The conversations are amazing

  • ganymede@lemmy.ml
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    5 minutes ago

    wow the level of cope in this thread (thankfully not that many tho) arguing over stats - which are probably made up anyway.

    some people can’t handle that most humans just wanna be friends regardless of gov politics bs

  • passiveaggressivesonar@lemmy.world
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    3 hours ago

    Few things blew my mind even though I’ve been a big fan of Chinese economic and political policy for a while

    They actually really like Soviet Culture, the marching soldiers and flags etc. Soviet rock like Kino and the like is very popular!

    They’re casually Marxist, its not something they have to fight to learn about so socialism is a casual existence for them. I figured the youth would be “too cool or hip” but doesn’t seem to be the case

    They’re very similar as gamers, they really like shooters like battlefield and cs go. I assume their MMOs are different but I’m asking about that

    It truly is a massive cultural exchange the likes of which have never been seen before. I’m trying to find out if they grew up on the same games, Morrowind Deus Ex Thief Ultima Online D&D etc

  • caboose2006@lemm.ee
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    5 hours ago

    Eh, there’s truth and lies on both sides. Coming from someone that lived in china for 4 years and was able to engage with Chinese primary news sources. But basic healthcare in china is faster and cheaper, but then again I went to get a wart removed and they prescribed me acorn paste that accelerated the growth of the wart. So win some lose some.

  • ShimmeringKoi [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    6 hours ago

    I spent $82 USD on cold, flu and bronchitis treatment last year!

    The fact that this is considered expensive there made me do a choking double take in the same way as learning that a huge house in the 70s used to cost like 20 grand.

    • Fishroot [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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      5 hours ago

      the median income in China is around 26,800 Yuan (USD 3,855) per month. $82 USD (492yuan) is actually expensive. Since it is median income, you can expect a lot of people are not making that amount especially in the inland regions.

      Comparing it to the States is not the good flex that people think it is.

      • holo@lemmy.wtf
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        5 hours ago

        Median monthly income in China according to most sources I can find is just 1300-1400 USD. Still, 82 USD for that income is not expensive, and that’s for higher end private medical care outside the main healthcare system.

        It’d be like an American paying for medical care with a weeks groceries.

      • COASTER1921@lemmy.ml
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        5 hours ago

        As a portion of median income it’s still far far better than the out of pocket costs in the US (just like pretty much every other country on earth)

        • moncharleskey@lemmy.zip
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          5 hours ago

          If I went to the doctor for bronchitis, then I would pay about 15 dollars after insurance for the visit and prescriptions. Hospitalization would completely different though, and I think that’s a better comparison to make.

          • holo@lemmy.wtf
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            5 hours ago

            Assuming insurance covers it. And you only have a 60% chance of having it covered.

              • COASTER1921@lemmy.ml
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                4 hours ago

                This also is under the assumption you’ve met your deductable for the year already which for many HDHP can sometimes be hard.

      • Acid_Spectacle [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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        3 hours ago

        This is not true, 26,800 RMB per month is Senior Developer in Shenzhen (Shenzhen is China Silicon Valley, But the salary is only half of Google L3. and Daily work 9+ hours, six or seven days a week, plz search 996.ICU).

        Real china mainland are 600 million people who earn less than 1,000 RMB (136.39 USD) per month (year 2020) by Li Keqiang say (former Prime Minister has passed away).

        Trade union? Strike action? No, You’ll go to jail, plz search “Jasic incident”.

        Absolute majority Rednote user is children of the bourgeoisie (Real china is Kuaishou and douyin (But algorithms have created echo chambers that isolate people) or search “whyyoutouzhele” on twitter).

        They don’t even know that 120 is a paid service, or maybe they’re just bragging…

        In Jining (former capital of Shandong) Base fare: 100 RMB for the first 10km, 150 RMB for 10-20km, and an additional 10 RMB for each kilometer over 20,

        There’s a 50 yuan charge for using things like stretchers and oxygen tanks.

      • TheLepidopterists [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        5 hours ago

        Per wikipedia (I know, but I don’t think this kind of data is political enough to be subject to the NATOpedia treatment, it’s originally from the census bureau), the median income for workers in the US in 2023 was 40,480 USD. That’s 3373.33.

      • REgon [they/them]@hexbear.net
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        5 hours ago

        What about purchasing power or whatever that metric is called?

        Edit: and it is still a flex. Being able to talk to a doctor without taking a loan is pretty good compared to the us

  • Sagittarii@lemm.ee
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    9 hours ago

    There’s a bunch of Chinese posts asking if the stuff about school shootings, fires, homelessness are exaggerated propaganda only to be told otherwise. It’s both hilarious and sad.

    • ubergeek@lemmy.today
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      8 hours ago

      People of the US and China are both unsure of what to believe about the other, because both are so propagandized lol

      • Eatspancakes84@lemmy.world
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        2 hours ago

        There is definitely more direct censorship of domestic events in China than in the US. For instance, in the US it is widely publicised that the government separates children from adults at the border. Ask Chinese about the Uyghur work camps and they won’t know.

      • Dessalines@lemmy.ml
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        7 hours ago

        Who told you that the people of China are propagandized, especially to hate other countries and peoples as much as the US does?

        • nick@campfyre.nickwebster.dev
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          30 minutes ago

          Friends of mine who have moved away from China. One of them had police at their door in China for social media posts that were friendly to Uyghurs (not even anything to do with the genocide, just general friendliness as a “we’re all Chinese” kind of message). Being taken to police stations for even slightly questioning the state narrative is terrifying.

        • COASTER1921@lemmy.ml
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          5 hours ago

          Their access to news is controlled and for some topics all available news is what we’d call propaganda. Particularly anything about Japan or the Taiwan issue. Most people I know there realize this to an extent but without any other information do still believe the core idea even if skeptical of details.

          But at the same time I’d argue there’s no such thing as a population that’s not propagandized. In the US the big news corporations only will present views favorable to their profitability and continued growth. Sure they disagree with eachother, but it’s still always a pro-business view. State news from Russia is (I’d argue rightly) not available on many US platforms to discourage it’s influence for example.

        • vatlark@lemmy.world
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          5 hours ago

          Woah I never recognized your username in the wild before. Thanks for giving us Lemmy. Huge fan.

    • 小莱卡@lemmygrad.ml
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      7 hours ago

      School shootings is something uniquely american. Even México doesn’t have them and we have a decent amount of narcojuniors (rich sons of drug dealers) that would have plenty access to guns, the only time i remember a school shooting happening it was in a private school in Monterrey like 7 years ago, which is pretty much the most americanized part of México.

  • davel [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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    7 hours ago

    Reporter: [REDACTED]
    Reason: Misinformation

    Truths you find inconvenient are not misinformation, reporter.

  • umbrella@lemmy.ml
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    8 hours ago

    imagine making social media so bad your own citizens actively procure your biggest rival’s networks.

  • Jo Miran@lemmy.ml
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    9 hours ago

    Circle jerking about China is as ridiculous as circle jerking about the US. We’ve been here before with US vs USSR, but this time everyone has a megaphone and an IQ that can be measured with a ruler.

    • REgon [they/them]@hexbear.net
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      5 hours ago

      Wow those sure are some thoughts you managed to have. Big boys and girl and gems usually like to talk to each other and listen. You should try it. Use your words. What is your critique of the USSR and why do you perceive “realising we’ve been propagandised about china” as being akin to a circle of people masturbating?

      • ThirdConsul@lemmy.ml
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        1 hour ago

        As a Polish person, if you say anything good about USSR without acknowledging it was shit stealing, people murdering, generation destroying piece of shit, I’d like to invite you to talk to some of the old people who remember, read diarys or fucking analysis.

        Do you know they even decimated our fucking cuisine?

        Sorry if you weren’t implying anything positive about USSR, I have short fuse here.

        • OprahsedCreature@lemmy.ml
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          52 minutes ago

          As a Polish person

          I can lie about my nationality and make shit up too Mr FBI agent.

          Also the idea that old Polish people are a monolith is bloody fantastic.

        • REgon [they/them]@hexbear.net
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          1 hour ago

          I’d love to talk to more old people who overwhelmingly say life was better under the USSR. I’d love to talk to more people who voted to keep the USSR and got couped into a hellish decade of shock doctrine.

          Yeah the ebil gommulist came and killed your food I read it in the NED funded Atlantic article. Christ you, of all people, should possess some level of ability to realize you’ve been lied to. “Oh things weren’t great back then, so that means it’s actually good we have child prostitution a cratering vaccination rate and so much more”. Or are we going to the route of how things got super good because of EU membership? Ah yeah that shit is going great. But yeah the USSR wasn’t perfect, so let’s just gargle all the propaganda we can get and whenever we hear anything positive then it’s either just regular old person nostalgia or an uninformed westerner or whichever other excuse you can pull out of your ass so you can continue brain-deadedly glorifiyng western Europe. Nevermind the fact France still dictates the financial policy of several African countries, which is just the tip of a very very very large iceberg.

          Sorry I just get annoyed when people talk out of their ass and think “I come from an eastblock country” means anything, as if we aren’t amongst those who have been stepped on by the American boot most of all.
          Shame on you.

          • ThirdConsul@lemmy.ml
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            40 minutes ago

            What’s your point? The west is shit? Not arguing here.

            USSR good? Any old Polish people saying that? I’d love to meet them and check if they weren’t high positioned in the Party at that time.

            Edit: I wonder if a thought that some people might be missing USSR might be because of old propaganda materials ever visited you?

    • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
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      7 hours ago

      You keep on coping there little buddy. What’s happening is that regular people from both countries are now talking directly to each other, and finding out what life is actually like.

      • ThirdConsul@lemmy.ml
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        1 hour ago

        Uhhh, not exactly regular people. From what I’ve seen from the Rednote, at least my feed is wealthy upper-middle or upper class, while the Americans are from low to middle class.

        • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
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          3 hours ago

          Lack of will on the part of Americans to engage on Chinese platforms like Xiaohongshu. The looming TikTok ban is what pushed people over the edge.

            • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
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              3 hours ago

              TikTok is a Chinese built platform, but it’s built strictly for users outside of China. The Chinese version of TikTok is Douyin. You could’ve googled this yourself in the time it took you to write this comment.

              • REgon [they/them]@hexbear.net
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                1 hour ago

                Why are hexbears so rude, all I did was ask questions

                disclaimer

                This is a bit. I know you’re not on hexbear and I don’t think you’re rude. I’m just parroting the line a lot of smug libs say upion getting rightly called out for behaving like assholes

              • gubblebumbum@lemm.ee
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                1 hour ago

                Why? Tiktok is availabe in multiple countries with completely different language, culture and laws so why not China? Why have a different version of the app specifically for china?

    • rando895@lemmygrad.ml
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      8 hours ago

      I mean isn’t this more "circle jerking " about dismantling state propaganda? Interacting with those you were told are your enemy?

      Besides, people should always celebrate the positives, and look towards them as something that is possible in their country too.

      And as an fyi: when we were here before, the workers revolution in Russia was new. The achievements were so profound that workers in North America began demanding similar concessions from our governments. There was a real threat of overthrowing the existing power structures. And what happened? Weekends, literacy, healthcare, just generally improved living conditions. To dismiss cultural exchange as circle jerking is to ignore history and the power that comes with knowing things are better elsewhere, and that you can have that too.

    • Erika3sis [she/her, xe/xem]@hexbear.net
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      7 hours ago

      If what you’re trying to get at is that whereas it is very important to unlearn the lies and exaggerations one was told about a country, that people also need to avoid replacing these lies with an overly simplistic and uncritical understanding of that same country, and that the current social media landscape makes it very difficult for many people to have the necessary nuance to avoid this pitfall… Then I would agree with you, but I’d also tell you that mentioning the eugenicists’ favorite way of measuring “intelligence” is a very bad way of phrasing this idea, and that your standards of what counts as “circle-jerking” about a country are probably not nearly as inviting of nuance as you’d think.

      • Jo Miran@lemmy.ml
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        7 hours ago

        …mentioning the eugenicists’ favorite way of measuring “intelligence” is a very bad way of phrasing this idea…

        100% agree. The IQ thing is a tired and lazy joke. I need to work on a replacement for that old jab.