• EE@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    1 year ago

    The article you linked mentioned how that approval rating (for the central government - not the local ones) came to be for rural people: Censorship and propaganda combined with an attitude towards government similar to what you often see with religious people. If something good happens, the big guy far away did it. If something bad happens, it’s due to the corruption of men (in this case the corrupt local officials).

    Edit: From the article:

    “I think citizens often hear that the central government has introduced a raft of new policies, then get frustrated when they don’t always see the results of such policy proclamations, but they think it must be because of malfeasance or foot-dragging by the local government,” said Saich.

    Compared to the relatively high satisfaction rates with Beijing, respondents held considerably less favorable views toward local government. At the township level, the lowest level of government surveyed, only 11.3 percent of respondents reported that they were “very satisfied.”

    […] This dichotomy is highlighted by a 2017 Gallup poll, where 70 percent of U.S. respondents had a “great” or “fair” amount of trust in local government.

    • freagle@lemmygrad.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      1 year ago

      The US has the longest running, largest, and most expensive propaganda machine in the world. The evidence doesn’t match the conclusion. The federal government of the US is very far away, the states are much closer. The evidence does not match the conclusion.

      Further, claiming that 95.5% of a billion people are too incompetent to see through the ruse is laughably indefensible. It’s almost like the propaganda machine in the West is so effective that it managed to make a Chinese expat into an orientalist.

      • socsa@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        1 year ago

        Please explain how you plan to liberate workers by removing their basic political agency. “You are just brainwashed. Please try to keep up.”

        • 133arc585@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          1 year ago

          “Democracy” in China is significantly more democratic than in places like the USA. In the USA, you’re presented with a false dichotomy in the two-party system, where both parties are parties for wealthy interests. Neither party is a party of the people. In China, for example, elections are “non-politicized”. Paraphrasing Richard Boer,

          ‘Non-politicized’ elections means that elections are not a manifestation of class conflict in antagonistic political parties, but are based on qualifications, expertise, and merit for positions.

          When your vote is between candidates based on their qualifications and is not some charade of us-v-them where neither choice actually benefits the people, that is a more democratic system.

          The USA is democratic in name only. People in the USA have little to no real political agency, but have been lead to believe their superficial interactions with the political system are real agency.