear.net 35 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

The president will order your assassination by us marshals on twitter

[–] OgdenTO@hexbear.net 39 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Or that guy in the UK that arrested last week for Facebook crime

[–] MolotovHalfEmpty@hexbear.net 36 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Or the journalists who have been detained under anti-terror laws and given impossible bail conditions that mean that merely existing, never mind actually doing journalism, puts them in breach so that the government can imprison them for 5 years or more on a whim without trial.

[–] Philosoraptor@hexbear.net 27 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Or the Cop City protestors who have been charged with terrorism (or outright murdered).

[–] ClimateChangeAnxiety@hexbear.net 71 points 4 months ago (2 children)

In which China can you disagree with the government

Not the RoC lmao

[–] Assian_Candor@hexbear.net 44 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Dunce take as well, these fools would be shoeless in the breadline and be like at least I have my free speecharinos

[–] ClimateChangeAnxiety@hexbear.net 47 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Yeah that’s the other thing, how much do I care if I can “criticize” the government if they’re doing what I want from them and taking care of my needs?

Okay so I can complain a bit more loudly in the shitty countries where I have a lot more to complain about? That’s not a selling point.

[–] VILenin@hexbear.net 62 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (3 children)

If you look for criticism of the Chinese government from Chinese citizens, you will find it. However, the vast majority have, in general, a very favorable opinion of the government, therefore they do not have many systemic criticisms to level.

Perhaps the reason that there are no widespread protests in China against extrajudicial killings by police is because that is not a thing that happens in China, save for astronomically rare instances, in which case punishment is swift, and therefore there would also be no cause for public outcry over a lack of consequences.

Should such cruel abuses of power be prevalent throughout the country, and should such widespread discontent and anger with the government exist, it is bound to manifest itself through demonstrations, actions, and protests regardless of whether or not such activities are proscribed by the state. Since we do not see that happening, we can conclude that the causal widespread discontent does not, in the first place, exist.

I guess that for a Westerner, a government isn’t good enough until it is so viscerally hated by the populace that violent uprisings break out every year. Only then will you have true democracy. Only then will you have true freedom. For a government that is competent and well-liked is a dystopia so utterly terrifying that the extent of its horror exceeds the limits of human comprehension.

Westerners fetishize protest. They are aroused by it; for it is the ultimate performative display of freedom and democracy, that unquestionable, holy mantra.

Of course, anyone with half a brain will have noticed that a protest is only the embodiment of freedom and democracy should it occur in a designated enemy country. When it occurs on the home front, that is an unspeakable act of terrorism.

But what makes freedomism freedomism and terrorism terrorism? Of course, freedom and democracy can only exist wherever American capital reigns supreme, and despotism reigns wherever it does not. So it logically follows that it is freedomism to serve the domination of American capital and terrorism to oppose it.

Returning to the original question at hand, we can see clearly that the issue has, in actuality, vanishingly little to do with the objective presence or absence of criticism, or of the right to criticism. It has everything to do with the presence or absence of freedomism, the constituency of this category being comprised of any action taken to serve American capital. With this working definition of freedomism we can say that the true lament is not the inability to criticize (an idea demonstrated to be categorically incorrect), but rather the inability to mount a freedomist criticism - “freedomist” here being obviously present and yet textually omitted, like a coefficient of one - à la the Hong Kong riots of 2019.

With this updated framework, it should be obvious that of the criticisms - and there are many - that are directed against the government, the vast majority of them do not qualify as a freedomist criticism, therefore they might as well not be criticisms at all. Now we can finally conclude that criticism is prohibited in a country where it plainly is not.

Through this manipulation of the intricacies of language, the average Westerner has been conditioned to bark at the enemies of American capital like a trained dog.

China is denying its citizens the ultimate freedom: being slaughtered by a government utterly subservient to American capital, thereby enabling the performance of the freedomist rituals.

How can a Westerner believe seemingly the exact opposite reality? Well, maybe they don’t entirely - just remember to add the invisible coefficient of one, here being the word “freedomist” before “criticism”, so as to correct their omission.

[–] ClimateChangeAnxiety@hexbear.net 25 points 4 months ago

GOOD post god damn this said everything I’ve thought much better than I could’ve said it

[–] WhatDoYouMeanPodcast@hexbear.net 22 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Freedom is when you are circumstantially required to do 3X as an individual to enrich a billionaire (and throw away 2.5X) instead of collectively deciding that your responsibility is to do X

[–] miz@hexbear.net 30 points 4 months ago

the White Terror and Taiwan's military dictatorship that lasted four decades have entered the chat

[–] GrouchyGrouse@hexbear.net 69 points 4 months ago (2 children)

If you say cringe shit like "West Taiwan" you are forbidden to balk at shit like "United $nakes of AmeriKKKa"

I'm making that rule right now

[–] The_Helmet_Stays_On@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 points 4 months ago (1 children)

What about calling them the new southern Canadian provinces

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[–] Infamousblt@hexbear.net 66 points 4 months ago (2 children)

"China builds trains because The West won't sell them wheels" is probably the funniest take I have ever heard

[–] FlakesBongler@hexbear.net 57 points 4 months ago (1 children)

The Perfidious Yellow Claw of the Orient is too inscrutable to develop the technological knowledge to make Wheel reddit-logo

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[–] WhatDoYouMeanPodcast@hexbear.net 58 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

By the way, why would you care even a little about stolen technology? Are you profiting from the technology? The only stolen technology I could entertain caring about is weapons. If you bankrupted Microsoft by stealing and FOSSing Microsoft office, I'd thank you and ask how you managed that when libre office exists already.

[–] GrouchyGrouse@hexbear.net 47 points 4 months ago

"China is undermining the ability of our domestic bourgeoisie to steal the surplus labor from the working class" doesn't ring so clear.

[–] chungusamonugs@hexbear.net 56 points 4 months ago (2 children)

The stolen technology argument is one of the most popular masquerades of racism. I'm sure some nerd could point to some Soviet Intel stolen from Americans or whatever, but the idea that a country only created something because the west did it first is ludicrous. The laws of physics are the same regardless of nation. If you have a proposal for a project to do something, odds are two groups working completely independently will come up with strikingly similar looking designs, even if the inner workings are totally different. That doesn't mean the design was stolen. The racism is literally "they wouldn't be smart enough to do that without theft", and this notion is accepted by even the furthest left liberals in the mainstream.

[–] VILenin@hexbear.net 43 points 4 months ago

Right now, the furthest left mainstream liberals are sitting cozily next to Adolf Hitler.

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[–] godlessworm@hexbear.net 55 points 4 months ago (1 children)

you’re allowed to disagree with the government in china. how brainwashed are these people to think otherwise? i remember thinking that when i was like 7. did these people just never learn anything or mentally grow up?

you’re not allowed to blatantly lie about the government to their detriment in china. many would say “well who decides what’s truth and lies?” and i would say that’s a fair point but what’s truth and lies in america is dictated entirely by capitalist media so even if the evil chinese government was dictating what’s true the same can be said for the US where whats true is just whatever capitalist propaganda your tv tells you, and with how much of right wing media is reliant on just flat out lies i wouldn’t mind some laws like that here in the US

[–] VILenin@hexbear.net 55 points 4 months ago (2 children)

When you get to the bottom of it with these people, “criticism is prohibited” almost invariably means “it’s illegal to overthrow the government”.

[–] GrouchyGrouse@hexbear.net 39 points 4 months ago

Preventing a CIA color revolution is doing a heckin authoritarianism

[–] TechnoUnionTypeBeat@hexbear.net 27 points 4 months ago

Plus it's always from arrogant as fuck Westoids who think they should be allowed to visit China and make snide comments about "West Taiwan", wear Free Hong Kong t-shirts in Tiananmen Square while asking their tour guide how many people died there. Then they invariably get in shit with the law there and complain about freeze-peach and how it's impossible to "criticize the government" there

[–] Diva@lemmy.ml 49 points 4 months ago (2 children)

They've built all the thousands of km of track... but can't make wheels that go fast for some reason? Chauvinism is a hell of a drug

[–] VILenin@hexbear.net 39 points 4 months ago

No no no for you see the dastardly orientals are fundamentally incapable of advanced locomotion. All their trains are literally falling apart right now.

I don’t have any evidence because they’re really good at hiding it, any contradictory evidence you see is invented by the seeseepee

[–] PorkrollPosadist@hexbear.net 37 points 4 months ago

They have their own space station but apparently they can't manufacture round steel discs.

[–] SexMachineStalin@hexbear.net 48 points 4 months ago (1 children)

West Taiwan

Oh, that's an immediate sentence to the mines. Actually much of r*ddit would be sent to the mines

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[–] happybadger@hexbear.net 47 points 4 months ago (1 children)

r/Ebikes has a strange relationship with China. Whenever a post mentions it, there is one of three themes:

  • I bought a $300 dropshipped ebike on Amazon and it turns out those sneaky Asiatics sold me a cheap bicycle. They can't make anything right and if you buy a Chinese bike it will explode immediately.

  • Holy shit China is an electrified paradise where there are so many ebikes, they're much more affordable, the infrastructure for them is so much better than the west, and the companies aren't on the edge of bankruptcy: https://www.reddit.com/r/ebikes/comments/1hd2w55/im_in_shenzhen_china_right_now_and/

  • We need to ban all Chinese things while supporting the western companies that assemble bikes from Chinese components, even though they're risking imminent collapse because they can't domestically manufacture a battery or the frame to put it in while the import tariffs strangle them

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[–] AstroStelar@hexbear.net 47 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

One thing I've noticed is that a noticeable chunk of the "urbanism subculture" is very hostile to anything that deviates from "traditional-style development", which gets extended to architectural styles. It's definitely a result of the space being dominated by Americans that lionise Europe and Europeans themselves.

It's like a mix of traditionalism and a "small is beautiful" mindset. Also heaps of chauvinism.

I also think OP shouldn't have drawn a comparison between Taiwan and (the rest of) China. For one, Taiwan also has high-speed rail and a good metro system in Taipei, and two the size difference is huge, Taiwan would never come close in terms of quantity lol. Plus they opened themselved up to dismissals because "muh freedoms"

Edit: apparently the original post is about cars in Taiwan with darkened windshields.

[–] VILenin@hexbear.net 33 points 4 months ago (1 children)

It’s a logical continuation of the early 20th century Petit-Bourgeois Americans’ worship of Europe as a beacon of sophistication. The idea of Europe as a shining city on a hill continues to occupy a central position on the minds of similarly situated Americans today, including the segments that consider themselves urbanists. And they’ll be caught dead in a ditch before they cede any of that ground to the pearl-clutch Far East.

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[–] BelieveRevolt@hexbear.net 46 points 4 months ago (1 children)

soypoint-1 West Taiwan soypoint-2

One of the worst redditisms.

[–] VILenin@hexbear.net 44 points 4 months ago

It’s always fun to tell redditors that the official position of the government on the island of Taiwan is that Taiwan is a province of China

[–] grandepequeno@hexbear.net 39 points 4 months ago (3 children)

How can you be a "fuck cars" guy can complain about stolen IP?

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[–] starkillerfish@hexbear.net 38 points 4 months ago (1 children)

yeah i hate how urban design discourse in the west is just praising dutch local governments for installing bike lanes and telling everyone else in the world to move there.

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[–] GalaxyBrain@hexbear.net 37 points 4 months ago

Try protesting a genocide in America

[–] Alisu@hexbear.net 37 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Pretty sure you can disagree with the government in China. They have a phone line for suggestions and complaints, and it can actually change things about the government

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[–] SuperNovaCouchGuy2@hexbear.net 36 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] SacredExcrement@hexbear.net 21 points 4 months ago

If and when they conquer the US, I hope every one of these idiots get a flogging tbh

[–] 7bicycles@hexbear.net 32 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I don't exactly want to go to bat for /r/fuckcars here but the reply comments have 5 and 1 upvotes and the original comment could be downvoted for any number of reasons.

A problem /r/fuckcars constantly has is that it attracts entirely too many people who think it's called /r/fuckbaddrivers, /r/fuckeverybodyelsesescar, /r/fuck the people going for unnecessary starbucks run, blocking my way to my necessary burger king run and so on and so on.

That isn't to say OPs take is wrong. But for that you also have to consider that basically everyone who isn't some type of urbanist in the west only has worse oppinions than that about the topic.

It's a mess. The whole thing is a mess.

[–] VILenin@hexbear.net 28 points 4 months ago (1 children)

the original comment could be downvoted for any number of reasons.

I have to disagree with you on that one. It’s not really a mystery why a pro-China comment is getting downvoted on reddit.

Productive discussions on western urbanism have been and can be had in this thread. It’s not just about these people specifically but about widespread attitudes embodied herein.

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[–] xiaohongshu@hexbear.net 31 points 4 months ago

California Turns To China For New Bay Bridge

This is from 2011. America can’t even build a bridge today that it could have easily done 50 years ago.

[–] dkr567@hexbear.net 27 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

/r/fuckcars showing their heil hitler teeth when it's not about bike roads in some town/city in Netherlands.

[–] Assian_Candor@hexbear.net 24 points 4 months ago

Bike shaped shit lmao

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