SpooneyOdin

joined 1 year ago
[–] SpooneyOdin@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Uhh, what? The links work perfectly fine and are not "invalid". You do get a redirect notice but that doesn't make them invalid links?

I'm not the one being intellectually dishonest here, man. I haven't even accused other people of being dishonest. I'm just saying that I looked into what people have claimed and I can't see what they are saying. People should check for themselves and I think they'll see quickly who's really spreading BS here...

[–] SpooneyOdin@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago (5 children)

I encourage everyone to look into the links provided and see for yourself what I'm talking about. In the very first link, out of 32 citations provided, Zenz was used 4 times. I'd hardly say his research was a critical part of their research or regardless there's plenty of other sources provided if you don't like him as a source. Don't listen to all the others saying and look for yourself. There's very little to back up their reasons for dismissing everything as some kind of anti China conspiracy.

[–] SpooneyOdin@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Yep, I googled it and I encourage everyone else to do it too. There was nothing. I did see a few Chinese sources calling him out as fraud but nothing unbiased. I did see lots of other credible organizations backing up his findings too.

The Wikipedia article was simply a good starting point that I encouraged people to check out. There's tons of citations in there that back up their points.

[–] SpooneyOdin@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Well, I don't know what else to tell you. I couldn't find anything about him on their site or him being used for any of research that I looked into. Now, I didn't go over everything so it is possible he's worked with them in the past but I don't think that would be a reason to discredit all the work the UHRP.

What am I seeing is anything critical of China getting downvoted and a bunch of people congrating themselves for not falling for the propaganda when I literally looked and could not find anything they were claiming as part of the article.

I encourage anyone seeing all these comments discrediting this story and look into the details yourself. I could not find any evidence for all the claims they are making to discredit this. There has been some good thoughtful discussion and I appreciate that but lots of knee jerk reactions that people not doing proper research when even just a cursory check doesn't back up what they are claiming.

[–] SpooneyOdin@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago (9 children)

How is he so integral? I've looked all over their site and at a few of their reports and there's nothing about it him or his findings? Look, I'm willing to hear people out but I've looked and I can't find anything that backs up what people are claiming here so I don't think it's me that needs to work on investigative literacy.

I encourage anyone on the fence about this to do their own research. His Wikipedia article has some interesting points:

"As a result of his work on Xinjiang, Zenz has become a target for coordinated disinformation attacks from pro-Beijing and Chinese state-run media, as well as other state-affiliated entities. Zenz and his work on Xinjiang have been criticized by the Chinese government, which, according to The Globe and Mail, "has called his findings 'lies'—even when it confirmed them."

"During an interview with The Daily Telegraph published in May 2021, Zenz defended himself against allegations of fabrication, noting that 95% of documents he has analyzed are publicly available government records."

Plus his findings have been corroborated by lots of reputable reporters. I've seen a lot of claims that people need to stop believing the lies and look at the sources. I've done that and not found what they are claiming so what exactly am I missing here?

[–] SpooneyOdin@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

The music was particularly amazing in this game. I just think the biggest drawback were the very cryptic puzzles especially in the later half. It all makes sense retrospectively once you understand what you are doing but in the moment it can be very frustrating.

It reminds me lot of Myst like puzzles - you end up interacting with a bunch of weird technology and it isn't always clear on what you are doing.

[–] SpooneyOdin@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago (3 children)

They literally did have to rush the ending. It's why the German guy looks like an old man in one of the last cinematics. There was supposed to be more with him going into the weird dimension and something about that caused him to age a lot.

I don't recall exactly what but I believe there was an final act that got cut.

[–] SpooneyOdin@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Fair enough. I appreciate the detailed response. I agree there's lots of reasons to be skeptical of claims made against China. At the same time, I think we can still be critical of China's actions and not merely dismiss everything against China as some CIA backed plot.

[–] SpooneyOdin@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago (11 children)

Well I followed the citations in this article and he did not come up so I'm not sure what you are talking about.

[–] SpooneyOdin@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (7 children)

Did you really look at the sources? Because the first source in the article links another BBC article (which links to another article) that ultimately sources research from the Uyghur Human Rights Project. That project does not appear to have any connection to Adrian Zenz. So my original question still stands what does Adrian Zenz have to do with this?

You say every tankie who commented actually looked at the sources but, as far as I can tell, they are just parroting propaganda talking points that they are accusing everyone else of falling for.

Look, I get being skeptical of what the West says about China but I don't think anyone can deny that anything anti China gets quickly astroturfed on Lemmy. I'm seeing lots more knee jerk reactions from tankies that obviously did not read the article and are accusing everyone else of just falling for Western propaganda without doing some real introspection that they are basically just doing the same thing.

[–] SpooneyOdin@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago (23 children)

What does he have to do with this story? His name isn't mentioned in the article.

[–] SpooneyOdin@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago (3 children)

It's in the article I referenced:

"Last December, a report from NGO Safeguard Defenders said it had identified 102 Chinese police stations operating in 53 countries, including five in Canada."

To be fair, the article you posted claims that NGO is some kind of CIA backed organization. I don't know if I really buy that, but I suppose it is possible. Antcedotally, I've heard other stories of China doing stuff like this (particularly when there were a lot of Hong Kong protests) but I'll admit I don't have much first hand evidence myself. It's just, on a balance of probabilities, I'm much more likely to believe that an authoritarian regime like China is capable of doing it.

Also that example about the "Devil Eyes" dolls is bit disengenious to bring up. Your own source states that they only ever built a few prototypes. Granted, it does say an anonymous Chinese source says hundreds were shipped to Pakistan, but again I don't think we can really trust China's take on this.

The CIA has lots of looney plans (likely a product of Military-Industrial complex), but not many come to fruition becasue they are not practical.

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