Or Blizzard. They changed Hearthstone card art for the Chinese market. :mad:
So I have a question for Dopers with longer memories or better history knowledge: Did the United States (or U.S. businesses, or schools) ever censor themselves in the past when speaking about any other autocratic foreign power? (such as the Reich in the 1930s-1940s or the Soviet Union during the Cold War?) Is it just because China has $$$ to offer and those didn’t?
It also seems to be shitty and craven Trump Administration policy: according to reports, the US keeps quiet on massive human rights abuses in Hong Kong in order to keep trade talks going.
Protesting a proposed speaker is not mob violence.
This isn’t about political correctness. It’s about the CCP using it’s power to get what it wants. And it’s easy to blame western companies (in fact, I do, mainly for being so freaking stupid), but China wields enormous power wrt forcing foreign companies to toe the line…the party line. It’s sad that this has taken so long for people to wake up about, as it’s been going on for years now and China is almost in it’s endgame wrt pushing this agenda.
What’s really sad is that so many people handwave away China’s actions, or ignore them…or, worst off, don’t even know they are happening. The fact that many posters in this thread automatically blamed, say, the NBA for caving in, instead of thought about who is doing the coercion is telling. Same goes for Hollywood. But, the thing is, this isn’t limited to just businesses and greedy corporations. Our political systems are equally under attack. You don’t hear that much about what China has been doing in many other countries to subvert their political systems, or even what they are doing in THIS country to do the say. They have a lot of politicians in their pockets the same as the NBA or Hollywood, and really for similar reasons…the home that if we cave in, go along, play the game, that in the end China will change, will open up their markets, will become more like us because they will see how great we are and want to be just like us. It’s fucking stupid, it was never going to happen, but that’s the light at the end of the tunnel for many…sadly, that light is the train coming right at us.
I think Hong Kong is going to be the tipping point, one way or another. If the Chinese crack down…and they almost certainly will if things continue…well, then what will we do? Nothing? Say bad things about them then move on? Will it be Tienanmen Square all over again, with the west denouncing the CCP, then a few years later forgetting all about it and vying for tickets to the Olympics or to other events so we can lick their ass? Because that’s what the Chinese and, especially the CCP got out of Tienanmen…that they could do something horrific, and that the west would protest and howl…for a while, then forget and even scramble to try and cater to China for it’s favor and access to it’s markets. Will Hong Kong be the same? If China actually does go ahead with it’s plan for Taiwan, what then? Protest, howl…then forget, and scramble for seats at their 100th anniversary blowout party? That’s what the Chinese THINK we will do, and they are betting on it. It’s been what’s happened with them for years now. China pushes…say, building artificial islands in disputed waters, that they say they won’t militarize or use for territorial claims. Then militarize them and use them for territorial claims.
This is an across the board attack by China, but only they seem to understand that. Yeah, or speech is certainly in danger. But this is a full court press on just about everything, and thus far we aren’t really responding very well, in general, nor are we seeing the threat for what it is. I was really glad to see John Oliver take on the 1 child policy, as it’s good to start looking into this stuff. The problem is, that is old news now and there is so much more that he SHOULD be looking into. Any other country doing the sorts of evil shit the CCP does and John would be all over them. But I won’t hold my breath on his organ harvesting show, nor the one about Falun Gong, nor even one about the myriad other stuff going on. I hope those are going to be done sometime, as he seems to be able to get the public to take note…but my WAG is, if he doesn’t have to apologize for what he did (which, frankly, went easy on the CCP) he’s probably not going to be able or encouraged to look into the really tough stuff.
It becomes mob violence when the protesters are starting fires and smashing windows.
And then it is no longer political correctness.
Sure, but that’s not really a policy unique to the Trump Administration. Politicians from both parties have been more-or-less ignoring China’s abysmal record on human rights for decades to play nice with them.
I no longer make these sort of assumptions about the moral character of my fellow countrymen.
This is offtopic and a hijack of this thread. No more of this here.
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Or, as Stan Marsh put it, “anyone who would betray their ideals just to make money in China isn’t worth a lick of spit.”
As others have said, this is not an issue of political correctness. Political correctness is about not offending people who are helpless to respond.
This is sucking up to the boss. This is not offending somebody because you fear they will retaliate against you.
OK, but can you and I at least “agree that what the NBA did was shitty and craven”?
I should have been more clear. These things are off topic because they are not about China or anything related to China’s actions.
Whether something is politically correct or not is in fact germane to the thread and not subject to the above mod note.
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Thank you for clarifying that.
I feel like I’ve lost my mind here. The NBA most surely did not apologize. They put out a statement that basically said, “hey, some people were bothered by this, and that’s unfortunate.” As a part of the same statement, they reiterated that their corporate culture allows and encourages people to express their opinions, tacitly supporting Morey’s right to say what he said. Adam Silver went ahead and doubled down on that support. Daryl Morey is still the GM of the Houston Rockets (in spite of deciding to put Russell Westbrook and James Harden in the same backcourt!).
I guess the NBA could have been more stridently supportive of Morey, but the way they’re being characterized here and elsewhere on the Internet you’d think they issued some groveling statement of grief and remorse and then chopped Daryl Morey’s head off at sunset.
I don’t think anyone blaming the NBA is unaware that they’re doing so because the CCP is putting financial pressure on them.
But so what? The CCP is gonna do what authoritarian bully governments do. We should resist it, and we should call out the NBA for mealy-mouthed acquiescence instead of standing for something.
Note that the criticisms of the NBA’s quick fold here appear to have had the desired result. The NBA commissioner is taking a public stand for freedom of speech and China isn’t going to air the games.
The OP mentions Political Correctness simply as a way associate the Left with something negative.
They said that the tweet hurt feelings in China, “which is regrettable.” The most straightforward reading of that passive voice is that people shouldn’t hurt other people’s feelings. That’s not quite an apology, but it is passive-aggressive finger pointing at the Rockets’ GM for doing something wrong.
The NBA statement then went on to say that its priority is “bridge cultural divides” between China and… someone. The statement conspicuously chooses “lets get along” in order to brush under the rug the massive human rights violations China is responsible for in Hong Kong.
So that’s my reading of it. I’m not really sure how anyone can interpret it differently, but I’d like to hear your more specific thoughts on those two sections.
The term is meaningless now, because so many people use it as an intellectually lazy way to beg the question.