this post was submitted on 25 Apr 2026
252 points (73.0% liked)

Memes

55611 readers
1452 users here now

Rules:

  1. Be civil and nice.
  2. Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.

founded 7 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] orc_princess@lemmy.ml 21 points 3 days ago (2 children)

They also don't do cultural genocide, look at videos of random tourists visiting Xinjiang and you'll see some locals speaking Uyghur, you'll see mosques, museums, traditional Uyghur food, etc. The previous repression was meant to curve terrorism, it seems to have worked, and things have relaxed afterwards. I don't see how any of this fits the picture of colonialism.

[–] Star@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Well it certainly doesn't fit the picture I was described! I was told Uyghers were being killed in some cases, and rehoused en masse in others.

If what you're saying is right, and the Uygher culture is allowed to continue unharried outside of radical minorities then I would agree that doesn't really compare to the horrors of colonization!

Is it actually illegal to be queer there too? Or is that also exaggerated?

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 18 points 3 days ago

It isn't illegal to be queer, but gay marriage isn't really legal either. It's an upbill battle ironically held back by the fact that the PRC is a democratic country, and the older generations are still more socially conservative. As time goes on it has been getting better.

[–] RiverRock@lemmy.ml 17 points 3 days ago

God damn, you actually checked it out. I'm genuinely not used to that level of intellectual honesty on the internet

[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml 7 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

In addition to the older generations thinking queerness is yucky, there's also the problem of the West using our rights as a bludgeon to justify sanctions and wars. I've seen Westerners try to justify the genocide in Gaza because "they'd throw you off a roof for being queer!" As if Israel isn't actively blackmailing us into being informants by threatening to out us to our families.

This is all to say that anti-queer sentiment has become deeply rooted among the masses, themselves.

[–] Star@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 2 days ago

Ah, bummer. I'm aware of how it's used in identity politics, but I'd never considered how that use might foster distrust in an already culturally repressive populace. Sounds complicated, and I'm sure the aftereffects of imperialism haven't done anything to help the nations they left devastated feel positively about a trend they might identify as foreign in that way.