this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2022
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There's a difference between socially unacceptable and "straight to jail".
Manning not only released documents that were under her care as an intelligence officer, but also broke into other systems. Regardless of whether you support what she did, she did so knowing the consequences of breaking her oath. In doing so, she made public wrongdoing, but also exposed sources that the US had promised would be kept safe.
Assange... well, that feels more like a case of karma. The Obama/Biden administration declined to indict him in relation to the Manning leaks. He then screwed with the 2016 US elections, blatantly stoking conspiracy theories, laundering Russia's hacks in service of Trump, and coordinating with the Trump campaign to time releases to blunt at least one scandal. In return, the Trump administration indicted him. I don't fully understand the case, so I won't comment on it.
Compare that to investigative journalism in general in the US. Journalists can publish pieces that are extremely critical of both the government and corporations. High up people regularly are dragged down from their perch by an enterprising reporter. Maybe newsrooms aren't as well staffed as they used to be, but it's not in the same league as countries like China, Russia, and Venezuela that lack anything resembling a free press.
What do you have against Venezuela?
are these they?
I don't have anything against Venezuela per se. Maduro is a shitty leader who maintains his grip on power by giving oil money to the armed forces. He's nothing but a military-backed dictator that is so shitty that he and Hugo Chavez provoked a massive migration crisis with 15% of the country leaving. Part of the way he maintains his grip besides bribing the armed forces is extermination of any free press.
So just a straw man then?
Journalists can't question systemic problems in US. Entire books have been written on how journalism in US has been subverted. Read Inventing Reality and Manufacturing consent which both provide numerous case studies.
The fact that you genuinely believe that quality of journalism in China, Russia, or Venezuela is significantly worse than in the west is illustration of the effectiveness of propaganda in western media.
Assange did real journalism and he is being tortured for it right now. Instead of being outraged by the war crimes he exposed you choose to smear the man.
Also, I highly recommend that you read in this book detailing political repression in US. A few excerpts:
What do you think about https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_nihilism
(I did not read the whole context but it is impossible to ignore this)
Doesn't that describe exactly what western countries do? For example https://theconversation.com/school-curriculum-continues-to-whitewash-britains-imperial-past-53577
That was not what I asked. What is your view on China/CCP on historical nihilism in specific?
We can all agree about the factual bad things west does.
My view is that I have no idea what CCP is, but CPC doesn't seem to be doing anything exceptional with regards to historical revisionism. Perhaps you can try to articulate the point you're trying to make in more concrete terms.
I see. For a concrete example, does China/CPC censors or not Tiananmen Square events? Some context https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Tiananmen_Square_protests_and_massacre#Censorship_in_China
Tiananmen square was an attempt at a color revolution by US https://redsails.org/another-view-of-tiananmen/
There was a whole documentary about it in China https://web.archive.org/web/20200604205421/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDMXV1smwR0
Meanwhile, every government censors things. For example, most Canadians don't realize that the genocidal residential school system operated well into the ~~80s~~ 90s. Thousands of children have been found in mass graves, and there's hardly a mention of this in the media.
The last residential school didn't close until 1996 actually, because Canada is shit.
Right, my bad. I always forget just how long that shit went on here. It's just kind of surreal to realize the country you're living in was doing low key genocide just a couple of decades ago.
But why not inform people about US involement then without further censorship? Latin American countries that have gone trough military dictatorships do not censor their crimes including torture and murder, and also publish information on US involvement on it.
So it seems you agree China/CPC censors historical events.
There's a reason why Latin American countries have been colonized and brutalized by US while China hasn't. Meanwhile, western states cover up their crimes and rewrite history with the best of them. So, if the choice is between China's policies and getting colonized by US, I very much support what China is doing.
I support actual policies China has which have little to do with your deranged fantasies of China. It is kind of sad that a grown ass adult would guzzle propaganda uncritically.
Yeah these articles do sound deranged. First one is literal US state propaganda. Second is BBC, which is a British state propaganda outlet that has been repeatedly caught spreading misinformation regarding China. Again, it's amazing that people consume this narrative uncritically.
sadly westerners have been raised from birth with a huge anti-communist bias, its built into the fabric of their reality
Propaganda in the west is so pervasive that it takes an inordinate amount of effort for people who grew up in this environment to see it.
There is absolutely no factual evidence to suggest that China is any less trustworthy than western governments who have openly expressed an agenda to undermine China. The fact that surveys of public opinion in China consistently show that people have far more trust in their government than any nation in the west is a clear indication that westerners would do much better focusing on fixing shitholes they live in before judging China.
Indeed, that is what CPC calls historical nihilism. China is doing very well economically, so they are doing something right. Too bad on socio-economic inequality and illegal profits like tax evasion though; they seem to be doing something about it.. https://www.msn.com/en-xl/money/other/china-e2-80-99s-xi-jinping-sends-e2-80-98warning-signal-e2-80-99-to-the-wealthy-as-he-opens-new-front-in-e2-80-98common-prosperity-e2-80-99-push/ar-AA139N4Z
Let's see if it will not make capitalists get very angry.
This is the real test of who holds power in China. So far it appears that the government in China is able to keep capitalists on a tight leash, we'll see if that'll continue to be the case going forward.