Inside China's audacious global propaganda campaign

Re:Inside China's audacious global propaganda campaign by thiagoharry on Saturday December 08, 2018 @03:53PM (#18637466)

I suspect that any competition would always be portrayed as autocratic, corrupt and repressive, as we are influenced by the other side of the propaganda. Not that this is a lie. I really think that you will find some degree of repression, autocratism and corruption in any state seeking to attain or trying to keep some degree of global power and facing some opposition.

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Re:Inside China's audacious global propaganda campaign by glenstein on Saturday December 08, 2018 @05:11PM (#18637846)

I don't think whataboutism is automatically wrong. But in the context of hn threads on China, I feel it often adds an unhelpful layer of abstraction.

It's never clear if people doing the whatabouting actually dispute the negative characterization of China, or whether they agree with it but also want to change the subject to a broader topic in way the unfocuses the lense of the conversation.

The moral condemnation of what China is doing is not information I want to be lost from the conversation, and that seems to always be an effect of the whatabouting.

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Re:Inside China's audacious global propaganda campaign by losteric on Saturday December 08, 2018 @04:19PM (#18637604)

The degree and ends do matter. Chinese autocratic actions are not equivalent to the shaping of American discourse by for-profit institutions.

I will trust the one that has codified free speech - however flawed.

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Re:Inside China's audacious global propaganda campaign by elefanten on Saturday December 08, 2018 @04:08PM (#18637551)

Maybe hypothetically. But in this case we know that we're talking about China so there's no need to speculate about relative autocracy, corruption and repression.

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