https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKWDy2g-Tvs
Hi Bernie
The stories in the Epoch Times video are interesting. The question is of their truthiness. The newspaper is apparently a Falun Gong organization for which I have sympathy however how can we extract fake news from propaganda? Oops, it's all propaganda with a twist.
Do you think Xi Jinping can be overthrown?
The publishers are Trump supporters and he knows fake news when he sees it on TV. ha ha.
Thanks for sending it.
John
Firstly, your reply surprised me in that the quotation sent to you was just a cut-n-paste of one sentence from an article of Epoch Times. It was not an http link … at least it wasn’t intended to be. The intention being that if interested, I would copy the whole article to you. I guess that the unnoticed underlining of the sentence should have been a ‘giveaway’. Sorry.
I take your point about truth and fake news, and a Falun Gong bias and, therefore, the extent of my reply would be better published here.
ReplyDeleteObviously, The Epoch Times, as a member of the media has a bias. The difference being that it is less biassed than, e.g., China Daily, The New York Times, The Guardian, et al., and it attempts to equally expose extraordinary policies of both Right and Left parties globally … without fake news rants.
Equally, it is funded (in part) by Falun Gong and, thus, is appreciated by the U.S. government’s aggressive stance towards the CCP.
Alert: I became aware of Falun Gong whilst working in the PRC. But I learned very little until returning to Canada, where I joined a local group purely out of curiosity. I left after a long period of interesting, but unsuccessful indoctrination … and have not thought of continuing … even though making a number of wonderful (short-term) friends. I am convinced of the truthfulness of the organ harvesting, forced abortions, gene-washing, etc., stories.
To your questions; Yes, the definition of the word ‘propaganda’ is being “biassed and misleading”. But in the PRC it is simply defined as “information” (even though biassed and misleading) hence its success.
Unfortunately, I do not see Xi Jinping being overthrown due to the common psychobiology of the Chinese people and the massive brainwashing of the PLA. It would help if we did not input Chinese products … probably.
If we did not import Chinese products ....
DeleteGod, whatever next will come from China? Xi must think a population of zombies is the ideal citizen.
DeleteDo you know of Ayn Rand , who wrote about how terrible such an idea is? In 'Atlas Shrugged' she wrote about this horror and to what it will lead.
S in our umpteenth cold front. Small flowers are popping out on lawns but the trees as more astute and not popping new leaves yet. They probably are now mentally unbalanced because of the bizarre weather patterns.
Steph.
Tyrant Xi seems to be taking cues from Hitler and Stalin. Hitler’s tall, blond, ideal Germanics, and Stalin’s forced emigration of Russians into the satellite countries, e.g., Ukraine.
DeleteThere have been tyrants since humans spread around the globe. In 2020 we could count the countries that do not have tyrants on our fingers and one set of toes. Some countries live happily with their tyrant and others rebel at some point. America has been ruled by a tyrant since 1944, the only saving grace is that American tyrants only remain in power for eight years. Putin and Xi ensured they could not be displaced in a "democratic" manner by changing their constitutions, a trick Trump might attempt later this year. Not all US presidents have been true tyrants and US citizens are not usually aware how terrible the bad ones have been or are. The same is probably true in most countries. The worst tyrants start wars or steal the wealth of their nation.
ReplyDeleteAyn Rand is required reading for young people beginning to find out about the reality of the world. Disillusion quickly follows awareness.
To continue John; Your introduction of the word "tyrant" is unfair. To paint everyone with the same brush under the same umbrella, if I may be permitted to mix my metaphors, is a cause for depression ... and I have enough of that.
ReplyDeleteI maintain that Hitler and Stalin fit the name when associated with cruelty ... as with many rulers. But the debate would be more fitting if words, i.e., "authoritarian" or "oppressor" were used.
In that context, getting down to 'brass tacks" (as our Northern Brit. may say) I suggest that there are various groups of authortarianists (Bernie's Thesaurus) e.g., autocratic, dictatorial, tyrannical, oppressive, illiberal-tyrants, et al. Most of which are not really "tyrants", i.e., "cruel", permitting the Liberal anarchists to tear down the statues and destroy the peace-makers. Incidentally, is a "tyrannical tyrant" grammatical ?
Using the definition in your final sentences, The Donald is, and will not, suit the title of "tyrant" ... "autocratic", maybe, and that seems to be needed at the moment ?
To Stephanie; South Africa needs, at the moment, a "tyrant" but Ramaphosa is just a feeble ANC-controlled president.
Oh. come on Bernie. I think Trump is a tyrant. He rules America without recourse to the Constitution or the House, the Senate, the Judiciary and morality. I'll settle for autocratic tyrant if you wish. What would you call Lukashenko in Belarus? Twenty six years in with 80% of ballots in his favour is a lot like Fidel Castro and Raoul. Holding onto power using torture and secret police makes them tyrants. Enriching themselves and their friends from the state treasury makes them tyrants. We could create a long list of current day tyrants governing countries around the world and none of them are simply autocratic.
ReplyDelete