China has lashed out at Germany after its foreign minister called Xi Jinping a “dictator” and summoned Berlin’s ambassador for a dressing down, in the latest flaring of tensions with a western democratic power over how the Chinese leader is described overseas.

    • MeowZedong@lemmygrad.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      1 year ago

      Right, because if you allow racist tropes a little bit of leeway they won’t become normalized and propagate over time.

      How has voting in your bastion of democracy been working out for you? Did you get to vote to go to war? It’s not like your leaders are any less authoritarian.

      • eltimablo@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        28
        ·
        1 year ago

        I’m allowed to criticize my government without being hauled off to fucking jail, how’s that for freedom?

        • MeowZedong@lemmygrad.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          7
          ·
          1 year ago

          The US arrests journalists for not revealing their sources that are damaging towards the US government. I wonder why they want to know those sources so badly? Maybe Julian Assange or Edward Snowden.

          Not from the US? That’s ok!

          Plenty of European countries also have laws on the books to deal with you harassing government officials. I’m not even going to bother going into the topic of how these same governments quiet the dissent of socialists to this day. Turns out, if they feel like your criticism is damaging enough, they CAN haul you off to fucking prison.

          Say it louder and I’m sure that will make it true. YOU ARE FREE!

          • eltimablo@kbin.social
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            6
            ·
            1 year ago

            The most recent case you can find is from 2006? Jesus, dude. Please, I beg of you, get outside and interact with a person face to face. It has to have been years for you at this point.

            • MeowZedong@lemmygrad.ml
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              4
              ·
              1 year ago

              There’s plenty of more recent examples, but I’m not going to go to the effort to dig up more in a conversation where the majority of the replies I get boil down to “nuh-uh, I saw different online stupid tankie.”

              If 2006 is the year that you landed on, I’ll again point you to the two specific names I dropped, Julian Assange and Edward Snowden, both of whom experienced this with the US and allies more recently.

              Do you see why I wouldn’t bother putting the effort into finding a better source? The low effort replies and baseless personal attacks are all over this thread. Even the people I gave the benefit of the doubt to while replying didn’t reply in good faith.

              What do you feel like you’ve added to the conversation by trying to personally attack me? Does it feel good to attack someone behind the protection of anonymity? I wonder, if we did meet face-to-face, would you have the courage and strength of character to engage with me in a conversation as a fellow human worthy of respect despite our differences in belief or would you still hide behind weak, uninspiring insults as you have here?

        • LarkinDePark@lemmygrad.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          1 year ago

          No you’re not! Even people outside of the US are hauled off to its torture camps for criticising its war crimes and atrocities. Ask Assange.