jadedbirch

[jadedbirch]

This machine kills AI

#fucking ai #q

[jadedbirch]

Gong Jun for 2024 Television Series of China Quality Ceremony

#gong jun #it's a choice #some people just hate air #q

[jadedbirch]

♡ Your daily dose of cat memes ᓚᘏᗢ ♡

#and he is valid #kitteh #q

[jadedbirch]

She is so done with "The X-Files"

#perfect #i have no notes #gillian anderson #q

[jadedbirch]

Weirdly enough I’m loving AT. Even more than DC and LY ( this last one I haven’t finished it yet). It takes me a lot to gen into c dramas in general but this one is entertaining from the start. It’s propaganda but also Marvel is propaganda and most American movies so

Hey Anon, you might not realize it, but that statement is actually pretty troubling. I'll explain why.

CW/TW - discussion of human rights atrocities and police brutality (without descriptions or details)

It's true that Hollywood is incredibly propagandistic. It's also a well-known fact that Marvel has partnered with the US military to get some of its films made, Captain Marvel being the most egregious example (although the degree of propaganda varies wildly from film to film and isn't a constant, so we shouldn't paint with too broad a brush here).

However, statements such as the one above can be a reflection of - or can lead to - dangerous, highly inaccurate false equivalences. It's extremely important to think very consciously and critically about what these terms mean and how they apply in different regions and under different regimes.

False equivalence is a logical fallacy that's frequently used to manipulate public opinion and to deflect or discredit legitimate criticism. These false equivalences often become part of the widespread public discourse, and accepted by the vast majority of people as reasonable, and true.

A common example of this is the claim that climate change is 'still being debated' and that 'scientists can't agree' on it (therefore we can't be sure that climate change is real) when actually, there is no meaningful or legitimate opposition to the notion of human-caused climate change.

98% of climate scientists agree that the science shows climate change is real, and the remaining 2% of outliers are based on studies that have no coherent basis and employ no scientific rigor. This 98% agreement represents an iron-clad scientific consensus on the matter.

But by drawing that false equivalence, climate change deniers and fossil fuel advocates have managed to very successfully derail the arguments of climate scientists and environmental advocates, and sow doubt in the minds of the public at large. This has directly led to a lot of confusion among the public and a huge delay in addressing the issues underlying climate change.

In many cases fossil fuel advocates, by spreading this false argument, have even managed to convince governments and populations to support an increase in fossil fuel projects and subsidies.

I've watched this notion that western nations are "really no better than China when it comes to propaganda" gain more and more traction lately, and I find that extremely alarming. The differences between these nations and how they handle propaganda couldn't possibly be starker.

It isn't the prevalence of messages that makes propaganda sinister, it's the consequences and the stakes surrounding it all that makes it sinister.

We cannot draw equivalences between different nations and regimes based only on the fact that they all feed propagandistic messages to the general public. Such equivalences are misleading and potentially very dangerous. Every country engages in some level of propaganda, but the circumstances surrounding that propaganda vary wildly from region to region.

Let's take the example of every country's tendency to extol the virtues of their leaders. Every country propagandizes about the leader to some degree. Does that make those nations equivalent? Hell no. If saying that "the supreme leader is a giant dildo" gets you laughed at in one country and imprisoned, tortured or murdered in another, how can you call those situations equivalent?

Rather than re-invent the wheel I'm just going to base a lot of this on a previous post I made where I discussed this issue, so if some of you feel deja vu, that's why. 😅

It's absolutely true that propaganda is everywhere, and that China doesn't have a monopoly on pushing a political agenda through entertainment media.

What’s NOT everywhere is the complete, often brutal, enforcement of the viewpoints and mindsets the propaganda is pushing.

What makes other countries different with regard to propaganda isn’t the amount of propaganda we have, it’s the stakes surrounding the propaganda.

What is the propaganda trying to achieve?

What genuine access do people have to dissenting opinions and contradictory information?

What recourse do they have if they disagree?

What’s the outcome for people who go against the narrative the regime is pushing? (aka how are the ideas enforced?)

In many parts of the world, everyone has ready access to a wide variety of perspectives and opinions on an issue. They have the ability to question and investigate claims, and get a second, third, fourth opinion on the matter.

When people disagree with the official message/position on something, they can print up t-shirts, start an org, form a protest group, take that opinion to court and maybe even win, organize acts of civil disobedience, take to the streets and disrupt normal functioning of a city or even a country as a means of making their voices heard.

And any of these actions could actually result in change - sometimes major, sweeping change. But even if they don’t, people are still free to do those things. They are free to take those actions against their governments and in most cases will suffer no dire consequences for speaking their mind. And if worse comes to worst and someone doesn’t like what their government is doing, they can leave.

In China, open access to information is prevented to the best of the regime’s capability, which is extensive. The Chinese government actively, aggressively walls off the country from the rest of the world to ensure the public cannot access the open internet or the open marketplace of ideas.

They actively censor and repress dissenting opinions, and they do this in a way that's often nearly invisible to the average Chinese citizen. Someone will do a search on a topic and get no results. They'll try posting about something and their post won't go through.

People who fall afoul of the regime are often ‘disappeared’ - held against their will in ‘reeducation camps’, their families and friends threatened, tortured, jailed or otherwise harassed. Prevented from leaving the country. Even if they do manage to leave, they may be involuntarily ‘repatriated’, tortured and jailed.

The regime has increasingly been using sophisticated means to dig into social media posts of people living outside of China who speak critically of the regime or its policies. These are people sharing their thoughts on international platforms, many of them citizens of other countries. The regime has been identifying the people making these posts and using thuggish tactics in order to silence them. One guy who spoke critically of the regime had all of his social media accounts shut down and his parents disappeared for 10 days.

Taking a stance against the official position can have dire consequences in China. That is what makes the propaganda sinister. That's what makes those false equivalences so troubling.

By drawing those equivalences so casually in their speech, people unwittingly spread false information about the situation in China. They are unwittingly doing propaganda work for the regime - helping to provide cover for their human rights abuses and making them seem benign and 'just like everyone else'.

They are not 'just like everyone else'.

Having said all that

I'm not saying all this to condemn or chastise, rather I'm saying it to educate and awaken.

People who draw false equivalences aren't always malicious, nor are they necessarily lacking intellectual capacity. It's easy to fall prey to overly simplistic thinking. We all do it. Even seemingly benign concepts such as 'gaydar' are examples of overly simplistic thinking.

Not only is it easy to fall prey to simplistic thinking, it's often incredibly difficult to get access to reliable information, to fully examine and weigh ideas, and to apply critical thinking skills. Most of these things are never taught in school and are extremely rare among social groups. It's just not part of most people's everyday lives.

It's this degree of intellectual difficulty that makes propaganda so insidious. It's what makes logical fallacies like false equivalence so effective against the general public. Logical fallacies are ideas that sound perfectly reasonable to the average person, but which are in fact, incorrect and deeply flawed.

Propaganda capitalizes on all of these factors, all the better to fly under people's radar.

So to be clear: people who fall for this stuff aren't idiots or assholes, they're just ordinary people coming up against some pretty intensely well-crafted false narratives that seem reasonable to most people.

For anyone wanting to learn more about logical fallacies, there are many excellent resources online. Here are just a few:

Rhetological fallacies

Master list of logical fallacies

A good YouTube clip explaining what fallacies are

I (and others) have talked previously about propaganda in this post, and the posts in this thread.

As for the real purpose of your ask, Anon - I'm not surprised people have been enjoying it. GG is an excellent actor and I've no doubt his performance has been amazing.

#reblogging for educational purposes #i really feel like this is a must read for anyone engaging with c-ent these days #and especially those of us who either are watching or will watch Yibo's latest projects #q

[jadedbirch]

Of course we can only speculate on his thoughts and motivations and at the end of the day whether he genuinely believes the Party Hype doesn't effect my admiration of him as a person and an artist because anyone would be a product of their environment. But because of the 100th anniversary of the CCP, there's been a huge rise in propaganda content, which is evidenced not only in Yibo's repertoir but Xiao Zhan's as well (Ace Troops, Youth Memories). And despite what that one child tried to convince me of yesterday, we DO know that Yibo has been directly affected by the regime's crackdown on his identity (i.e. he can't even wear earrings anymore or dye his hair when he's in China) which labels his gender expression as bad and wrong and doesn't allow him to be seen in public with Certain People.

Given all that, it's too easy for me to imagine that it's a lot more of a hostage situation where he's expected to take on certain projects in order to obliterate his "checkered past" and stay on the right side of the Party.

But like you said, there's no way to know for sure 🤷🏻‍♀️. I can only neuroticly worry about him.

In response to this post about War of Faith

@isilaie said

Finally someone expresses what I was thinking 🙄 I've got a huge problem with propaganda (from any side) and despite the superb directing and acting this one is so blatant that in another context (or country) it almost could be considered as parody. I love Yibo to pieces but ...I think it started with "faith makes great" that there is a kind of red thread (pun intended) in his choice of roles. His success proves him right of course but ...😔🤷‍♀️

I really wanted to address your comment @isilaie because I think it's important we are all aware of the things that are going on "under the surface" so to speak when we engage with this kind of content. Again, speaking as someone who used to live under a totalitarian communist regime, I'm very aware that whatever "choices" and "freedoms" that people like Yibo enjoy are completely illusory. Especially if we assume from the preponderance of evidence that he's queer - and therefore have to assume that whatever lifestyle he may enjoy is sanctioned by the government - then these choices are even more impacted. We've all seen how quickly c-ent can make someone's career disappear (i.e. Zhang Zhehan) and how quickly the CCP can make PEOPLE disappear (i.e. Fan Bingbing) for not toeing the party line or not sending the right message. The more high profile you are (like Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo), the more scrutinized you are for all your "choices." Plus, we also know that these days you can't get anything past the sensors w/o a healthy dose of Patriotism, and at the end of the day, the project that Yibo might sign up for can end up being something else entirely by the time it hits the screen.

So, the only thing I'm going to judge my beloved son on is making career moves that allow him to grow and develop as an artist - and War of Faith definitely gave him the opportunity to once again stretch his acting chops. And I think his success is due to his radiant talent that turns anything he touches into gold, and not so much due to his "patriotic" project choices, but shit, I'm only slightly biased because I gave birth to him LMAO.

As for War of Faith laying it on so thick that it's almost a parody - you're correct - and I actually said to a friend last night that it's ironic that as I watch the show, the Big Communist Heroes actually come off as fanatical terrorists to me. Hmmmm. Interesting.

(On a funnier note, people have pointed out how incredibly GAY this Comrade Drama is for such blatant propaganda, and that perhaps you needed a heavy dose of one to slip in the other. If that's the case even the tiniest bit, then kudos to Yibo for making another secret BL drama right in front of everyone's salad.)

#ccp propaganda #wang yibo

[jadedbirch]

wang yibo - formed police unit douyin update

hjy: We have a new member in our team training today standing in military posture. I have something to do first. Please help me keep an eye on him for a while.

yibo: * Why are you still staring?* / *Hey, there’s nothing I can do* / * Let me continue*

#wang yibo #formed police unit #at least we get cute ass content from this nonsense

[jadedbirch]

#wang yibo #formed police unit #q

[jadedbirch]

Today's Seal Is: Eclair

#what a shape! #seal #😍😍😍 #q

[jadedbirch]

There are currently ~2300 works in AO3 tagged with "Created Using Generative AI"

I'll be upfront with my opinion, which mirrors my opinion in regards to my field: using AI will only hasten your own obsolescence. The point of fanfiction is not to crank out fics, but rather to enjoy the hobby and communities of writing and fandom.

#fucking AI

[jadedbirch]

its rude to reblog things from people you arent mutuals with fyi. :/

💀 my brother in christopher

#WHAT #kids these days

[jadedbirch]

𝐋𝐚𝐧 𝐗𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐧 | 𝐌𝐃𝐙𝐒 𝐄𝐩𝟒𝟏

#lan xichen #elder swan is the most beautiful 😭😭😭 #the untamed #q

[jadedbirch]

Thank you for the sanity check! 🙏🏻

In reference to this post I was tagged in by @jadedbirch, regarding political discussions about War of Faith.

This is ground I've already covered years ago, so I'll link to those posts. Ultimately everyone gets to decide to what degree they want to confront the politics of a situation, but they definitely don't get to dictate how others approach such things, or to shame them or make it seem disloyal, culturally inappropriate or wrong to critique the politics inherent in what is an intentionally propagandistic drama.

A fairly comprehensive post about politics in fandom where I break down all the ways in which trying to shut down political discussions in fandom is not OK.

A fairly comprehensive discussion about false equivalence when comparing the political climate of China vs the West.

A post about how I reconcile myself politically as a fan of GGDD.

I have a lot of other posts about these topics, many of which can be found under my sociopolitical analysis tag. If anyone has specific questions about these topics feel free to add them in the notes, or message me or send in an ask and I'll address them when I get a chance.

No one has any rationale for bitching about my coverage of these kinds of topics, since I tag everything. People who want to avoid these topics can simply filter, "your poltical disengagement is a weapon against you."

#gods bless - it's actually nice to have these all in one place! #ccp propaganda

[jadedbirch]

never forget james flint parallel parked a fucking warship

#a legend an icon #a fucking condor among hummingbirds #Flint #black sails #q

[jadedbirch]

The continuous narrative of existence is a lie. There is no continuous narrative, there are lit-up moments, and the rest is dark.  –Jeanette Winterson, Lighthousekeeping

#black sails #let me live bitches #q

[jadedbirch]

whenever i'm trying to talk myself out of buying something i don't need i always hear my old russian professor's voice echoing in my head: "WHAT??? WILL YOU DIE THE RICHEST MAN IN THE GRAVEYARD?" and then i make an unwise financial decision

#never regret spending money on swords tbh #life hack #q

[jadedbirch]

Tumblr Code.

#world heritage post #Tumblr #i feel like the ancient crone that i am #q