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Chinese Portals Pledge More Self-Policing
An anonymous reader writes "A slew of Chinese web portals have pledged to self-police even more, after signing on to a Beijing plan to 'clean up the internet'. Google and MSN have not joined the group." From the article: "The firms' pledge states that the Internet has become an important source of information and entertainment in China, now the world's second-biggest market with more than 100 million Web surfers. 'At the same time as the Web develops quickly, certain sites are transmitting unhealthy news ... and uncivilized voice services, including pornographic content that can be harmful to society,' said the pledge, which was dated earlier this month in a posting on Sina's Web site."
Sounds more like something Alberto Gonzales and the Bush White House would say.
The sad part is, while I'm writing this "tongue-in-cheek", if it were to be a headline in tomorrow's paper, nobody would be surprised.
But at least our whole country isn't behind a firewall meant to hide us from the truth.
Between forced abortions, organ harvesting of Falun Gong members, and poisoning sitting presidents at large banquets, China has shown its true colors time after time. I guess if China keeps funding our government, we have no choice but to look the other way.
A bit sad really.
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
Retard alert.
There is only ONE LEGAL PARTY in China. Get a clue and quit posting nonsense.
Actually, it's that kind of thing that has to be reported and made available. It's like trying to hide under the covers -- sure, you don't see any bad things, but you don't see any good things either. More importantly, you don't get to choose what you think is "bad" and what you think is "good." I think we'd pretty much all agree there are some moral absolutes (not killing or torturing others, taking the property of others without express permission, right to worship freely, etc.), but for anything not so cut-and-dried, it's up to the individual to determine where those things reside in their moral universe.
Censorship is not just about keeping things from people, it's also about telling people what they should think or believe.
GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
I personally don't hate China. You can't hate a nation (never mind what people said about the USSR during the 50's and 60's); each nation is made up of diverse groups and not all citizens of a nation think alike. Nowhere is that truer than here in the United States.
What I hate is the Chinese government clinging to outmoded ideals and forms of control that in the end create hardship and ruin for the great bulk of the Chinese people. They treat most of their citizens like cattle -- just one example is the Chinese mining industry. The divide between the rural poor and the urban rich is a greater gulf than we have here. There is still political injustice and opinions contrary to the party line are not tolerated. Despite economic reforms, China is still a totalitarian regime.
To my way of thinking, the Chinese people deserve the same rights and privileges that I enjoy, but to get them, they will have to make the changes necessary to bring true reform. All I and others can do is urge them on and hope.
GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
Tomhudson, I'm against human rights abuses without regard as to who the perpetrator is. If human rights are abused by China, them I'm against it. If human rights are abused by George Bush, then I am against it. Those are my principles. What are yours?
Despite your tongue in cheek escape valve, the tone of your post apologizes for human rights abuses in China because you see some abuses in America. Does this mean that in tomhudson's world that two wrongs really do make a right?
Yahoo will give up anything a government asks for. They don't even question why a government would want some piece of information. I wish entities like the ACLU would go after Yahoo and make them start, at least, pausing and thinking before they act.
Chinese people elect their government the same way we elect circus clowns. They don't.
They had a revolution, and chose the bad choice over the really bad choice. Sure, some of them are content, but they know that they have no say about what goes on in their government. They know that the government hands out ultimatums such as this one (help us or go out of business) on a regulat basis.
The only way you can justify the Chinese people choosing their government is because they choose not to have another revolution. Given how difficult that is in a dictatorship with an iron fist, we really can't hold that against them.
The real question is what part the USA should play in helping them with their government. I say fuck'em. Let them do it themselves. We need to stop nation building and setting up puppet governments. If they never get a clue, too bad for them.
24 beers in a case, 24 hours in a day. Coincidence? I think not!
Hitler never actually came up with or did much of his atrocities himself, or even thought up the details in the first place. Instead he encouraged many of his cronies to come up with whatever ideas and act in whatever manner they thought would please their leader the most. And they happily complied.
I think FLG sounds as bat shit crazy as any other religion. We have Mormons, Scientologist, and Christian Scientist who all expose views that in the context of normal modes of thinking are utterly insane and flagrantly self-destructive in some cases.
Hell, even your average and boring vanilla Christian sounds crazy if you were not raised to accept their views as normal. Their religion is built around a Jewish cult leader who they are utterly convinced was killed, was raised from the dead, ascended to a magical utopian paradise with a being of pure love, and they believe that this person will return to Earth brining an apocalypse that will shatter humanity. That is a pretty fucking crazy view to hold if you are not brought up with it.
Further, if you listen to what FLG advocates, what they are doing makes perfect sense. They have done the same thing every other religion has done. They have taken some old religious beliefs (a form of old Chinese mysticism in this case), modified them, and used them to explain the things in this world that they don't understand and don't believe that there is an rational explanation for. In the case of FLG, they have developed a mystical explanation as to why the Chinese government is so brutal, the environment is degrading, and why people don't feel self fulfilled. Is their explanation insane? Sure, it is as insane as any religious explanation. Are the things they are trying to explain insane? Hell no.
In the same way an early Jew or Christian might blame demons, the devil, or God for things that we later have come to accept as having rational scientific explanations, these people have done the same. They worry about government corruption and repression, the degradation of the family, the environment, and the downward spiral that they see humanity in. The only difference between the FLG and any other person who worries about these things is that the FLG have assigned a mystical (aliens in this case) explanation to why things are going as they have.
If you take a step back and replace the word "aliens" with the more familiar "demons", then their beliefs suddenly become absolutely no more crazy sounding then some extreme Christian religions. Arguing that "demons" are ruining the world is hardly a new thought. They have just modernized it by replacing the word "demons" with "aliens".
Look, I am not saying you should go sign up for FLG. They are, in my opinion, utterly insane. That said, they are no more insane then any other religion out there. Just because you and I find their beliefs crazy doesn't mean that their followers should be chased down, imprisoned, repressed, and in some cases murdered by the Chinese government. I don't want to see FLG persecuted any more then I want to see Mormons, Scientologist, and Methodist persecuted.
Further, the actions of the Chinese government just incite these people into believing their dogma. If you held the belief that aliens (replace "aliens" with "demons" if that makes you more comfortable) are corrupting humanity, and suddenly the government starts to brutally repress you despite the fact that FLG is pretty damn peaceful and benign in what it advocates, would that might not affirm your beliefs that aliens/demons are out to get you?