Yeah, interesting article, but in the context of being posted on Lemmy, I’m immediately left asking questions on the intent here. “Zelensky did a bad thing” is the kind of domino that some people in these parts would use to start the “and this is why Russia has to murder civilians” discussion.

Confirmation bias can be a hell of a drug. I hope that any corruption is properly investigated, just not by a hostile, Imperialist nation using force of arms.

Then I believe you I missed the comparison.

I’m not suggesting that in both cases, a government is doing things to make “bad choices” harder. I’m suggesting that in both cases a government is disproportionately punishing the less wealthy to get what it wants. In neither case does the government gives a shit if you, individually, lead a healthier life or have a child. It wants you to generate more wealth for the country, whether that be by demanding less for health care costs or by producing the next worker drone.

The point in the sugar tax comparison, a real thing that happened in parts of Canada by the way, is that the government should be reducing the costs of the healthy choices, not making the unhealthy choices more expensive, as people were largely turning to unhealthy choices because they were cheaper and do not have the wealth to make better choices. Likewise, if the Chinese government wants to improve the birth rate of its population, they should make childcare more affordable and look to give parents more wealth/time, not attempt to punish them financially for preventing a pregnancy. Punishing a population that is making the choice you don’t want them to make out of necessity isn’t the solution to get them to make the choice you want. “Poor tax” is never a good solution, and that’s what the comparison is: two versions of “poor tax.”

This is some “people aren’t choosing healthy food, so raise the taxes on sugar” shit.

How about building a society and economy where having children doesn’t feel like an overwhelming detriment to the parent’s and child’s well-being?

I got curious and started Googling. Apparently China has VERY recently created a subsidy for parents, and finally begun creating support for early childhood care centers, which have traditionally been apparently prohibitively expensive due to privatization (In MY “Communist” China?). It’s good to see there is some actual social progress being implement alongside the hair-brained capitalist schemes that only serve to do harm to the poorest classes. But hey, fuck the points if it keeps the economy going, right?

Oh, absolutely, World News is filled with people praising the west for cracking down on protests, they’re clearly very pro-government.

/s and fuck off with your nonsense. This place is incredibly critical of basically every decision a major government makes.

Man, I’m not happy about it, but I can’t get quality Internet in my location, so I think? I am happy to have a Starlink competitor that isn’t openly a neo-nazi, even if it is my second least favorite well-known billionaire. Or maybe third, pending whether or not you believe Trump is as wealthy as he claims to be.

God, this timeline has set my bar so fucking low. Essential services like Internet need to be made public ASAP.

What? China acting like an Imperialist Dictstorship? But that’s only something that happens in disgusting capitalist Western nations, never in glorious, Communist China!

/s, before I’m mistaken for one of the Tankies that are, I am sure, about to blow up this thread.

You’re saying Marx while advocating for a Stalin-style dictatorship. Any proletariat uprising that depends on a separate class to perform in any position of dictatorship is a fascist - as was the case with Russia - or capitalist - as in China - regime in disguise.

I have never claimed to support any form of liberalism. That was a stance you imposed on me when I attacked your politics.

But, I digress, you kept it civil, I’ll take the opportunity to flip my attitude and do the same. While I still do not respect your politics, everyone deserves proper care, and everyone deserves to rest. I genuinely do hope you heal well.

So you agree? Xi Jiping is a dictator?

My friend, if you think dictatorship is a progressive step towards communism, I have a bridge you can hand ownership of to the state.

For someone who wants to try and play semantics, you’re quite quick to throw yourself, and your argument, under the bus. Perhaps pick a game you’re good at. You’re embarrassing your glorious leader over here.

Of course I’m angry. Tankies defending a state-capitalist autocracy pisses me off, as it should any rational, progressive human being. The “Internet tough-guy calling people angry” schtick doesn’t dissuade china’s aggression to the sovereign nation of Taiwan, un-genocide any Ugyhur lives, or free China’s “totally not homeless” population out of the concentration camps the state uses to hold up their economy. My anger is well directed, and your attempt to belittle that isn’t the “own” that you and your fascist ilk seem to believe it is.

Fuck the States. This thread isn’t about them, their history of racism, or their rapid descent into fascism. This thread is about China disappearing a dissenter for “reeducation,” and this conversation is about how you’re a fresh account, happy to dismiss any criticism of your glorious fascist state as “American propaganda” with no logic other than “they said stuff I don’t like so it must be an American psyop.” No amount of whataboutism will change that you’re a dishonest actor, openly mocking one imperialist nation, while shilling for another.

Account created one week ago and has literally only ever bothered to post in a thread that calls out fascist China for doing horrible fascist things?

Which one of you hexbear, .ml fake-ass leftist nutjobs is hiding behind this account?

“You can have peace. Just surrender to our rule!”

Reminder that bullying exists from the school yard all the way to international politics.

Millionaire’s are incompatible with communism. Billionaire’s are incompatible with socialism.

.ml says a lot of shit whenever they pry Winnie the Pooh’s cock from their mouths long enough to speak.

“Communist.”

Obligatory fuck China.

Reading it back over, I did get that fact backwards. Students at UK owned universities that are in China, as opposed to UK students in Chinese universities, so, you’re right.

Though the core of what I am saying here remains. They’re not the same thing, and both remain fucked.

It’s pretty clear given China’s massive successes in elevating people out of poverty, solving homelessness

If you call herding the homeless population into camps and abusing them for their labour, “elevating” them, and “solving homelessness,” I have a bridge to sell you.

I’ll be the first to say aloud that a forced pledge to the nation and flag in a school is a fucked up concept, but the whataboutism’s in this thread are insane. Equating natural born children in a state funded school singing the national anthem to foreign university students, paying their own way, being gathered in a sports arena to attend a pro-nation pledge of alliegence, complete with military personnel and armed guards, is not an honest comparison.

Both are questionable. The latter is clearly far worse. And more importantly, the former being bad doesn’t shield the latter from criticism. China can go fuck itself at LEAST as hard as American-brand nationalism.

Edit: Struck out my mistaken initial misread of OP. Point remains.

You deserve a medal. I couldn’t even imagine responding to this post without speaking down to OP, so I opted to move on. Thank you for giving the advice he needs to hear and not sounding like a cunt about it they way I would have.

A thread about the BBC, Netflix and the Israel government. Goes into a feverish tirade about American genocide.

How’s that whole “destabilizing the west” op going? They paying you well over there? Or is this like a “they have my family” situation?

Bless.

Fairly confident I wound up with some malware from a “GOG” download from one of the sites in the megathread. I’ve already formatted and the files are long gone but I’ll tuck this link away for the future.