• CosmoNova@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      People who have never experienced democracy and have only been fed lies by their authoritarian government think their country is democratic and equal. Shocker.

      • belochka@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        There’s also been a certain “Soviet democracy”, the democracy perception of which in the polls would be sky high especially under dear Stalin and Voroshilov leading it with iron hand, and less when dissent stopped getting you executed.

        • CosmoNova@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          Same thing with China. Dissent gets punished brutally. Young protesters are dying in camps in the thousands. The Chinese government just doesn‘t let the tanks roll in anymore. Instead they utilize mass surveillance to track down each and every protester and deport them from home. Tiananmen square massacres are happening every day behind closed doors. That‘s why the public thinks it‘s a democracy despite one party controlling everything openly, down to who may run against them in local elections. Or they‘re too afraid to say otherwise.

          • belochka@lemmy.world
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            1 day ago

            And then one can think one step further and realize that western nations are not very far from similarly detecting dissenters before they do anything useful, and they don’t need camps, just subtly directing them in life onto paths not harmful to the establishment and unlikely to bring offspring. Big data and social media magic.

      • Ferrous@lemmy.ml
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        3 days ago

        So then why did Russians in the same study claim abysmal democracy? Aren’t they afraid of the KGB?

        • ohulancutash@feddit.uk
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          3 days ago

          The Russian psyche is one of pessimistic resignation. Its also true that Russia has never experienced free democracy. There are many who believe the fall of the USSR was a terrible thing and they blame “democracy” for their current circumstances. This is part of why Putin gets away with authoritarianism.

          • NonconfrontationaI@lemmy.ml
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            3 days ago

            The American psyche must be fat as fuck and dripping with the blood of the innocent, if we’re generalizing.

          • Ferrous@lemmy.ml
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            3 days ago

            Non sequitur that has absolutely nothing to do with the validity of the graph.

    • LemmySuxNow@reddthat.com
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      3 days ago

      So people in a nation where disagreeing with leadership is punished all agree with leadership. Interesting…

    • ThirdConsul@lemmy.zip
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      2 days ago

      I mean… Can Chinese people vote out the current party and pick something else?

      Yes? No? No. How the fuck is it a democracy then.

      • FlyingCircus@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Given the exponentially oversized influence that rich capitalists have on politics everywhere that is not socialist, it is evidently more democratic to not allow them to participate in politics at all.

        You know, governance of the people, by the people, and all that.

      • Ferrous@lemmy.ml
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        2 days ago

        So then you’d concede Ukraine is not democratic since they can’t vote out Zelenskyy, right?

        The point here being - democracy isn’t just “the presence of multiple political parties”.

    • mushroommunk@lemmy.today
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      3 days ago

      Using personal opinion of crowds is notoriously very bad and people are easily misguided. ALL this says is the Chinese BELIEVE they’re democratic and all equal. Not that they actually are.

      • friend_of_satan@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        You’re right, and I see that opinion poll as a indicator of the direction that America has been going: a place where many people think they are in a democracy, while actually living in a country that is more authoritarian than it was in the past.

      • adr1an@programming.dev
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        3 days ago

        Also, westerners like myself tend to complain about trump/etc without acknowledging the continuum of raising fascism. We should focus on the lies we have been fed, it’s not easy, nor late ;)

        • ☂️-@lemmy.ml
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          3 days ago

          the image shows perception of democracy is much higher in china than other countries generally considered to be developed democracies by western discourse. i thought this was self-evident.

          • LemmySuxNow@reddthat.com
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            3 days ago

            In that case, we are in agreement. People in authoritarian countries will definitely say they are happier with the government than people in freer countries

    • P03 Locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      3 days ago

      Chinese who don’t say these opinions are labeled a dissonant and oppressed by their government. Just like how elections are completely staged in dictatorships.

      This graph is completely useless.

    • redballooon@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Perception is a tricky business.

      But you are not posting this to talk about the perception, instead to suggest that there somehow is democracy in a state where only one party is allowed to exist.

    • LewdLemon@sh.itjust.works
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      3 days ago

      These are great proof of China’s superiority! Until you see the Chinese questionnaires:

      Choose an option:
      [ ] My government serves the people
      [ ] I want my social credit score to take a nosedive. No more bank loans, government permits, study or career opportunities for me, please!

      • kossa@feddit.org
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        3 days ago

        Check up on the social credit score

        There have been widespread misconceptions in media reports about a unified social credit “score” based on individuals’ behavior, leading to punishments if the score is too low or rewards if the score is high.

        • redballooon@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          The social credit system is a broad governance strategy to track businesses, individuals, and government institutions and enhance their perceived trustworthiness rather than a single system

          Awesome, just a broad strategy, not yet a single unified system. There’s still a chance to escape specific punishments.

            • redballooon@lemmy.world
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              3 days ago

              Dude what’s the point of a system that enforces behavior when there’s no punishment?

              • kossa@feddit.org
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                3 days ago

                The punishment is having a bad monetary credit score. Like with credit score all over the world. There’s nothing more sinister about the Chinese system than anywhere else, where credit scores are a thing. Granted, credit scores, especially for private persons, are pretty sinister in the first place.

                What let to this misconception about social credit in China is that there were people suggesting to extend it to more general behavior. You can find people everywhere suggesting crazy shit. Like just this week a part of the conservative party in Germany suggested using the army against protests, but nobody is drawing the conclusion that Germany is preparing Tiananmen 2.0 in the capital. It was lunatics suggesting it anyway.