Post #1633988

2026-04-17 07:17 UTC

People in China definitely don’t live scared to criticise the government, I’ve had plenty of Chinese exchange students and discussed openly politics with them and they have no problem doing so. In fact, people in China have a much better opinion of their system of governance than we do anywhere in the west: Queer rights need improving but are not horrible, people are free to have a relationship with whomever they want (though older generations may not understand it and may show prejudice), and there are even well-known “gay hubs” like Chengdu, where you can find plenty of overtly gay clubs, and there’s increasing homosexual representation in media. The laws need to catch up, but the country has developed a lot faster economically than it’s realistic to change culturally, and thankfully China has no threat of a right wing party taking away the rights once they’re earned! everyone knows they have the most invasive privacy system, they will even use it for things like knowing automatically that you paid for a train ticket wheb you walk in so it feels like a plus as long as you’re a good citizen. You’re giving a botched description of the western media-manufactured conspiracy theory of the “social credit score”. Much in the same way that a criminal in Europe pending trial wouldn’t be allowed to board a plane, this applies to China in long distance trains, simple as that. I’m a Spaniard with a thick beard and face recognition didn’t work on me when I visited China (lmao), and it was never a problem because there are always helpful workers as an alternative. Europe looks so so much better Unfortunately, not most of Europe, you’re probably referring only to a few Nordic countries and possibly France or Germany, where wages are decent for highly trained workers. I’m living in Spain, and my friends with PhDs can’t afford to get into a mortgage, and everywhere in Europe there is continuous degradation of the welfare state thanks to neoliberalism imposed by the EU, and now it’s threatened even more due to far right parties rising because of the 20 years of economic decay without an end in sight + capitalist media conglomerates.

Replies (3)

@flyby@lemmy.zip 2026-04-17 08:03

I’ve seen this picture used in some pro-China instances, I don’t think it’s a useful statistic in a slightest. It can just as well show how indoctrinated people are in China (and it in fact does by looking at a second graph, it’s comical to claim that China is a democracy)

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@heartpunk25@lemmy.world 2026-04-17 10:54

I honestly kind of wondered where the whole social credit score thing even came from tbh. I know US media paints such a horrible picture of China and everybody here parrots it. I think with the being afraid to speak out thing I was more talking about the media walking on eggshells as just an unwritten rule and people still feeling a little wary saying things on social media against the government. That is what I kind of heard was one of the small downsides in China after watching a video of someone who moved there 10 years ago. I have heard that Europe is a bit of a mess right now, but I honestly think the US is worse, aren’t we half the cause of it anyways? With this war, and Trumps policies, and corporations funding politics and MAGA propaganda encouraging nationalism in places getting a lot more immigrants. It probably sounds really America-centric but I talked to somebody else that said we had a huge influence so I’m not really sure how much of this is our country’s fault abroad.

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@heartpunk25@lemmy.world 2026-04-17 11:07

Degradation of the welfare state. That does sound really familiar. A classic excuse politically is to say the immigrants and minorities are taking it, we have had it erode more and more so many times here. Back in the 90’s it was the (totally not black) welfare queens mooching off the child care income from her (totally not black) 4 kids she had in the inner city. Now it’s anyone from south of the border that is apparently taking it. There are countless examples of prejudice fueling keeping the poor poor here, the arguments were a lot more overt right after the civil war but eventually they just became a corporate co-opted smoke screen since they really stand to benefit more than anyone. It sounds really hard in Europe too I guess. It’s such a vicious cycle fascism and wealth inequality. Or even just scapegoats and wealth inequality. They do say polarization correlates with wealth inequality but the overton window especially in the US has shifted so far right that it’s hard to even beleive sometimes.

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