this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2026
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[–] BiteSizedZeitGeist@lemmy.world 2 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

So you don't think it's genocide? How come? This is a complicated issue and I'm legitimately seeking information

[–] mathemachristian@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

I have not seen any evidence beyond some generic jail images, there seems to be no resistance organisation within xinjiang, i do not see a reason for china to do this and all the reporting is filled with non-objective loaded language like "authoritarian", "brutal crackdown", "chinese regime" etc.

compare all of the reporting from this so-call "genocide" to the actual reporting (the non-western or indie kind) from the actually ongoing genocide of the palestinians, its night and day.

then there were many predominantly muslim countries that sent officials to visit xinjiang and they came back satisfied that there was no ongoing genocide. We get more information out of the tightly regulated gaza ghetto than an entire autonomous region in china. If you want some more hard facts and recent history of the region I can dig some stuff up if you want, I don't remember most of it since it's been a while since I looked at this stuff myself.

[–] BiteSizedZeitGeist@lemmy.world 2 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

You referred to Wikipedia as an authority earlier, so here's some Wikipedia commentary about recent developments in Xinjiang: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinjiang_internment_camps https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Uyghurs_in_China#Classification_of_abuses

And an article about terrorism/resistance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism_in_China#Xinjiang

And there's plenty of reasons for China to do this - they've long seen the land there as Chinese, regardless of the people living on it. Not to mention natural resources, extending borders, marshaling resources to fight capitalist imperialism, et cetera, et cetera....

Secondly, this is the reason I'm asking people what they think genocide is. The ICC would define genocide very narrowly, just the slaughter of people en masse based on ethnicity. Historians and academics actually have a much broader view of genocide, including cultural replacement actions like eliminating languages, displacement, and destruction of culturally important locations. Israel does all of this to Palestine, as well as the USA and Canada to native peoples.

So let's leave the rubric of "genocide" and consider what the CCP is actually doing there. It seems obvious that they want to erase Uyghur culture and replace it with Han. There can be reasons for Uyghurs to want Chinese intervention, and reasons not. But as an individualist Westerner, I consider consent to be one of the most important virtues in society, and China is radically altering (if not erasing) Uyghur land and culture without any consent on the part of the Uyghurs. In my view, it's just the same imperialism and colonialism that the West has been doing for centuries. Do you agree? What did I get wrong?

[–] mathemachristian@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

You referred to Wikipedia as an authority earlier

Not at all, on the contrary, I was pointed out that even wikipedia doesn't call it a genocide anymore.

It seems obvious that they want to erase Uyghur culture and replace it with Han.

Not to me, because whenever I look on xiaohongshu for uyghur content there is a lot to find there. The street signs have both uyghur and chinese letters, uyghur is taught in schools, people can practice their faith, I don't see this erasure at all. Whole-ass street festivals where uyghur people celebrate with their food and music, broadcast on a chinese app aimed mainly at chinese people.

And there’s plenty of reasons for China to do this - they’ve long seen the land there as Chinese, regardless of the people living on it.

Who is "they" in this case? The government of china underwent multiple radical transformations. I wouldn't think that the china of today has the same goals as the china of even 50 years ago. Or do you mean the people of china? I am not aware of any popular hateful sentiment towards uyghur people. Shouldn't there be a lot anti-uyghur propaganda around to rally the han chinese against the uyghurs? Granted I'm not super prolific on chinese media, I occasionally go to xiaohongshu but it would be pretty convincing evidence if there was a governmental campaign to rally hate amongst the han chinese against the uyghur people.

Not to mention natural resources, extending borders, marshaling resources to fight capitalist imperialism, et cetera, et cetera…

Why do they need erase the culture of the uyghur people to get access to the natural resources there? The extending of borders doesn't make sense to me, xinjiang is already a part of the republic? And who benefits from all this? A genocide is a massive operation, no one undertakes genocide unless they don't expect immense profits from it. E. g. during the holocaust it was companies like IG Farben, Bayer, Lufthansa, Siemens, Rheinmetall and so on. Also what was the spark that set it off? The reporting is just like, nothing prior to like 2019 or so, suddenly genocide, then some backtracking and now radio silence again.

The ICC would define genocide very narrowly, just the slaughter of people en masse based on ethnicity

And that's what most people understand under genocide. Also the forcible sterilisation would fall under the ICC definition but aside from that one legal opinion from like 5 years or so is there anything new on that? What about the 1 million people in detention have they been freed? Like I see these articles like this one again after a couple years now and they seem even less credible, just really bombastic flashy effects but at it's core, just some satellite images showing like 3 or 4 construction sites to prove abductions of hundreds of thousands, that's the thing that gets me. Hundreds of thousands. That's a massive massive operation, I would expect more evidence and local resistance groups and aid networks and so on...

So let’s leave the rubric of “genocide”

So no genocide in Xinjiang? Or are we going by another definition of genocide?

[–] Doomsider@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Look at this guy. Same logic would be used to say no Native American or Palestinian genocide either.

I am sorry, but I don't buy it for a second.

[–] mathemachristian@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 38 minutes ago

Same logic would be used to say no Native American or Palestinian genocide either.

I don't follow? We have way more evidence of both genocides, both of the actions, mass killings, child abductions etc., as well as propaganda campaigns to stoke hatred and fear. Neither group is very free to practice their religions and culture, facing harassment and red tape etc. I don't see the parallels at all.

I am sorry, but I don’t buy it for a second.

I'm not looking to convince, I'm just giving my POV as asked. These were the types of questions I saw the tankies be able to answer and that's what ultimately convinced me that the whole thing is just a US propaganda psy-op. Back in like 2019-2020 I was breathlessly reading "Der Spiegel" articles about systematic rape of uyghur women in prisons and bought into it wholesale. I got flipped, so to speak, in 2023 or so. So what I'm portraying here is what people that want to "flip" me back are up against.