• TabularTuxedo@lemmygrad.ml
    13·
    13 days ago

    I used to read Wikipedia and watch “left” YouTubers a lot in the past. I read a lot of smear against China but that changed really quick after reading about it.

    In retrospect, I think the main reason for this quick change was that I wasn’t emotionally invested in it. Like, the Wikipedia page for the Uyghur “genocide” doesn’t have any images of a malnourished person like the page for the Holocaust has. There wasn’t any punch to my gut, so to speak.

    • demeritum@lemmygrad.ml
      9·
      11 days ago

      People who still think the Uyghur genocide or the Ukrainian genocide by Russia is real after living through the current Palestinian genocide are beyond daft - like you saw plenty of visual evidence of it happening done by a government shielded by the west with a lot of very powerful people censoring it- And you think somehow the United States who controls the skies and spies on nearly every single grain of sand would not blast visuals of the supposed genocides of their political rivals everywhere??

      • TabularTuxedo@lemmygrad.ml
        5·
        10 days ago

        Imma be honest. It’s pretty easy to be insulated into an echo chamber when you really want to. Speaking from personal experience.

        Like, from 2023 to 2025, I straight up didn’t know about the Palestine genocide. Most of my contact with the topic was through my parents watching MSM, which obviously didn’t depict Hamas or Russia in a good light. I didn’t know why there were hostages and stuff.

        The reason was that I was an “apolitical” chud (because of religion, but that’s another topic) and avoided news like the plague, and the social media algorithms really didn’t recommend them to me.

        I really think that I would’ve benefited from someone pushing me to confront my biases. I was a good kid but extremely ignorant and conflict-averse.

        • demeritum@lemmygrad.ml
          4·
          10 days ago

          My point being that if Russia or China did genocides even you back then would have seen visual evidence of it- the algorithms and MSM would have shown it throughly.

          You can live in certain echo chambers in the west, yes, no doubt about that, but only certain topics can be avoided with such ease and its the topics that make the west look bad, not the other way around.

          • Makan@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
            3·
            10 days ago

            Yeah

            But keep in mind:

            “Genocide denial” is anathema to moral and civil discourse and general society.

            Not without reason or merit, mind you, I would argue.

            But

            It is an example of corporate news, governments, letter agencies, etc. trying to use people’s emotions and values and morals to get them to support their side, their capitalist dominant narrative.

            Honestly, pointing out that there is ample evidence for the ongoing Palestian genocide right now (never mind the wider Nakba that’s still going on as well) and showing how little evidence of, say, the Uyghur genocide there is (some vague satellite images, that picture of an Indonesian prison that gets floated around, etc.) is not a bad tactic.

            I’m sure that conservatives and liberals will continue to argue on and on and on, though I think many will be on worse footing (if you’re trying to convince others; try not to get into Internet arguments willy-nilly, just pick your battles wisely for the sake of your time).

    • Makan@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
      4·
      10 days ago

      Ah

      I guess you became an ML around the time of what I call the “2020 - 2021 wave” of new MLs.

      (before that, there was the “2016 wave,” the “2008 - 2009 wave” with the recession, etc.)

      Honestly, I think we are sort-of going through a “new wave” (in particular, 2025 - 2026).

      Anyway, honestly?

      Don’t sweat it. I was radicalized around the year 2010 (I believe this was in the lead-up to the War on Libya) but that doesn’t make me superior to you (or anyone else that was radicalized beforehand way before, FYI).

      What matters it that you’re here. Kick ass and all that. But try not to fall into dark spirals and dark rumination spirals or thought-loops.

      I learned that the hard way.

      Be optimistic, even just remind yourself of the good things (liberals will tell you to “gratitude journal” or whatever, but I’m telling you, as an ML, to be positive (if you can in the moment, that is; don’t force it) and think of all the opportunities and victories yet to come, never mind the opportunities and victories popping up now.

      Cheers!

      o7

        • Makan@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
          3·
          10 days ago

          Yeah, my apologies, thanks for clarifying, maybe I misread what you said intially.

          I can see that you are just starting your journey in a way.