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The turntables
(lemmy.ml)
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this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2025
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If that was the only thing they censored then I don't think as many people would mind
When they find out the extent of the censorship they mind very much. But that's the problem, the censorship is so deep and so good that the vast majority of the Chinese never find out how extensive it is, because it's not just your WeChat, it's ALL MEDIA. The Chinese don't have access to over 90% of the internet, so they never find out what's out there or know what information they're missing.
And you're just trading one dystopian nightmare for another. Saying one is better than the other is like saying having a foot cut off is better than losing a kidney. There is nuance, they're both bad.
Have you considered it's actually the other way around?
The problem is the censorship is so deep and so good that the vast majority of westerners never find out how extensive it is, because it’s not just your nazi.world, it’s ALL MEDIA.
Yes. But like I said, I lived there for years. True, the western media gets a lot of things wrong. But china is heavily censored, there's no way around that reality.
Yes, and if you're getting a 100% Rosey picture of China and the CCP guess what? It's just different propaganda. There's good and bad things about China. For me bad things outweighed the good.
So you've never lived there?
So no. So it's impossible for you to really make an accurate comparison. So your opinion here is literally worthless.
Angry? Me thinks he projects too much. I lived there. I base my opinion on first hand experience. So the fact that you haven't means your basing your experience on something that somebody else WANTS you to think. You're an actual sheep.
Are you seriously trying to say that western relations are more censored than china's? One of those countries has locked off Internet. The other does not.
If you're implying that there is no substantial amount of censorship in the west you're kidding yourself. e.g. RT/TASS, Genocide in Palestine, Leftists/Communist thought, Removing TikTok is in the talks, etc. come to mind. Not like only one side is locking off their internet.
Also, not wanting western Nazi (social) media platforms is just self defense.
Yes, there is censorship. But the information is there if you search for it. The fact that you're typing the words "genocide in Palestine" and I am reading those words pretty clearly demonstrates that the level of censorship in the west is no where near the level of censorship in China. If the CCPs position is "Israel has a right to defend itself" you would never even know there's a conflict in Gaza.
Goes for China too if you use a VPN
I guess you never heard of shadow banning before. That never happens in the west right?
Most Chinese don't have access to a VPN. Do you need a VPN to access that information? The fact that there is an extra step to access the information means that china is more censored by default. There's also the fact that at certain times of year all consumer VPNs are blocked (June 4th is one of those dates, oddly enough)
Yes, I've heard of shadow banning. The censorship in China is still worse. I'm not saying censorship doesn't happen in the west. I am saying it is much more widespread, oppressive, and complete in China. No amount of you crying is going to change that fact.
Being subject of western imperialism tends to do that. The US uses various think thanks and it's media landscape to produce narratives with the intend to destabilize the countries like e.g. China. Also any state goes into censorship when it's hegemony is threatened. Also chinese people on average seem way more informed about current events than the average European or American
Chinese people seem way more informed about current events? 🤣🤣🤣😂🤣😂. That's gonna be a no from me dog. Clearly you've never talked to the average Chinese person. There are vast swathes of current events and information they've never even heard about. They're well informed about the topics that make it past the censors, for sure. My god you're just as misinformed as everyone else. The only difference is your misinformation is "china good" misinformation. Which is sad, there are a lot of things to point at in china that are legitimate "China good". Like fast, cheap/free and effective healthcare. The best in the world high speed rail. The closest to a meritocratic education system I've seen or heard of. Virtually zero homelessness. But when it comes to censorship, nah, they're wayyyyy worse. Yeah, the west can be better than china then some things. It's okay buddy, you can be objective you know
Cope. I guess you had a different experience when you were there. I got asked about NATO, Russia/Ukraine, Iran/Israel, US Tariffs and saw it analyzed in CCTV also when revisiting earlier this year. CGTNs quality of analysis is way higher and objective than other (state) media.
What are topics that didn't make it past the censors in your opinion?
I'm not questioning that censorship is happening, it's just happening differently than in western societies. Classifying it as "way worse" is just your subjective experience
I'm saying the censorship is not even close to the same degree. Communists and leftists are not censored. If they were, I wouldn't encounter them in main stream social medias.
Removing tic tok is not censorship lmfao.
If it was only banning the platforms, I would agree.
As a lib it definitely seems that way. There may be even too much amirte?
Id argue trying to remove a main stream platform with a flatter algorithm that allows for counter hegemonic content to go viral is a form of censorship, but in that case China blocking Western social Media isn't either
I like how you skipped the censoring of TASS/RT
You're kinda fucking stupid as shit if you don't understand propaganda in the west is orders of magnitude worse than in China based solely on the dollar amount spent on it
propaganda while related to censorship, is not the same thing as censorship. You are putting 2 different terms as equivalent. And it's no surprise the west's budget on that would be larger in dollars, the pay by exchange rate is higher in the west for those positions, and china is one country, the west is dozens of countries.
Thank you for explaining to everyone that propaganda and censorship are related but not identical terms. I'm sure the time spent reading it was just as valuable as the time spent writing it. And now it's gone.
And while your point is kind of dumb in that it assumes every society is exactly the same and that differences in how they spend money is explainable by scale of the economy, it's extra dumb because by that mechanism you're conceding the main point of contention that the west controls the thought and discourse in its empire more than China does.
Literally, no, I'm not conceding that point. Their dollar does not give the same value. There is substantially less control of media and internet in the west as compared to china.
I wouldn't've had to explain it if you knew the difference in the first place
"it doesn't count as being controlled by the government because the guy who owns the government controls it directly"
There is no argument that you can make that isn't stupid because you are wrong.
You're a fuckin moron man. You can easily find any of the so called "censored items" with mainstream search engines like google or even just on Facebook or reddit. What are these so called banned topics that you say exist anyways?
I honestly can't tell if you're just too prideful to admit you're wrong. I don't believe any present minded, awake person could be naive to the concept of a discovery algorithm. So you setting the bar at 'you can literally find it if you know what you're looking for and try' for government control of thought and discourse seems genuinely in bad faith.
Buddy, I lived there for years. My sources are the hundreds of Chinese people I spoke to in their native tongue for years. Not the propaganda from my country. True, SOME Chinese people have VPNs. Most do not.
And I think the more poignant question is this. Why do they need a VPN to access the wider internet in the first place?
Stop with the pedantic BS. MOST do not use VPNs to get around censorship because MOST do not have a VPN. So again, why do the Chinese need a VPN to access the wider internet?
And there's more to the internet to social media.
Not all internet outside of China is Western. I'll give you an example. My wife was a cross cultural communications teacher in China. She had her students pick countries outside of Asia to do a cultural report on. One student picked Poland for whatever reason. The Chinese internet, other than here is Poland on a map, it has this many people, and it's capital is Warsaw, had no other information, Literally nothing else.
So when you ask why they would need access it's because they deserve to be informed about the world around them. There is waayyyyyyy more to the internet than "fascist propaganda".
They also can't access the absolutely braindead remarks you're saying right now. Isn't that a travesty?
And you searched this inside China did you? What are you not getting? Even Chinese search engines inside China show different information then Chinese search engines outside china. It's a walled garden. You are out of your depth here. Go to bed.
Were you an English teacher?
Its pretty trivial to get a vpn, or just download an esim in alipay. Esims automatically go around the Great Fire Wall.
You don't think they mind the censorship or what do you mean
"Only those who agree are allowed to be heard, but trust me bro, everyone agrees"