After seeing a megathread praising Mao Zedong, an actual mass killer, and a post about a guy saying “99% of westerners are 100000000000% sure they know what happened in ‘Tiny Man Square’ […] the reasons for this are complex and involve propaganda […],” I am genuinely curious what leads people to this belief system. Even if propaganda is involved when it comes to Tiananmen Square, it doesn’t change the atrocities that were/are committed everywhere else in China.

I am all for letting people believe what they want but I am lost on why one would deliberately praise any authoritarian system this hard.

Can someone please help me understand why this is such a large and prominent community? How have these ideals garnered such a following outside of China?

    • TankieTanuki [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      11 hours ago

      US propaganda: “Russia, China, and North Korea are hellscapes filled with mindless automatons ruled over by evil, ruthless dictators with unlimited, supernatural powers who sit on ivory thrones all day and press the human misery button. Their people yearn for freedom and will greet us as liberators if we nuke their governments, because every citizen is a prisoner.”

      Russian propaganda: “The West is full of d*gener*te queers[1], and the US repeatedly meddles in the affairs of other nations.[2]

      North Korean propaganda: “We built a row of houses in this rural village and gave them to the farmers that live there.”

      Chinese propaganda: “Look at this cute panda eating bamboo and rolling down a hill.”


      1. Tankies reject this bigotry. ↩︎

      2. Undoubtedly true ↩︎

        • Jabril [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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          15 hours ago

          I’m commenting on the meme you shared, which takes the position that being a puppet of US imperialism is actually the lesser evil than having any rational perspective on the evil authoritarians of the east

          • smoker@lemmy.zip
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            15 hours ago

            The meme I shared takes the position that those you call “puppets of US imperialism” are fully aware that they are being showered with propaganda and that the US is an evil state which lies about everything.

            We constantly criticize the US for its bullshit but the second we criticize the “communist” nations of the east we are gobbling up western propaganda and sucking the cocks of the US elite

            • Jabril [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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              15 hours ago

              fully aware

              westerners are famous for being fully aware

              We constantly criticize the US for its bullshit but the second we criticize the “communist” nations of the east we are gobbling up western propaganda and sucking the cocks of the US elite

              it isn’t hard to point out western propaganda made by the US explicitly to foment war and conquest over their enemies.

              It sounds like you are saying that by pointing this out when it is happening it isn’t fair because the US is also bad, so their enemies also deserve to be called bad, even by the US, even when it is easily proven to be a lie?

              If you say some shit that is easily proven to be a lie, it just is that. It isn’t some propaganda conspiracy by evil authoritarians when someone posts blatant bullshit and gets called out.

              As I said in another comment, browse hexbear for awhile and you will see plenty of criticism of Russia, China, Iran and more. We just criticize them for things that we have evidence for instead of shit that is directly paid for by the US state department, like the idea that Venezuela’s president runs the largest cartel in the country or that the leadership of North Korea ties prisoners to cannons and shoots them into tiny pieces. Ironically that fake store about DPRK was really what the British did to their colonized subjects, as is often the case with imperialist nonsense wonder-who-thats-for

              • smoker@lemmy.zip
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                12 hours ago

                westerners are famous for being fully aware

                it isn’t hard to point out western propaganda

                Pick one. I’m also sure the next thing you’re going to say is that you are fully aware.

                It sounds like you are saying that by pointing this out when it is happening it isn’t fair because the US is also bad, so their enemies also deserve to be called bad, even by the US, even when it is easily proven to be a lie?

                Not what I’m saying at all. The examples you gave are ridiculous and I’ve never heard anyone claim those. I’m talking basic shit like North Korea not allowing people to escape the country, and visits there being heavily chaperoned, so the only coverage is either directly from the North Korean government or from controlled journalism (or western propaganda). But I still see government “news” posted on hexbear and y’all treat it like 100% truth.

                But when it’s pointed out that “hey maybe the governments you look up to aren’t being totally honest either” we get shit like

                westerners are famous for being fully aware

                • Jabril [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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                  9 hours ago

                  Why do I need to pick one? That’s a strange false dichotomy to assert.

                  No ML denies that the DPRK has strict border policies, but there are also a fuck ton of DPRK citizens working in China and Russia, so it obviously isn’t true that no one can leave. This is the type of basic shit where you are just repeating a claim that traces back to western propaganda and parroting it as if it is common knowledge that cannot be argued against, despite plenty of evidence.

                  No ML would deny that tourists needs to be with a guided group.

                  Any news posted on our instances regarding DPRK has little to nothing to do with either of those topics, so I’m not seeing how it correlates.

                  The DPRK has a strict border policy and guided tours, so that means that a repost of their statement isn’t newsworthy? It means they must be lying anytime they say something? What did they lie about that you see any of us backing up?

                  • smoker@lemmy.zip
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                    8 hours ago

                    I didn’t say no one can leave the country, I said that it doesn’t allow people to escape. Obviously pre-approved people are going to be allowed to leave (more likely in the upper classes, no doubt). But I guess it’s on brand to change my words to slot into the strawman the US has built.

                    Lying by omission is still lying. Even if everything to come out of the NK government is 100% true, it can still be dishonest if they cut away all the parts that make them look bad, and it is still propaganda. That is what comes of heavily controlled tours and journalism, not open bald-faced lies.

                    I doubt any of the unredacted portions of the Epstein files are deliberately falsified, but you don’t see me saying that their release was an honest move.