“In the United States, for over a hundred years, the ruling interests
tirelessly propagated anticommunism among the populace, until it
became more like a religious orthodoxy than a political analysis.
During the cold war, the anticommunist ideological framework could
transform any data about existing communist societies into hostile
evidence. If the Soviets refused to negotiate a point, they were intran-
sigent and belligerent; if they appeared willing to make concessions,
this was but a skillful ploy to put us off our guard. By opposing arms
limitations, they would have demonstrated their aggressive intent; but
when in fact they supported most armament treaties, it was because
they were mendacious and manipulative. If the churches in the USSR
were empty, this demonstrated that religion was suppressed; but if the
churches were full, this meant the people were rejecting the regimes
atheistic ideology. If the workers went on strike (as happened on
infrequent occasions), this was evidence of their alienation from the
collectivist system; if they didn’t go on strike, this was because they
were intimidated and lacked freedom. A scarcity of consumer goods
demonstrated the failure of the economic system; an improvement in
consumer supplies meant only that the leaders were attempting to
placate a restive population and so maintain a firmer hold over them.
If communists in the United States played an important role
struggling for the rights of workers, the poor, African-Americans,
women, and others, this was only their guileful way of gathering sup-
port among disfranchised groups and gaining power for themselves.
How one gained power by fighting for the rights of powerless groups
was never explained. What we are dealing with is a nonfalsifiable
orthodoxy, so assiduously marketed by the ruling interests that it
affected people across the entire political spectrum.”
Part of the ideology of white-supremacy, is that proximity to whiteness means trustworthiness and authenticity, and distance from it means untrustworthiness.
So white supremacists think only the western countries (and their allies like South Korea, Japan, and other US military base countries) data and educational institutions can be trusted, while the numbers coming from any country opposed to them must inherently be a lie.
The framing and double-standard is chauvinist and bad.
But there are reasons to be skeptical of suicide stats worldwide due to cultural ideas and norms around suicide. Like, look at the US. It was common practice for coroners to put accident as cause of death even if it was clearly suicide - and still is, to some degree. Only recently have statisticians began including certain other cases of “accidental” death as suicide (some single car crashes, gun “accidents”, ODs, etc).
And different countries have different methods for reporting out on suicide. It’s not founded to say countries are intentionally skewing suicide stats, but it would be constructive to be skeptical about how those figures were arrived at before believing memes without citations.
I would have no issue with them saying suicide stats are often inaccurate due to x, y, or z reason.
What they instead chose to say was the typical chauvinist bullshit of the evil Asiatic hoardes in China and the DPRK can’t be trusted to report anything truthfully nonsense.
I am sure these figures are accurate and can be trusted. There’s no way the Chinese or North Korean government would ever lie about these figures.
Literally in this very thread
We need a button for the unfalsifiable orthodoxy Parenti quote.
“In the United States, for over a hundred years, the ruling interests tirelessly propagated anticommunism among the populace, until it became more like a religious orthodoxy than a political analysis. During the cold war, the anticommunist ideological framework could transform any data about existing communist societies into hostile evidence. If the Soviets refused to negotiate a point, they were intran- sigent and belligerent; if they appeared willing to make concessions, this was but a skillful ploy to put us off our guard. By opposing arms limitations, they would have demonstrated their aggressive intent; but when in fact they supported most armament treaties, it was because they were mendacious and manipulative. If the churches in the USSR were empty, this demonstrated that religion was suppressed; but if the churches were full, this meant the people were rejecting the regimes atheistic ideology. If the workers went on strike (as happened on infrequent occasions), this was evidence of their alienation from the collectivist system; if they didn’t go on strike, this was because they were intimidated and lacked freedom. A scarcity of consumer goods demonstrated the failure of the economic system; an improvement in consumer supplies meant only that the leaders were attempting to placate a restive population and so maintain a firmer hold over them. If communists in the United States played an important role struggling for the rights of workers, the poor, African-Americans, women, and others, this was only their guileful way of gathering sup- port among disfranchised groups and gaining power for themselves. How one gained power by fighting for the rights of powerless groups was never explained. What we are dealing with is a nonfalsifiable orthodoxy, so assiduously marketed by the ruling interests that it affected people across the entire political spectrum.”
Such a good quote
Parenti Quote Bomb or PQB
Part of the ideology of white-supremacy, is that proximity to whiteness means trustworthiness and authenticity, and distance from it means untrustworthiness.
So white supremacists think only the western countries (and their allies like South Korea, Japan, and other US military base countries) data and educational institutions can be trusted, while the numbers coming from any country opposed to them must inherently be a lie.
Holy chauvinism.
The framing and double-standard is chauvinist and bad.
But there are reasons to be skeptical of suicide stats worldwide due to cultural ideas and norms around suicide. Like, look at the US. It was common practice for coroners to put accident as cause of death even if it was clearly suicide - and still is, to some degree. Only recently have statisticians began including certain other cases of “accidental” death as suicide (some single car crashes, gun “accidents”, ODs, etc).
And different countries have different methods for reporting out on suicide. It’s not founded to say countries are intentionally skewing suicide stats, but it would be constructive to be skeptical about how those figures were arrived at before believing memes without citations.
I would have no issue with them saying suicide stats are often inaccurate due to x, y, or z reason.
What they instead chose to say was the typical chauvinist bullshit of the evil Asiatic hoardes in China and the DPRK can’t be trusted to report anything truthfully nonsense.
I was agreeing with you
And Taiwan or South Korea never lied too and their real numbers are definitely lower than this shit.