What makes anti China propaganda so effective is that people want to believe it.
Believing that western system is fundamentally better allows justifying all the horrors we see day to day by saying that the alternatives are even worse, and so we shouldn't even try to change anything.
Accepting that China managed to find a better path that the west is actively fighting against means having to accept that the west is on the wrong side of history. That's a hard pill to swallow for a lot of people.
America always needed a bogyman, the Soviet Union did a perfect job for it, military menacing, but an economy which couldn’t challenge the US economical power globally, Perfect! But China? they’re scared shitless. Americans are witnessing the slow collapse of their economy and are puzzled, why is manufacturing gone? why is my government incompetent? Why is corruption more accepted now than ever before? Answer: China China China… Did I mention CHINA? Not to mention Jake Sullivan’s speech on how neo-liberalism has fundamentally destroyed America, no not the average American, that happened in the 1980s, but actually AMERICA. The US cannot compete with china, evidence is the shrinking manufacturing sector, the stagnation of innovative research and designs. Hell even the biggest banks aren’t american anymore, the top 4 are located in china.
I would like to add another thing, the west since 1991 has been experiencing its best prosperity in ages, with people fully buying into the capitalist dream, now its completely different. Even liberals recognize that the good times are over, and people are desperate for those good times to come back. The rise of china completely shatters the average westerner delusions, a country cannot preform better than their own, Afterall haven’t I been told that the west has the greatest, most wealthiest, and prosperous nations in the world? People need this lie to be sold to them, otherwise they’ll have to re-wind a life-time of propaganda.
Yeah, US empire is definitely entering uncharted waters now. It seems the realization of this is starting to set in now, as you point out with Sullivan’s speech, but they have no idea what to do. Honestly, it’s not really clear that there is anything that could be done even if US had a competent government in charge. China is simply bigger and has a more stable political political system that’s capable of long term planning. The fundamentals in China are much better than in US.
And very much agree that collapsing standard of living in the west makes it harder for people to swallow the propaganda that’s being pushed by the ruling class. People can see that what they’re being told doesn’t match their lived experience, and that translates into faith in the system collapsing. I think that’s actually one of the big driving factors behind stuff like qanon. Once people lose faith in central authority then they can just find a comfortable narrative that fits their preconceptions, and if they meet enough people who shares their beliefs that becomes their tribe.
They’ve been riding the high of their supposed moral/national superiority that it infuriates them to see people (that they used to pity as inferior species) rising up to their level or even surpassing them. It shatters their image as the chosen ones, the “good and civilised” side.
This behaviour can also be seen in liberals from the mainland, HK and TW where they still regurgitate 30-40 year old talking points while their beloved western idols no longer maintain the utopia like image they’ve been promoting.
America always needed a bogyman, the Soviet Union did a perfect job for it, military menacing, but an economy which couldn’t challenge the US economical power globally, Perfect! But China? they’re scared shitless. Americans are witnessing the slow collapse of their economy and are puzzled, why is manufacturing gone? why is my government incompetent? Why is corruption more accepted now than ever before? Answer: China China China… Did I mention CHINA? Not to mention Jake Sullivan’s speech on how neo-liberalism has fundamentally destroyed America, no not the average American, that happened in the 1980s, but actually AMERICA. The US cannot compete with china, evidence is the shrinking manufacturing sector, the stagnation of innovative research and designs. Hell even the biggest banks aren’t american anymore, the top 4 are located in china.
I would like to add another thing, the west since 1991 has been experiencing its best prosperity in ages, with people fully buying into the capitalist dream, now its completely different. Even liberals recognize that the good times are over, and people are desperate for those good times to come back. The rise of china completely shatters the average westerner delusions, a country cannot preform better than their own, Afterall haven’t I been told that the west has the greatest, most wealthiest, and prosperous nations in the world? People need this lie to be sold to them, otherwise they’ll have to re-wind a life-time of propaganda.
Yeah, US empire is definitely entering uncharted waters now. It seems the realization of this is starting to set in now, as you point out with Sullivan’s speech, but they have no idea what to do. Honestly, it’s not really clear that there is anything that could be done even if US had a competent government in charge. China is simply bigger and has a more stable political political system that’s capable of long term planning. The fundamentals in China are much better than in US.
And very much agree that collapsing standard of living in the west makes it harder for people to swallow the propaganda that’s being pushed by the ruling class. People can see that what they’re being told doesn’t match their lived experience, and that translates into faith in the system collapsing. I think that’s actually one of the big driving factors behind stuff like qanon. Once people lose faith in central authority then they can just find a comfortable narrative that fits their preconceptions, and if they meet enough people who shares their beliefs that becomes their tribe.
They’ve been riding the high of their supposed moral/national superiority that it infuriates them to see people (that they used to pity as inferior species) rising up to their level or even surpassing them. It shatters their image as the chosen ones, the “good and civilised” side.
This behaviour can also be seen in liberals from the mainland, HK and TW where they still regurgitate 30-40 year old talking points while their beloved western idols no longer maintain the utopia like image they’ve been promoting.