this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2025
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Which country allows their citizens to openly speak about and protest said war crimes?
Not America & not China, this isn't a competition
Americans have jesters privilege. We can say anything we want as long as it doesn't matter. As soon as the government thinks it might matter, they have a million tools to silence you.
This is horse shit. There are examples of protests being countered (e.g. When Trump gassed protesters and clergy members to hold a Bible up upside down at their church), but these examples are rare and those people weren't actually "silenced". They told everyone about what happened.
Americans have freedom of speech protected by our constitution. China, on the other hand, has actual laws dictating against many forms of speech.
For example... "The PRC bans certain content regarding independence movements in Tibet and Taiwan, the religious movement Falun Gong, democracy, the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, Maoism, corruption, police brutality, anarchism, gossip, disparity of wealth, and food safety scandals."
Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_China#%3A%7E%3Atext=The+PRC+bans+certain+content%2Cwealth%2C+and+food+safety+scandals
How well did the protests about gaza go over then? You are hand waving away something we all lived through and saw. From unions to college campuses, protesting has never been a protected right. You can only protest as much as those in power allow you to in your area.
Even those not in power shit on protestors when it affects their lives. People start saying things like "thats not the way to protest" or "this isn't the time or place, have some respect".
Its bullshit, and we do not have the freedom to speak our minds, unless we already agree with what we are expected to.
See also: the cute little "free speech zones," you're free to speak your mind as long as it doesn't interfere too much or upset anyone.
The US cracked down on Gaza protests quite harshly. Many states enact book bans these days and some ban topics like slavery from schools. Also historically protests against Vietnam were partly gunned down. The black panthers were often murdered and in fighting them the US even bombed one of its own towns. Red Scare was huge and Ernest Hemmingway was probably driven to his suicide by FBI surveillance, for which he was called paranoid but later proofed real by declassified files.
Censorship in China goes farther, but the US is far from being a free speech haven or ever having been that.
But it's also worth noting that the Chinese don't even have that. At least in America, you can get your message out by getting a billionaire to agree with you.
I thought the Jester's job was to say stuff that DID matter, but he presented it in a way where the king could save face.
Looking it up, it's unclear how much jesters were respected for having political competency that kings and court would listen to vs how much they were were entertainers who were permitted much greater liberty with content because he was non-threatening and affected nothing.
I think simply people like to laugh, its not crazy for a king to hire on someone to make them laugh.
Facts right...
I would posit you can say anything but the truth that hurts profits or US interests otherwise...
Like calling out Israel 🤡
you can call them out but you can't stop your taxes going to them 🤡
https://www.aclu.org/documents/dissent-forced-be-out-sight-and-out-mind
That's a far cry from how china suppresses protests. And really a small individual example. Overall there's a clear freedom of expression and civil protest in the US. The same absolutely cannot be said about china.
I love how people just say this. Like you know lol
Can you draw the chinese leader as Winnie the pooh in China without repercussions? I can do it to my leader where I'm at.
Can you find me a person in China who will tell you that's true or did you pick that up from memes of people posting Winnie the Pooh xi?
You learned in highschool what a reliable source is and "cultural osmosis" is not a valid source.
Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters arrested outside New York Stock Exchange
Did they bring in some tanks as well? Or if they did are we allowed to talk about it?
Outside of "Chinese man gets removed from his league of legends match cause a player talked about tiananmen square" memes, what do you know about Chinese censorship?
Talking out your ass
I know that they don't like people asking for a free Tibet and independence for Hong Kong. Are there any good mainstream Chinese media articles that talk about these subjects?
When was the last demonstration made against central leadership? Or everyone just loves it there? Why do they have a firewall that blocks youtube?
I'm gonna answer that last one cause it's the only one I know lol.
So you know how we are banning tiktok because we are afraid of China influencing America? So fun fact, America does that. We are like, cultural colonists. We have created a sort of global super culture that has gotten into every countries lives.
And we have 100% used that as a sort of "in" with locals in countries we were not friends and then we would use that influence to radicalize the right wing ideologies in the country and cause destabilization and, all things going well, revolutions. See: all of south America and the Middle East (hi Afghanistan).
So with all that in mind. With the world's greatest super power systematically using its cultural influence as a soft power start with encouraging revolutions in your country for its own geo political gain. All that in mind. It's kinda the most obvious move in the world. The US is doing it right now because they "perceived" it happening to us. If China became a big cultural export to the world you'd bet your ass that we would great firewall ourselves off. We just don't have to. Because we are big dog. Woof woof. And China don't have a large amount of cultural export.
Sidenote. A Chinese company, tencent was making investments into videogames. They own riot who make league of legends and they have been getting their finger into a lot of studios for that sweet gamer money. The US gov said this game investment company is "apart of the Chinese military" lol.
Can you post pictures of a tank event in the 80s in China without censoring? Can you talk about these protests ?
Well considering a majority of americans think the tank guy got ran over and murdered on camera for everyone to see, maybe not so crazy they quash that one.
Edit: I encourage those who aren't aware to go watch the full footage, its not shocking in the least, many will find it anticlimactic even.
Edit 2: took forever to find the full video, its not in full on youtube or anything like that I could find: https://odysee.com/@swprs:3/tiananmen-tank-man-1989-hd-full:b
Well, soon, I'm not sure
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-administration-may-crack-palestinian-protest-movement-rcna179979
China, but also the PRC hasn't been in a war in like 50+ years. Meanwhile the US killed a million innocent people in Iraq, and goes after whistleblowers like Assange, Snowden, and Manning for speaking out about its war crimes. And the Obama administration prosecuted a record number of whistleblowers, and had a zero tolerance policy towards them.
Well the US doesn't. China is hard to say because it's not constantly at war
Like, the Netherlands or something maybe?
https://youtube.com/shorts/_XIyPwutlis
And the top comment on that video is defending the police, fascism has it’s hold in many places
Thanks for posting, didn't know about that!
To be fair I mainly wanted to jokingly tell the commentator that both china and the us are guilty of this, so I just mentioned a third country that I thought was decent. Thanks for educating :)