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.
One of them literally spent a few months with me in China. The other, while not a good friend, I did enjoy a few dinners and hours commuting with. Knowing that a person is disgusted by you to a point where they’d rather just forget the many many hours you’ve spent together all because of a propaganda campaign launched by a doomsday cult in collaboration with the US government really puts things in perspective.
I have the feeling that if I lived through the worst of McCarthyism these same people would have me handed over to the central authorities, or worse if I lived in Indonesia during their genocide campaigns they’d personally take me to the beach, plant me face first in the sand and put a bullet through my head. What propaganda can do to people never fails to surprise me.
Damn, thats fucked. Maybe anglos are especially deranged i dont know. Here in Spain ive never seen anything like this. Like my parents, who are very left wing, almost communist (i guess you could call it “communist with liberal characteristics”) have an old friend who is very right wing, possibly even fascist (he served as an officer in the spanish military during the fascist dictatorship). While they ofc rarely talk politics because the discussion can get very heated, they nevertheless are friends, and its not like they dont know each others political ideas. I dont know maybe anglos are more brainwashed than us.
My family situation is the complete opposite of yours. I didn’t become a socialist because of my family situation, but rather despite of it. Even though my family are literal fascists, I don’t really have right-wing friends as I made the pleasant mistake of deciding to make friends with non-native looking people. Once you hang out with one person of colour it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Friends that have even a single racist bone in their body will soon try to create distance between the both of you when they find out that “you inviting that black/brown fellah” is a common occurrence. I’m not suggesting all right-wingers are racist, but if those two ven diagrams overlap quite a lot. Sadly most of these “other people” not wanting to hang out with us mostly happened with other ex-pats white (or Chinese natives) in China, though that might have to do with it being a lot easier to make new friends in ex-pat communities.
The virgin anglos Vs the chad latin countries
Chad face: si