Young people in China are becoming more rebellious, questioning their nation’s traditional expectations of career and family
So… there’ll be a lot of great Chinese punk music soon?
There was an explosion of Chinese punk/alt bands late 90s/ early 2000s but they gave way to hip hop/pop. Still a decent scene in Beijing. One of my favorite bands from that era is called Wood pushing melon (木推瓜).
https://youtu.be/j_dq-tQuNrA?si=3tEzKqRpgVUlm2ynThe lead singer left that band and started an incredible tribal folk group called Dawanggang next
https://youtu.be/toaZqu_4hMw?si=1XQP0yKpz3rsGTD0Yep. There’s a lot of Chinese punk, post-punk, goth, New Wave etc etc etc. sadly, outside of China you don’t hear much about it because of the old firewall and of course language barriers.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://piped.video/j_dq-tQuNrA?si=3tEzKqRpgVUlm2yn
https://piped.video/toaZqu_4hMw?si=1XQP0yKpz3rsGTD0
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Yeah. China’s speed running to true communism at a pace I wasn’t expecting. There’s a legitimate chance for the elimination of scarcity of basic goods in China “soon”, which would lead to a flourishing of the arts.
Jesse what the fuck are you talking about?
Got any good examples of this?
I do know that between 1950 and 2000 poverty and starvation dropped like a stone. I havent been watching closely enough to tell for the past couple decades. I don’t mean to sound cynical, but it can be hard to tell what’s slavery and what’s improvement of living standards through the media and on such short timescales
I know theyre installing a ton of solar/wind. Superbundance could happen there and that could be great. I got my fingers crossed.
How’s agriculture doing?
I think they’re very well positioned with electric cars and are going to take marketshare from everyone else in that industry.
I hope they quit killing the sea and bossing around their neighbors
Their effots in Africa are probably going to benefit them greatly. I hope they arent doing to Africa whatthre US did with South America in early/mid 20th century… with the saddling of unpayable debts, extracting resources and installing viscious dictators
I read recently OPECy folks are openly conspiring to flood Africas market with cheap and shitty fossil fuel power plants and cars to expand the oil market. It’d be rad someone flooded it with cheaper and better electric cars/heatpumps and renewable power. I wish the US/Europe would
That would be awesome
Lol! This piss-take xD
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It’s interesting because people are people and it doesn’t matter where you are born.
If you look at it from a birds eye view you will see a younger, smart generation trying to fight it’s own governments.
It’s not USA vs China vs Russia vs Europe etc. it is the younger generation vs the old generation. Currently each generation is fighting it’s own government and slowly realising how poor they have done in the last decades.
Nobody wants war.
t’s not USA vs China vs Russia vs Europe etc. it is the younger generation vs the old generation
No, it’s owning class vs working class, anything else is a distraction in service of the owning class.
Workers of the world, unite! ✊
(edited in image. If you need image description - source)
Even marxists don’t simplify the classes as much as that diagram suggests. It’s missing peasants, artisans and the petty bourgeois. It’s also never been as simple as capitalist vs working class. Capitalists regularly fight amongst themselves as do the working class. This whole idea of class struggle being the only struggle is so oversimplified it’s kinda silly.
I don’t think it’s honest to frame it in generational language either btw. Though that is a component of it.
Imagine that - an infograph gives a concise summery of a larger idea… 🤯
Either way - it is really that simple and splitting the working class in to splinter groups is just another division, which again - only serves the owning class. Them fighting amongst themselves is irrelevant, they’ve been united enough to maintain this system for centuries because they have the same goal - stay in power, make as much money as possible. If that happens via collaboration one week, then they’ll collaborate that week, if it means they need to go to war the next week, then they will, and have been, doing exactly that.
In contrast, as long as the working class stays divided (along race, gender, ability, and even “work level” or whatever you’d call the division you’ve brought up) we will never be free.
I’m the furthest thing from a class reductionist, and I think intersectionality is vital, but all of the systemic barriers we face (racism, sexism, ableism, querrphobia, and so on) exist to serve capitalism and those who benefit from it. That doesn’t mean those systems don’t need addressing, but part of doing that is understanding why they exist, and how they serve to divide us.
Seriously, what end could splitting hairs over “peasants” or “artisans” possibly serve (And are those hundreds of years old terms even relevant in our world with our technology?)? Even the petit bourgeois is oppressed by the owning class, the system convincing them that a “middle class” exists is part of the fucking con, and the whole fucking point is to see how irrelevant these semantics are and fucking unite so that we can have a better society for everyone… 🤦♀️
Seriously, what end could splitting hairs over “peasants” or “artisans” possibly serve (And are those hundreds of years old terms even relevant in our world with our technology?)? Even the petit bourgeois is oppressed by the owning class, the system convincing them that a “middle class” exists is part of the fucking con, and the whole fucking point is to see how irrelevant these semantics are and fucking unite so that we can have a better society for everyone… 🤦♀️
You haven’t read marxist or anarchist theories very well if this is what you think.
Artisans are any one man business. They don’t have employers to exploit them that’s why they are an important class in marxist analysis.
Petty bourgeois aren’t middle class necessarily; it refers to small business owners. They are exploiters of the workers beneath them while being exploited by others. Small time land lords would be petit bourgeois for example. These people are in essence part of the “owner class” because they own a business or building.
Peasants are not considered to be a revolutionary class because they aren’t the proletariat. Not a problem in western societies but some countries still have peasants.
all of the systemic barriers we face (racism, sexism, ableism, querrphobia, and so on) exist to serve capitalism and those who benefit from it.
You don’t think racism affects business owners or landlords? Or sexism? Or anything else?
This is the kind of assertion given without evidence that made me leave marxists behind. I am sick to death of people claiming all these problems are because of capitalism. If anything capitalism has helped address some of these issues like sexism because women not working is bad for the system. In fact not fully utilizing people because of prejudice in general is bad for capitalism which is all about efficiency and exploitation.
Edit: also policy regarding peasants is one area where marxism and anarchism differ significantly from what little I understand of anarchism.
This whole idea of class struggle being the only struggle is so oversimplified it’s kinda silly.
There’s nothing wrong with a simplified model if it gets you the results you’re looking for. And for the vast majority of the working class thinking in simplistic terms such as capitalist vs. worker would improve their lives tremendously.
The more complex models might be useful for explaining how things change and evolve. But mainly complexity is introduced by capitalists (or capitalist simps) to sow discord among workers and keep us from organizing effectively.
Why are all the marxists coming out of the wood work? Y’all can’t run a society for shit. Why are you still here and existing?
China was one of your experiments that went wrong. Go and build a working model for a socialist or communist society and I might listen. Until then you have nothing to add. Anarchists had better luck than you guys and you killed them for it.
I mean, call me whatever you want. It’s irrelevant. Do you need my vote or not? If you don’t then ignore me. If you do then pay attention.
So are you a marxist or something else?
Which country do you live in? I live in the UK so unless you are here it’s mostly irrelevant what you vote for.
You asked the question bud. Not my fault you don’t like the answer.
No war but the class war
Boomers want a war.
I actually think that the biggest damage the parents of the Boomers committed was glorifying their war stories. Don’t get me wrong, I probably would have too so I’m not saying this out of judgement. But I think the Boomers grew up feeling like the only way to prove themselves was to fight as hard as their parents did. And when there weren’t any Nazis to be found, they found fights with anybody they could.
… including their own children.
It’s kinda been that way since the internet has been readily available.
Idk, if I was young and rich I probably wouldn’t give a shit about changing anything. I’d maybe even invest in anything that promised to keep things the same
That’s EXACTLY what they do - invest I’m anything that promised to keep things the same, this is our salary.
Don’t trust anyone over 30.
… you do realize lemmy users skew older, and it’s not just kids saying “eat the rich”, right?
I understand that quote, but these days it’s a dumb one. Gone are the days of “settling down” into a bubble once you hit 30.
Right, but I was replying to someone making it a generational thing.
I agree the quote is stupid. Also the guy was joking/exaggerating when he said it, never meant it the way it was used (even in movies, like Planet of the Apes) and also thought it was stupid. Which is partly why I picked it.
Pretty sure this is happening all over, not just in China.
Its just a generic filler article that gets posted about young people every year or two.
“Quiet Quitting” was the thing in 2022.
“Great Resignation” was the thing in 2021
You can find articles about this in 2019, 2016, omfg all over the place in the wake of 2008, “Jobless Recovery” from 2004 to 2006, in the 90s it was “Slackers” and in the 80s it was “Punks” and in the 70s and 60s it was “Hippies” and then back to Beatniks and Anarchists and of course, the old crowd favorite, Pinko Commies.
This is just a more recent mash up of the “China Bad” and “Nobody Wants To Work Anymore” meme
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This is just a more recent mash up of the “China Bad” and “Nobody Wants To Work Anymore” meme
LOL, spot on.
Can say I’ve definitely “stopped striving”, don’t know if it’s from Long Covid, living paycheck to paycheck cause my pay gets min/maxed for the business, personal infighting thanks to Fox News and Republican bullshit tearing apart and killing families over vaccinations, or maybe it’s just the weather 🤷♂️ lol fuck
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I mean you’d be pretty reluctant to grab a torch too if it was one that has been held on desperately by a generation 3 above yours that didn’t even want to hand it away but are literally decaying around as they grasp tightly onto it and the torch requires feeding babies to it even though they don’t burn just so you have an excuse to dump a bunch of oil on to help reduce them to ash a bit further.
I think being handed a torch to carry would be fine. This is not a passing of a torch but a wildfire that people are busy dancing around. And I’m definitely to shy to join the “let it burn” party.
yea even the young zoomers i see at uni seem slow
they are also fat
摆烂 bai3lan4
A slang term that means “stop striving”, I’d say it’s loosely akin to the phrase “quiet quitting” but a bit more general.
Fuck yeah China! (not the government)
Fuck the CCP. China is cool.
Also referenced in the article was the phrase 'tang ping’ (lying flat, 躺平)
The problem with The Rat race is, even if you win, you’re still a rat.
I’ll say this some time and someone will tell me I’m an idiot for quoting some awful person, but right now - not knowing if it is a quote or not - I love this
I’ve always thought the value of quotes (when they have any) is based entirely on their content rather than who spoke them. A smart quote from an awful person is still smart. And a dumb quote from a smart person is still dumb, like that definition of insanity one that often gets attributed to Einstein.
I’m sure there’s some sort of logical fallacy to be said about negating the quality of a quote based on the person who said it. Like, if Einstein said it, then it must be smart. If Hitler said it, then it must be evil. Etc.
Yeah, it’s an appeal to authority.
Well, you got me curious.
Seems like the first use was in a life magazine article by someone who didn’t want to take explicit credit, so chances are it was something thought of by his students. And then it was repeated by various comedians over the years.
For what it’s worth, my quick skim of the author, William Sloane Coffin’s wiki makes him seem like a pretty great guy.
This is a great quote, I also like to say (especially in places like airports or government buildings):
It’s not a rat race, it’s a rat queue.
This is not how I want to read an article.
I checked the comments before opening the article and wasn’t sure what to expect based on yours.
Holy hell, we really are catering to the lowest common denominator here. It’s not that I think we shouldn’t, we absolutely should, but our society really should be working harder to keep lowest from being so damn low.
And reader view doesn’t pick it up… gross
Well if you jump to the last picture there’s a link to open the full article, then you can… stare at the paywall…
As much as I agree, I’ve seen plenty of articles that are so damn long it makes me wonder if they actually expect people to read it. Who has time to read an entire 30 min article where half is about a specific person’s personal story that’s only meant to back up the main points. Just tell me the main point and back it with data (bonus points if you kink every source you reference, imo).
That’s why I think more detailed articles should be written like scientific journal articles. One to three paragraphs that convey the gist of the article and the remaining pages dedicated to analysis and explanation.
Not only would this be more work than a normal article, though, it’d reduce ad revenue because most people would read the abstract and leave.
Mmm, yes, show us your kink sources.
Over half of Americans read at below a 6th grade reading level. So it makes sense that they want to bring back picture books.
They’re called graphic novels…
Kidding
The Tiktok Manga Slideshow format has finally migrated to major news sites I see.
God I hate tech this decade.
God I hate tech this decade.
I feel this sentiment in my bones. I know it gets overused, but the word of the decade so far really does seem to be enshittification. The only thing that seems to be getting better is self-hosting, which is still a massive pain in the ass for a lot of things.
I mind this less than the stupid video articles.
It’s just buzzfeed articles returning from the grave. They’d split a few paragraphs over 20 pages somehow
Humorously, maybe the writer wants to let it rot
Might be the worst experience I’ve had. We don’t want books. We got rid of books
It’s like a picture book!
I think it makes it harder for us to scrape their site and copy and paste it here.
Not great but not terrible. At least there were no ads.
One of the behavioralist psychologists, I think it was Pavlov, ran an experiment on dogs where he shocked them for both bad behavior good.
Eventually, the shocks had no effect.
Leaned hopelessness. Can’t escape the effect regardless of your efforts so eventually you stop trying
It was Martin Seligman who did dog shock experiments and developed the theory of learned helplessness in 1967. While Seligman demonstrated that learned helplessness did occur, we still don’t know why learned helplessness occurs (especially in humans).
Pavlov was much earlier (1897) and formed the theory of classical conditioning where a primary stimulus (food) was paired with a neutral stimulus (a bell) under the right conditions until the neutral stimulus would evoke a similar automatic response as the primary stimulus (e.g. drooling).
What you are describing also sounds a little like operant conditioning, where a learned behaviour is reinforced or punished with the application or removal of a stimulus. Or in this case, where the link between a behaviour and a stimulus is eroded to the point where the learned link goes extinct, and the subject becomes desensitized to the repeated stimulus.
Damn I feel that
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let it all rot
They have an interesting strategy where they workout expenses for the year if they lived minimal. It might be 9k. So they work for a few months and save up that money then quit their job and “lay flat” for the rest of the year.
Honestly, that sounds amazing, and illustrates why, “can you explain this gap on your resume” is such a bull shit interview question.
“well I work for a short time and then just quit and do nothing.”
I can see why they might ask the question. I don’t expect people to put the business above themselves, but I certainly would be less likely to hire someone if I knew they were just going to quit after a few months because they have no ambition.
I don’t blame them… The older generations really screwed the pooch for the younger generation. Basically made China inhospitable for foreign investment so all these young people are left high and dry with fancy degrees and no jobs.
Wait, the problem in your mind with China is that it’s not as safe for multinational companies to exploit their populace?
China’s own megaconglomerates aren’t doing any better. They openly steal from their populace, and exploit their workers in inhumane ways. Just look at the mass embezzlement of peoples life savings in the housing market by ultra mega sized publicly traded corporations. China is basically a hyper capitalist corporatocracy, with extra authoritarianism sprinkled in with no upside.
Agreed that the problem is capitalism, but I don’t know about “no upside.” The poverty rate in China has continually decreased. While we in the west might argue that living under authoritarian rule might not be worth the tradeoff, that certainly is an upside.
Although this only works when you’re not living a minimal existence, paycheck-to-paycheck.
The next step will be to pay them less.
Damn, I’d be sore after laying flat for months.
GLOBAL GENERAL STRIKE, A BLOB CAN DREAM.
Warms my heart to see the youth choosing to walk the Rebel Path.
“I am the righteous hand of god, and I am the devil that you forgot.” - Poor Man’s Poison
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die 👯
Late stage capitalism is a blight of humanity, there’s gotta have to be some sort of revolutionary changes to society at the rate this is all headed. The world is not healthy right now.
I’m pretty sure we’re watching society slowly collapse.
Fuck the rat race all over.
Funny, people in the USA have been doing that for 20+ years
Tune in, turn on, burn out
Weirdly TikTok only shows me streets full with fentinels in USA. I don’t know if that’s propaganda or is it real bad out there
Propaganda. Every city has one or two neighborhoods (usually full of working class minorities) where police dump the homeless and addicts from everywhere else. Each of those areas has one or two particularly bad streets that look like shit and make for great fear mongering.
At the risk of sounding like propaganda myself… Just because you don’t witness poverty and crime doesn’t mean it is propaganda. US has a major homeless and drug epidemic that is getting worse. It is easy for those with money to put it out of sight and ignore it.
I’m visiting China for the first time right now for 2 weeks and I must say I’m very impressed with how clean the cities are and the lack of homeless and drug addicts.
In the US my old house in OKC has been broken into twice by homeless and my parent’s house in Miami twice as well, and their car stolen twice. Walking to work in Brooklyn, people are literally sleeping on the sidewalks under trash bags every night as everyone walks past like they aren’t there.
Even in my my home town in Vermont, population under 10,000, there are always homeless people out in the cold begging and sleeping in tents in the woods. These people have given up on life, or given bad luck, or addicted to drugs.
I haven’t seen any of that in China so far. Sure there are some areas outside the city centers that are more depressing looking, lack much personality, and have run down buildings but at least everyone has a home, a job, and is taken care of. People here seem to have more respect for themselves and for others. It is part of the culture here.
Everyone I talk to here says it is incredibly safe. In fact, today I saw my first 2 police cars on the highway for the first time a week into my trip. And we’ve been driving an average of 3 hours per day everywhere between Shenzhen and ChengDu (visiting factories ). There are many cameras everywhere but there isn’t a need for hundreds of police to patrol the streets non-stop like in every city in the US. I haven’t heard a single siren the entire trip either - in cities of 20 million. You won’t find that in NYC which has half the population. Just some thoughts I wanted to share, thanks for reading.
Oh there is absolutely poverty. I’m specifically referencing what the commenter above me was discussing, which is a trend on social media of finding a bad area of town, taking pictures from 40 different angles, and presenting it as though American cities are nothing but miles upon miles of tent encampments and despair. I will admit I have only ever lived in the rust belt, so it may very well be like that in other places, but in general you see one or two small areas of extreme poverty mixed with working class, a few rough-ish neighborhoods adjacent to those, and the rest is pretty quiet, if not always the most affluent. By your description, it sounds like Chinese law enforcement keeps closer tabs on people through mass surveillance rather than active patrolling. Personally I’d rather have more crime and fewer government CCTVs, but to each their own.
Side note: here at the airport you check your flight information by just walking up to a screen and it uses facial recognition to instantly pull up your flight information, gate, seat, etc. lol. Completely different comfort level with cameras here haha…
100% propaganda. Since Andrew Callaghan did his good faith SF video, every nut in the country in need of a haircut grabs their camera and shitty mic to go do bad gonzo journalism from skid row in order to dunk on people experiencing hell. Or worse, clout chase off of people experiencing hell.
They just like me fr
