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I’m consistently reminded of when TikTok got banned, and all of the Americans moved to Rednote. The Chinese users were gracious and accepting of the refugees, and it was a unique chance for them to talk to Americans directly without the governments meddling too much.
They started listing some of the “propaganda” that their government had created. All of it was so outlandish that they didn’t actually believe it was true. So many Chinese people were like “so the government tells us that your healthcare is cripplingly expensive, to the point that people will actively avoid medical care. But you’re the richest country in the world, and you have universal healthcare, right? If you go to the doctor, it’s free.” And all of the Americans had to be like “oh nope. Uhh… No. That one is true. I needed stitches in middle school after a bad fall. My parents gave me a double dose of over-the-counter painkillers, doused the entire thing in rubbing alcohol while I screamed, superglued it shut in our bathroom, and told me they’d beat me if I got tetanus from it. I still have a really gnarly scar from it…”
Then they were like “oh well okay, that sucks. But at least you all have houses. The government tells us you all struggle to afford housing. Housing is so expensive here. It can cost upwards of three years of salary, just for a single family house! The government provides low interest loans, but they’re difficult to save up for when we’re spending 20% of our income in rent… All of you Americans live in gigantic mansions, right? If you can’t afford housing, the government provides a luxury apartment for you until you can buy a house.” And the Americans had to be like “Oh. Uhh… No. That one is… Uhh… Yeah that one is also true. We’re in the middle of a housing crisis, with a few billionaires buying all of the properties and artificially inflating their value so nobody else can afford to buy, then renting them back to us at 70% of our monthly income so we can never hope to save up for a down payment… It is driving a massive homelessness crisis, and many Americans are having to choose between rent and food.”
And then the Chinese people were like “wait they’re having to choose between rent and food? If you can’t afford food, the government gives you food. You don’t need to pay for any of it, because the government takes care of that if you’re too poor.” And all of the Americans had to be like “Oh uhh… Yeah no, government assistance is actually comically difficult to get here, has a LOT of stipulations, and is critically underfunded to the point that the entire system is about to collapse. Food instability rates are reaching all time highs, especially among the homeless and the elderly. And the system is designed to keep poor people poor, by punishing them for making too much money if they do manage to get assistance. Once you get on food stamps, getting off of them is an extremely difficult process… Because as soon as you start trying to raise yourself out of poverty, the government pulls the rug out from underneath you and takes your food stamps away.”
And then the Chinese people went “well at least you can always go get a second job to pay for food, right? Our government tells us you work a ton of hours, but we all know that’s fake. You only work a couple of hours a week, right? Our factory jobs can be pretty grueling, with 12 hour shifts and 72 hour weeks. But most people here just do that when they’re young and fresh out of school, to springboard into better jobs.” And then the Americans had to go “Oh uhh… No. We’re struggling to afford everything even when many people have two or even three jobs. Our pay has stagnated for so long that many people are working 80-90 hour weeks just to barely pay the bills. We have people in “good” jobs who are waitressing on the side to afford their food.”
And at that point, the Chinese people started going “so uhh… Real talk for a second… Why the hell are you guys tolerating this? We would have been lighting fires in government buildings and publicly executing government officials a long time ago…”
And the worst part is that things have only continued to devolve since the TikTok ban happened back in January. Every single thing I posted has gotten much worse since then.