• jet@hackertalks.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    52
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    9 months ago

    It’s not about censoring language. Or symbols. They are trying to censor ideas. Humans are adaptable.

    If you censor the word fuck, then people will start using substitutions, f this f that, and if you censor the substitution, another substitution will pop up

    • Chainweasel@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      9 months ago

      It’s called the “euphemism treadmill”. It’s why words like “stupid” and “idiot” aren’t offensive anymore, they were replaced by “retarded” which is slowly coming back because people are starting to use “autistic” in it’s place as an offensive term. Eventually that will also be replaced and “autistic” will be censored.

      • isles@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        9 months ago

        people are starting to use “autistic” in it’s place as an offensive term.

        I must have run in toxic crowds, because “autism” as a derogatory slur was in vogue circa 2005. I never used it, but I had to dismantle a lot of ableism to accept my own diagnosis.

      • ThatWeirdGuy1001@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        9 months ago

        As someone who grew up being called retarded because I was autistic it actually really pisses me off how people get their panties all twisted over the word retard.

        I know my experiences aren’t universal but I’ve learned the best way to deal with shit like this is acceptance. “Haha you’re retarded!” “Correct.” “W-wait what…?”

  • gnutrino@programming.dev
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    24
    ·
    9 months ago

    “The US government, please help Chinese stock investors,” said another, per CNN on Monday.

    That’s certainly an… ambitious request. I’m sure the US government will get right on that.

  • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    20
    ·
    9 months ago

    Plain old giraffes haven’t been outright banned from Weibo

    Flamboyant young ones, on the other hand…

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    9 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    Investors flooded the giraffe post last weekend with comments complaining about China’s slumping stock market, as Bloomberg, CNN, and Reuters reported.

    China’s blue-chip index, the CSI 300, has been tumbling amid weakening confidence in consumer spending after the country endured a yearslong COVID siege.

    Its stock market has lost more than $6 trillion in value since 2021 and continues to slip, despite Beijing intervening nearly a dozen times in January to stall the decline.

    Irate commenters were copy-pasting the headline of a state media article, published on the same day as the giraffe post, that said the “entire country is filled with optimism.”

    Ensuing efforts to censor these references often creates a mental cat-and-mouse that can lead to absurdities like protests with blank sheets of paper or the words “him” and “that man” being banned.

    Plain old giraffes haven’t been outright banned from Weibo, though some giraffe-related hashtags, like #TheGiraffeIncident, have been blocked, censorship tracking site China Digital Times first reported.


    The original article contains 538 words, the summary contains 161 words. Saved 70%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!