The Israel-Palestine conflict as it relates to the CCP. With all the crap going on in the world, a major event in China has gone unnoticed. I can hardly think of a better metaphor for the CCP than a bunch of their loyal sailors dying because of a booby trap they placed to keep foreigners out.
This is what is happening to Han Chinese from China's upper-middle classed socio-economic strata of party loyalist. Imagine what the poor, non-conformists, and minorities have to endure. Everyone in China is a victim under the CCP.
But to be fair, nobody was woke in 2008. By contrast, I wouldn't be surprised if the CCP have had a hand in triggering the rise of wokism from the late 2010s onwards, as a plan to divide and destabilise Western nations.
I do not believe that the CCP triggered the rise of wokeism but they are not afraid to piggyback off of it. That was part of the playbook of the Soviet Union during the Cold War, infiltrate existing dissident groups in the West that already exist and try to steer them in a Marxist direction. The Soviet Union also targeted academia but ironically the seeds they planted in academia didn't really sprout until after the Berlin Wall came down. There is some evidence that they sent money via third parties. to some of the more Marxist offshoots of BLM. At this point the CCP is in no position to infiltrate groups in the West because they have a lot of catastrophic problems in China right now. As for Nightbringer's comment. If they didn't try to quash the Shen Yen shows, I might have to give them credit where credit is due. It bothers me that the only nations that can unironically display national pride are authoritarian.
I blame western capitalism for that. Capitalism has been the main force behind the political and cultural directions taken by our democratic nations in the last century, and capitalism needs only two things: to sell more products and to expande its market. Capitalism thrives when it can support a certain model, a certain way of life that it's sold as "the best one". After WW2, the main enemy was the communism, so the good and superior society (as presented by any commercial and ideally supported by polititians) was based on "sane moral principles", represented as traditional family, christian values and national pride. Masculinity was good and exalted. Now, if i want to expand my market and that includes (for example, but not only that) a large amount of products related to gender swapping, that means that those old "sane moral principles" suddely are a threat, so i must dismantle traditional family and national pride. Masculinity is bad and must be eradicated.
True... but I'm pretty sure it would play out the same way today. The CCP would not have created that abomination of an opening ceremony if they were hosting the 2024 Olympics.
I think US should pull out of the Olympics if the IOC is going to pull this bullshit. We could make a separate international game for the free world and the rest of the world. Or you know, just not participate at all.
If China's goal is to win the greatest number of medals, the US pulling out would only serve to play directly into their hands. Maybe if you could get a significant percentage of the countries to withdraw, (including all/most of the big influential countries), that might work. However, I can't really see that happening. Additionally, the US pulling out would be pretty unfair to their own athletes. Imagine sacrificing and training for your entire life only to have your country pull out just as you make it onto the big stage.
I agree that it's not realistically happening. I say, if the China wants stolen medals, let them have ALL the medals. I am SOOOOO tired of the bad guys winning because the good guys don't want to inconvenience the innocents, even slightly. This is how the CCP is usurping every international organization because the good guys don't want to cause short-term harm to those who don't deserve it. Ask an athlete who trained her whole life how she feels being lapped by a drugged out monster on an international stage. You don't just pull out of the Olympics, you build another one. Hypothetically we call it the International Friendship Games. Make the International Friendship Games take place on a non-Olympic year. Allow any Olympic athlete to participate if they pass the drug test and they are not institutionally tied to someone who failed a drug test or refused to take a drug test. Most Olympic level athletes are happy to participate in big events that aren't the Olympics. The International Friendship Games will start out much smaller than the Olympics, but eventually it will grow. And the hardcore sports fans will switch over first. It's not going to happen, but it's something I would do if given incredible power and decided not to use my power violently.
They might be happy with that arrangement... and history has a funny way of remembering the winners. The controversies fade, but the medal count is eternal. I think it is a bit unfair to characterize it as an "inconvenience", let alone a slight inconvenience. We're talking about athletes that have dedicated their entire lives to reach the top level of their sport. Untold hours of brutally hard training, diet and discipline. It may be an inconvenience for an NBA player because basketball has such a large reach outside of the Olympics, but for athletes in "smaller" sports this is the only platform that matters. And they have a very small physical window in which to make their mark. I'm not arguing with you about the problem, but rather your proposed solution. Ask that same athlete if they want to give up their chance to compete at the Olympics as a response to the drugged out monster. You might want to pick a more marketable name. No one is going to tune in to watch the International Friendship Games. It's a pretty big gamble. It would require a significant monetary investment and where there is money there will always be corruption. Plus, it's not like you'd achieve a drug free games anyways, the performance enhancing industry is perpetually a few steps ahead of the testing industry. We have no idea how many people have "gotten away with it". For every person who has been caught, how many have remained undetected despite doping? It's also a very big hill to climb. The Olympics have a long history, name recognition and generational interest. Many sports hold world championships, but still very few people tune in until the Olympics rolls around. For big sports (Soccer, Basketball, Hockey, etc.) it's not a problem, but how many people care about archery or rowing outside of the Olympic games. You say that hardcore sports fans would switch over... maybe... some. I think you'd actually have an easier time attracting attention if you made all performance enhancing drugs legal. How many people will tune into your 100m sprinting finals at the International Friendship Games to see an athlete run a 9.91 second race, when they can see my Super Solider serum athletes run an 8.99? Spectacle sells. I'm not saying it is right (or even advocating for it), but that is the simple truth. And with those same powers, I'd be breaking all sorts of records at the Olympics! There is no escape from Chaos, it marks us all!
The biggest irony here is that the US was no better during the Cold War era... they regularly pumped their athletes up with drugs to make sure they won the most medals (as did the Soviet Union). True, there were no (or less) doping rules in those days, but still shows how America was just as willing to compete dishonourably in sporting events then as China is now. All the countries in the British Commonwealth already enjoy an alternative - the Commonwealth Games. @NIGHTBRINGER I'm surprised you haven't mentioned this being a Canadian, Canada's a big and respected part of the Commonwealth. Those games seem to go on well enough without drug-related scandals. Plus none of the big countries who think it acceptable to dope to win just because they're big are allowed to compete, which deals with the problem in its own way . You'd be willing to accept a malevolent foreign dictatorship purely to escape wokism. Yet as @Killer Angel says the problem lies within our own society, specfically flawed system of US-led capitalism - rather than simply roll over and accept these malevolent overlords, a better solution would be to just fix what we have, and eradicate the corruption the flawed US-propagated model that exists and replace it with an equally democratic alternative that doesn't revolve purely around accumulating money and filling pockets.
So generally, online if I say, "Hey this foreign government is doing something evil!" Someone will say "Well the United States was built on slavery!" or some other evil thing the United States did. The United States had institutionalized slavery two hundred years ago, and it was really bad, but other countries have slavery RIGHT NOW. Most governments in history are/were shitty, but at the least the United States and the West is trying to be better. Whenever outsiders criticize the CCP, they will often say the Narcisists prayer That didn’t happen. And if it did, it wasn’t that bad. And if it was, that’s not a big deal. And if it is, that’s not my fault. And if it was, I didn’t mean it. And if I did, you deserved it. When it comes, "you deserved it", the CCP argues that because of the Opium Wars of the 19th century and the Japanese Invasion, everything they do is justified. Nightbringer is just trolling best ignore this post. That said, this is a thoughtful and well constructed post. There is the famous quote attributed to Churchill "Democracy is the worst form of government, except all the others that have been tried." I also believe capitalism is the "worst" form of economic system, and that British common law is the "worst" basis for a judiciary system. It is better to keep these systems and constantly prune the weeds than it is to burn the systems down. At least until we come up with something better. When we have something "better", try it in a smallish area and we can watch it succeed or fail. California is a laboratory to test all kinds of new government policies. Maybe someday they'll come up with an idea that doesn't suck.
The USA has had (and continues to have) dirty athletes. The distinction I would draw is that a nation like the the Soviet Union had state-run doping programs. The country itself was actively working to cheat the system. I don't know if China could be found guilty of this (or to the same level), but I certainly find it more probable than the US. That said, if we are talking about recency, with the crazy political scene in the USA, a very large percentage of the US population would support the idea that transwomen are women, and would advocate for them to compete against biological women. Drug cheating doesn't seem nearly so bad as allowing males to compete against females. And that is modern day, not decades/centuries in the past. So I hesitate to point the finger at China. This illustrates the point I made to @Scalenex about his International Friendship Games; very few people care. I have never in my life watched the Commonwealth Games. Beyond being aware of its existence, I know absolutely nothing about it. I don't know anything about its history, its events or even when it's held. Not only that, but in all my decades living in Canada, I have never encountered it being brought up in conversation. On the flip side, the Olympics is always a pretty big deal. Survival of the fittest. If we (the Western countries) are willing to throw away the great societies that are forebearers built, then we don't deserve to stay on top. There are elements of the CCP that are worse than the West, but conversely there are elements of the West that are worse than the CCP. I still give us the edge overall, but that lead is being eroded each and every year. It's easy to other the CCP and paint them as the villain, but if we're realistic and fair, we could easily put ourselves in their shoes and do the same to many of the Western countries. It's very tempting to vilify the other side. I believe the problem is multi-faceted, and can't be exclusively pinned on capitalism. For instance, the academic circles were long at the forefront of woke wave; decades ahead of what would eventually permeate into society at large. The political strategies of the left are also to blame, which in turn are largely helped along by a strange sort of collective (white) guilt. Etc. Etc. Etc. It is a complex problem. Fixing our own system would be, as you say, the undeniably superior option. But that's only if we can fix it and are willing to do so. If we can't, then something stronger will come along and dethrone us. Every major empire has seen its rise and subsequent fall. Rome rotted from within. What makes us immune from the same fate?
So we both the think the Olympics is a farce, but just for different reasons. The same solution is needed. Athletes need to boycott rigged matches and advocate against them loudly. Disappoint sports fans to get them to advocate against this crap. Once again, South Park predicted the future.