China suspended 2,700 accounts in a two-month campaign against online pessimism, banning influencers who promote 'lying flat' or argue against marriage and children. The government fears disillusionment could spread. The hosts draw parallels to U.S. tech censorship driven by government ties and commercial pressure.
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China's crackdown on, believe it or not, cynicism. Cheer up or else. China's government has a new target. Not political protesters, but pessimists. According to the New York Times, Beijing's Internet regulators have launched a two month campaign to silence what they call defeatist narratives, banning bloggers and influencers who express fatigue, cynicism or doubts about marriage, work or the economy. Two of China's most popular lying flat bloggers, each with tens of millions of followers, were blocked after encouraging young people to step back from the country's relentless work culture. Another influencer who argued that marriage and children made little financial sense, saw her account shut down. State broadcaster CCTV defended the campaign, declaring the Internet is not a dumping ground for negativity. If only that were true. Experts say the crackdown reflects fear that disillusionment could become dissent. David Bandersky of the China Media Project says, quote, the leadership worries that such sentiment might be infectious. In modern China, it seems even unhappiness can be a crime. Okay, what's the real message here?
China is a step or two, but maybe only a step or two of.
What'S happening here in the United States. States dissent on the Internet, people don't even try that now. They're going after people who complain, who are negative. The thought is if you complain about marriage or the economy, the government could be next and they are shutting down counts. The entire world is under attack. When it comes to free speech. China's ahead of the game, but maybe not by much. Let's go a little bit deeper here.
This probably means I'm not going to.
Be able to get back into China. I did have a lovely time there.
And I have a lot of family.
Who are originally from China, but maybe even because of this report, I will.
Not be allowed back into the country. I will be seen as too negative. And I'm certainly not a pessimist in.
General, but I'm a pessimist about certain trends in China and the United States.
Okay, so over 2,000, get this, over.
2,700 social media accounts have been suspended.
Or banned in China. Not because they criticized the government, not because they said, wow, this authoritarianism is awful. This authoritarian regime is awful. We need to get rid of government and have democracy. No, they didn't dare say that. They know that's a good way to get disappeared. These are people who apparently just were complaining about stuff. Wow. The economy's not very great. Wow. I sure have to work hard, long hours. And I'm never going to have a house that alone is enough to get you banned. And you know, this doesn't happen without a close relationship between the government and big tech companies. And there was a time when those of us in the United States said shame on those authoritarian regimes like China. Isn't that awful the way that government controls their big tech companies? That would never happen to us. Oops. You can maybe make that case a few years ago, not anymore. As we've seen again and again and again, Mark Zuckerberg, the CEOs of Google, axe all of them, get down on bended knee and say to this, anything you want. You don't want us to fact check? No problem. You don't want us to kick off people advocating terrorism? No problem. It's only one more step to say, okay, you want us to ban people who criticize the current regime. Okay. And if you think that Mark Zuckerberg or any of these tech billionaires have principles other than how do I put more billions into my pocket, you are sadly fooling yourself. There was a time when I thought many of them really did stamp. Yeah, I was personally very excited when Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post. But now it comes down to whatever you want, Trump, I'll do. You want me not to endorse your opponent? No problem. That's Jeff Bezos attitude. And it's not him. It's only the retired guys. It's only the Bill Gates of the world. Reid Hoffman is still an honest, sane person, but for the most part, the.
Rest of them in social media are just saying, we'll do whatever you want.
Want to the current regime. So in a sense, we are no different whatsoever than China. So if the idea of a government censor chilling you, banning you because you said something negative or pessimistic, if that bothers you about what's happening in China, guess what? It might be coming here to the United States as well. There is perhaps time to change it, but not much. All mark your calendars. You've got about a year, if that.
Until the next election.
And if there's not some break put on this authoritarian regime disintegrating our constitution on a daily basis after that, I think it's going to make what China does look like child's play, absolute child's play.
