Is just such a shock from being in China. Just got harassed and essentially threatened for being a socialist. They searched my bags and commented on my China flag and my little red books and my copy of Blackshirts and Reds. Fucking police state. The security in China is strict, but they don’t give a fuck about your thoughts, whereas this guy was very aggressive about “consequences” for being a socialist.
He also thinks it’ll be 5 years until we’re at war. I told him I give it 2 max. Lmaooo
I was just like, man, first I’ve heard someone else say that off the internet. Hell, that was the initial reason I started learning Chinese and incidentally how I met my wife was I expected war by 2025. I really fuckin hope not though, because I will die if I can’t see my wife anymore. I didn’t plan to meet her, but she completes me in a way I’ve never been completed before.
That's adorable! I hope things work out well and it doesn't cause any issues, I think you should be able to seek asylum if war does break out (though it might be tough getting there). It's the reason I've been meaning to start learning Chinese, but I should get off my ass and actually learn properly. My country will get a total media blackout on everything from China once war breaks out, and I don't want to be left in the dark (and listen to the Murdoch media's constant empty accusations against China to manufacture consent).
That’s a thought I hadn’t considered. I have young family I help care for in the US, so it might be hard if things start soon to leave, but that just opened up a whole new option to me, thank you.
I say if you’re interested in learning, at least give it a try! It’s such a fun and lovely language, I really enjoy everything about it. It’s tough, but being in China and reading signs was so satisfying, and the few times I could hold a short conversation were really confidence boosting. God do some people talk fast though. When my wife is on calls with her family it’s like a thousand words a minute. I honestly feel like they have to think faster than me because I don’t know how you can say so much in so short a time, I’m very much a slow and steady kinda guy. It also made me consider how language can affect cognition a lot.
I'm not quite sure what the laws are on that, but I do think if your wife is a Chinese national, your family should be able to apply for asylum, though you may need to fly over there from another nation first (Mexico most likely).
Yeah, everything I learn about the language is just really interesting (I love how composite words work in the language, it feels like if I had a good enough grasp of it I could convey what I mean even if I don't have the specific word that I want to say, just using a combination of existing words/letters.)
I definitely get the "people talk to fast" thing though, I'm Australian, and we're notoriously slow talkers in other languages, so that'll be the biggest hurdle I think. I'm always annoyed with how slowly it can take to convey ideas though, so learning a "faster" language is something I'm looking forward too, I waste too much time trying to think through ideas, and being able to convey those ideas in a more efficient way is something I've looked for all my life, so hopefully another language is the answer. I mainly keep putting it off because "I don't have the time" but I'll never have the time really, so I should just put aside whatever time I can each day to learn a little. I really like the idea of being able to speak to a billion people I couldn't previously.
In terms of talking faster, it'd probably be a lot easier to just learn another English dialect that is faster, like SAE.
Do you just talk to your wife in her second language? I always find that kind of thing odd unless her English is native-like
That reminds me of when I was in Helsinki airport.
I still had some time for my flight, and was walking around to get something to eat. The place itself is very cozy, lots of wooden architecture, places arranged to seem like they're in the middle of a forest, etc. Then I look the wrong way and see inside the smokers' lounge. There, a bald middle-aged guy wearing a black hoodie with the coat of arms of Nazi Germany on it, vaping.
I somehow doubt that person got into any trouble for it. One of the rare Germany Ws is that that would be very illegal here.
Good. They're afraid and have no counterargument. Scare them Comrade.
Yeah he tried real hard to imply I might get the wall, and I said, you know, I’ll do what I have to do, and you do what you have to do. He calmed down a bit once he realized idgaf what he says, I’m gonna do me, but he was very edgy lmao.
We should be critically supportive of the TSA, given that it helps accelerate the downfall of the empire by wasting 9.7 billion dollars per year on unfounded paranoia
The notion of "wasting money" doesn't really apply to a country that can print the global reserve currency at will. There is effectively no bottom to the money bag for the US.
it's always such a kick in the face when I go from Mexico to the US. I usually sink into a depression for the first two weeks or so due to the isolation and just kinda oppressive feeling of the United States.
usually the customs officers don't hassle me much because I'm white but tsa is always happy to help themselves to a groping, which is why I typically do not fly in the US. usually I cross in tijuana so I can deal with sane and pleasant mexican authorities instead of like getting groped for my sunscreen or whatever insane shit the US be smoking this week
The oppressive feeling in the US as a foreigner is so spot on. There are plenty of things I appreciate about visiting the states but there’s also stuff that just feels so… off. It always feels like such a weight off my shoulders when I return to Canada
TSA is so bizarre, they’re literally on guard for a terrorist attack that became unfeasible DURING 9/11 when that one flight crashed in a field in Pennsylvania because the passengers fought back. Not to mention they’ve deadbolted the cockpit doors, there’s always a chance of an Air Marshal on the flight and many pilots are armed…
Some claim they could “simply” bomb the plane. As if it were that easy. Explosives are tightly regulated and controlled and even a homemade 9/11 event simply isn’t happening. Look at every other airplane based attacker from the shoe-bomber, to the underwear bomber to the guy that tried to mix the liquid explosives in the lavatory. Which apparently wouldn’t work, anything liquid that’s unstable enough to be a high explosive couldn’t be casually brought in your hand luggage, and “mixing a binary explosive” in the bathroom is extremely difficult.
They’re chasing ghosts.
What's even funnier is like they failed to catch something like 80% of the weapons snuck through in undercover testing a few years ago lol. so they're not even good at it.
one of the things that cracks me up about the bolting the pilot in the cockpit thing....... Latin American airlines don't do that. the pilot will come out, have nachos, go to the bathroom, and you know why?
because Latin American countries don't conduct themselves in a manner that people wanna hijack their planes and fly them into buildings
Yeah, I recently got back from a trip to Costa Rica and I could immediately feel the fascistic shift in atmosphere coming back. As soon as the plane touched down the immediate first thing I hear is, "LET'S CLAP AND CHEER FOR OUR TROOPS, EVERYONE ELSE WHO BUST THEIR ASS AT NORMAL JOBS, FUCK YOU YOU ARE NOT IMPORTANT."
Jesus Christ that’s bad. I got rerouted and came back through Vegas airport, and seeing people not even make it out of the airport before getting sucked into gambling really made the differences apparent.
Question: I know gambling, prostitution and pornography are all illegal in China - is this strictly enforced or do they kind of informally allow it to happen like most other countries do where such bans are in place?
I know that for gambling it's pretty common for Chinese people to vacation to Macau and Hong Kong to do it, and I have to imagine that online gambling is just as prevalent and hard to spot and stop as it is here.
I think where online gambling is concerned first and foremost you need to make sure that children can't fall victim to it. If you have a limited amount of resources to devote to policing these things then that should be the main focus. And you need to start by cracking down on game-ified gambling, "loot boxes" and the like. I heard some pretty good things about China and their policy toward tackling the problem of gaming addiction in children so I hope that they are also staying on top of this too.
I believe pornography production and sale is illegal but consumption is not.
Production and distribution is legal if it is not done for profit. So you cannot pay actors, have a subscription service, sell your product directly, or use backend ways of avoid this restriction. This lets regular people make porn and not risk any penalty, but prevents companies from exploiting people or creating a problem industry.
Which is logical, some people enjoy displaying their naked bodies and/or sexual acts. Our problem is that money inherently makes it exploitative.
What consenting adults do with their own bodies and how they choose to share that with other consenting adults is none of any other person’s business.
Production and distribution is legal if it is not done for profit.
Any sources on that? Everything I've ever seen on the subject seems to suggest otherwise. It'd certainly be ideal if society moved to how you describe- maybe in a decade or more I could see that happening.
Section 9 of the legal code says it word for word.
Whoever, for the purpose of profit, produces, duplicates, publishes, sells or disseminates pornographic materials shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years, criminal detention or public surveillance and shall also be fined.
https://www.cecc.gov/resources/legal-provisions/criminal-law-of-the-peoples-republic-of-china#2%20Chapter%20VI.9
Further if you look at how the authorities treat porn distribution in particular, they will immediately arrest anyone associated with “paid porn” even if that site operated perfectly fine for years before, with the only thing changing being that they now had a subscription service, or running ads, or another form of “profit creation”. Such as the case with Juneday, a site that operated for years on China’s clear net, but the second they started charging for the service and running ads, everyone associated was arrested.
http://news.sohu.com/20061220/n247161264.shtml
Further, peer to peer torrenting of porn is essentially never enforced, and sharing porn on Chinese networks is only enforced if users seed or leech more then 40 files simultaneously.
For example, China’s daily BitTorrent traffic.
https://iknowwhatyoudownload.com/en/stat/CN/daily
Sounds like a sensible policy. A ban on consumption couldn't be enforced anyway.
I don’t know, because I am not a consumer of any of those things. I have a Chinese friend who often jokes about erotic massages, but that’s about as far as my exposure to that goes. I know Macau is basically the gambling den of China though.
I know Macau is basically the gambling den of China though.
I should have specified mainland China. I am aware that sadly in the formerly colonized territories like Macau and Hong Kong there are still a fair few remnants of western removed.
China still has remnants of the system too. Lotteries are not legally considered gambling, and the state operates two state sponsored lotteries.
That's...unfortunate. Lotteries may not be as addictive or as scummy as other forms of gambling but they are definitely still gambling. I wonder if the state sponsored lotteries have a profit margin or if the money from ticket sales just goes fully back into the prize pool.
Only 50% of the profits go to welfare. The other 50% is pocketed. The welfare part is essentially good PR, and is identical to the US system. In the US lotteries are used as a funding mechanism for school districts, and that’s essentially what China is doing here. It’s just a way to pretend that the lottery is doing something good.
Still scummy, and still supporting gambling addiction :/
I’m not sure on the mechanics of it, but I did see the state lottery offices, and it’s subtitled in English as Chinese Welfare Lottery, so hopefully the profits go to welfare? Idk. I hear it’s pretty popular though.
I forgot to mention that there were scratch off tickets at one of the malls I went to also, my wifey bought a few and lost on all of them 😂
Lmaooooo I'm never going back to Amerikkka, fuck that shithole
wtf the immigration officer was saying all of this when you got back to the US?
I have no idea how much this is enforced though, since I used to know several Vietnamese people who were communist party members who were also American citizens or permanent residents. One ran a donut shop.
Also one of my comrades in a local org is a communist from Guatemala who was affiliated with leftist groups in central America, he still ended up in the US.
I'm not saying there's restrictions for communists, I just also believe the American state is lazy, inefficient, and probably prioritizes racism over past political affiliation when it comes to deciding who gets in.
yeah I added an edit, immigration in America is guided by white supremacy first and foremost
Also can't be on the ballot in many states even if one were to get the ridiculous amount of funds needed to run for office
American officials at the airport will grill you on whether you're affiliated with any communist party, they never stopped the McCarthyism.
This has made me realize I really need to up my commie game then because border agents have never said a peep to me. I'm affiliated with 2 anarchist orgs, 1 Marxist-Leninist party, and 1 homeless support network. I thought my name would be on a file by now wtf. Fucking Immigration feds are calling me a liberal.
Border control has never stopped me when I've come back to the US from abroad, and I've left the US twice this year already. I had a bag with the Disco Elysium commie symbol (the stars and antlers) but that's probably too subtle. I'm also very visibly non-binary
Ugh do I need to tattoo a sickle and hammer on my face
American survielance really is a paper tiger, they dont have the time or resources to actually monitor 90% of the shit they want you to think they can.
Almost all of the data they collect ends up on a server in Utah, which is very convenient if you become a "person of interest" and they want to build a file on you, but if you're still a face in the crowd they basically don't know anything.
When I was a teen and traveling I would always, always get picked for extra search. I wore all black, had long hair, and black fingernails. TSA is just going off vibes.
So you're saying I need to seem more commie and more punk? I'm already both of those things but I gotta try harder it seems.
Maybe your vibe is too hinged and you need to move in a more visibly unhinged direction
Man if you can get away without being harassed, I say stick to whatever you’re doing. I have been secondary searched every time I go through TSA since I was a 14 year old kid, and it gets really fucking old. Not to mention the constant profiling by police on the streets. I’ll never forget going clothing shopping with my father at Kohls, walking out and seeing a cop crawling through the parking lot, telling my dad, “stay close when I pull out, this cop is going to pull me over” and being right. If he hadn’t been there to say, “why the fuck are you harassing my son?” I would have gone to jail on suspicion of murder that day because I am brown and had long hair and apparently someone else did too.
I thought my name would be on a file by now wtf.
It might. It however needs to be actually accessed. If they don't think it necessary, then they likely won't bother.
I'm not American, so I'm just going off of what I've heard from others. So maybe it isn't as prevalent as I thought. I just assumed based on what I've heard from American comrades that being questioned at airports about communism is just a normal thing they do, but I'm going off of secondhand accounts.
That very much depends on how they profile you then. I've been around US international airports quite a bit and I've never been asked about it even when applying for TSA PreCheck
I think they searched me because I had a whole bag just for gifts I brought back. It wasn’t until I got to the secondary search area that this happened, when they popped open my bag, saw the Chinese flag, the mao books, etc haha
This at least fills me with some hope. They're scared. They're jumping at books and flags now.
I think my wife and I are gonna retire there, but I have a criminal record, so I can’t work there. Our plan is suck as much capital out of American jobs as we can and then retire there and hope we can live for a long time without her having to go back to work, since I can get a spousal residency.
This is something I have also thought about, if there's no chance of emigration within my working years for me. My pie-in-the-sky future is my wife and I (unfortunately burgerland born and raised) fucking off to the mainland and never looking back, but from my research even residency is still extremely strict if not outright impossible for us without a technical "in"- marrying or heritage- and for that matter pretty much no one on earth wants disabled immigrants (thanks life), so I'm not sure I have a hope in hell. I've worked in tech for a very long time, so there might be something there, but even that seems rough to navigate. Sure would be nice, thougn.
I have a feeling they may open up immigration some if the birth rate continues to fall the way it is, young people are 100% the retirement plan there, so it can get pretty rough if there’s not a next generation to care for the previous one. For now though, it’s pretty rough. Last I looked it was single digit thousands accepted each year for immigration from all countries combined. I definitely have no hope of immigrating, just long term residency.
How was learning Mandarin for you? I have admittedly not been as diligent as I ought to be but I’ve been on and off for almost a year and still really struggle with it. Most of the resources I know and the common learning methods I read about never seem to stick for me.
I am horrible and most people can’t understand me so I just stopped talking mostly haha. I can understand low level conversations, and enough to get through simple interactions, but going there was definitely a crash course in sucking ass, and I plan to get a private tutor and really buckle down now that I’m back. I’ve gotten pretty good at reading, and I can test at like HSK 2/3 minus writing, but my listening skills and talking skills are so mush, despite what the apps told me. Even HelloChinese, the best gamified app, gave me way more confidence than I should have because they have everyone speak slowly and clearly, whereas everyone in the mainland speaks quickly, with accents, and sort of slur their words together making it hard to tell where they stop and start or what tone they’re using.
It was basically like blahblahblahblah 需要这个blahblahblahblah开始了blah blah blah. And then I would look at my wife like a lost puppy and she would translate for me haha.
I had been doing 1-3 hours a day on apps for 200 days by the time I got out there. Definitely not enough.
If I recall right from some language studies on the effectiveness of those gamified apps, you’re usually better off with a night course at a community college. I’m really impressed with your dedication!
I've read accounts from people returning to the US after a visit in China saying it feels like returning to the 20th century after experiencing what 21st century infrastructure is like. Did you get that sense that all? I suppose it is highly dependent on which city you visited.
Yes. I literally was just telling someone it felt like it was both a century ahead and a century behind in some ways. Infrastructure and walk ability are amazing. The trains are so nice and so fast. I took multiple high speed trains, and next time I go back I intend to do the maglev train from Shanghai to… wherever it goes, I just want to ride the train 😂
When you say a century behind, I'm curious about what was like that.
Traffic is madness and I don’t understand how there’s not constant accidents all the time. It basically seems like a lawless land where everyone just does whatever they want wherever they want. Cars just sort of play chicken and force their way through gaps by just sort of… going and the other guy will either slow down or he won’t. Lots of people fail to stay in their lanes and many times my driver would have to honk to get someone to get back over into their lane instead of driving in the middle of two lanes.
I watched arguments between taxi drivers and regular drivers because some dude would just stop in the middle lane of a three lane road and play on his phone, and everyone just sort of had to go around them.
At the same time, traffic lights are tied into Didi and you can see when the light your driver is at will turn green while they’re on their way to you.
It’s not as bad as like the infamous videos from India and other countries , but it was still unsettling until I got used to it.
The rural areas are still quite bad (compared to the big cities that are amazing), unlike Western Europe where even backwaters are pleasant (the US is halfway between both though).
I didn't make it to too rural of an area, but I’ve heard similar. I did go to the town my wife grew up in, which is technically a village, and they had better walk ability and more accessible grocery and hospital than my city in the US, but it’s pretty clear that is a recent development from all the cranes and new buildings around. I saw some of the more truly rural areas from the window of the high speed train, and there were definitely some really ancient looking villages that were just a row of houses and farmland.
I’m sure they’ll develop the areas it went. Like when the high speed trains were going to “nowhere” and now that “nowhere” is a bustling metropolis. Maybe not though, I guess we’ll find out.
Not just infrastructure, payments are also convenient with Ali pay/WeChat pay. Everyone pays everything by phone, most haven't used cash or card in years, although you can if you want. Apps are also ridiculously well designed and integrated, less visible as a foreigner, as much if it is obviously in Chinese and you have a language barrier. But you can really do anything you can imagine in WeChat. Alipay can also translate in miniapps. Say you are in a restaurant, you will scan a qr code on the table, can have a menu that you can automatically translate if you so chose. You also can order and pay through that menu on your phone.
Bureaucracy exists like everywhere else, but tends to be faster and more efficient in my experience. It's not perfect, but the country does feel very different.
Also, it doesn't depend that much on the city. I have been to most large cities in China, many small and medium sized ones too. I have also been to the countryside. The latter is more relaxed, but everywhere has technology and infrastructure. Basically all cities are serviced by train. Towns will all have bus systems that mean you can get anywhere in the country with public transportation.
the US really sucks now and is just going to keep getting worse. it still sucked 5+ years ago, but at least you could say treats were cheap. food was cheap. housing prices weren't as exorbitant as they are now.
now even living is unaffordable, the infrastructure is falling apart, I really don't see what's left.
I really don't see what's left.
waiting for everyone to realize that their society is in free-fall collapse. but it's more likely that civilization will completely collapse before the working class of the west wakes up.
there won't be a "free-fall collapse" - like a single event - though. things are just going to slowly get worse and worse every year. the right wing courts will get rid of more rights. businesses will be more free to exploit workers and the environment. infrastructure will continue collapsing. life will keep getting more difficult for the working class. just like how the UK went from a globe spanning empire to a backwater.
Empires take a lifetime to fall apart. At some point it will be just another country. Who knows how many wars we will put the rest of the world through on the way down, though.
They can take that long, even longer, but there is no law of empires that states collapse can't happen extremely quickly either. The material circumstances on the global scale that we find ourselves in are different in significant ways from the way things were historically during the collapse of the other large hegemonic empires. One of these important differences is the speed of information. And the increasing rate that climate change is drastically altering the world helps ensure that geopolitical change will also unavoidably be seeing rapid changes as a result. Don't forget what Lenin said about decades and weeks.
consequences for being a socialist.
What... like healthcare? pension? affordable housing? Shit dawg, sign me up!
Right? I get the feeling he was more thinking Ethel and Julius Rosenberg though. And fair enough, I’ll cross that bridge when I get there.
Well yeah... but make the chud have to explain openly that "we're just going to kill you for wanting healthcare and affordable housing" while having your bags publicly searched.
