Politics - Any and All Political Discussions Not Really Related to TT

[zeio]

Fandom vs Confucianism 🫣

https://weibo.com/6644004473/Qks3Q7wbE

Sun Yat-sen, Father of the Nation, was right about freedom 101 years ago, after all...

https://zh.wikisource.org/zh-hant/三民主義/民權主義第二講

在今天自由這個名詞究竟要怎麼樣應用呢？如果用到個人，就成一片散沙，萬不可用到個人上去，要用到國家上去。個人不可太過自由，國家要得完全自由。到了國家能夠行動自由，中國便是強盛的國家。要這樣做去，便要大家犧牲自由。

How should the word "freedom" be applied today? If it's applied to individuals, it leads to chaos and disarray; it should never be used for individuals, but rather for nations. Individuals shouldn't be too free, but nations must be completely free. When a nation can act freely, China will be a powerful nation. To achieve this, everyone must sacrifice their freedom.

 

[pongfugrasshopper]

Sun Yat-sen, Father of the Nation, was right about freedom 101 years ago, after all...

https://zh.wikisource.org/zh-hant/三民主義/民權主義第二講

How should the word "freedom" be applied today? If it's applied to individuals, it leads to chaos and disarray; it should never be used for individuals, but rather for nations. Individuals shouldn't be too free, but nations must be completely free. When a nation can act freely, China will be a powerful nation. To achieve this, everyone must sacrifice their freedom.

Thanks. I may not agree with it, but it does explain the Covid lockdowns among other things.

 

[zeio]

Thanks. I may not agree with it, but it does explain the Covid lockdowns among other things.

America Lied to Me About Freedom — Here's What I Found in China
https://youtu.be/aXTgVkPP7m4?t=141

 

[Angerer]

America Lied to Me About Freedom — Here's What I Found in China
https://youtu.be/aXTgVkPP7m4?t=141

That is some low-quality propaganda

 

[DrBean]

That is some low-quality propaganda

I mean, Dubai is pretty nice if you you're swimming in gold.

 

[zeio]

That is some low-quality propaganda

Gordan Chang: Tell me about it.

The West Can't Stop China Now | Jingjing's 2025 Recap
https://youtu.be/GVewRXP_Zhw?t=293

Back from China: The bitter truth about our sleep on the future
https://youtu.be/ZZ4UkMJsU2k?t=610

 

[Angerer]

Gordan Chang: Tell me about it.

The West Can't Stop China Now | Jingjing's 2025 Recap
https://youtu.be/GVewRXP_Zhw?t=293

Back from China: The bitter truth about our sleep on the future
https://youtu.be/ZZ4UkMJsU2k?t=610

🤮

 

[M51]

 

[zeio]

An interesting interview of Larry on freedom that echos what Sun Yat-sen said, a Chinese Canadian immigrant from Taiwan who went from pro-independence to pro-reunification after visiting Chinese mainland in 2017 and witnessing what took place in Hong Kong in 2019 and besides the de-sinicization of the education system in Taiwan after the DPP assumed power in 2000s, sharing his journey to de-propagandize his mind after years of "conditioning" by Western narratives.

Why This Taiwanese Changed His Mind on Independence — A Personal Journey
https://youtu.be/etRBWcTzKSg?t=1224

And I came to understand that freedom without boundaries is chaos. And I think when I was young, I always believed we're supposed to be like radically free, but now that I'm older, it's like, yes, I want everyone to have their individual freedoms, but we also need to have guardrails so that society can flourish.

https://youtu.be/etRBWcTzKSg?t=1345

Yeah. The propaganda hit really deep for me because it's, it's, it feels personal. You know, you feel like you either need to, uh, defend it or you need to try to evade it. And I think that's why a lot of Taiwanese people in the West will say I'm Taiwanese. I'm not Chinese because you don't want to be the target of all of that propaganda. So I think on a survival level, the brain holds that information in a funny way. And so when you see the truth and you start de-propagandizing, I think there is a lot of cognitive dissonance and there's, uh, there could be pain or sort of internal strife and conflict for me. I honestly, I never really felt proud to be Chinese growing up in Canada because, because I was bullied and because everyone sort of said bad things about Chinese culture, aside from my family who, you know, they were proud Taiwanese Chinese, but like I remember teachers, uh, commercials, media, just students. Everyone's seemed to have a negative slant towards China.

https://youtu.be/etRBWcTzKSg?t=1895

So I think Taiwanese people are more and more facing the reality that we, we need China to our everything we use is made in China. And a lot of Taiwanese people more and more are going to China to do business. And, um, they also see that I think more and more people see that Taiwan politically, we are pawns and more and more and more people are going to China more people are willing to face that reality rather than thinking that, um, America would actually send soldiers to come and fight in Taiwan. And that, that would be a disaster for him.

 

[M51]

My old schoolmate moved to Taiwan permanently about a decade ago, married a local girl, they have two kids... We still text each other regularly.

Basically, he says that most of what western mainstream media tells us about the political situation there is propaganda nonsense. His missus is hard-core anti-CCP so there's no pro-China bias in what he says, just dispassionate observations.

That said, despise the regime all you want, but their accomplishments in infrastructure development and abject poverty elimination over the past several decades have been pretty much unprecedented in all of human history.

 

[zeio]

That reminds me of another podcast of HistoryBro where a Serb drew parallels between Serbia and Montenegro and Taiwan and Chinese mainland.

"Taiwan independence" in Europe! Serbs share their experiences with "man-made ethnic divisions"!
https://youtu.be/NEiUm78qL9I?t=208

And here comes a very interesting concept
I have also read some Taiwanese literature before
Then the Taiwanese literature to understand
The Imagined Community Book [Imagined Communities]
It is actually to construct a Taiwanese identity
That's why he translated it.
Did you find anything?
He translated the book
It's not to unify anything.
But to divide something
Hahaha
Yugoslavia translated the book at that time
The core reason was to prevent the breakup of Yugoslavia
So what's behind these two different acts of translation?
And here we are.
The double-edged nature of the concept of national identity
Once you start to construct an identity
This identity is called a nation
In the process of building identity
Originally from the 1819th century
The process of building a community
In the eyes of some people
It can also be an instrument of division.

Montenegro's secession! Yugoslavia's "deranged" nationalism!
https://youtu.be/SJKwrPqEZgI?t=311

So I usually talk to people.
Especially when talking to Taiwanese friends
Some people told me that Taiwan wants to establish a Taiwanese ethnic group
And I said, no, it's not about ethnicity.
The concept of nationality should never be about division
But at best it's identity politicization.
A kind of national political identity
And the politicization of identity.
It's not a national concept.
Because ethnicity, at least in theory
It's not divisive.

🔴LIVE 巴爾幹人造民族vs台獨｜連線：上海復旦大學沈逸博士生 塞爾維亞菲利蒲｜歷史哥Talk 114.9.15
https://youtu.be/K8ErLA-rPQ8?t=2828

 

[pongfugrasshopper]

I don't know if I'll get any takers, but since this is a political thread and I am genuinely curious, is there anyone from Venezuela that would be willing to share your thoughts on what's just transpired in Venezuela? TIA.

 

[M51]

8.5K views · 1.3K reactions | Be careful about China…. | Paul Lee

Be careful about China….

www.facebook.com

 

[zeio]

In light of recent events in Venezuela, what Sun Yat-sen said about "nations must be completely free" hits different.

Ronnie Chan pointed out back in 2020 that "diplomacy operates on the exact same principle as the mafia" where the US is the boss and Europe is happy to serve as the stooge, how the Cold War with the Soviet Union actually put the US under restrain and perhaps was not necessarily a bad thing, how "absolute power corrupts absolutely" after the end of the Cold War and the US was free to wield its power and began to cut down its own credibility and moral authority amassed from the end of World War II.

2020年9月28日「變局下的中國與世界」講座
(The 71st National Anniversary Celebration "China and The World: Inside the Dynamics of Changing Relationship" Talk)
https://youtu.be/09B7WqNDymw?t=1655

let me say this uh commissioner [chair] and all the country general please forgive me i'm going to say something
not so good about your profession diplomacy as far as i can tell
and i've been reading about diplomacy for the last 40 years as far as i can tell diplomacy operates on the exact same
principle as the mafia it's just one with suits and ties and
white gloves and the other has brass knuckles that's all
sorry so in the old days when the united states
was willing to pay a lot for nato because there's a
big bad guy supposedly out there called soviet union and so the relationship to use the mafia
analogy is that america is a boss
and all the european countries are the stooges i pay you and you fight that bad guy out
there so just like in mafia those mafia boys those stooges are always very loyal to the big
boss because he pays you and by the way you have no choice anyway
you are stuck in europe right next to soviet union in those days so very happy with the arrangement but
what about today today america is saying pay up you have to pay more
that changes the relationship from one of the not so nice
mafia arrangement to a much nicer one but still not that good and that is what
america is doing now is extracting protection money
you own a shop in some soy boat or somewhere and there are a little bit of
mafia hong kong is not bad hong kong is really quite good compared to many parts of the world but still i didn't they
don't say there's no such thing right so the bad guy comes and say hey
give me money if not i will do something to you
and so if you are that [shop] owner you will think which is the lesser of
two evils the guy who wants money for me or russia and some of them may come to the
conclusion well perhaps russia is not that bad of a threat
perhaps this guy is even bigger of a nuisance to us the simple
shop owners and keepers and so because of that the fundamental
relationship between the united states and its
allies have been changed america has to do that partly because
financially it is in debt and yet having been at the top of the
world for so long sometimes you tend to forget that you are not as wealthy as you once upon a
time were

https://youtu.be/09B7WqNDymw?t=725

the united states after world war ii during and soon after world war ii the
united states has amassed more credibility than any other
country i know in the world ever and that credibility comes with it
a moral authority the likes of which is not seen in human history
obviously you have the other camp the soviet union china and a few others but for the most
part the world benefited greatly from the united states as economic engine of global economy
so after world war ii the united states has perhaps more moral authority and
credibility than any other country i know and that matches the shall i say
unmatched prowess of a country which has never been come
close to by any other country i know in human history that i have read not the roman empire not the british
empire but the united states was rather unique
in hindsight a lot of people don't like the cold war after all
perhaps we're entering into a new cold war so
most people assume that the cold war is bad well no one like wars of any sort
hot or cold and surely cold war was a dangerous time just
remember the cuban missile crisis mankind has never been
so close to a nuclear confrontation like that time however think about this
cold war is bad but perhaps hot war is worse or even the absence of
cold war can become very very problematic for during example cold war
the united states was under restraint because of the presence of the then
soviet union the united states had no choice but to work with many of its allies and he
cannot do whatever it wants it was under certain kind of restraint
self-imposed or otherwise because of the presence of the cold war everybody was
in the free world so to speak was happy when the cold war ended however as mankind with
the the wisdom of mankind has taught us power corrupts and absolute power
corrupts absolutely the united states was under constraint
under restraint during the cold war after the cold war
it's no longer any restraint the united states can wield its power whichever way it wants
is that good or is it bad if the adage is correct that absolute
power corrupts absolutely then perhaps we should think twice
that cold war is necessarily bad and the end of the war is necessarily good
the united states as annie mentioned oftentimes that which applies to a
person applies to a country or that which applies to a country also applies to a person
and the united states have been just too strong too powerful for too long
he can do anything he wants and in the absence of restraint because
of the end of the cold war the united states actually
begin to cut down its own credibility and moral authority
this is something that is seldom mentioned most people do not spend much time
thinking and certainly not out of the box and so everyone assumed that cohort is
bad and i remember an author i forgot who it was that wrote a piece recently co-war is
bad but hard war is worse well we're not at hot war yet
but in the absence of cold war the possibility of hot war
actually may increase rather than decrease so today we all know what's
happening the united states has decided to make china into an enemy for those of us who have
been working for the last i personally have been working for 37 years
to try to forge better relationship between china and the united states i failed
i've completely failed and in hindsight perhaps
i too suffer from a syndrome of wishful thinking that perhaps
the united states will be wiser than all other former powers
which will make room for other people and to coexist together as other people
rises a lot of people blame donald trump for what's happening today
i said not so don't blame him for everything he's responsible for a
lot of things but not everything

http://english.scio.gov.cn/featured/chinakeywords/2022-11/11/content_78514266.htm
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/好戰必亡，忘戰必危#Chinese

From The Methods of the Sima [circa 4th century B.C.].

故國雖大，好戰必亡；天下雖安，忘戰必危。

Thus, even if it has great power, a country that loves to go to war will perish; but even in peace, a country that forgets how to go to war will be endangered.

Why fear China's rise #youtubeshorts #dengxiaoping #unspeech #chinarise
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-5tqlzD6in0

 

[Angerer]

Finally, we have a topic dedicated to the daily posting of CCP propaganda.
Didn't think the moderation changes meant such a pivot @Dan

 

[M51]

Finally, we have a topic dedicated to the daily posting of CCP propaganda.

I promise not to post CCP propaganda more than four times a week.

 

[NextLevel]

Finally, we have a topic dedicated to the daily posting of CCP propaganda.
Didn't think the moderation changes meant such a pivot @Dan

I understand how you feel for sure. But it really isn't tied to moderation changes in the way i think of them. Before this stuff used to be in a lot of threads and incite a lot of debates (the primary opposition doesn't post anymore). As a start, I am trying to keep it away from the tournament and event threads. Then users can decide if there is a real demand for this stuff or not. This stuff was dominating a lot of threads in the past, so please even if you don't agree with the current direction, I do have to make it clearer what is going on. And if you prefer it to go back into the competition threads, I can easily facilitate that. It would make my life much easier.

I try to stay away from judging the veracity of politically charged content. I think just about all of it should not be in TT threads unless it directly affects the events and be limited to its impacts on the events.

 

[firefox22]

WHAT IS THIS???? CCP PROPAGANDA????

 

[latej]

WHAT IS THIS???? CCP PROPAGANDA????

It's a wake-up call, which sadly, for some people, works as "benzodiazepine" ;-)

The time to wake-up is almost as personal as taste for rubbers ;-)

 

[igorponger]

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This all seems much like a permanent drug toxication. Poor people, they have direct access to a variety of drugs and barely have access to sports activities.