Comments on: “History is linked to legitimacy”

By: roboseyo

roboseyo — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 16:46:29 +0000

39: Hi Sonagi. I guess I expressed myself poorly there.

Me: “Yeah, Chinese hyper-nationalism has the state/police support”

You: “Not true. The Chinese government does NOT want violent expressions of Chinese nationalism. It learned its lesson from the anti-Japanese demonstrations and has been very careful in censoring media and online content about the Tibet riots to prevent any revenge attacks.”

I didn’t mean to imply that the Chinese state or police endorse/encourage hyper-nationalism to be expressed through violence toward groups living in China; what I was clumsily trying to say was that, for example, in America, if you burn a US flag in public, or get really noisy about US human rights violations, you’ll be branded a traitor and maybe ostracized or even intimidated by other Americans, but you won’t have the police knocking on your door, warning you to step back in line. While in China, speaking too strongly against the government MIGHT land you in jail, or under house arrest, or gagged some other way. Both countries suppress dissent, but one (sometimes) uses the police to do so, and the other doesn’t.

I completely agree that both China and US governments (heck: and pretty much ALL governments) use nationalism to push their agendas, but they use different methods of enforcement.

By: Sonagi

Sonagi — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 13:08:19 +0000

Yeah, Chinese hyper-nationalism has the state/police support, while in America you’ll just be shouted down as a traitor, and possibly made into a pariah

Not true. The Chinese government does NOT want violent expressions of Chinese nationalism. It learned its lesson from the anti-Japanese demonstrations and has been very careful in censoring media and online content about the Tibet riots to prevent any revenge attacks. In fact, that is the reason why China has been blaming the Dalai Lama for coordinating the demonstrations - to direct public anger at him, Tibetan exiles, and Western supporters and away from Tibetans living in China.

Both the Chinese government and the US government use nationalism to further their own agendas.

By: Arghaeri

Arghaeri — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 08:37:24 +0000

“They were just European wars that spilled over to their colonies”, rather odd comment to make when discussing China neither european nor a european colony. China, a colony? Japan, a colony? US a colony? Turkey, a colony…others??? Some colonies and some ex-colonial supporters yes, but clearly not just Euopean wars spilled over to the colonies.

By: Zonath

Zonath — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 03:17:37 +0000

Good to see that Netizen Kim’s respect for other people’s copyrights is just as strong as ever.

By: dogbert

dogbert — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 02:41:55 +0000

@26: for god’s sake, just post a link, dammit

@27: Robert erased it completely

By: Sonagi

Sonagi — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 21:55:50 +0000

@#31

Please don’t feed the troll.

By: Juche Guevera

Juche Guevera — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 21:50:22 +0000

History is glory for the few at the expense of many.

By: R. Elgin

R. Elgin — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:01:24 +0000

“jay h”, try discussing #30 in the “open thread” unless you have commentary on the NY Times article to offer.

By: WangKon936

WangKon936 — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 17:39:17 +0000

Netizen Kim…

You lost me at “Thursday 14…”

By: WangKon936

WangKon936 — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 17:15:21 +0000

# 30,

Calling an entire country racist is not something one should do lightly. In addition to passive stereotyping, the term “racist” also implys beligerence and/or violence. Some time ago I took up the issue in more detail in this blog, but I’m too lazy today to dig it up.

Until Korea hosts lynchings, burns crosses on foreigner’s lawns, goes around in fraternal brotherhoods clad in white bed sheets, tatoos Magen Davids on arms, etc. I’d use the highly charged term of “racism” selectively.