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Ghoulius-Caesar t1_j2ksb44 wrote

Reply to comment by Easy-Bumblebee3169 in An analysis of data from 30 survey projects spanning 137 countries found that 75% of people in liberal democracies hold a negative view of China, and 87% hold a negative view of Russia. However, for the rest of the world, 70% feel positively towards China, and 66% feel positively towards Russia. by glawgii

Yes, I don’t like countries that oppress their people (ie: Uighur’s in China) or invade other countries (ie: Russia). As an educated person from a liberal democracy I’m smashing that dislike button when it comes to those dictatorships.

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Intrepid-Astronaut41 t1_j2kztkw wrote

How about the U.S? We destabilize countries for fun and profit. We actively seek to control media. We oppress our own people and those of other countries. I believe that if you did your research, you’d find all this to be true. Do you dislike the U.S.?

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SplitPerspective t1_j2l76y6 wrote

Don’t worry, only freedom of speech and guns matter. As long as you have those, you can feel better than everyone else.

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JackSpyder t1_j2l4zf6 wrote

I'm from the UK and don't like what my country does too. Or the US. Or China or Russia.

If I was picking somewhere to live and raise children and work. I'd be picking more liberal democracies though.

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shadow1515 t1_j2l7nv4 wrote

A lot of people in the US do, in fact, very vocally dislike it when those things happen. The thing about a representative democracy is that the country can still do things that a lot of citizens, sometimes even an actual majority of the voting public, do not approve of.

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porkchopnet t1_j2l167l wrote

These things have happened in the US but are they as common or egregious in the US as they are in (for example) Russia or China in the past few decades?

Can you honestly say (or find quality research that says) that the media in those countries are more free from government control than their US counterparts? That the people are less oppressed? That they use their influence to destabilize rivals less?

While I would think not I welcome quality research to challenge my assumption.

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SplitPerspective t1_j2l7v5x wrote

Vietnam war, Mai Lai massacre, Kent state shootings, operation rolling thunder, Iraq war, Afghanistan, patriot act, indefinite opening of Guantanamo…on and on.

The fact is, the average person isn’t affected by those things that have passed, or are not affected by policies and institutions currently, despite persistent human rights abuses to others.

Same thing in China, if the average person has the standard freedoms, the average person either shows apathy or ignorance to bigger issues.

People like to parrot lack of freedom this lack of freedom that in China, but it’s not as simplistic as it seems. For certain things, there are more freedoms in China, but you probably dismissed that idea and think no where is more free than your own country right? Again, apathy and ignorance is a sickness.

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porkchopnet t1_j2lqojo wrote

You are citing anecdotes not data. This is /r/science. How about defendable research?

Fortunately, there are actual quantafiable metrics that clearly show human freedoms on an index: https://freedomhouse.org/countries/freedom-world/scores?sort=desc&order=Total%20Score%20and%20Status

USA scores 83/100.
China is 9/100.
Russia is 19.

Its not even close.

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SplitPerspective t1_j2m2060 wrote

Human freedom on an index, created by a liberal democracy. If you can’t even understand that when it comes to geopolitics, everything is biased, then you’re already stuck within the bounds of the system with a biased lens.

Case in point, millions of Chinese travel outside of China every year. If it’s so bad, you’d expect a mass exodus and/or asylum seekers. Then there are “expats” from liberal democracies retiring in China.

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