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Yttrbio
Joined: 09 Jun 2011
Posts: 3662
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Posted: Tue May 19, 2020 12:33 am
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Engineering Nerd wrote: | Before praising Mizushima’s “bravery” for voicing his political opinion, I really think we need to know some background of “why” he voiced those remarks in the first place (which I was shocked that the article did not mention) |
Engaging China's defenders on the internet is usually a waste of time, but I'll give it a shot here. I don't know why this makes it not "bravery." It's easier to criticize one's own free government than to criticize a dictatorial government which can cut off the very significant economic power of its people to its critics. The NBA is a great example of the kind of cowardice that folks are talking about, here. Obviously, the scale is much smaller, but I'm unimpressed by the efforts to minimize the significance of any criticism of China's government that materialize like clockwork in every internet forum. (Indeed, the "foreigners shouldn't opine on things when they don't know the complexity and context of the topic" is a pretty standard gaslighting response from the China Defense Brigade.)
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Engineering Nerd
Joined: 24 Apr 2008
Posts: 901
Location: Southern California
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Posted: Tue May 19, 2020 1:37 am
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Yttrbio wrote: | [
Engaging China's defenders on the internet is usually a waste of time, but I'll give it a shot here. I don't know why this makes it not "bravery." It's easier to criticize one's own free government than to criticize a dictatorial government which can cut off the very significant economic power of its people to its critics. The NBA is a great example of the kind of cowardice that folks are talking about, here. Obviously, the scale is much smaller, but I'm unimpressed by the efforts to minimize the significance of any criticism of China's government that materialize like clockwork in every internet forum. (Indeed, the "foreigners shouldn't opine on things when they don't know the complexity and context of the topic" is a pretty standard gaslighting response from the China Defense Brigade.) |
A few things.
It is pretty rude to categorize someone as "China defender" for minimizing the effort of providing background context, plus, I wouldn't waste my time defend CCP party any day, (I am an American citizen, hello? However, if someone is trying to demonize Chinese common people, or trying to hide their racism under freedom of criticism, then I will draw the line).
In no way I am trying to reduce the significance of Mizushima's statement, it's just what got him saying those words in the beginning wasn't as what I would initially expect (as I read the news before some research, I was pretty confused too). Does that mean what said isn't true? NO. Mizushima is trying to prove a point that he is fearless for both domestic political figures and international ones ( which is why he also said before that he felt being repressed to voice his political opinions ), and make no mistake, he absolutely proved it.
The star of this article is Mizushima (actually two of them, and they have produced some of my favorite works), and he is in hot water on twitter because of his spat with Japanese twitter users, which I felt people need to know what drives him to finally speak up what he truly believes, and why he said he felt "repressed to express his political opinions" in previous interest articles. It may seem abrupt to just see the juicy and meaty part. It does not invalidate his statements, but to contextualize it.
I felt like there is some misunderstanding here, and I apologize in advance if my wording confused you.
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Rentwo
Joined: 05 Oct 2019
Posts: 184
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Posted: Tue May 19, 2020 4:57 am
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Yttrbio wrote: | Engaging China's defenders on the internet is usually a waste of time, but I'll give it a shot here. I don't know why this makes it not "bravery." It's easier to criticize one's own free government than to criticize a dictatorial government which can cut off the very significant economic power of its people to its critics. The NBA is a great example of the kind of cowardice that folks are talking about, here. Obviously, the scale is much smaller, but I'm unimpressed by the efforts to minimize the significance of any criticism of China's government that materialize like clockwork in every internet forum. (Indeed, the "foreigners shouldn't opine on things when they don't know the complexity and context of the topic" is a pretty standard gaslighting response from the China Defense Brigade.) |
That's not cowardice, it's just being logical. If you voicing your support for Hong Kong would result in you being laid off and going bankrupt, you'd probably be more reserved in what you say as well. It's much easier for you to say those things than it is for people who rely on international markets for their livelihood. Putting on airs on social media is quite different than actually being willing to back up said claims with actual sacrifices and risks.
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Yttrbio
Joined: 09 Jun 2011
Posts: 3662
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Posted: Tue May 19, 2020 8:21 am
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... Do you not know the NBA story? It was literally a single social media post that caused China to start canceling things left and right. It was done for the purpose of creating an environment where making even mild public criticism of China's government is prohibitively expensive to anyone with a voice who has significant international business. And they're relying on people like you to promote acceptance of the idea that avoiding the expense is more important than human rights abuse, giving the CCP de facto veto power over anyone's ability to speak.
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NeoBasch
Joined: 23 Jul 2008
Posts: 32
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Posted: Tue May 19, 2020 8:30 am
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I had to google CCP since I was unfamiliar with the acronym. Wiki has what I'm sure most of you are referring to by CCP as CPC for Communist Party of China. Just thought I would throw that out there in case anyone else was confused.
On topic though, I firmly believe nations and influential figures need to take more of a tough stance on China like these two if we are to see change in our lifetime. Democracy needs support.
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jellybeanbandit
Joined: 18 Jun 2019
Posts: 107
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Posted: Tue May 19, 2020 10:06 am
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Not sure how active these guys are in the industry anymore, but I'm guessing they don't care about the Chinese market to say stuff like that.
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Engineering Nerd
Joined: 24 Apr 2008
Posts: 901
Location: Southern California
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Posted: Tue May 19, 2020 10:22 am
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jellybeanbandit wrote: | Not sure how active these guys are in the industry anymore, but I'm guessing they don't care about the Chinese market to say stuff like that. |
Both of them are very active, in fact, they both have ongoing anime projects on their shoulders.
As far as I see, none of them were blacklisted from Chinese stream platforms and their works are still safe and nothing is banned. This has already happened days ago, so nothing is happening to them at least for now.
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