It’s not that I disagree with the conclusions, hell, you gotta take out your enemies and obstacles to make things happen, but as someone who’s not quite convinced that authoritarianism is the way to run things, it means I’d probably be offing myself before they send me to the concentration camp/gulag.
So it’s akin to theology. Just gotta have “faith” that your representatives and leaders don’t have a shred of self-interest in their arsenal, and anyone that brings up criticisms is sent to the gulag.
Doesn’t inspire confidence.
So what do socialists do with independent reporters? Is this a basic cop out that, “Yeah, China silences it its critics…for the greater good.” Shit is creepy…
And wtf is a “capitalist reporter”?
I think falling into “libertarian Marxist” sounds fuckin stupid, but I do appreciate his getting over the tankie phase. At least stan a country that doesn’t have an embarrassing record in the World Press Freedom Index (177th out of 180 lol) so you can adequately filter news that isn’t blatant state propaganda.
By relying on the extensive use of new technology, President Xi Jinping has succeeded in imposing a social model in China based on control of news and information and online surveillance of its citizens. At the same time, he has been trying to export this oppressive model by promoting a “new world media order” under China’s influence. China’s state and privately-owned media are now under the Communist Party’s close control while foreign reporters trying to work in China are encountering more and more obstacles in the field. More than 100 journalists and bloggers are currently detained in conditions that pose a threat to their lives. Liu Xiaobo, a Nobel peace laureate and winner of the RSF Press Freedom Prize, and Yang Tongyan, a dissident blogger, both died in 2017 from cancers that were left untreated while they were detained. Under tougher Internet regulations, members of the public can now be jailed for the comments they leave on news items posted on social media or messaging services, or even just for sharing content.
Out before the “Reporters Without Borders is some Western capitalist CIA op” canard gets tossed around (America is a pretty abysmally-ranked 43).
My thing is, why is it always China lol. No one comes into these spaces with scorching hot takes about the LGBTQ rights in Laos or the economic systems of Cuba.
Because China’s economic and LGBTQ+ circumstances will have a much, much, much more appreciable impact on my life in the coming years than Cuba or Laos.
I choose the Nordic model.