Also not falling for new narratives on China either. I don't support any country that doesn't legalize LGBT rights.
this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2026
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I lived there and found it was pretty neutral on that stuff. I'd bet it's hard to join the party as an openly gay person, but the government doesn't have any explicitly anti-gay policies, nor is it a topic of controversy the way it can be in the US
From what I understand there sadly has been a more conservative shift from the government in recent years. I don't think there are any openly discriminatory laws, but LGBT media is being censored, dating apps are removed from appstores, etc. I feel like it's another case of severe overreaction to a threat of "western influence", similar to Xinjang.
Yeah, there's some official policy regarding gender norms and representation in media. Pop stars have to look manly, unlike the ones in kpop
Way way back in the day, I wrote a graduate symposium paper on why China was going to become a global power. I was right, and in my presentation at a hotel in Carmel-by-the-Sea (so posh...) I stated that many younger people weren't viewing China as any worse than the US. Some were viewing China as the lesser of two evils in a world plagued by, for lack of a better term, oligarchical bull shit.
No nation at the top of the world stage is great, but when you look at thing amorally, China is beating out other countries in a number of places right now, the seeds of which were sown 15 years ago. These include infrastructure, renewable energy spending, mass production of higher (note I said higher, not high) quality consumer goods (cars and battery tech came out on top), education, and well-being for the population. Yes, you can double take, but China has actually invested pretty heavily in healthcare outcomes and population well-being in a way that makes places like the US or UK look laughable.
On the flip side, today's younger people don't know about the violence of the 1980s and 1990s. China's invasion of Vietnam. The abhorrent human rights abuses then, and the abhorrent human rights abuses of now. The now is important because, China is socially engineering it's population and using very hard engineering via a party approved justice system to ensure China is what the CCP and Xi want. But they don't see it. They see Epstein, Putin, endless wars, inflation, christo-fascism, and a stable and non-confrontational China.
So I get it. And, as RejZor said, Tsingtao beer is pretty good when you compare it to the other "national" brands.
To be fair the (real and sometimes horrifying) human rights abuses of modern-day China kinda pale in comparison to what the US is doing (and has been doing since its founding), so I think on balance it's good that more people support it over the imperialist hegemon.
This is an important point. But I'd also like to convey that the abuses that are there are not broadcast the way they are in the US. So there's also a thick fog of obscurity that hides the problems in the PRC. The PRC is repressive, especially to minority groups, but there's a consistency and predictability to it that is not there in the US. A rule of law if you will. I am not condoning that, it is awful, but they plan, pass, and rule predictably with a long term agenda. That is not the case with the repression in the US where the violence has an agenda, but comes and goes without the same degree of process. If I were to distill it, I'd say that PRC is procedural, prioritizing national unity and party loyalty. The US is haphazard, prioritizing cruelty and personal fealty.
Lesser of two evils perhaps? A moralist can discuss that, not I.
If you're only able to think in terms of quarterly growth figures, you'll never be the kind of person that plants a tree whose shade you will never live to enjoy.
E: a space
Quite well said.
Tsingtao beer is gooood.
I mean, that's one take, yes :-)
Young Americans are lazy idiots.
I have three kids from 20-8 years old. US jobs don’t pay enough for my kids to care about your needs. They are too busy trying survive in a society that wants them dead or enslaved… and they’re a lot smarter than you give them credit for. Just because they don’t want to be puppets of the giant corps killing the world, doesn’t mean they are lazy or idiots. Depressed? Hopeless? Isolated? Maybe, probably.
Making general statements about all American kids is the definition of lazy and idiotic. Don’t fall for the class/age war the leaders of societies promote to keep us fighting each other.
If you have kids and they’re lazy idiots, I don’t know what to say. You raised them.