BEIJING — The censorship order handed down from the Chinese Communist Party earlier this year reads like a decree from a Puritan: depictions of underage drinking, gambling and extreme violence are not permitted online; images of scantily clad people and portrayals of homosexuality are off limits; spiritual figures and beliefs cannot be satirized.
The directive, aimed at China’s booming online entertainment industry, prompted uncommon outrage for the number of topics — 68 — it banned. The list includes not only the usual politically sensitive subjects but also subjects that have made the internet an exhilarating and liberating space for this country’s hundreds of millions of web users.
The priggishness of Communist Party censors is not new, but the escalation of puritanical policing in the past year reflects wider forces shaping Chinese society under President Xi Jinping. Following Mr. Xi’s high-profile crackdown on corrupt officials and thorough silencing of liberal intellectuals, the president’s most ambitious project with the wider public is underway: an attempt to govern not only citizens’ political outlook but, more than any leader since Mao, also the minutiae of their moral life.
Some of Mr. Xi’s measures build on existing tools of control: The official state news agency issued an update to its style guide in July, banning the use of crude language and online slang in news reporting; internet censors shut down scores of blogs in June for their sensationalist coverage of celebrity gossip; other information channels, including school textbooks and street billboards, promote traditional virtues like honesty, obedience and filial piety, which are hailed as the foundation of a good society.
Grander efforts have led to the creation of new rules and institutions: a Good Samaritan law passed in March, for instance, protects individuals from being extorted by those they had helped, a circumstance that was so common that it deterred people from coming to the aid of people in need. Also in the pipeline is a government-managed social-credit system that will rate citizens’ trustworthiness by tracking their personal data, from financial information to compliance with traffic rules.
Heavy-handed as they may be, these policies stem from government apprehension that is not ill founded. It’s a refrain among ordinary Chinese that the decay of public morality is turning society into a crass, unscrupulous, every-man-for-himself marketplace.
A survey released by the research firm Ipsos in July showed that 47 percent of Chinese people rank moral decline as one of society’s top three most worrisome problems, surpassing other pressing challenges like environmental degradation and unemployment. It is a gloom that hangs over people’s daily life in the form of cautionary tales about swindles like pyramid schemes preying on unemployed youth and online dating scams.
Under Mr. Xi, the moral agenda of the state speaks to something larger: It is integral to his vision of China as a country of patriotic, diligent and civilized people that, led by a capable and highly disciplined Communist Party, is poised to achieve “national rejuvenation.”
The strategy echoes the ancient Chinese political mandate of “governing with virtue” — the idea that social harmony derives from the moral rectitude of the rulers — but in practice it promotes an amalgamation of values carefully culled from China’s past and present.
The public is instructed to adhere to Confucian family roles at home and to demonstrate capitalist professionalism at work. Wealthy officials are warned against betraying revolutionary frugality, while aspiring entrepreneurs are told to infuse their endeavors with patriotic ideals.
The effort to regulate public morality also means molding the incongruous government practices into a coherent ideology. The campaign’s overreliance on authoritarian tactics like surveillance and censorship have alienated a growing rank of citizens who see the paradox in the censors’ mission: The proliferation of the “vulgar” entertainment that is coming under fire is a result of restrictions on more sophisticated and critical artistic expressions. Social discussions have degenerated into coarse polemics online because of the lack of space for more nuanced and incisive conversations.
During the Communist Party leadership reshuffle last month, some of Beijing’s streets were bathed in red lights. The slogan “There is no new China without the Communist Party” beamed from electronic screens that a week earlier had displayed advertisements for Buick and Chanel. Farther along those streets, state-sponsored posters counseled thriftiness and restraint. People streamed by without raising their heads.
It might work but needs to target mostly the powerful.
Liam Jenkins
Hey mods, can we get some political censorship over there? I think he would enjoy it very much.
Hunter Rogers
Seriously fucked up. Why is China such a late capitalist shithole and how do they manage to outdo themselves every time?
Lincoln Collins
So much for the degenerate left
Jacob Price
Spooky.
Brayden James
Anarkiddies will go to the reeducation camps.
Christian Foster
I saw that fucking article weeks ago while I was binging black mirror. That's creepy as fuck. Chinese are the biggest sellouts since gorbachov
Alexander Smith
Why don't you walk into the minefield yourself? Go ahead. Be a good Patriot™!
Jaxon Myers
t. coward
Ryan Watson
It's not cowardice when you have absolutely nothing to gain. Why are patriotards such pitiful servile creatures?
Matthew Fisher
Patriotism implies that the collective must always be a nation or a country. How would socialism/communism or whatever special brand of socialism you think is the best will ever triumph if people are not willing to die for it? Stirner is a cunt and his works are the most obnoxious piece of shit ever written. If there is a book I think it deserves to get banned is ego.
Michael Edwards
why is the nazi spookposting
Adrian Johnson
Though some may find it hard to believe, Stirner wasn't unknown or disliked in national-socialist circles. Read Jünger.
Because socialism is not about people dying. It's about people not engaging in capitalism, and transcending the material conditions that are the prerequisite for capitalist relations.
Nolan Reed
It doesn't surprise me. Stirnerfags are the worst, far worst than nazis. Thankfully they're irrelevant and very few.
Robert Lewis
S O C I A L I S M WITH CHINESE CHARACTERISTICS
John Martin
meanwhile in """communist""" China
Dylan Sanders
wtf I like succdems now
Levi Cooper
China after attempts at socialism: Corporatist dystopia where workers have been fully supressed and millions of children die due to pollution, fake vaccines and poisoned baby formula
Russia after attempts at socialism: Unabashed mafia oliogarchy where workers simply don't matter at all, an imperialist Neo Tsar at the helm and lower life expectancy than fucking Cambodia
Scandinavia after attempts at Socialism: Safe, highest standard of living in the world, highest levels of education in the world, socialized profits from natural resources
Leo Stewart
Grab a rope and hang yourself you fuck
Justin Gutierrez
t. Butthurt because lowly succdems beat him at his own game.
Jackson Johnson
Seems like Scandinavia took advantage of primitive accumulation and developed before industrial capitalism could cause havoc. Or maybe it's just fucking cold balls there so no one bothered exploiting the environment. :thonk:
Benjamin Rodriguez
Out of those four paragraphs, the only thing semi-sensible was this: But other than that - has the CCP gone completely bonkers? This reads like western Christian Democrat policies.
Caleb Watson
why is a fucking nazifag one of the best posters in this goddamn board
jesus
Levi Rivera
I think this is the most anti-Marxist realist art piece I've ever seen. And it's of a Marxist-Leninist governed environment!
Sebastian Bailey
Logging and mining are actually two of Sweden's largest industries, they are just heavily regulated.
Isaac Ortiz
I know Stirnerites are fucking unbearable as one myself sort of but, I'm not even convinced that Stirner is out of line with Marxist thought. He never provides any economic/political praxis for a good reason, it would be out of touch with his development of The Unique. The whole book was about individual perspectivism in response to the monolithic stucture of Christianity and its secular offspring ideologies.
William Powell
Almost like two of those places had major wars throughout the first half of the twentieth century while the third had either significantly less-protracted and less-destructive wars or none at all durung that time period…
Eli Scott
I share this sentiment and am trying to tie Stirnerite egoism with libertarian communism.
History has multiple interesting examples of this: - Emma Goldman - Some UK anarcho-syndicalists within the first quarter of the 20th century - S.I.: Vanigem's 'the Revolution of Everyday Life' is very Sternerite - post-S.I.: The post-S.I. American sub-group 'For Ourselves' tried to theoretically synthesize S.I. Marxisim (which is generally considered post-councilcom) with Stirnerite egoism. - contemporarily insurrectionary anarchism (a sub-category of ancom) seems very sympathetic to Stirner and what the recent communization tendency within insurrectionary anarchism points to is the ground for a possible synthesis.
Levi Thomas
CONFUCIANISM IS COMMUNIST t. Dengist gang
Chase Gonzalez
China really needs to stop calling themselves communist. Even North Korea does not consider themselves that and they are closer to it than China is. I really fucking hate the CPC.
Thomas Torres
China is going to be the dominant force in the next century and it's because of shit like this. argue about whether it's morally right or wrong all you want - personally I wouldn't want to live there - but you had better prepare for some seriously sci-fi social engineering and technology shit coming out of China in your lifetime, because they simply don't give a fuck about the ethics.
also this is the only place on the Internet AUTISTIC enough to constantly talk about Stirner. you could rename this board /stirner/, and it would be more accurate. this article has nothing to do with Stirner, but I open up the thread and lo and behold there's fucking Stirner memes and half the thread is arguing about him, since he is the actual topic of the board. stirnerites, enjoy your revolution which will literally never happen because none of you will ever risk their material well-being to oppose the currently existing power structures.
Jeremiah Davis
The only thing stopping mass peasant revolt in China is that the CPC continues to suck off Mao's corpse. I'm sure they would have thrown off the Communist moniker decades ago if it wasn't tied to their only real claim to legitimacy.
Juan Baker
This is the worst part I literally laughed maniacally throughout reading the entire piece. Hey, something has to be done about agency in relation to communization, you can't deny this. I have set out a goal to obliterate leftcom's armchairs and I think Stirnerian egoism would do the trick.
William Thompson
Was Mao right?
Caleb Smith
No, he was just another counter-revolutionary Leninist.
Henry Bennett
wtf Holla Forums loves communism with chinese characteristics now
Isaac Thompson
Marxist-Leninist-Maoist Deng Xiaoping Theory Three Represents Scientific Outlook on Development Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese characteristics for a New Era
Nathan Watson
What a surprise.
Adrian Rogers
If you've ever been to China or understood what it's people are like these days, you'd understand. Literally the whole country is a living example of what pure late-capitalism does to morality. No one gives a literal shit about anyone but themselves and maybe 1 or 2 family members. Someone could be being brutally gangraped in the street and no one would do anything because "none of my business".
Dylan Hall
Nothing about this is good nor is it communism. I mean dog Marx warned those fuckers about capitalism. They should have known better. They created a disease and are now scrambling for cures, when this shit could have been avoided. Their unfettered growth is fucking up their environmenf. And now they need to turn their people into what are practically cattle to “save” them from themselves? Jesus they are fucked
Dominic Hill
So where can we hope for socialism next lands? Do we really have to pin our hopes on fucking India?
Connor Thompson
Why not? Indian communists seem to be quite competent.
Sebastian White
India just seems to be such a much of a mess
Levi Reed
Because India is one of the most diverse countries in the world. They have hundreds of political parties, dozens of languages and cultures. In some pockets, like Kerala, West Bengal and Tripura, communism grows. Then there is the Naxalites even though I am not sure if they can arise to a political power compared to the CPI (Marxist).
Kerala is SocDem but a good example of communists in power that are succesful, which is a good argument against anti-communists.
Isaac King
No, most of the state killing happened in peactime on "friendly" territory.
