The meme assumes the Western context. We don't trust the US government because of the centuries of violence and exploitation. We had to go looking for that information because it is minimized and buried at every turn by the compliant national media.

On the other hand, the supposed abuses of the Chinese government are loudly broadcast at every turn. You'll find if you go looking outside of Western sanctioned sources that all of those criticisms are absurd fabrications.

Therefore, someone in the western context who says they don't trust the US or China is trusting the US media for information about China but not about the US itself. Does that help?

[–] Valso@lemmy.ml 2 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

Yeah, I think it does. But I still don't get it why the man in the third image is with nearly closed eyes. Is he answering the question by mimicing a Chinese face, meaning China told him not to trust what China says?

[–] Transform2942@lemmy.ml 1 points 40 minutes ago

I'm a little confused because the comic only has two panels? Additionally, in the second panel the character's eyes are still round not any other shape - I don't see squinting at all? (If you were trying to draw a head that small with eyes that were squinting, you would use angled lines, not circles)

In any case, I believe the interpretation of the comic intended by the creator is: "Panel one represents what Western liberals say about China. Panel 2 represents the media environment they swim in"

[–] mendiCAN@hexbear.net 6 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)

Description: Eye squinting happens when the eyelids are compressed together serving to constrict the eyes. It can sometimes occur in just a fraction of a second before disappearing.

In One Sentence: Narrowing the eyes is due to physical or emotional pain.

How To Use it: When you do not like what is being said or seen, simply narrow your eyes. This tells others that you do not like what you are seeing or hearing. You may perform this eye language in brief within just fractions of a seconds. While people may not consciously perceive the signal, it will likely still register subconsciously. If the person for whom the cue is intended, notices, they may revisit their proposal and add additional incentives to ease your negative judgment.

Context: General.

Verbal Translation: “What I’m seeing is causing me emotional or physical pain and to prevent all that negativity from coming into my body I’m going to squint and block to resist.”

Variant: See Anger Facial Expression, Hand To Eye Gesture.

Cue In Action: a) A person will wince when reading objectionable portions of a contract. b) She winced when the student missed the correct note on the piano. It caused her visceral pain.

Meaning and/or Motivation: An eye blocking form of body language designed to prohibit distasteful images or even thoughts from being received at full view. Narrowing eyes indicates contempt, distaste and anger. A person will not only squint from seeing objectionable sights, but also negative thoughts or sounds.

Wincing falls into the category of microexpressions since it can happen in only fractions of a second before disappearing, yet it remains full of meaning.

[–] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 1 points 20 hours ago

He’s saying anyone that claims to not trust the West nor China only distrusts China because they were propagandized by western news sources.

I don’t find that particularly compelling because I think assuming someone’s information diet and discarding it in order to invalidate their view is lazy. I’ll leave it at that so I don’t get put in timeout.