Anyone else banned from world news for criticizing China?locked

ChowJeeBai@lemmy.world to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 368 points –

So I made a comment on worldnews criticizing Chinese activity in the south china sea and apparently got banned for it by the automod. This happen to anyone else? Is this Lemmy's version of the need help post and the shape of things to come?

The instance I posted in was Lemmy.ml

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Block these instances: lemmy.ml lemmygrad.ml hexbear.net

There is no point arguing with tankies. They are dumb and they won't change. I just hope there will be a way to completely block those users including their comments. They are polluting the fediverse.

I just hope there will be a way to completely block [...] users including their comments.

Remember who the developers are.

Yeah. I hope kbin will grow and have a decent mobile app, then I can finally move over.

Check out Kbin.earth and the Interstellar app! :)

When I tried the Interstellar app earlier, it crashed frequently. Just tried it again with the current version and it seems to be very stable now. Thanks for the suggestion.

Is there something unique about kbin.earth? I am using kbin.melroy.org for now, which runs on mbin.

But... Kbin can federate just as easily with those instances as Lemmy. You shouldn't think "I'm going to move to kbin", that wouldn't help in any way.

You should rather move to an instance (using any backend you like, Lemmy, Kbin, doesn't matter) that has defederated from the instances you don't want to interact with.

They seem to be really anti-nsfw, so that could be a driving force for improving their instance blocking (and is probably the only reason it exists in the first place).

They are anti blocking or..? I don't understand this comment.

The devs are the tankies that run lemmy.ml

I just hope there will be a way to completely block those users including their comments. They are polluting the fediverse.

There already is, go to an instance that defederates from them. Or try to convince your current instance to do it. Or make your own personal instance so you're in control of what you defederate from.

It's a bit extreme to block the entirety of Lemmy.ml, no?

Based on what china is doing to fishing and military boats from the Philippines, I doubt they're just after 'transit'. They're making a territorial claim. Not much different from Russia's claim on Ukraine, except that its happening in international waters.

This is what OP was banned for. It’s not just the world news community, the admins police wrongthink across the entire instance.

And the Streisand effect has carried those words to people who would have never seen them.

Hope you’re reading this .ml!

I wonder what the listed offence was, because what OP stated in the comment is absolutely true. Did they conveniently forget the 9-dash line? China is absolutely laying claim to waters that have already been declared to belong to the Philippines.

to join lemmy.ml you need to copy and paste a paragraph from a communist text, so, no

? Since when. I used to have an account there months ago when I migrated from reddit. I don't think I would have missed that at the time

Yeah I had an account there too and I set it up like every other account. Found out later on that ml was Marxist Lennin so I setup shop at lemm.ee instead

.ml is the top level domain for the country of Mali. .ml domains are free, so it is just a coincidence. Also, Marxist-Leninism is not a 'tankie' theory, by itself. There are plenty of communists and socialists that aren't simps for China and Russia.

I would even say that you can't be a true communist and support either of these countries, because these countries are not communist at all. They are just authoritarian capitalistic hellholes, with sprinkles of social policies to give the illusion of pursuing a communist society.

Dessalines, lemmy dev and admin of both lemmygrad and lemmy.ml, is a Dengist. And not exactly coy about it.

And don't even fucking start to pretend it's "lemmygrad dot mali".

Fuck I'm retarded.

I've been here for months and kind of known all these components but just never connected the dots.

I was even defending Lemmy at one point.

Well, lemmy is code. From what I heard the indefensible thing about it was the utterly unoptimised DB usage but with influx of new devs that got quite a bit better.

At the beginning there were talks about a fork but one doesn't just fork a FLOSS project if there's no technical reasons, or reasons regarding project management, and in that regard dessalines appears to be sane.

I never knew whether that was true, I just drifted away from it. .ml just means it is on a domain designated for Mali, but they could have explicitly chosen that domain to use it for another purpose.

Damn, I guess looking back, the .ml wasn't about Mali lol

This is blatantly not true. To sign up for lemmy.ml, you have to provide an email, name, and a couple sentences of why you're joining. You should stop inventing false statements and spewing them on the internet. It's not good for anyone. In fact, it makes everyone who dislikes lemmy.ml look like idiots.

Not at all. There’s nothing good that has .ml at the end of it here. You’re missing nothing.

I don't miss anything there other than the Firefox community.

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The instance I posted in was Lemmy.ml

LOL! There ya go.

Yep.

Fastest way to get banned there is to give valid criticism of China or Russia.

One of the Tankiest of tankie instances

Why do tankies stan for Russia? Nostalgia?

Because no likey da Americans

These morons think Iran is a bastion of anti-colonial resistance

Iran

The theocracy

The successor state to one of the longest running imperial projects in human history

The state currently organizing proxies to destabilize it's neighbors with the intention of letting a puppet state take all of it for integration within it's sphere of influence

That Iran.

Tankies have no values and even fewer brain cells.

I wonder where they're all from? Are they living in the US?

A few are Canadians who think letting the prairie provinces have nice things will lead to the second war of 1812, but yeah, they're almost always bougie US kids. Why I always call them Bougyeviks.

All the ideology, none of the actual connection to the people who need the most help

Tankies love fascist dictatorships. That's their whole shtick.

Yep, this.

They are convinced they are gonna be part of the ruling class, So they fucking love fascist authoritarian dictatorship.

The overwhelming irony is that they would most likely be the ones purged, not the ones ruling.

Sow disinformation about the west, erode tust.

Now, bear in mind I'm acutely aware of the strengths of china, and the failings of the us, but when the 300lb gorilla is in your backyard eyeing your kids, you get involved with the gorilla, and keep and eye on what is happening in office politics and in the neighbours yard.

Because there are reactionaries. It’s like PETA or angry vegans who are in it for the moral superiority rather than making the world a better place.

They want a strong daddy to tell them what to think and do. They're frightened children.

Inability to hold nominally conflicting ideas. You can be a socialist and be against the actions of countries that claim to be socialist. Likewise you can be capitalist and be against the actions of countries that claim to be capitalist.

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Isn't that the developer instance? Are the developers tanki communists? (I don't believe a real communist would want to support china OR russia since they aren't actually communists)

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Lemmy.ml is a tankie instance that loves China and hates western countries. Unfortunately, it's also one of the biggest Lemmy instances because it's run by the main devs of Lemmy (who created Lemmy because they were frequently banned on other sites for bootlicking for China). Thankfully, Lemmy is open source and the nature of how it runs allows everyone to ignore the weird ideologies of the devs.

It's one of the only 3 instances I block. All tankies bullshit.

what are the other two?

I thought I was only blocking two but it seems I am blocking four

hexbear.net lemmy.ml alien.top lemmygrad.ml

You've got my 3. I don't know anything about alien.top.

alien.top is an instance that scrapes Reddit and mirrors posts and comments, creating bot accounts with the same username as the original poster. The intent was to make it easy for users to migrate away from Reddit (just claim the bot account with your username), but everyone pointed out the obvious ethical problems of mass plagiarizing and how nobody on Reddit can see any replies you make. It was also super spammy and 99℅ of the comments are from those scraper bots, so most instances defederated from them.

Pretty sure that project ended after all the backlash.

I've got lemmit blocked for similar reasons. I don't really know much of it, but that lemmit bot was annoying me and I just sort of assumed the entire instance was probably just Reddit posts so blocked it

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Hey fellow non-China Chinese. Just block lemmy.ml, lemmy grad.ml and hexbear for a much better lemmy experience.

Those instances are just satire right?

.....right?

lemmygrad is a full-on cult, lemmy.ml is its public front and embassy, and hexbear, well, there's plenty of idiots on hexbear, the problem with hexbearians isn't that they're Stalinists but that they think signal politics does anything, hence also their propensity to pile. At least in the past I think they've given up on doing it outside hexbear.

Two of them are practically dead.

Hexbear is just the exodus of ChapoTrapHouse and a few affiliated sites from when Reddit kicked its ban policy into high gear. The Akira Toriyama Megathread and Online Movie Night top-posts seem about as sincere and good natured as anything on any other social media site.

Only if Sino on reddit was as well. Which I thought was when I first came across it.

How to block?

settings/ blocks tab/ block instances at the bottom

Boost app does not seem to be able to block an instance.

How do I actually block instances?

Anyway fuck tankies

If you're on the website, just go to settings, block

It was !worldnews@lemmy.ml ... so yeah, almost anyone that say anything against China. It's a tankie instance.

Use !world@lemmy.world instead.

Lemmy.world was the one that blocked me from calling out russian bs. And everyday its nothing but linkerbaan being busy trying to convince everyone that Status Quo Joe is the worst thing in the world bc Gaza.

Yeah. He's an obvious troll. The bigger problem is that when I've called him out in the past, a mod here has deleted my comments for misleading reasons. So it's obvious that at least one of the mods does support Russian bs. Of course, there are other mods who do give him the occasional ban so he calms down a bit.

I've said this elsewhere, but if you're angry about what's happening in Gaza, you really don't want 'friends' like that supporting your cause. One spoilt apple ruins the bunch. It's like if you run a children's hospital that accepts donations from Gary Glitter.

My thing with it is, ive bwen privately/publicly bitching about the apartheid state known as Israel for the past 15+ yrs, but now, now is when everybodys taking note, when the october attack by hamas was, in part, part of a larger russian effort to draw attention away from the area in Europe they have since called a stepstone multiple times now. And now these voices conveniently ignore that US policy towards israel has always been unconditional financial/military support. But suuuure, its all bidens fault. As if the geriatric neolib picked out of a hat bc he was the closest thing to "average" for our politics over the past 60 yrs was the problem, and is if there was no chance of their being intelligence available to the president that isnt available to the rest of us.

Support Gaza, but remember that Ukraine is where the bigger worldwide threat is.

Kind proud to have been banned from reddit world news (pre-API BS) for calling out the Israel bootlicker spam and downvote bot armies.

It's disgusting how obviously evil Israel has treated the west bank for so long that only now people care, and only now are people calling on the government to put an end to it. I recall having read an article about at least 1 Jewish community protest having been marked "antisemetic"

The obsession with the genocide language really says it all. They use it to shut down discussion entirely, but they will ban you if you mention the G word about Ukraine.

A year or two from now, when there are still millions of Arab Palestinians, and the world is spending billions to rebuild their infrastructure, I'm sure all these people will definitely admit that it was never genocide.

The dude is pretty much a protected asset in !Politics. He’s seemingly untouchable there.

Yeah, the linkerbaan guy is an obvious russian bot/troll, I've blocked him a long time ago.

I'm inclined to believe that they might be genuine. The comments are too well-written for a mere spam/bot/troll account.

The sheer volume of these comments and posts does feel very spam-like though

Not that obvious, judging by the downvotes here and how they are the most popular poster over there. And per what ppl under u were saying, i would bet money that they are a paid actor, not a bot, though they definitely employ those as well to inflate, deflate upvotes at their discretion.

I thought you got downvoted for confusing a lemmy.ml community for lemmy.world one.

Yeah. That dude is either a Russian propagandist, or a right-wing MAGA troll.

They’re impossible to tell apart.

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Lemmy.ml is only a tankie instance to someone that thinks Marxism=tankies

That said, at least one of the Worldnews mods is a pretty evident Pooh Poster.

They'll let people call out the more aggressive bullshit "America bad" rhetoric but if you even look at China funny you're going to eat a permaban.

There is nothing marxist about ml or other tankie places. They are just pure authoritarian brownnosers, and couldn't care less about actual socialism. Tankies are purely in it because they imagine they are going to be the ruling class after their imaginary "revolution", exactly the same way fascists are in it for.

From my little research I didn't think communism even had classes.

Sure, the people running the goverment were definitely in the same lines as everyone else waiting for their beet and bread rations.

I mean real communism. Not the totalitarianism dictatorships the USSR and China were/are.

Lemmy.ml is only a tankie instance to someone that thinks Marxism=tankies

lmao

but if you even look at China funny you're going to eat a permaban.

That sure sounds like classic tankie.

The ironic part is that all of the Marxist-Leninists on .ml are actually really bad when it comes to contemporary political science in my experience. They are way closer to anti-western ideologues considering their grasp on modern leftist theory seems tenuous at best. All they know is orthodox dogma and then a bunch of cold war nonsense which has nothing to do with leftist politics at all.

a tankie is someone who tends to support "militant opposition to capitalism", and a more modern online variation, which means "something like 'a self-proclaimed communist who indulges in conspiracy theories and whose rhetoric is largely performative.'

I use this definition. And it perfectly applies to a wide range of lemmy.ml users and moderators.

They don't oppose capitalism (example Russia & China). It's closer to a support for authoritarianism (usually anti-USA, but even there shifts towards more authoritarian leadership receive support)

It's not that they don't oppose capitalism so much that they'll ignore any sense of ideological consistency on their quixotic quest to make sure that everyone knows America is Bad.

If you oppose America, you must be good, it doesn't matter if you're a genocidal kleptocracy or a genuine fascist. Internally this is rationalized by viewing America as the most dominant and powerful force for capitalism in the world, it doesn't matter if other, even worse capitalists tear it down because the American empire must fall for socialism to rise.

And it's not like that particular thought is wrong, in a vacuum. America has proven time and time again that it will break any moral barrier to attack anyone even suspected of being a socialist, it's just so evidentally self defeating you have to wonder if there are any true believers at all or if they're all sockpuppets run from a Russian speaking basement somewhere.

The vibe is exactly like the astroturf shit that flooded reddit in 2016. Endless criticism of Democrats in the US, while never mentioning US conservatives for some odd reason. That's why I get from the "Jor Biden really bad, genocide! Don't vote for him, vote 3rd party!" They come to US left/democrat/liberal spaces and try to convince people to not vote for Biden, but where are the efforts to convince people to not vote for Trump? And then this "you say everyone is a russian bot lol!!" thing is also exactly what the shills on reddit did.

It's not that they don't oppose capitalism so much that they'll ignore any sense of ideological consistency on their quixotic quest to make sure that everyone knows America is Bad.

Spot on. Whatever that's called, that sounds like much/most of the hexbear and ml instances.

... America has proven time and time again that it will break any moral barrier to attack anyone even suspected of being a socialist,

Sadly, you're right. More to the point there are many examples of the US knocking down anything or anyone even suspected of threatening capitalists. Whether that's unions within the US, governments leaning too socialist (yet being democracies), or whatever else. I know you know this; I just felt like venting.

it's just so evidentally self defeating you have to wonder if there are any true believers at all or if they're all sockpuppets run from a Russian speaking basement somewhere.

When they all come out with new talking points about the same time, all bearing remarkable similarity, and coinciding with notable (geo)political events, and brigading certain posts, it sure makes you go, "hmm."

I don't think it's about capitalism/socialism/communism at all for a lot of them at this point. They have a fairly simple ideology: the enemy of my enemy is my friend. And their enemy happens to be their own government.

its still part of Russian geoplitical strategy - shifts to the right are self-destructive and help USA's enemies

during the 80's, USA pushed the USSR's allies in South America to adopt more conservative governments as a means of destroying them from the inside, and today Russia is attempting to employ the same strategy against USA

I've literally never once seen any of these people mention a single thing about economic philosophy. It's simply shit talking the west and defending the Chinese and Russian governments at all costs. I think the whole "communism" aspect is little more than a smokescreen.

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I don’t agree, but I did lol at “Pooh poster”

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For those of you asking/ curious, the reason given was 'yellow peril'. Really? I guess my being asian and directly affected by the Chinese activities in the scs makes me somehow a threat to yellow people?

Same. I literally have family in China and therefore a real stake in Chinese society. Meanwhile a bunch of western tankies who have never been to China and don't speak the language hand down bans merely for me relaying conversations I've actually had with real Chinese people in their native language about Chinese history and politics.

It's simple racism to infantilise all Chinese people like this, believing they need a bunch of white saviors on the Internet to speak for them and guard their cultural chastity.

Simply mentioning china or any ethnicity at all is seen as racism to them because grounding reality in anything other than communist propaganda is seen as a threat.

Holy shit theyve drunk the cool aid. There's articles about mainland students just exploding in college classes when bringing up Chinese topics. Or the video about the piano player being intimidated and wrongly accused of impropriety for making a video. The problem is when the authorities side with these bullies, or play it down.

Did you know that if you support Ukraine, the tankies say that makes you racist against Asians? No joke , that’s what I was called. You see, they say, Russia is actually an Asian country.

This isn’t a joke and happened to me. And the people were really really cross with me.

Lmao that username. You're either Malaysian or Singaporean.

Hahaha. I recognize your usernamr from 'the other place'

Leddit? Yeah I was active there, then decided to leave.

Same, with a name change to go with it. Hope things work out here mate!

HK or Cantonese could work as well.

Cibai is a Hokkien insult, not a Cantonese insult

Canton is part of main land Chinese, they use the same standard pinyin.

Ofcourse you can be edgy and use Wade-Giles or some new thing that Taiwan came up with.

thanks for the heads up. I just unjoined all lemmy.ml communities, and blocked the instance. That sort of censorship is not a good thing.

Some of them came here from Reddit when chapo trap house got banned. Others are straight up BRICS propaganda accounts.

Ok what even the hell is BRICS at this point? It's geopolitical "stop trying to make Fetch happen!" by now, two of it's members are in active decline, one is at the edge of being a failed state, and the other two are about as actually committed to some kind of anti-western bloc as the average American prison is to respecting human rights.

Yep. It's a joke. Was always going to be a joke. Maybe without authoritarian assholes leading the two largest members it could have become something.

ml is usually decent. Hexbear is where things go off the rails

The .ml stands for Marxist /Leninist.

Funny, communists always insist China isn't communist at all, so why would they care about it being criticized?

Tankies aren't that type of communist, that is, sane. Tankies are auth rights disguised as leftists.

Aren't tankies authoritarian leftists? What's "right" about them?

Marx encouraged fascist dictatorships as a method to bring about the proletariat revolution.

And this is why dictators love the, "give me just a little more power and once it's secured I'll hand it all back to the people, pinky swear" schtick.

If you go by the origin of the division and their definitions, they certainly are right. Authoritarian gov means centralising power. People arguing for the Ancient Regime were also pushing better for the people rethoric.

Besides, they are supporting a state that is closest to a nazi state. russia.

I disagree, they're firmly authleft, the problem is "auth."

Being authoritarian about leftist ideals doesn't secretly make you right wing because "authoritarian = right wing." Leftism isn't "when good," you can have bad leftists and pretending otherwise is nothing more than delusion.

Because the only stance that tankies actually hold is "America bad", to the degree that anyone that is an opponent of America must automatically be good and must be supported at all costs

The communists who say China isn't communist aren't the ones that go to bat for them.

communists always insist China isn’t communist

I can think of at least 95M Communists who don't insist this.

But modern American leftists are increasingly in love with China, particularly with their HSR and Tech programs.

Also, Mali

Did the Lemmy developers register the name under the .ml TLD because they are such fans of Mali? Maybe but probably not.

Because the domains are literally free

just block the lemmy.ml instance and if you start to feel annoyed by the hexbear, block that one too. You will not notice any loss

I thought y'all are defederated from hexbear

my instance doesn't defederate from anyone

This is the way. I would prefer local blocking to complete defederation, because then the onus is on me.

The problem is some people are gullible. Yeah we'll I know it's their problem. But I can't help to have some concern for my fellows in the internet. Though I also recognize their freedom to choose for themselves. It's truly a conundrum. Where does concern stop and overstepping start eh?

It sounds good to let each user decide for themselves, but you must remember that these instances that you as a user block still get to have influence on voting. So even if you block all the instances you don't want to have an influence, they'll still have an influence on your feed.

Not defederating from anything is not the best path if you want to shut out an instance.

Hexbear defederated from everyone, but everyone didn't defederate from Hexbear.

That's because the instance was ml. I regularly criticize them in world for their absurd actions.

Fuck the Chinese government.

Keep it civil mate. Be better. It's not the govt that is banning people here, but the individuals blinded by their tactics.

The Chinese government is responsible for creating a culture of censorship, don't tell me what to do.

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I ran into something similar a couple days ago:

I wrote a comment critical of Chinas actions in Africa, which was silently deleted after it got traction. When I looked at the mod log, my comment was not listed. Checked back on my comment, checked the mod log from another machine. Nothing.

Just silently and covertly removed without any trace of who and why. Has me really suspicious

That tracks. China's (imperialist) abuse of Africa isn't the message they want out there. They frame it as win-win collaboration

Right. More like win and give up your sovereign right and decision making autonomy on all of the world bodies.

You mean the comment in technology@lemmy.world about "bootleg videos of Chinese foremen in in Africa" that shows in Modlog as being removed by mod for "Racist stereotyping"?

Yes, that one. I don’t mind so much the removal as the odd secretiveness I observed. Where are you seeing that correct mod log? When I tried looking at the reason the removal action was not in the log, which is what my main issue is/was. I even tried from my phone and computer to the same result

If I make an inappropriate comment (in the heat of the moment) in whatever community it’s totally fine if they remove it but I would at least like to know why.

I just pulled up the modlogs on lemmy.zip and entered your username.

So if I comment on .world, and a mod there removes the comment, I have to check my home instance mod log?

I see what you mean about it not showing in logs on lemmy.world. Given the "carnist rhetoric" one shows I'm betting on it being a bug. Lemmy has many bugs and Modlog federation is especially buggy from what I've seen.

Got banned after calling out russian propaganda for being just that. Literally happened on my first or second day on lemmy.

Sorry about that mate. I don't think Lemmy sucks or anything. But I just hope it's not going down reddits unfettered moderator powers and getting banned without recourse. Kinda feels like it may be headed there.

The abuse of power is instance-specific, fortunately. The whole point of all this is that there are multiple instances. Just ignore the ones that are run by tankies, those instances are theirs to wallow in if they want.

Yeah. I just hope that doesn't mean we need to keep switching instances once one fills up with weirdos looking around because no one wants to join them in their poisoned forums any more. I'm pretty sure they will have alt accounts on multiple instances.

I don’t think Lemmy sucks or anything.

This really doesn't have much to do with Lemmy. If you don't like what you see from a certain instance, go to an instance that defederates from that instance. That applies regardless of what software you use to access the Fediverse, Lemmy, kbin, whatever.

Its strange. When i first came on here i felt that shit was the same as there bc of this. Now? Idk man.... the big difference is the amount of sane voices on here that arent silenced but instead are prevalent. Thats why i dont like the advice of blocking the shitty instances. Young ppl are at risk of stumbling in early, and the trolls/shills need to be pushed back against.

Tankies have occupied the post!

Believe me. I've noticed.

Just ignore them. They open with ad hominem attacks, or myriad assumptions about age, account credibiltiy based on registration date, nationality vs ethnicity, political leanings, etc. and demand your response. Let them stew in their ignorant hate.

Yes, I posted a ProPublica article about how the CCP uses organized crime to intimidate Chinese citizens abroad and got banned from the entire instance for it.

It gets juicer. Just read some of the comments here. These people need to touch grass or something.

I have accidentally responded to posts there but have since blocked the instance. Nothing good can come from engaging with them.

lemmy.ml? I don't part enough attention to the instances unless they're particularly horrible. But it they're subtly evil, like banning people with non-conformist views, they often slip under my radar.

You Have Been Banned For Breaking The Terms Of Service. Our Terms of Service Are Byzantine And Who Are We Kidding? Nobody Is Manually Administering This Shit. But That Means There's No Appeals Process. So Politely Fuck Off, We're Done Actually Soliciting Content From People. Now We Just Want You Rubes To Give Us Your Money.

I'm confused. Few months ago people were complaining the exact opposite for lemmy.world and to switch to lemmy.ml. Not China specifically, but dissenting views.

What was your account?

lol, apparently I got a temp ban for "misinformation" over a comment saying that Russian-aligned forces at Debaltseve ignored the ceasefire that was agreed in Minsk II

In fairness though it was only a temp ban, and they've never removed anything else I've said (even in that specific thread)

Mine as flagged 'yellow peril'. Now bear in mind I'm asian and have a direct interest in the article and my comment. Maybe the automod just removes reported posts. But really? Yellow peril? Wtf is that even?

They use a lot of words like that or Sinophobia, orientalism, etc when the word they actually mean to use is wrongthink.

"Yellow peril" is a term describing a kind of racist propaganda that solidified in the 19th century, basically saying that either East Asia or specific parts of East Asia (China or Japan, most often) represents an existential threat to Europe / the West / white people / whatever else. Wikipedia has a page on it, though it sticks to the historical context and leaves more recent versions of the same general idea to other articles. That's not to say that you were doing it, though, just that it is an established term

Right. So racism is out in my case because I'm an effing Chinese, so it's just my wording of my disagreement with Chinese policy and propaganda. I consider the Chinese claim on the international waters of the scs plain propaganda and an imminent threat to the surrounding countries. I got no beef with you, friend.

The person replying to me was articulate and well worded, but I couldn't help thinking it's the same language putin would use to justify annexing Crimea (quote: it's more complicated that most people understand) and filling in with much nothingspeak and no sources. I'm so done with that instance now.

I got no beef with you, friend.

Likewise! I didn't think you came across as angry at me, but sorry if I seemed that way to you. I didn't mean to

You should have a big bad luck or they got some mods. The number of straight racism towards asians and south Americans I saw in World news made me literally block the community months ago. It was exactly the same as the reddit counterpart.

My sentiments exactly. Power tripping mods and autobanning without recourse.

I had the opposite experience. Lemmy's World News is much less racist than Reddit's. So many articles about events in Asia, Africa, etc.

As I said, I blocked the community months ago, I dont doubt you, I really wish it changed and I'm wrong

No, but thanks for the heads up. Lemm.ee seems to be good about that, or I would've ruffled every feather in the book almost.

Well it's run By Estonians, of course they have good reason to dislike Russia.

Lemm.ee is? I didn't know that. You learn something new every day.

I wish the best for Estonia during these times. Such nice vibes from there.

The Chinese government is downrite evil. I don't understand what mistakes needed to be made to allow a cartoon villain level of tyrannical human rights violating government to be put in place, and still exist.

Nope. But I’m banned from climate for not liking that little climate girl.

The Thread you posted to was https://apnews.com/article/malaysia-china-australia-anwar-ibrahim-b4d75a8423b5265bec1a05d69231965f

and you dismissed all the other guys in the thread posting nuance with this vibes-based comment:

Based on what china is doing to fishing and military boats from the Philippines, I doubt they're just after 'transit'. They're making a territorial claim. Not much different from Russia's claim on Ukraine, except that its happening in international waters.

Your account is 4 days old. No one cares what color yankee you are mate.

take the L, read more, and maybe don't only believe western narrative, and you'll do just fine. Youll even learn something.

I reccommend you stick around and read things that challenge your worldview. you dont have to believe everything you read, but you should always critically analyze yourself and your position, just in case.

While I appreciate challenging my worldview, the issue with Lemmy.ml is the users who tend to uncritically accept Russian and Chinese propaganda, and many are very hostile to outside perspectives. If there were open and good faith discussion I think it would be of more value, but instead they just ban anyone with outside perspectives. This type of “discussion” has little to contribute to the broader community.

On this specific issue I really haven’t seen anything that challenges the idea that China is engaging in imperialism here. Do you have any recommended reading that challenges the western narrative?

The issue is also people getting banned for a comment like the one quoted. There’s nothing in there that’s worthy of a ban under any reasonable set of mod rules.

Yes. And not did I NOT slag the entire group as accused, it seems the only issue was that I was not parroting the hive speak. Instead of engaging in discourse like a mature adult, and 'expanding their world view', they and some other users are content to weild the ban hammer like an insecure child/ trumpist/ dictator. I believe in people's right to speak, even if I disagree with their message, which seems to include the very things we in SEA are concerned about.

Never mind mate. Apparently his version of expanding his worldview doesn't involve 'younger' accounts. That tells me all I need to know.

That was certainly rude but I’m trying to engage with everyone in good faith nonetheless. It’s hard but sometimes it pays dividends.

You sir, are a better person than I. One of them has since started deleting. Good thing I didn't respond in kind.

To be fair, a new account posting flaming post does seems to be a troll account (not saying you are)

Well, having an opposing opinion doesn't automatically make it flamebait also - I can't help how people choose to behave. The comment was copied somewhere in here - no ad hominems, unlike one or two of the responses here (not yours). Just discussing the topic at hand and giving my opinions. Apparently some people don't react well to contrary views.

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Do you have any recommended reading that challenges the western narrative?

Id be happy to oblige if i can. Are you looking for something specific to the South China Sea?

I got a short timeline of domestic relations between manilla and beijing from reuter anyway to start the ball rollin'

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/rift-deepens-between-philippines-china-over-south-china-sea-2023-12-21/

Yeah I was asking about the South China Sea. I think the summation of events there supports what OP posted and I’m curious if there is any alternative viewpoint that is factually supported.

The link you posted seems in line with my and OP’s views on the conflict.

I thought it was a nice summary showing that the US is involved in building more military bases in the area. China appears worried about the US grabbing more hegemony and military strength along that important trade route.

Viewed through that lens it seems somewhat similar to the Cuban missile crisis, but i don't want to get into a subjective battle comparing apples to oranges.

China is a rising political and economic force worldwide and the US has a vested interest in stopping them. I see no distinction between what they and we are doing.

Takes pressupposing US benevolence and Chinese imperialism kinda get me back up, and I've seen alot of editorialized and biased headlines from supposed unbiased sources that could be the source of these.

Generally i am gonna disagree with a blanket statement like OPs deleted one when i see so much shit like this:

https://www.businessinsider.com/scarborough-shoal-chinese-fishing-vessels-pumping-cyanide-contested-waters-philippines-2024-2?op=1

Within that article lies this statement,7 paragraphs down:

"We don't have any scientific study or any evidence that would suggest that cyanide fishing in Bajo de Masinloc can be attributed to the Chinese or the Vietnamese fishermen," GMA News quoted a coast-guard spokesperson, Commodore Jay Tarriela, as saying.

But the title states it as fact.

Yeah I mean there is certainly a case to be made that US actions are threatening to China, and it’s also true that pro-US propaganda exists. These are good things to be aware of.

But I also think that this conversation about US vs Chinese interests does not adequately elevate the experiences of smaller countries in the region. Most of whom have voluntarily cooperated with the US to counter Chinese aggression.

Of course, it’s largely true that the US is pursuing their own interests in the region. But that fact does not mean we need to defend Chinese aggression. We should be looking at which actions are beneficial and liberatory to the people who live there, and which are harmful. In my view, Chinese activity is more harmful and imperialistic in the current context. But I am open to learning about and acknowledging the harms that the US is doing as well.

My issue with the Lemmy.ml perspective is that they view US actions in the most unfavorable light possible while viewing Chinese actions in the most positive light possible (usually in direct contradiction to the known facts). When this asymmetry in interpretation is pointed out, their community reacts with hostility or bans. Usually using some nebulous idea of racial prejudice as a justification.

It’s ironic because these are the exact same tactics used by apologists for Israel, which they absolutely hate over there. Authoritarians always use the same tactics it seems.

But I also think that this conversation about US vs Chinese interests does not adequately elevate the experiences of smaller countries in the region.

I am interested in this too, no sarcasm. Id like to read the perspective of the small countries caught up in this. Ill are if i can find anything interestinng.

We should be looking at which actions are beneficial and liberatory to the people who live there, and which are harmful

Neither actions of either country attempting to control trade and resources in the South China Sea will be liberatory, and i am cynical of a major material benefit for the people of the region.

In my view, Chinese activity is more harmful and imperialistic in the current context

I would like to hear more about that context. The context of the harm to the small countries? How are Chinese actions more imperialistic than the US actions there?

I think we could talk more probably! Ill see what i can find

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Their comment is perfectly innocuous. Unless they require college level debate and citations for every comment, there's nothing wrong with it.

Criticizing a government for taking an imperial action should never be forbidden. And make no mistake, China's neighbors there certainly seem to feel like China is significantly overreaching.

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