Comment on Memory Wiped
Kacarott@aussie.zone 18 hours agoThe reason I think it is somewhat of a big deal is less the fact that it happened, but rather the fact that the Chinese government seems like it tries to hide it, or at least downplays it a lot.
Compare with Germany, where some of the most horrific events in history took place. But Germany acknowledges it and actively teaches people about how bad it was.
The current Chinese government still seems to be trying to cover up for the mistakes of a previous government. (At least, as far as I am aware)
Objection@lemmy.ml 17 hours ago
That’s a fair point, but I think people are too attached to this 1984 idea of what dystopia looks like. Like, I’m free to criticize Mitch McConnell all I want, but if it has zero actual impact on his political power, then is it really anything more than jester’s privilege?
Of course, it’s a valid criticism, but is it enough to write off the whole country as a dystopia, rather than critically examining the positive and negative aspects together? Does censorship of a 40 year old event outweigh, for example, poverty alleviation?
Kacarott@aussie.zone 17 hours ago
Well first, the US political system is a total mess. In any good system the amount of criticism McConnell gets should impact him, thereby making the ability to criticise valuable.
But yes, I certainly don’t think that China is the dystopian nightmare that it is sometimes portrayed as, and it certainly does many things well. However covering up tragedies is still a point worth criticising, and any point worth criticising is worth criticising often (in the hopes that it might change one day).
And this goes for any country, good and bad (by whatever metric one might decide that with).
Objection@lemmy.ml 16 hours ago
That’s fair. But I’d rather focus on things in my own country where I (theoretically) have some say over what happens. The only means I have really over the Chinese government would be through the US government interfering. That’s not to say the affairs of other countries aren’t important to pay attention to and understand from an academic standpoint, but I don’t see how I’m supposed to effect change through criticism of China from abroad.