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China using families as 'hostages' to quash dissent abroad
(www.bbc.co.uk)
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The thing is, I get they are trolling. It's just dumb and obnoxious. Also, kinda cringe, and definitely counterproductive.
I think your willingness to even make an effort at this kind of engagement is refreshing, but I also this this is sadly, a very low bar.
Eh, I've seen errors here and there (and called them out, as you can see) but I think they are generally putting forward decent arguments with better evidence. The Yuri Gagarin stan for example is very well-read and intelligent, you just need to demonstrate good faith (and maybe catch him in a not-bad mood). Anyway, here's the thread that I just made. Feel free to upvote for visibility, we'll see how it goes.
We got at least a couple of takers, and I expanded a little on some of my views. What do you think?
I should mention that one thing that probably skews matters is a prevalent thought (that I mostly agree with) among communists that the criticism of rivals of one's state to appease liberals is not a good use of time. The reasoning goes that you aren't really in a position to correct those problems, so spending time on these things when speaking publicly is only going to support the basis for a "left opposition" to those foreign states even if that's not your personal aim. A version of this has been used by the FBI.
Because of this, I think your sampling might have been sabotaged by people operating on that principle, because convincing a liberal to be an anarcho-bidenist [someone who claims to be a radical but supports US foreign policy and/or the Democrats] isn't really a useful effort.