• UmbraVivi [he/him, she/her]@hexbear.net
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    7 months ago

    ok i looked up the video because i was curious and it was even dumber than i expected

    the video opens with “traveling by train in china can really be a nightmare” and then it’s like a full minute of footage of crowded trains with ominous, spooky music

    i can’t deal with this shit man, why are you such a fucking imbecile

    • RyanGosling [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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      7 months ago

      There was an oped in the NYT about a white American woman raising her children in China. She let her middle school age daughters ride the train by themselves because it was safe. The only thing she hated about the country is lockdowns and her children speaking in a nationalistic tone when talking about completing homework lol.

      They moved back to the US and the first day they went to class at an American school, they had to learn mass shooters drills.

      https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/18/opinion/china-education-parenting-culture.html

      https://archive.is/y1pQP

    • WhatDoYouMeanPodcast [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      7 months ago

      I’ve been in a crowded train. It’s kind of annoying. Not exactly an ominous and spooky nightmare LMAO.

      But then suddenly I overhear someone talk about their cop brother and how people just don’t want to work nowadays I GOT FIVE ON IT (SUSPENSEFUL) STARTS PLAYING

      • UmbraVivi [he/him, she/her]@hexbear.net
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        7 months ago

        Oh yeah, crowded trains can be awful. I’ve been on crowded trains in summer while the AC was out, that was an actual nightmare and I’m sure that happens in China as well.

        But the framing of it all is just so… blatantly disingenuous, it’s malicious in such a mundane and uncreative way, it’s exhausting. Because it feels like yeah, you could point out “Crowded trains in a country with 1,3 billion people are to be expected, a cherry-picked compilation like this could be made about trains in any country and the spooky music is supposed to make it feel special when it isn’t” but it’s so blatant that these people just do. not. care about reality or truth.

        They know they can lie with impunity and the burden of proof will always be on you if you decide to defend a state enemy. They know the establishment is behind them, the imperialist structure is behind them, so they can just say random bullshit. They can simply talk over you and impose their nonsensical beliefs onto the rest of the world, regardless of reality or reason, because as long as it’s about a designated enemy state, there will never ever be negative consequences. There is no fucking point in talking to these people because their ideology, their perception of what is true or false is based on power alone.

        Reality just doesn’t fucking matter to anyone. The empire has designated China as an enemy and the people blindly follow. China’s trains are not a nightmare because they’re crowded or unsafe or made of cheap material or because people were forced out of their homes to build them or whatever (just examples, none of this is true afaik), China’s trains are a nightmare because they are in China, and Western power structures have deemed China as evil, therefore everything they do must be evil. These videos are pure fucking ideology and it’s so exhausting because half of these dullards probably aren’t even aware of it. They don’t know why they believe the things they do and just babble incoherent nonsense to convince themselves why the status quo is actually great for very real and material reasons and you just don’t get it.

        Sorry for the rant but I seriously just cannot deal with this shit anymore. Responding to arguments based on neoliberalism, white supremacy and imperialism with arguments based on material reality is like trying to cut water with a knife.

        Edit: haha i accidentally did the thing, by “rest of the world” i obviously mean international-community-1international-community-2

  • SILLY BEAN
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    7 months ago

    fun fact: standing infront of a car going 50kmph will also kill you

  • huf [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    7 months ago

    a single glance at any railway accident stats will tell you how deeply unserious this person is.

    china is nowhere near the top. most railway accidents? US (or possibly india, depending on who you believe and how it’s counted). most fatalities in railway accidents? south africa.

    but yeah, it’s china’s railways that are uniquely, especially dangerous.

    • WhatDoYouMeanPodcast [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      7 months ago

      I got an add on for Firefox that causes all thumbnails for YouTube videos to instead be a screenshot of 5 seconds into the video (Clickbait remover for youtube). Between that, ublock, sponsorblock, an addon that gets rid of recommended videos+the side bar (DF Youtube or Distraction free youtube) I feel so much better about the website