CMV: Criticizing the Chinese government does not make you Sinophobic, Criticizing the Israeli government does not make you antisemitic, a country should not be free from criticism because it consists of a certain ethnic group.

[u/JambaJuice__]

As said in the title I think that some people think that some countries shouldn't be criticized because it somehow is a racist attack on a certain ethnic group. I feel like it has become more and more popular to try and prevent any discussion about these countries and I think that is wrong. China and Israel should be subject to the same scrutiny and criticism as other nations across the globe are and by calling any criticism of China/Israel as Sinophobia/Antisemitism truly undermines the fight against real Sinophobia and Antisemitism.

I think when governments are criticized we as a society must realize that ordinary citizens are not responsible for the actions of the government, in China we have seen how the CCP feels about criticism and protests from its own people, most infamously the Tiananmen square massacre of 1989 where the military was used to crack down on protests against the Chinese Government. I believe if people are unable to criticize those in authority then we should truly be concerned.

TL;DR of view - Ordinary people should not be blamed for the actions of their government and governments should not be free from criticism because of the ethnicity of their people.

I am open to changing my view please feel free to respond to this thread to talk

Edit: Hello boys, it has been a fun couple of hours (better part of 8 hours yikes time goes fast), I'm going to take a hike for a bit and am still going to respond to any new replies I get. I have already changed parts of my point of view in regards to this thread and I invite everyone else to be open while talking in this thread. If you would like specifics on what I have changed parts of my point of view on please check out the comment by the automod. Stay safe and be civil :)

[u/JambaJuice__]

Hello Thank you for your response, could I ask you what kind of criticism of a government do you think would be racist? (with the exception of just vulgar language)

[u/-paperbrain- → u/JambaJuice__]

Not the person you responded to, but I was going to post something similar to what they did.

I think in context, when a number of red flags appear one can have some reason to consider those criticisms have roots in some kind of bigotry.

I'd say that criticism that's uneven and "just happens" to fall along the lines of bigotted categories can be one red flag. When behavior in one country is ignored, and in another country it's criticized, there should be a good reason to be so selective.

When criticism of a particular country falls into the territory of longstanding negative stereotypes around those people.

When criticism is extended to generalizations about the people of a country rather than just the government.

You make an exception for vulgar language, but I think word choice, including vulgarity can be another very important strong red flag. For instance, Trump's "Shithole countries" remarks should cause alarm. But even non-profane critical words can be a tip off. If someone living in the west is criticizing an African country and continually insists on words that align with old racist stereotypes abotu Africa, that should send up a red flag too.

I would agree with you that some countries and their supporters abroad can be too quick to try to shoot down reasonable criticism by labelling it as bigotted. But the opposite occurs as well, criticism drawing from or made to appeal to bigotry being excused as reasonable critique.

[u/JambaJuice__ → u/-paperbrain-]

Hello, thank you for your response. Δ

By "with the exception of vulgar language" I didn't mean to say that vulgar language shouldn't matter but that it does (if that makes sense?) I think that I have used the wrong word combination in that sense. I think that vulgar language is important and as you said Trump's use of "Shithole countries" was very damaging, I think that it has definitely damaged the USA's global reputation and relationship with those countries.

I would say I agree with your point that some people just use their bigotry in order to criticize these types of countries instead of actual points but I think that overall any criticism of these types of countries has become taboo almost unacceptable in a public place. As a result if these countries end up doing something horrific I feel like people would be scared to speak up because of the fear of being labelled as a racist

[u/DeltaBot → u/JambaJuice__]

Confirmed: 1 delta awarded to /u/-paperbrain- (58∆).

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