"Because they're such a closed country!"
"Which means you have no evidence to your point either?"
"Well, missionaries... anyway!"
YOU CAN GO THERE ON VACATION
BUSINESSMEN GO THERE ALL THE TIME
ENGLISH TEACHERS
this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2026
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The millions of Chinese traveling the world as tourists and international students were all once toddlers in a sweatshop too ya know
Tbf the Chinese international students I had at my university all came from very wealthy backgrounds
Wrong, they're all mind-wiped sleeper agents made to BELIEVE they're from wealthy backgrounds. With the exception of God-Chairman Mao—who is alive and sitting upon the golden throne, as the immortal guardian of authoritarianism—all Chinese citizens are sweatshop workers.
If you think about it, this is the only explanation that makes sense.
I never thought about it like that. But you are probably right
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If you do go there and report back, they'll tell you that all the people you see are actors (like North Korea) or that they're the upper strata of society so not representative of the gajillions hidden away in prison camps or whatever they need to pivot to.
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The idea that China is a "closed country" is fucking wild, there are literally hundreds of millions of people travelling in and out of there every single year, not to mention the tons of Chinese people who work and study abroad who are in regular contact with their families back home, and likewise all the foreigners who work and study in China doing the same.
You should ask your therapist if they are an r/worldnews mod lmfao
I think she's thinking of bygone times when they were more closed off. I mentioned that they have opened up, to which she replied, "Just a little." I think there're too many brainworms, for me to help root out in the relatively short time I see her. I just needed to complain a little.
I mentioned that they have opened up,
FOUR DECADES AGO. I am reminded of people who think Russia is still commie
It's always bizarrely funny to me when someone's conception of a foreign country is frozen in the era when they grew up. Like a guy I knew who, when I tried to explain that Japan is a semi-colony of the US, responded "actually the US is a semi-colony of Japan because they make all our electronics and could paralyze our economy by cutting us off from trade."
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Westerners do seem to have a view of China that's stuck in the 1960s in terms of politics and 1980s in terms of development. Hence the insane cope when people present them with images of even 3rd tier Chinese cities.
It's 1956 up in here
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It’s a “closed country” due to the something called the “Chinese language” which creates a black box of communication between westerners and Chinese comrades.
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The insanity I hear about China from westerners beggars belief. They are completely disconnected from reality
What they say about China pales in comparison to what they say about the DPRK.
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I told the lib I used to work with about how Disneyland China has Winnie the pooh merch and actors and he actually responded "How did they get away with that?"
I begged him to stop visiting reddit, I always beg him to stop visiting reddit
it's awful. I'm sitting down having lunch the other day, and a dad and his daughter I recognize are at the next table. my back was to them (they arrived after me) and I don't feel like socializing, so I don't turn around, I just eat my lunch and read my book. at one point I tune in again and overhear him say, "in China, to this day, women working in the fields squat and have their baby and go straight back to work." as if it's typical for 1.4 billion people.
I understand grown adults repeating obvious lies to each other (False Witnesses) but somehow hearing a dad say this to his young daughter crushed my spirits
EDIT: and every time I see this dad socially in the future I will think of it and I am no longer capable of having any respect for him
After my first trip to China years ago I was telling a director of the company I was working at how great it was and specifically how good and cheap the food was. He was genuinely gobsmacked and responded "I thought they were all starving over there"
Apply even an ounce of critical thinking to that, a 2-3 year old working in a factory is a fucking liability. You really think goo goo ga ga ass diaper baby is going to learn how to make widgets? THINK PLEASE
Nothing is more productive than a giant room full of children crying and pissing on the floor
I don't know, I hear the USS Gerald R. Ford is doing pretty well right now.
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I figure it was hyperbolic. I've always heard criticisms of child labor in sweatshops in China. I don't really know how to combat it because they never give any actual proof. I figure the rumors (or any truth if there is any) comes from the US exploiting them for cheap labor maybe?
Historically there certainly had been a lot of child labor in China (not toddlers, though), basically like in any other developing country except that China was bigger and had many more factories than the other examples, and there were of course many teenagers sent to work in various capacities in the Cultural Revolution, but it's not like that now though.
The people who are more up-to-date complain about suicide nets, 996, and penal labor. Ironically, the most infamous issues with Chinese workplace suicides (and accompanying sweatshop conditions) were from the operations of Foxconn, a Taiwanese company.
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"A 3 year old? Really? You believe that 3 year olds who can't put the blocks in the right holes have the dexterity and mental capacity to be useful factory workers? Is that really what you believe?"
New type of guy: Abolish child labour because I don't trust kids to do good work.
Related to the "do you have any idea how expensive slaves were?" Type of guy
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Funny how the rule of therapists not being supposed to talk about religion or ideology only applies when it isn't racist hatemongering. A therapist encouraging racist and hateful views in their clients is perfectly fine actually.
I'm so glad that the worst therapists I've ever gotten have just been impotent toxic positivity sort of people, I don't think I could handle a therapist saying shit like this at me without blowing up. It is such a breach of trust to say such awful things to people in a vulnerable mental state like that. In a just world they would have their license revoked.
Yeah. One time I briefly mentioned socialism, and she went on "If I had more faith in humanity, I'd be a socialist." I just left it there for the time being. Then more recently I mentioned that I had quit my job, but was hoping to do some clerical work for PSL. Not for pay, mind you, (unless they want to pay me, but I assumed it'd just be volunteer work) but to give me a task to do. I mentioned actually being a socialist this time, and she repeated the faith line and said "Someone always gets greedy. Isn't that why, historically, socialism has always failed?" I tried my best not to get angry, but I did challenge it a little bit, as per this post.
If she is trying to be a "professional" therapist, you should really needle her on this, ask her why she keeps forcing her personal political beliefs onto you instead of being neutral. Be combative if you're that sort of person. Make it clear that she isn't being the "neutral and impartial" person she thinks she is being, but she is actively choosing a worldview and pressuring you to adopt that same worldview and it is making you feel uncomfortable. Make it clear that just because she frames her opinions as questions it doesn't magically make them impartial and true.
Or maybe look for a better therapist. I don't think I could go back to a therapist that was this comfortable with upsetting their clients like this.
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don’t u realize china is 1984 animal farm communism no food tank man???
“so we’ve been told”
I'm so glad I can openly talk about revolutionary socialist organizing with my therapist. Idk she is probably a lib but always encouraging of what I do
Regardless, your therapist shouldn't be like that at all regardless of their personal ideology or opinions
Yeah. She's usually pretty supportive, and she was encouraging when I mentioned applying for PSL; she's just convinced there hasn't been successful socialist experiments anywhere in history.
My fellow Americans: "politicians always lie, only care about themselves and would sell their own mother for pennies" 
Me: "so we don't trust what they have to say about foreign countries they want to start wars with right?" 
EVERY single time.
Fetuses, old enough for pro-lifers to keep their witch burning torches at the ready, are reportedly working 996 at factories in Beijing
Rise (from the womb) n grind culture taken to its logical end.
DPRK has baby prisons. China has baby slavery.
sickening.
Socialism is when we kick our adult feet up and make all the babies do the work.
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2 year olds?? psh that's nothing, I hear they've got newborn babies working in sweatshops over there. women give birth right on the assembly line and it's straight to work, kiddo
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every week I'm boundlessly grateful that my therapist has the politics of Jennifer Welch (i.e. no-enemies-to-my-left radlibism) and that I can talk to her about how much I hate this place and how much I loathe the Dems and how I want to be more active as a communist organizer but also wanting to get a K-Visa and she just nods and essentially goes "yeah that’s a fair assessment."
Sorry you have to deal with one that argues with you like that, they're generally not supposed to be outwardly contentious like that, especially with session-trivial disagreements. I hope better options for you crop up in the future 
My guess is she sees socialism as a dangerous and possibly self-destructive ideology and wants to protect me from it? Or maybe the brainworms really are that deep that she can't help but argue. But yeah, thank you for the well-wishes!
Westerners say the darndest things
"...a three year old can't work in a factory, they barely have object permanence."
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The best thing about this is that I remember when the propaganda was that the one child policy had resulted in a generation of spoiled "little emperors".
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It's also a valid response to literally any comment possible.
That’s hilarious. I heard the same thing from a Mormon missionary about Brazil. ‘Sad what socialism did to that country’. Say what?
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