It was wrong when the West did it, and it’s wrong when China does it. And it’s wrong that it’s a fact that this statement is somehow controversial.
America is gearing up to put illegals, brown people, women who don’t want kids/women who believe in women’s right to choose, and the LGBTQ+ in slave labor camps.
Yep. And their action doesn’t justify or excuse China’s or vice versa. It’s bad regardless who’s doing it.
Not my point. We act so high and mighty while a literally rapist is in the white house and is talking about needing more babies for labor… We are speed larping the Handmaids Tale but the DM can only read at a fifth grade level.
Edit: we as a society seem to envy China but want to do it our way… The white male Christian way… That’s my point.
Who’s we? I’m calling both out.
A lot of the immigrant labor has been at least slave-like for decades too. Under constant threat of deportation on their “employer’s” whim. Fairly common for “employers” to take documented worker’s documentation to hold them hostage. Reports of some farmers housing and working workers fenced-in, having them working under gunpoint. Some farmers have been caught buying and selling immigrants amongst each-other. I remember a report of a meatpacking plant calling ICE on its own employees to have them deported after they started asking for better treatment, then just hiring more immigrants to replace them. Hell, I even remember near where I grew up, you could see the shed-like shacks from the road on one farm where they kept the migrant workers; no electricity, didn’t look like they had any running water either.
ie. American prison
Gearing up? El Salvador is taking them in already.
this statement is somehow controversial.
Here? No. On ml? Enjoy your ban you westoid scum!
capitalists gonna capitalist. nothing surprising here.
Those damn capitalists in charge of checks notes the Chinese Communist Party!
Wait til someone explains the DPRK to you…
There’s nothing functionally communist about the government of China.
Those damn democrats in charge of the checks notes the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea!
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You have been banned from Lemmy.ml
The CCP acts like just because the state owns major enterprises then the workers - through the state - own the means of production. That doesn’t hold up when the state does not adequately represent the will of the workers. Never is this contradiction more clear than when the Chinese state suppresses workers’ attempts to organize on their own terms.
China is communist in the same way that the US is democratic, which is to say that it’s a sham to keep up appearances that is suspended when convenient for the few who hold real power.
I am happy to criticise the US system at any point, but the notion that it’s a democracy only on paper is a misrepresentation of reality.
They managed to vote Trump out of office, and back in. Something that wouldn’t have been possible if it were not a democracy.
Now the system of course has loads of difficulties and is suffering from extreme economic inequality, that leads to an immense influence of rich people over the undereducated masses, but they still have to spend their money for massive propaganda campaigns to win votes for their side, so the fundamental processes are still democratic.
We’re gonna see if that remains the case by the end of Trump’s second term, though.
And Google can’t do evil! It’s on their motto!
“Democratic people’s republic of North Korea”
username checks out
No politician has ever lied in the history of ever.
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The problem is, it is very hard to trust the same people who are actively committing genocide live in front of the world then tell you “this is not a genocide”
It is also hard to believe nytimes who lied about Iraq war to advance white house agenda.
People who dont care about live on the internet genocide should keep their opinion about the world to themselves
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They mean “live on the internet” as in happening in real time AKA live streamed.
It’s a grammatical mess and hard to tell what they’re actually trying to say. Apparently though, asking for clarification in a sarcastic way was deemed too uncivil.
I disagree with many of Trump’s policies, but his idea for tariff’s on Chinese goods is possibly a good one. There’s no way to get this stuff out of the supply chain. I’m terrified some of the things I bought from China are made with slave labor.
How do I get slave labor out of my life?
Up to 14 hours a day? That probably means 80 hours a week. I do 40 and that’s difficult. 80… With no choice… So awful!
I don’t want to be a part of that.
Trump just wants to bring the same to America. The problem for him is not slave labor, it’s that America is not doing enough of it to be able to compete with China.
And how exactly is it better if the same goods are made by American slaves in American factories? Trump is literally on the side of those who want to get rid of regulations, minimum wages and pretty much everything else that protects workers and consumers.
Scare for slave labour while your tax money fund a genocide!
Thats crazy
Also, if you have any ideas how to opt out of funding genocide, please let me know.
Taxes are taken out of my paycheck. I do not know how to ask my employer to reduce my taxes to zero.
Even if i leave the country, which would be hard to do as a somewhat poor person, the government would still imprison me if i don’t pay them.
I could become just a begger or someone who works illegally to avoid the taint.
I’ve also thought of just checking out of this world because it’s so terrible.
I’m not really sure what you think I should do instead. Is there a box to check to easily opt out of laboring for a government that thinks it owns me, that I didn’t ask to be a part of?
Just becauze I think slave labor is awful and think a tax on Chinese goods to help stop slave labor is good doesn’t mean that I support what is going on in Gaza. This planet is awful sometimes. I am mostly poor. What should I do?
I recognize it’s a genocide at this point and war crimes are occurring. I am not a powerful or rich person. What should I do?
Check my post history before you presume my beliefs about the situation in gaza.
Y’know what? I don’t care. Maybe it’s happening, even in the dramatic worst-case way it’s portrayed here, but is that the biggest/only story in China? It feels sort of credibility-stretching that a country of 1.4 billion people and a top-two global economy is entirely cantilevered around the idea of oppressing a tiny minority in the rural corner of the country. I’m fairly certain there are at least nine people in China who can go an entire workday without contemplating how to wipe the Uighyurs off the map. Maybe as many as twelve!
The US is no longer in any sort of moral leadership position to point fingers on human rights, if not for the last few decades, then certainly in its El Salvador phase. The only reason Western media remotely give a damn here is because they’re desperate to slap an asterisk next to the growth and real economic advancement of a country that promises to outpace them imminently.
So many words for “no u” whataboutism is so tired
Clearly too tired to read the whole post. Or are you too tired to deal with the reality of Americas foreign policy?
Too tired to read the Nth post saying " country B is doing worse than country A!"
Doesn’t take away how shity country A is…
Maybe the fact country A and country B have abandonned the idea that republics exist for the many to enjoy living in and not the few at the top can explain things.
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I really don’t think that’s it. Slavery is disgusting, even if China has made great technological advacements or done great things. It’s completely fucking gross and many people want nothing to do with slavery. This isn’t about the US, it’s about slavery being bad.
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You know it’s possible for multiple evils to exist, right? And sometimes they are also adversaries. Yes, the U.S. is evil. Yes, China is evil. Yes, Russia is evil. So in and so forth.
Classic case of whataboutism, it was a common “technique” very often used by the far-right in the 2015 US presidential elections
You know it’s possible for multiple evils to exist, right?
What would you say about a newspaper that spread salacious rumors about a foreign country’s nuclear weapons program, months before the newspaper’s domestic government launched a full scale military invasion? What about a newspaper notorious for promoting narratives that have contributed to homophobia, racism, and moral panics aimed at religious minorities? Or a newspaper that had damning information about domestic leadership and deliberately covered it up until the end of an election cycle? A newspaper that regularly promoted the interests of its corporate sponsors ahead of the well-being of its readership? One that promoted misinformation in the middle of a pandemic? Or one that shamelessly promoted financial con-men in the middle of their most brazen acts of fraud?
Is that evil?
Yes, the U.S. is evil. Yes, China is evil.
But we have to side with the US, because it is the lesser of two evils! So trust the NYT, uncritically. Again. In this new drum-beat towards war.
You don’t have to support any evil. You can choose to not support any of them. Why is it a dichotomy to you?
You don’t have to support any evil.
That’s why I cancelled my subscription.
Why is it a dichotomy to you?
Because the article is arguing for further US sanctions on Chinese trade goods. If you’re telling your neighbors, at the point of a US gun, not to buy Chinese products then you’re 100% supporting one of these evil institutions.
This becomes even more dire when you’re talking about blocking Chinese solar panels and wind turbines so that you can defend US coal plants and gas stations.
What? Not buying Chinese products is somehow evil? I don’t understand what you’re trying to say. Regardless of what the article is advocating for, it’s making a really crucial point about Uyghur slavery, which is fucking evil, and you’re choosing to ignore it
Not buying Chinese products is somehow evil?
When you’ve boycotted the Uyghurs so you can buy all your goods from occupied Kashmir and the sweatshops of Indonesia and Bangledesh, you’re not buying ethically. You’re just buying into the propaganda.
it’s making a really crucial point about Uyghur slavery
Is it? Are we doing anything to raise wages, improve working conditions, or enforce ethical standards on imports at long last?
Or is this just an effort to whip liberal support for Trump tariffs?
Don’t try to make this about ethical consumption. There is no ethical consumption under capitalism. Most Americans don’t even KNOW about the Uyghurs in China. Literally any exposure this horrible situation is doing something.
I think I’ve just come to the conclusion that there is no way you’re going to concede the point that the Chinese are committing atrocious human rights violations, are you?
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“but what about…”
“It’s suspicious that well known sink-pisser Larry is accusing Bob of pissing in the sink” is not whataboutism.
No, that’s literally whataboutism. It’s saying the merit of their accusation is based on their history of doing that thing rather than evidence of who they’re accusing of doing it. Fairly typical ad hominem attack.
If Bob is pissing in the sink, who the fuck cares if Larry The Sink Pisser is saying someone else is pissing in the sink too?
“what about all the sink pissing Larry has done?” is literally whataboutism.
It is? I’d like to read about that
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