one of my very good friends made a 'social credit score' comment the other night off-hand (they were referring to a relative of theirs who apparently lives in China and 'has' one - but it sounded like bs to me lol) but I knew the argument wasn't worth pursuing so instead of I just went "huh?" & kept asking him to elaborate until he realized he was just spouting some insane propagandized State Department BS straight from either his' relative's dumbass mouth and/or from some bs alternative source. Works every time and he actually felt dumb about it afterwards.

Literally:

"yeah my cousin lives in Beijing and actually has a social credit score.."

huh??

"you know - the social credit score thing that China has?"

huh?? like the credit score we have for renting/purchasing property and loans?

"no no - its different than that, its a lot more fucked up you've surely heard of this you fucking communist"

huh? how?

"basically its how China prevents people from doing..."

huh?? that doesn't sound real to me lol - how has it affected your American cousin who is living in Beijing with a Chinese wife??

"he has a social credit score now"

so like an American credit score??

"NO NO NO HERE HOLD ON LET ME GOOGLE IT FOR YOU"

^ imagine this for like an hour and a half and you'll have my experience in NYC a few days ago.

He does go on Reddit still, mostly to talk about land value tax which is his big political obsession right now.

You managed to find a Georgist in the year of our Lord 2023...

Also Here's the actual law translated, reading the primary source really reveals how sensational western reporting is on the subject. There's almost nothing in the laws about individuals. It's 90% bans on obtaining business licenses if you do financial crimes and travel bans if you have fucked over a community you're in until you rectify the damage you did.

They also get specific with lifetime bans in participating in the dairy industry for dairy executives that don't follow health and safety standards, bans on participation in financial investment for predatory investors/fraud, and bans on owning real-estate for predatory landlords or real-estate holding executives.

All good things in my opinion.

He does go on Reddit still, mostly to talk about land value tax

Oh no, I'm so sorry.

Here is one of the FP articles on social credit. I believe they wrote another few about it. It's been deeply misportrayed in pop culture.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/11/16/chinas-orwellian-social-credit-score-isnt-real

Here is another (lmao at the fucking url tho):

https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/09/15/china-social-credit-system-authoritarian/

The subheading sums it up well:

A supposedly Orwellian system is fragmented, localized, and mostly targeted at businesses.

Thanks crew. Sorry that was so long x

You never need to apologize for giving us an opportunity to yell at the english.

FICO scores/no fly lists/hooligan lists in england especially/felons can't vote in the usa/you may be denied entry in usa as a member of communist party/background checks in workplaces, especially government.

Even if social scores existed exactly as described, they do exist in the west, he just doesn't perceive them as such

land value tax which is his big political obsession right now.

lol you're dating a nerd

Your BF is a lame nerd.

Even if “social credit scores” were real, imagine thinking a system based on being a good community member is worse than whether you’re rich or not.

Block reddit on his browser lol

Stupid shit like this is why I don't date white westerners anymore. I could only hear about "LATIN CULTURE" and "machismo" for the 8,000th time before I just got sick of it. Nothing wrong with discussing complex issues in your culture but these types always act like they have some authoritative knowledge on topics that they know nothing about.

I get you, fam.

I'm from Wuhan but have spent 2 decades in Australia. Sydney, from what I can tell, has been alright, but in my part of the country, western propaganda has penetrated deep enough that blokes at the pub will bring up shit like China wants to take over the world or social credit score or whatever.

I generally try and steer the topic away or do a uno reverse on like how they're only here because Britain was actually trying to take over the world and whatnot. I can see how this probably wouldn't work with your partner (I wouldn't know, my volcel pledge has prevented me from dating since ~2019. That, and also a very shallow dating pool where I live)

But as for your request for sources:

China’s Social Credit System Is Actually Quite Boring: A supposedly Orwellian system is fragmented, localized, and mostly targeted at businesses.

Americans are so propagandized they think parroting that propaganda will somehow increase their fico score

In Europe, the easiest way to shut down talk about "social credit score" is to tell them that it takes its name from the American "credit score" system, which is way, way more evil and fucked up than anything people are claiming about "social credit score".

Tell him it's time for a credit check

I mean, it's mostly a myth outside of business regulation (and business regulation is good), so even just explaining that much to him should be enough to display to absurdity of the predditor comedy.

No worries, it was not remotely a long post.

WIRED did a basic debunk all the way back in 2019

But he insisted that he knew social credit scores were a real thing. I think he did listen when I said these types of jokes were what made Reddit such a hostile environment to be in, though.

Does anyone maybe have resources on internet Sinophobia / explanation of where the social credit stuff came from I can share with him?

Can I just point out how messed up this is that you pointed out that something he said is a racist and Sinophobic talking point and he basically responded "but it's true lol" and now you, the victim of sinophobia, is trying to prove to him, the perpetrator, that he's factually incorrect. As a boyfriend, is the fact that he's hurt you emotionally in a way that's difficult for him to navigate enough to provoke some sympathy and an apology?

Let's reframe this into a more widely understood cultural context. If a black person is dating a white person and that white person makes an offensive joke about watermelon and fried chicken, do you think the impetus is on the black person to produce charts and graphs and statistics of per Capita watermelon consumption in black populations vs white populations? No.

Call his shit out as racist, if he doesn't apologize then you should reassess your relationship. If he sees hurting you via discriminatory jokes as a matter of facts and logic and not one of love and compassion then there's something deeply fucked up in him that you'll never fix.

He’s English

Death to America

So what's your credit rating again babe?

Ever have a transaction "declined" because your banks oligarchs "disagree" with the cause?

Ever hear of a creator who got their patreon yanked because they don't tow the state line?

Remember Edward Snowden and Vault 7?

Ever have someone you followed shadowbanned or nuked in the algorithm because they were critical of the state?

We already have a social credit rating. Just piecemailed and unspoken of and mostly backed by and enforced by the crapitalist state.

Don't have any resources just want to say I'm sorry that your boyfriend was racist to you, that sort of shit sucks.

+10 FICO credit score for your partner

Is he learning Chinese? "I tried learning, but it's just so difficult" doesn't count.

Article on anglo island credit score shenanigans might help

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/jul/17/credit-score-angencies-break-lives-lenders-no-mortgage

I don't have anything to add. I just want you to know I like being referred to as 'crew'.

Makes me feel like we're on a cool pirate ship.

I feel like you got a bunch of good advice. Hope you de lib your partner.

Social credit scores are good and I'm tired of pretending they're not

The fact that China doesn't use social credit scores is actually bad lol

Hey it sucks that happened to you

I have a podcast episode from a USian academic where he debunks the claim about social credit, he also had another episode on the same podcast about Chinese police stations and how it really isn't anything like what the media reported. He is fluent in Chinese and reads legal documents in their native language and seems to have a decent understanding about the legal system there. He advises government and business folks I think, and his takes are among the best I've seen for a (though he is critical, he attempts to be fair in his own way).

The host and the guy mentioned in the police station episode, that after he wrote about how social credit wasn't really a thing in China and debunked it, some bigger publications stopped reporting on it, presumably because they knew it was not true (which I think means they thought it was true and they came to that conclusion after doing their due diligence??)

I hope this helps in some way.