I tried it a few times recently when I’ve been down in the trenches of shitposting and it is very funny to make them try to explain their argument to you as if you have no idea what they’re saying. It’s so easy to bait them into thinking they’re about to bring up this amazing dunk about how China banned Winnie the Pooh or whatever and win you over, and then you get to just tell them that’s not true because you just looked it up plus now it feels racist.
What is this boomer cartoon?
So this Pooh character is like a nice and friendly bear that happens to have yellow fur and wear a red shirt. What are you trying to imply boomer?
Wait so you’re saying he looks like China’s president, and that’s a bad thing? Or is just teasing him I guess? I dont really get it… You said it’s banned in China but I just looked that up and its not true, so what is this all about again?
No no I mean I like the bear, I think it’s cute but I just don’t get the comparison or the point of making the comparison. I don’t really think China’s president is cute like that I guess…
this is prob the best way to address the Pooh “insult”
Who is Pooh? Is that the bear in the picture you’re showing me?
I might not be an expert on the male anatomy, but I don’t think poo comes out of the wiener, could you elaborate more about the wiener poos being talked about?
I always just respond with some variation of “the ride in Disneyland Shanghai?”
It closed this may, which also allows for some shenanigans.What ride? I don’t think I’ve heard of that before.
https://www.shanghaidisneyresort.com/en/attractions/adventures-winnie-pooh/
It’s that one, I think. It’s my favourite debunk of that silly story, because people will maintain that it isn’t there, and then when confronted they’ll scramble for an explanation that allows both to be true. They’ll probably get aggressive and beliggerent and when they’ve stewed for a while you hit them with something like this https://www.quora.com/Is-it-still-forbidden-in-China-to-publish-Winnie-the-Pooh-and-compare-him-to-President-Xi-Or-can-you-publish-anything-critical-to-the-president
I used to use the Wikipedia article on the subject, but some lib has used a link to a BBC article to maintain the lie that it’s censored on social mediaAnd you’re telling me they made a ride about this bear cartoon?
Yup
And you’re also telling me that China banned this same bear? Why do you have so many pictures of it then? And why would they make it into an amusement park ride? This doesn’t make any sense tbh
The immediate defense for accusations of it being racist are that it cannot be since it originated in China. Because Chinese people, obviously, cannot be racist and lateral violence does not exist. Also meaning is fixed and there is only one interpretation of any given thing and that’s the original intent of the creator. That’s why the Roman salute and the swastika don’t have any fascist implications.
The easiest way to dismiss this defense is not by engaging it but by saying “You should go and find your nearest black community and use the terms they refer to eachother by to see how far this argument gets you.”
I find that one of the best ways to shut down debate perverts is to encourage them to try out these ideas they so vehemently attest to holding in the real world. At best, they shut up about it because they know they are wrong and at worst they’ll double down and keep trying to convince you that they are right and you can just brush them off and ask them to report back once they’ve enacted their ideas.
Another thing that has a similar vibe because it embraces someone’s foolishness that I’ve been using recently is, when I come across a person who is really doggedly anti-intellectual or completely detached from reality, I’ll explain why they are wrong and then tell them that this is part of the attitide/culture that is undermining the country (since it’s usually the US, although this also works for countries like the UK as well) and because I am eagerly looking forward to the country’s inevitable demise I applaud their contributions towards this effort and I encourage them to do more of it.
Basically I tell them that they are a fool, how they are a detriment to society, and that I want them to keep it up because if everyone is like them then their country is destined to collapse.
You can apply this to anything - vehemently anti-trans person? Applaud them for failing to grasp that decades of neoliberalism and class warfare from the ultra-rich are what is causing the rot at the core of the country and instead by wasting all of their energy on the culture war and on being outraged that trans people exist they are accelerating the destruction of the country. (Obviously this argument is not a Marxist one but you’ve gotta pitch things at the level the audience is at - I’d rather have a chance at them walking away from the exchange dazed and confounded, and hopefully poisoning their bigoted crusade, than to have them instantly reject what I say because they’ve identified me as a communist.) If they are anti-BLM or anti-communist or anti-tankie or whatever else, you can usually apply the same basic formula. It even works on Vaushites.
You’re giving too much effort calling it racist from the jump for using winnie the pooh. You have to let them work it out themselves for combined max humor and impact. People will double down that they are racist, or outright deny it if you make the (true) accusation that they are. But if you make them say it themselves or make it appear that you came to the conclusion after they explained themselves, you make them acknowledge it.
What? I don’t get it. You’re saying this bear looks like the president of China? How?
Use a piglet pfp for extra trolling points
"Oh this pig picture? My friend has a tattoo of it and I just think it’s cute. Wait why are you talking about that now?
Oh my god that’s so good lmao
One of my favorite bits is to dress as Luffy (with a one piece back patch on my vest) and act baffled when people try and talk to me about it.
“Whats a Luffy? A monkey? Oh i think they have a Luffy at the city zoo. One Piece? Piece of what? Sorry i don’t have any food right now.”
Water seven? Water seven of what?
Enies Lobby? No, I was at a different hotel.
It’s so great that it works in the other direction too
Oh Blackbeard spiced rum? I didn’t know One Piece did a brand deal with a distillery
Reminds me of an episode of American Dad where Stan was building a Delorean, despite having a complete media blind-spot on Back to the Future.
I literally don’t see how it’s even an insult because Winnie The Pooh is good.
Who is that?
HE’S A DANG HONEY BEAR!!!
Winnie The Pooh never carried out a genocide, unlike
“Xi = Winnie the Pooh” is just “Drumpf” for CHUDs. Change my mind.
It’s for both libs AND Chuds.
Acting like I have no idea what people are talking about (usually chuds complaining about “woke” or something) is always so funny irl. It’s like a dumb guy socratic method and can get some people into funny loops or just giving up.
Like when the Chinese weather balloon was in the news. My mother-in-law brought it up at a birthday thing I was like
“Oh you got them birthday balloons? Wait aren’t they a little old for balloons?”
“No the chinese balloon!”
“Yeah they probably would be made in China, pretty much all our stuff is”
It took me well into adulthood to realize that I was indeed making people laugh by being literally autistic and doing this exact thing by accident.
Coworker apparently obviously complaining that the weather outside is unpleasant to him: “Good god sure is some great weather we are having, huh?”
Me (autistic), who is enjoying the weather: “Yeah it’s beautiful out today. I might eat my lunch outside!” :)
Coworker: “HA that’s great! Me too! I’ll see you out there.”
Me: “Oh nice! Alright see you later!”
I’m a bit OOTL on the Winnie the Pooh thing. I always just assumed it was just a bunch of redditors making a racist effigy out of a fake news story, but googling it does give a bunch of (western) news outles, wikipedia pages etc. saying the character was censored/banned. Can someone pill me on this/direct me to a less brainwormed place than wikipedia for learning more?
It was actually a Chinese internet joke to compare Xi to Winnie the Pooh. Supposedly people had social media accounts frozen for that and Western media outlets spun that into a story about Winnie the Pooh being censored/banned nationwide and if you posted a picture of Winnie the Pooh you would be thrown into the Uyghur death camps. Iirc there were also some Winnie the Pooh films that didn’t get released in China?
Anyway, the ride at Disneyland Shanghai still exists so I suppose the evil CCP hasn’t found it yet.
A few years ago, I traced the original claim of it being banned to an article in Fortune or Forbes, or one of those sites for a paper magazine. And their reasoning for claiming it was banned is that, while it was still being shared, it wasn’t as popular a few days later.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
from what I recall it originated with a meme based on a pic of Obama and Xi together implying Tigger and Pooh. it wasn’t long until it was censored by the PRC, because this is pretty easily interpreted as a backhanded way to invoke the N word for Obama (and isn’t flattering for Xi either). the Westerners then seized on this censorship by pretending it was primarily to protect Xi from the comparison and pretending Pooh was then banned for this reason.
EDIT: okay I found the pic the meme is based on in this article from 2013: https://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/06/update-on-pooh-tigger-and-the-2-presidents-art-recreates-life-not-vice-versa/276782/ | https://archive.ph/B4Avg
Now whats your bit to handle
Anybody else this this guy looks kind of like Winnie the Pooh?
Did you know Winnie the pooh is banned in China?
10/10 will try this out soon
Idgi, Xi doesn’t look very much like Винни-Пух
Maybe I’m wrong, but it feels obvious to me that this is just a picture of a cartoon bear and not the president of China.
my goto response is “why compare chinese people to animals like bears? what animal do african people remind you of?”
I’ve never seen this image in my life.
And you’re saying the Chinese president… looks like a bear? What kind of bear are we talking about?
So is Winnie like, for kids? I just don’t get what you’re trying to say.
