supporting sources that are actively spreading disinformation is not a good way of going about things and a certain amount of skepticism of those sources and their framing is appropriate certainly
the analogy that keeps coming to mind is very immediate and present and it has to do with what is happening in portland right now
i am not a fan of twitter, i think it is not a reliable or trustworthy medium, i think there is a lot of bullshit and misinformation and disinformation that comes out of it
and when federal agents started kidnapping people off the streets of portland the only people talking about it were people on twitter, and they're not reliable sources and so it doesn't surprise me at all that it had to go on for a week until people started catching on
i'm beyond the point where i can employ source criticism on a level of "this is a reliable source and i trust it" and "this is not a reliable source and i don't trust it". sometimes the only sources for information you have are unreliable sources and sometimes you have to try and pick out the truth of what the hell is going on from the weird ass biased reports that come out
if you study ancient history you have to study herotodus, and people call him "the father of lies" and they're not wrong, and so everyone spends huge amounts of time trying to figure out what herotodus said that was actually true and what was some bullshit he just made up because that's the only way of knowing anything.
― Kate (rushomancy), Tuesday, 21 July 2020 14:09 (three years ago) link
Nick Cohen is Herodotus for the left!
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 21 July 2020 14:17 (three years ago) link
I’ll believe Uyghurs are being corralled into concentration camps when China confesses to its crimes.
― pomenitul, Tuesday, 21 July 2020 14:18 (three years ago) link
No one is saying that China isn't suppressing dissent or that something isn't going on Xinjiang (allday denies it all but I was agreeing about his point on Novara inviting someone from Spiked on their show).
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 21 July 2020 14:21 (three years ago) link
Distinguishing the two is key to everything here, blurring the distinction between the two is bad whoever is doing it, and tbh I do not understand why everyone doesn't just get this.
on the left a lot of this is the legacies of leninism & nationalism- the party/state is the people, useful thinking for people who are or aspire to be part of the former (most prominent leftists, way beyond obvious tankies). then reduction by the same people of all world events to a mirror image of the US neocon view of good guy/bad guy states, reinforced by various state lines and general war on terror racism. the thing about China not being imperialist is a tell, it only makes sense if you already accept a number of bullshit leninist and/or nationalist premises
this is the kind of shit that has had many prominent leftists helping the far right smear all dissident Syrians (& Iranians & Afghans & others) as US-backed Islamist terrorists, same thinking now applied to Xinjiang. it’s cost western leftists way more good will internationally than they seem to realise yet
obviously the right wingers using this as part of their yellow peril narrative to incite violence against asians don’t actually give a shit about any of it
― If you choose too long a name, your new display name will be truncated in (Left), Tuesday, 21 July 2020 14:26 (three years ago) link
xp it’s fake, it’s justified, it’s bad but exaggerated, use any and all as convenient, standard genocide denial. actually pretty widespread
― If you choose too long a name, your new display name will be truncated in (Left), Tuesday, 21 July 2020 14:29 (three years ago) link
Never knew truth telling is so easy, on the internet.
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 21 July 2020 14:36 (three years ago) link
?
― If you choose too long a name, your new display name will be truncated in (Left), Tuesday, 21 July 2020 14:42 (three years ago) link
If you want the, uh, good guys to win, you gotta gloss over certain, uh, details. Otherwise you lose sight of the, uh, bigger picture.
― pomenitul, Tuesday, 21 July 2020 14:44 (three years ago) link
Also wrt the footage posted by LBI above there is something desperate about the framing (and I've seen a couple of other tweets on my TL) of this as a new holocaust. I can believe there is something going on in China, but I can also see the voices pushing on about exactly what as to be questioned about how they get their info and their motivations.
An astonishingly dim take, even for you.
― Scampidocio (Le Bateau Ivre), Tuesday, 21 July 2020 14:47 (three years ago) link
I know you wouldn't like it
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 21 July 2020 14:53 (three years ago) link
Uighur doctor tells ITV News of disturbing testimonies of 'forced abortions and removal of wombs' | By @emmamurphyitv https://t.co/n135XfZWI2— ITV News (@itvnews) September 2, 2020
This is horrifying.
― Matt DC, Thursday, 3 September 2020 13:44 (three years ago) link
I'd advise not clicking on that if you're likely to be distressed by the subject matter because there's some very grim stuff in there.
― Matt DC, Thursday, 3 September 2020 13:50 (three years ago) link
I don't know what to say other than fuck Xi and fuck every country that has abetted this, whether directly or indirectly. Just horrible.
― pomenitul, Thursday, 3 September 2020 13:59 (three years ago) link
Yeah :(
― Monte Scampino (Le Bateau Ivre), Thursday, 3 September 2020 14:01 (three years ago) link
jfc.
― healthy cocaine off perfect butts (the table is the table), Thursday, 3 September 2020 15:54 (three years ago) link