Memes

Most of us on Lemmy regularly criticize the US and big tech, so no disagreement there. Yes, we all know the US is a corrupt, warmongering, exploitative, profiteering country and that both our government and our oligarchs are plundering the world for their own profit while the average US citizen is seeing their quality of life continually wane with each passing decade. The US is for sure authoritarian with the collaboration of big tech and 3-letter agencies to spy on citizens, and also the regime change wars that destroy sovereign nations and install leaders more favorable to US oligarchs.

Meanwhile, the quality of life and wealth for the average citizen in China has increased in many respects. That doesn’t mean the Chinese government and Chinese oligarchs aren’t also exercising an unjust degree of control over their own citizens. The Chinese government surveilling its citizens and tightly controlling the flow of information is not being done out of benevolence. I just called what the US does authoritarian, so how would that not apply equally to China? Or is there another term you’d prefer?