So i got recommended this video recently and i was very skeptical at first. Looked clickbaity, and also, usually when travel vloggers do things like this in developing countries it tends to be quite exploitative and scummy, taking advantage of poor people and making a spectacle out of them.
I don't know much about these vloggers, but in this case it does seem like it's fairly harmless and respectful of the person they featured, who apparently contacted them and asked them to do the video, not the other way around. I appreciate that they blurred her face, and that they didn't treat her like some kind of curiosity but really just showed a normal person's life. (Though i do wish they had a translator because there was a bit of a language barrier.)
For these reasons i think this is ok, and maybe a valuable educational resource, because for me the real indicator of a country's prosperity is not how its wealthiest people live, or even the median, but how its poorest live. How are those at the very bottom of society treated? It goes without saying that this is not even comparable to how the people in similar situations live in the US (so many people homeless or living in their cars) or even much of Europe.
My takeaway: the government really does do a lot to take care of poor people in China, up to and including paying most of their rent and subsidizing much of their other costs of living too. Healthcare for instance is something that China often gets criticism for from leftists because it does not yet have completely free universal healthcare yet, and that's true. But as the Chinese people in this video explain, if you are low income the government will pay the vast majority of the costs, so really what is left is basically just a token fee.
And yes, some could argue that in rural areas there are still many people who are poorer than the poorest person in a city. In terms of just monetary income that may be true, but people in rural areas also tend to have things like animals and plots of land that let them sustain themselves without needing as much money as a person living in a city would. There the issue is more of accessibility to infrastructure, and this is apparently an aspect that has been rapidly improving in recent years.
Also, this is in one of the richest cities in China. Obviously not all cities offer the same level of welfare. And i'm also not including Hong Kong, where, due to the different economic and political system (One Country, Two Systems is kind of fucked and needs to end imo), the situation is far, far more dire for the poorest people living in the city than in basically any other part of China - yet another disastrous consequence of British imperialism...
darkernations - 4w
So this British couple experience all this development in China and their takeaway at the end of the video? The UK is in a mess because of immigration and used a bunch of screenshots of rag headlines to back that up.
The beauty of the PRC and how effective its system is that they understand it is through material gains that one can convince the "other" that even right wing nut jobs like this couple will come to your defence. And you don't need everyone to be communist. Just an effective enough vanguard of scientific socialists.
Stop accusing the masses of being “brainwashed.” Stop treating them as cattle, stop attempting to rouse them into action by scolding them with exposure to “unpleasant truths.”
Accept instead that they have been avoiding those truths for a reason. You were able to break through the propaganda barrier, and so could they if they really wanted to. Many of these people see you as the fool, and in many cases not without reason.
Understanding people as intelligent beings, craft a political strategy that convincingly makes the case for why they and their lot are very likely to benefit from joining your political project. Not in some utopian infinite timescale, but soon.
If you cannot make this case, then forget about convincing the person in question. Focus instead on finding other people to whom such a case can be made. This will lead you directly to class analysis.
Yeah...they don't seem like they're exactly the brightest. Unfortunately they're fairly representative of the average Brit nowadays.
4
darkernations - 4w
Good share nonetheless! (I didn't downvote your comment but that redsails brainwashing article has helped me re-evaluate how I judge intelligence)
1
cfgaussian - 4w
Fair. Perhaps i need to choose my words more carefully.
2
darkernations - 4w
It wasn't too long ago I used to carry a similar sentiment and instinctively (though incorrectly) on occasion still do. Dialectical materialism can take time.
2
haui - 4w
Well, I'm not surprised and I am happy for the people living in china enjoying their hard earned benefits and life.
I just hope we will be able to improvw the situation for as many people as possible, either by helping them leave the west or inshallah changing the system.
8
TankieReplyBot - 4w
I found a YouTube link in your post. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
cfgaussian in china
I Spent a Day with a Woman on Welfare in China — The Truth
https://youtu.be/1uNaP6FsKwYSo i got recommended this video recently and i was very skeptical at first. Looked clickbaity, and also, usually when travel vloggers do things like this in developing countries it tends to be quite exploitative and scummy, taking advantage of poor people and making a spectacle out of them.
I don't know much about these vloggers, but in this case it does seem like it's fairly harmless and respectful of the person they featured, who apparently contacted them and asked them to do the video, not the other way around. I appreciate that they blurred her face, and that they didn't treat her like some kind of curiosity but really just showed a normal person's life. (Though i do wish they had a translator because there was a bit of a language barrier.)
For these reasons i think this is ok, and maybe a valuable educational resource, because for me the real indicator of a country's prosperity is not how its wealthiest people live, or even the median, but how its poorest live. How are those at the very bottom of society treated? It goes without saying that this is not even comparable to how the people in similar situations live in the US (so many people homeless or living in their cars) or even much of Europe.
My takeaway: the government really does do a lot to take care of poor people in China, up to and including paying most of their rent and subsidizing much of their other costs of living too. Healthcare for instance is something that China often gets criticism for from leftists because it does not yet have completely free universal healthcare yet, and that's true. But as the Chinese people in this video explain, if you are low income the government will pay the vast majority of the costs, so really what is left is basically just a token fee.
And yes, some could argue that in rural areas there are still many people who are poorer than the poorest person in a city. In terms of just monetary income that may be true, but people in rural areas also tend to have things like animals and plots of land that let them sustain themselves without needing as much money as a person living in a city would. There the issue is more of accessibility to infrastructure, and this is apparently an aspect that has been rapidly improving in recent years.
Also, this is in one of the richest cities in China. Obviously not all cities offer the same level of welfare. And i'm also not including Hong Kong, where, due to the different economic and political system (One Country, Two Systems is kind of fucked and needs to end imo), the situation is far, far more dire for the poorest people living in the city than in basically any other part of China - yet another disastrous consequence of British imperialism...
So this British couple experience all this development in China and their takeaway at the end of the video? The UK is in a mess because of immigration and used a bunch of screenshots of rag headlines to back that up.
The beauty of the PRC and how effective its system is that they understand it is through material gains that one can convince the "other" that even right wing nut jobs like this couple will come to your defence. And you don't need everyone to be communist. Just an effective enough vanguard of scientific socialists.
https://redsails.org/masses-elites-and-rebels/
Yeah...they don't seem like they're exactly the brightest. Unfortunately they're fairly representative of the average Brit nowadays.
Good share nonetheless! (I didn't downvote your comment but that redsails brainwashing article has helped me re-evaluate how I judge intelligence)
Fair. Perhaps i need to choose my words more carefully.
It wasn't too long ago I used to carry a similar sentiment and instinctively (though incorrectly) on occasion still do. Dialectical materialism can take time.
Well, I'm not surprised and I am happy for the people living in china enjoying their hard earned benefits and life.
I just hope we will be able to improvw the situation for as many people as possible, either by helping them leave the west or inshallah changing the system.
I found a YouTube link in your post. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy: