Current reading, for a glimpse at our future/ present 
Author seems to regard Xi as the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao
China’s social credit system, in which the hope is the populace “will censor and sanction themselves at every turn”
The author is scathing about populisms rise and populists navel gazing in the face of China power, which seems strange since populism was a reaction to the system which transferred a massive amount of wealth to China via intl trade
In relation to a social credit scoring I’m interested to see the extent to which the author acknowledges a variety of this already (coincidentally) exists in the west
Propaganda which is crude and absurd triumphs by simply being everywhere
Chinese approach to govt alongside the same thing from the Tao te ching
The real point of propaganda is not to convince but to remind people - “we can cover the walls with this stuff- can you?”
In China “indoctrination starts with the rhymes in the nursery”
This writer keeps talking about the horror of China’s crude yet omnipresent propaganda and the inability of populism to counter it- without realising that “populists” for all their failings are the only existing opposition to the equivalent type of propaganda in the west
Movies; “ the American dream and western individualism (are) simply not seductive to Chinese audiences”
How China got its blue checks under control. Our social media elites in the west are clearly superior- no one needs to tell them to fall in line, that’s their default position. #proud
I mean at this point you have to ask, who is innovating and who is imitating- China or the west
“To look at humans with the eyes of a pig”
As in the west, Chinese have found that learning A.I. reproduces the politically inconvenient opinions of the people it interacts with
Public apology of a tech magnate: the western equivalent would be aJeff Bezos type pledging to Do The Work of social justice in response to some scandal
China has difficulty gathering useful info because the censorship arm kicks in too quickly. “The security apparatus often stymies itself”
“Censorship works...As long as social controls and intimidation go hand in hand with material rewards and people are encouraged into consumerism”
“Consumerism is a pleasure the CCP not only permits but encourages without restraint... consumption is a sedative”
The Chinese version of Wikipedia has no entry for 1989
AIDS villages. Grim
“The party is so good at censorship it sometimes trips itself up” (4June is a reference to Tiananmen Square)
Document no 9 would go down a storm on right wing twitter
“April fools jokes are incompatible with socialism”
Just realised book has no index
Renewed interest in Confucius is spurred by a desire to “inject stability and order into a directionless Chinese society”
Fear the radicalised Chinese Karens
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