I'm currently working in the Middle East and speaking for myself, I'm less worried about dying brutally to a bombing campaign by China than I am by my own government, so that certainly plays a role.

I think if the government put some effort towards PR by making some superficial gestures such as not invading other countries or overthrowing their governments it would certainly help improve our image abroad and I could stop pretending I'm British.

What we really need is to convince the global South that NOT being bombed by China is actually an evil orientalist plot to subvert our kindly brutality.

It's getting very exhausting telling the locals "Oy yoo lot ain't neva seen 'ow 'orrible dem Choinese ca' be! Would yoo be preferrin' youse country, yeah? Would youse be preferrin' yoo be in one a dem 'orrifying debt traps, or would youse be preferrin', yeah? A noice Gaaza remodelin', yeah? Oi think tha choice is an easy one, yeah? Dem Choinese don' seem so noice now, do they?"

Speaking like a Brit makes my mouth hurt; no wonder they're so miserable.

What’s up with this straight up pro-china and pro-russia stuff on Lemmy lately?

🌍🧑‍🚀🔫🧑‍🚀 Always has been. https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Lemmy#History

Obviously the states have problems, and the EU to a lesser degree, but they at least have some human rights.

The EU is sometimes worse than China and some parts of the US are often worse than Russia. The US (both parties) and the EU have been aiding & abetting a genocide in Palestine.

Is this some kind of organized disinformation campaign?

It’s not organized and it’s not disinformation. Those are coming from inside the house.

Given the political leanings of Lemmy's lead developers, and relatedly the whole reason why Lemmy started development in the first place, it should not be surprising to anyone that many Lemmy users have since the very beginning of Lemmy's existence had stances that could be called, in a word, "pro-Russia" or "pro-China".

The problem arises when people who don't hold these views look at them only through their own myopic biases, where, rather than genuinely interrogating why people might hold these attitudes, they instead more readily believe that a social media platform that most people have never even heard of is actually crawling with paid actors trying to influence public opinion.

No, to understand my own views on Russia, you need to understand my views on Atlanticism; to understand my views on Atlanticism, you need to understand my views on class, among other things. None of that comes across clearly in a one-liner or a four-panel meme. I'm sure I could discuss it in a more fitting space provided I'm not too drained of energy from having stayed up until five in the morning for the umpteenth time.

Obviously the states have problems, and the EU to a lesser degree, but they at least have some human rights.

A daily reminder that westerners don't consider non-westerners human.