.ml is the reason I believe in the horseshoe theory. They are so alike to r/the Donald in their fervent defense of China or russia, its rather sad.

You wouldn't get in trouble with the law for saying it in english, that's true. If you say it in Chinese, you might get mysteriously sectioned for having a "mental outburst"

I don't even think China claims to have freedom of speech like the west does, and are rather proud of that fact

Article 51

When exercising their freedoms and rights, citizens of the People’s Republic of China shall not undermine the interests of the state, society or collectives, or infringe upon the lawful freedoms and rights of other citizens.

- XY is true.

- No, XY is not true. Hah, owned by superior rhetorics.

No one in China ever stopped me from writing a poem on how the fertility of Xi is fierce like the yellow river.

Saying this literally to someone with firsthand experience? Literally, to someone with a Chinese username?

Are they seriously that dense?

I was going to say that my impression of the Chinese people is dogmatic collectivism.

The State before the individual, and anyone who disagreed left or was taken care of a long time ago.

Ok, so they're up front about it. It's also illegal to call for regime change in the United States, but we're so damn gung ho about how much free-er we are.

Western Maoists have never tried criticizing the CCP publicly while in China.

"They're both in the constitution!"

Wait until they hear about governments ignoring their own laws

Western Maoists have never tried criticizing the CCP

Okay disclaimer: I did not actually say that type of stuff, especially not in the capital. I wouldn't dare actually saying it irl while in China.

But parents and grandparents were alive in the Mao era, they've seen lots of shit, the struggle sessions...

They talk about it in the livingroom/diningroom a lot...

I was raised with the "do not criticize government" mindset when I was old enough to start having these opinions.

Suppressing dissent is actaully tame compared to the fact that I was the 2nd child of my family and I wasn't even legal, if they had found out that my mom had me, they would have taken her and forced an abortion. (circa 2002)

My mom told me about that One Child Policy stuff and I told her I hate the CCP, then she's like "Okay you can say it at home, but be careful don't say it outside, don't post these things [meaning political things] online, the goverment people might come and you'd be in trouble" (paraphrased from Cantonese)

And when she said that, she meant it as in both criticisms against PRC and US government, so since we're now in the US and she fear arrestes or deportations if we criticize the US government too much, and she also don't wanna get banned from China / and she still have sisters (aka: my aunts) living there... So I was told to just focus on my life, to stop "worrying about things I can't change"

It's not though. Just to try to effect regime change. You can call for it all you want.

I mean depends on what you mean by "regime change"...

I mean... Bernie is constantly saying "Political Revolution" and all that Socialism stuff and afaik he's not in jail

You can say "With a mortar launcher." Because that's its own sentence.

Tankies are conservatives. The worldview is defined by ingroup loyalty. I am not joking when I say people in this mindset do not grasp objective truth, as a concept.

There's also a non-conservative right wing. You can spot them exiting their party with bootprints on their ass, because they actually bought some round of bullshit, and refused to abandon it when people up the hierarchy needed different bullshit.

Yeah, you can say someone else should be president, or that congress should pass this or that agenda.

You cannot publicly call for, say, hypothetically, replacing the constitution with a parliamentary system.

You can call for a parliamentary system (eg. via constitutional amendments)

You just can't call for a "communist" or anarchist militant uprising.

Yeah, I don't think constitutional amendments are happening this century. Everything's far too ossified.

They didn't say an amendment is likely, they said you can publicly call for one. The first amendment to it literally protects the right to say we should be rid of it.

shoutout when their idol, Hasan, had to stop streaming as Police questioned him about a meme that he flashed on camera.

We should dare this freagle@lemmy.ml to prove it on camera in livestream.

Oh, he wouldn't get in trouble because he is obviously a European/USian white man. A Chinese person doing it would be in a lot of trouble.

It's in the law in PRC that you are not allowed to be a trouble to public order. It's written pretty much like that with no further details. They don't have to ignore their own laws. They merely have to interpret it.

Eh, they're not really that "brainwashed". The Chinese people complain a lot, even online. Over minor things, worst case it'll be deleted (unless maybe if you're extremely persistent) It's just the line is drawn when you're effectively calling for regime change

Sometimes I feel like I'm never really truely "American" for this very reason

Like its not just because the west having "perpetual foreigner" stereotype, but also PRC would never view me on equal footing as a White American because I was born in China and I have Chinese blood.

They've completely lost the plot in what left/right was intended to identify, and instead associate it with "the guys I like are left and the bad guys are right."

They're just just right-wing nationalists arguing for merit-based authoritarianism based off a different set of merits than the the white-christian nationalists of the west. Despite that, they have more in common with them then genuine leftists, who see the rule of any one party as invalid.

Damn, man. Thank you for sharing, genuinely. I always appreciate the opportunity to learn of lived, firsthand experiences in these topics.

Yeah that's pretty much how I see it. Well said