Re:China is detaining a million Uighur muslims in a secret camp
by Inconel on Friday August 10, 2018 @11:18PM
(#17738087)
Genuine question for someone with a better understanding of psychology, or the kind of propaganda employed by authoritarian regimes, but what purpose does this serve? I can't imagine you can actually convince someone to suddenly like the CCP or Xi Jinping through something like this. Is it simply a tool to show who's in charge?
Re:China is detaining a million Uighur muslims in a secret camp
by throwando208818 on Friday August 10, 2018 @11:23PM
(#17738113)
Bingo.
In an authoritarian situation it literally doesn't matter if you believe what you're saying. You just say it to get through the day.
It's not like a scifi movie where every little thing is monitored, the game is you just don't cause yourself (or perhaps more importantly your pals or family) trouble and try to "get yours" and live something resembling a decent/self-actualized life.
For the regime, those kind of performative statements sets a good example & makes the problem go away
Re:China is detaining a million Uighur muslims in a secret camp
by spacehunt on Friday August 10, 2018 @11:54PM
(#17738235)
They drown you with extremist views so that when you encounter softer but still pro-China views, you'll be more accepting of them because they seem more "reasonable".
Re:China is detaining a million Uighur muslims in a secret camp
by striking on Saturday August 11, 2018 @12:05AM
(#17738281)
Some people call this "moving the Overton window": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window
Re:China is detaining a million Uighur muslims in a secret camp
by petre on Friday August 10, 2018 @11:50PM
(#17738227)
Brainwashing. They do it starting with preschool. Kids get to sing songs about how great the country, the party and its leader are. It's all quite militarized. In camps like these it's surely worse, their purpose is to break these people. It's psychological torture, not re-education.
Here is one account from a camp:
> “Xi Jinping is great! The Communist Party is great! I deserve punishment for not understanding that only President Xi Jinping and the Communist Party can help me,” was one of the refrains that a Uyghur woman who was in a centre last fall, was forced to regularly repeat.
> The woman, whose name is not being used by The Globe and Mail for her protection, was put through regular self-criticism sessions. Part of the content was cultural. “My soul is infected with serious diseases,” she would repeat. “There is no God. I don’t believe in God. I believe in the Communist Party.”
> Other content was more explicitly political. Day after day she would say out loud that she was a traitor, a separatist and a terrorist.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-former-detaine...
This story was published yesterday:
> She was one of the most revered academics from the Uighur ethnic minority in far western China. She had written extensively and lectured across China and the world to explain and celebrate Uighurs’ varied traditions. Her research was funded by Chinese government ministries and praised by other scholars.
> Then she disappeared.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/10/world/asia/china-xinjiang...