As some of you in the West might know; the newspapers are filled to the brim with the “newly” released stories from Xinjiang. Well, I had an old friend reach out to me and tell me that they are against everything I stand for (supporting China) and that they wish that if/when I go to China I’ll be oppressed like the Uyghurs. Before I had a chance to reply I had already been blocked. So I thought to go and check others and whether others had blocked me as well. I now have at least 2 people who deleted me because of anti-China propaganda. And while some of you might say; don’t cry over spilt milk … I do feel like more of a pariah with every day I stay in the West and openly support China.
These issues started during COVID. The sheer sinophobia I had to deal with on a daily basis during that time was absolutely sickening, but I mostly just grinned and bare it. Most of my time these last few years (while I wait for borders to reopen) is volunteering my time at a care centre for elderly people. Seeing as most of them have onset dementia I don’t really get into arguments with them on China issues, as it’s a fool’s effort, but the anti-Chinese diatribes in the news have already caused the residents to not want me to come during the first waves of COVID and to not want me to cook Chinese food for them. These people read newspapers religiously and with these latest lies placating multiple pages I got told both today and yesterday that I don’t have to care for these specific residents anymore. I’m lucky in that this job isn’t a real job in that I don’t need it to stay afloat financially, but I still feel really conflicted. I should probably continue volunteering and just help other elders in this complex or other complexes, but I have decided that I won’t. Back during COVID, I was able to understand it somewhat that their xenophobia came from the fear of me transmitting COVID to them (because I interact with Chinese people and in their eyes would be more likely to be a carrier). Only this Monday I was literally showing and telling one of these residents, who used to be a farmer, about Chinese seawater rice and talking to them about the olden times and seeing their eyes light up to only be told today that they don’t want me to come anymore because I support that very same China. I should feel very bad about leaving the remaining residents I helped, but I’m planning on quitting in a week or 2/3 and from then on I won’t put another iota of my time and effort into improving Western society unless it also directly helps the people in the global South.
I’m just so tired.
EDIT: This is something I posted to get some catharsis, as I don’t really have anywhere else to post this without sounding unhinged. Feel free to downvote it.
I had a kind of sh*tty experience when I volunteered to help homeless people.
A couple of old folks I worked with were libs u know upset about Russia and trying to boycott and that…
Anyways I suggested maybe a lot of homelessness brings down wages… (trying to apply/misappropriate Marx). They were mean to me but there was a homeless guy there I forgot about who said most of them don’t even want to work anyways.
Then you know talking to those libs about China too is a lost cause to a large degree.
I talked to other volutunteers about what I’m reading and learning about China and I think they were OK with it.
There was a volunteer with a blue lives matter flag but I didn’t talk to him much.
To a large degree petty politics shouldn’t interfere with most of your volunteer work if it just entails making sure people are housed and/or fed and entertained.
I’m sorry people are being used to be clowns like this.
It shouldn’t interfere with it. But seeing as in my case I need to actively interact with these people and do some talking: the topic of China sometimes comes up whenever I need to grasp for straws on what to talk about. That and my phone is in Chinese and me now and then sending a voice message to my friends back in China makes it so that the topic of China is unavoidable… I’m not willing to just turn off my phone for the hours I’m there, especially when some of these elders are not 100% there mentally.
Luckily, I don’t live in the United States (anymore, used to be a citizen). But being from the Netherlands there is this culture of becoming a pariah just by merely a square peg in a round hole.
I can’t even get my family to ditch the anti-russia anti-china hysteria.
I can spread things I’ve learned and read but MSM and some conditioning still has a big hold on many people’s minds which is tough to break.