MeanwhileOnGrad
"Oh, this is calamity! Calamity! Oh no, he's on the floor!"
Welcome to MoG!
Meanwhile On Grad
Documenting hate speech, conspiracy theories, apologia/revisionism, and general tankie behaviour across the fediverse. Memes are welcome!
What is a Tankie?
Alternatively, a detailed blog post about Tankies.
(caution of biased source)
Basic Rules:
Sh.itjust.works Instance rules apply! If you are from other instances, please be mindful of the rules. — Basically, don't be a dick.
Hate-Speech — You should be familiar with this one already; practically all instances have the same rules on hate speech.
Apologia — (Using the Modern terminology for Apologia) No Defending, Denying, Justifying, Bolstering, or Differentiating authoritarian acts or endeavours, whether be a Pro-CCP viewpoint, Stalinism, Islamic Terrorism or any variation of Tankie Ideology.
Revisionism — No downplaying or denying atrocities past and present. Calling Tankies shills, foreign/federal agents, or bots also falls under this rule. Extremists exist. They are real. Do not call them shills or fake users as it handwaves their extremism.
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Off-topic Discussion — Do not discuss unrelated topics to the point of derailing the thread. Stay focused on the direct content of the post as opposed to arguing.
You'll be warned if you're violating the instance and community rules. Continuing poor behaviour after being warned will result in a ban or removal of your comments. Bans typically only last 24 hours, but each subsequent infraction will double the amount. Depending on the content, the ban time may be increased. You may request an unban at any time.
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or China! Where you can't protest the government or the banks and have to follow a strict routine of uniformity.
"They're also racist, but that's fine. At least I'm not conservative!"
What am I looking at?
The posters for Marvel films in China.
Chinese people really don't like black people. So Disney, not wanting to disturb racist Chinese Audiences, removed black people from their posters.
Welp, that's disappointing
They don't like wookies either, it would seem.
Nooooo
Chinese movie posters where they remove black people
Top: Streamers going to rich neighborhoods to attract local viewers and donations after China implements policy of forcing all Internet content to show their approximate location
Bottom: largest art school examination in the world, where ~14,000 applicants invited to the exam must compete for ~800 spots
Most jobs are normal and like the western world. While there are tons of valid criticisms like the protest one you mentioned, "strict homogeneity" is not one of them and just gives tankies more ammunition. There are way better arguments you can make from these images.
If you believe there are better arguments to be made, go ahead.
The streamers are up until, sometimes, past 3 am to make money off the rich. So much for your communist China. People need to lug all of their valuables with them to make fools of themselves to entertain the rich and powerful, comfortable and happy in their warm mansions, while the streamers have to shiver in cold temperatures just to make a few hundred bucks at most. A man is dressed as a literal clown, and the girls have to wear short clothes in winter.
And the bottom, yes, is commercialised, mass-produced art where you're stuck in lines, competing with who can be the better artist (if there even is such a thing)—no food, no drinks, cramped with no escape. If your art is not arty enough for the elites, then you are the 'worse kid,' which is an ideology in China where there is always a better child—Failure is not an option.
I have yet to see both of these images be recreated in the Western World.
Well, you just did that. I was pointing out that your use of those images is misleading, and as critics, we should take the moral high ground.
Not sure what you think about me. As an anarchist, I don't have socially positive views of China.
No. Albeit with a completely misguided target of technical skill, the admissions test is not a factory. And food and drink are, of course, allowed.
Honestly, it's just involution: Everyone always looks up to the better children and apply to the best school, whose exam is what we see here. However, failure is, in fact, an executable option. Just as there is always a better place, there is also always a worse place: a worse school to apply to instead of the one with a 2% acceptance rate, a worse place to live with a much better upkeep, a worse job where you can still apply your skills with the same comfort... The aforementioned streamers can always choose to pull up stakes and find other types of less gruelling careers, yet they're not comfortable enough with the low-key: Unfortunately, investments in mental health education are way too low to counter the ingrained Chinese culture of overachievement, and that is a very big problem. Such involution is also a problem in the United States, especially in higher education, but we have much better access to online support.
would've fooled me. You're the only one defending the images and saying the same happens in the West. You've yet to show any examples of the above happening in the West, and just so we're clear, the West includes Europe, Oceania--You know, anything western, not just the US
Mass-produced in the sense that for the test, they are mass-producing art to please their elites. Likewise I can't find any image of any food or drink being used.
They usually can't, hence why they're doing it.
I'm not saying the same happens in the west. Indeed, these are occurrences unique to China. I've never understood the appeal of the shopping streams, so I can't say for sure what's behind the first image. Meanwhile, misguided focus on technical skill over the essence of art combined with draconian educational values are behind the second image.
The only people who see the art are the 9 judges who have their internet-capable devices confiscated until they judge everything. They have to filter out the images and compare them meticulously for accuracy instead of pleasantry. After that, they have to do it again for the arts Gaokao. Nobody else sees the art, and even if they did, I doubt anyone would be pleased by what aims to be carbon copies of the same image. The stupid system harms the only people who see the product as well.
If you look at https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-grueling-hyper-competitive-exams-decide-futures-chinese-art-students, there's an outstanding example of tea near the bottom-left corner.
I don't see how that article reflects your claim. In fact, it says that passerbys ask the streamers, "Why don’t you find a normal job?". At most, it does say that some were drove off livelihoods and forced to stream by the COVID era, which involved stupid restrictions that the government finally relaxed a few months after the article. There are also a lot more white-collar jobs. That said, I've never been to Guilin, so take what I say with a grain of salt. Hair salons in Hangzhou reopened at most by mid-2021, though it may have intensified in late 2022, which is right after I left.
Such "us vs them" mentality is why my country and so many others are currently so divided and leads certain people to believe in authoritarian rule of utmost hierarchy.
You think I'm against you for trying to rationalise what's happening in China as normal? I'm not. I find it weird, but I also don't care.
If this was us vs them, which I also believe is stupid, you would've been booted. I've dealt with a lot of pseudo-mods, usually admins, who do exactly this and it's frustrating everytime I have to unban the user and explain to the admin that disagreement doesn't mean ban. You can check out the modlog for this.
And have you seen their healthcare system? If Marx came back from the dead he would die from an heart attack when he found out about the CCP.
How is their healthcare system? I know it's very privatised, but not much about the public sector.
Healthcare in China:
It sounds somewhere between Germany and the US with Germany already being for-profit friendly for European standards. I.e. forget about "to each according to their needs".
Lower coverage for serious chronic conditions is the EXACT OPPOSITE of how "to each according to their needs" is supposed to work but sure, why not Xi.
You can practically smell the classless, stateless, moneyless nature of their communist utopia.
What's happening here? Some sort of massive outdoor school program?
It's explained below
Not the movie, the weird place with all the people sitting there
Entrance exam for art school.