Thread by @caitoz

In the last few weeks I've seen three videos that idiot Chinagaters have been widely spamming around purporting to show atrocities against Uighurs in Xinjiang, which don't actually show that. People just assume the video shows what they're told it shows.

https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/1291463623101956096?s=20

The video above, for example, is deeply emotionally disturbing. But it's old, and it's from Myanmar.

https://twitter.com/CarlZha/status/1185352800575737856

Here's another one. Disturbing right? When this one first started circulating I had a bunch of China haters @-ing me telling me the footage proves I must repudiate my skepticism of establishment narratives about what's happening in Xinjiang.

https://twitter.com/MaajidNawaz/status/1284585213650186240

Except it's not from Xinjiang, and those aren't Uighurs.

https://twitter.com/Garou_Hidalgo/status/1285994495239245831?s=20

Then there was this one. God that looks awful. Leave that poor Uighur alone you evil Han supremacist!

https://twitter.com/auighur/status/1272360467479085056?s=20

Except it's video footage from a BDSM sex club in Taiwan.
tfc-taiwan.org.tw/articles/379

None of this proves that Uighurs aren't being mistreated in Xinjiang. What it proves is that there's a lot of disinfo about what's happening in Xinjiang, and that there's a very large market of propagandized dupes who are eager to swallow that disinfo with zero gag reflex.

Western power structures have a very extensive and extremely well-documented history of lying about just this sort of thing, so there's no excuse for credulously believing what you're told about any US-targeted government absent mountains of hard proof.

Refusing to believe western narratives put out against US-targeted governments doesn't mean you automatically believe the opposite of those narratives, it just means you remain agnostic until presented with proof that rises to the level required in a post-Iraq invasion world.

There's a lot of geostrategic ambition riding on Xinjiang, since it plays a pivotal role in China's Belt and Road initiative. Which of course means the west has a vested interest in disrupting China's goals in that region, since US hegemony depends on keeping other nations down.

The above videos are a good illustration of the power of narrative. People believe they're seeing undeniable video footage of an atrocity being perpetrated by a specific government, solely because the bit of text over the video told them that's what they're seeing.

The only sane response to a situation that is swamped with propaganda & disinfo is to hold tight to skepticism and agnosticism until presented with hard proof. Get comfortable with not knowing, and don't forget that the power structures presenting you with info have lied to you.

You will never, ever hate China enough to bring manufacturing jobs back to the US. Playing along with bullshit narrative spin hoping it will bring your jobs back will never work. You're just helping opaque government agencies advance their new cold war.

https://twitter.com/DarthWinston/status/1292252176052637698?s=20

https://twitter.com/caitoz/status/1292291510851915777?s=20