It's a hot take because while you are right, it's something that all countries do. It's just not necessarily the government that does it. Just look at the culture wars in the US. China's biggest difference is it's controlled by the government. But it also has nothing to do with Xinjiang. They do it to everyone, Hans Chinese inclusive. Technically that's what the great leap forward was. First forcing the Hans Chinese people to assimilate to the government's idea of a unified country. It worked, so they're pushing it everywhere.

Also, it's important to note that the only violent enforcement of this was on the Hans Chinese. This was Tian an men. After that they've gotten really good at subversion. There was only one suspicious killing in the HK riots for example. For as large a protest as it was, it was largely nonviolent. Compare that with BLM in the States.

[–] Ibaudia@lemmy.world -4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Hot take! I think it's bad when anyone does it, not just China. Crazy, I know lol. I understand that these are the things that come with running a country but that doesn't mean they are ethical, or even the only options.

Thank you for validating the fact that I am pointing out real things that are actually happening and not just saying "nuh uh" like others have been doing.

[–] Joncash2@lemmy.ml 3 points 6 months ago

Well a problem with your argument is that assimilation is not only not unethical, but absolutely necessary for a functioning society. Imagine if you will for a second if our culture accepted racism and bigotry. It would be necessary to force assimilation on people to stop racism and bigotry. Oh wait, that's happening right now. We're literally forcing a culture of acceptance on a culture of racism and bigotry. Is that unethical? Should we stop? Perhaps we should have colored drinking fountains.

The problem you're having with China is:

The government is the one that's doing it, instead of naturally letting companies like Disney shove it down people's throats.
The assimilation is over reaching.

The biggest problem is #2. We don't know what the fuck that means. Should I be allowed to say the N word if there's no other racism or bigotry? If there's no racism and bigotry, is the N word even racist? Yet we enforce word usage today, just words that only have meaning because we give them meaning. yet it's quite over reaching to censor words no? Where's the line drawn?