Why Conspiracy Theories?

[Mr. Tea]

"It's a Chinese psy-op to hobble Western economies" sounds exactly like the "global warming is a Chinese hoax to hobble Western economies" nonsense peddled by Trump, among others.

 

[mixed_biscuits]

The Chinese downplayed its seriousness in order to let the virus spread without resistance (they blocked internal flights but not external ones, for instance). They then hyped its seriousness with fake footage of ppl conking out on the street, panicking the West into locking down, thereby pulverising our economies and reason.

Now we have a majority of Brits wishing they lived in China lol

 

[version]

One of my mates does actually live in China atm and says he prefers it, although he finds it harder to get hold of books.

 

[yyaldrin]

there are no book stores?

 

[version]

A lot of books are banned over there. They disappear booksellers they take issue with too.

 

[yyaldrin]

do you have any examples of such banned books? what authors?

 

[luka]

I've got lots of family that have lived there for years.

 

[version]

I think it's mostly books which reflect poorly on China and the government. Any sort of criticism, history etc they'd rather people didn't read. They also ban stuff they feel conflicts with their values and apparently make changes to books during translation and without informing the author before allowing them to be sold.

Foreign authors warned about book censorship in China

Books translated for the fast-growing Chinese market may be censored without the authors’ knowledge, a writers’ advocacy group reports

www.theguardian.com

 

[version]

My mate says one of the things he likes about living over there's that everything works. Said he can't believe he was paying £1500 a year for the trains in Britain after seeing how much better they are in Shanghai.

 

[Mr. Tea]

I bought a book in China once. Complete waste of money, it didn't even have any writing printed it in, just loads of funny squiggles.

 

[version]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/11/technology/twitter-chinese-misinformation.html

I wouldn't be surprised by this at all. It's certainly plausible. It doesn't justify the stupidity of a lot of the conspiracy theorists though. China spreading misinformation about the effectiveness of lockdowns isn't an excuse for thinking humans breathe out carbon monoxide, that something written in a book can't be a conspiracy theory or having a totally garbled definition of socialism.

 

[Mr. Tea]

The Chinese downplayed its seriousness in order to let the virus spread without resistance (they blocked internal flights but not external ones, for instance). They then hyped its seriousness with fake footage of ppl conking out on the street, panicking the West into locking down, thereby pulverising our economies and reason.

[citation needed]

Now we have a majority of Brits wishing they lived in China lol

[citation needed]

 

[mixed_biscuits]

You don't remember the video of the man falling flat on his face in the street, supposedly dead?

Erm...see Dissensus?

 

[version]

I dunno that one video is enough to prove the entire chain of events you're detailing and the connections between each of them.

 

[mixed_biscuits]

Just read the NY Times article

 

[version]

I'm currently reading the Tablet article. I'll read it once I'm done.

 

[version]

The thing that's so difficult with this stuff is you have to choose which liars you believe.

 

[luka]

The thing that's so difficult with this stuff is you have to choose which liars you believe.

Mixed Biscuits or Mr Tea

 

[version]

I believe the Chinese state are spreading misinformation about the virus and lockdowns, but I'm not entirely convinced that that's the entire explanation for other countries locking down.

 

[mixed_biscuits]

Mixed Biscuits or Mr Tea

Where have you put the *cry* emoji?