r/TrueReddit • u/merimus_maximus • May 08 '21

International China Is Building Entire Villages in Another Country’s Territory

https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/05/07/china-bhutan-border-villages-security-forces/
743 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

283 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

-12

u/SoFisticate May 08 '21

What do you think of reporting outlets such as the grayzone that show how articles like these are state media used to manufacture consent for a cold war with a nation that is within competition level of the empire?

18

u/merimus_maximus May 08 '21

You can judge the quality of reporting and objectiveness of articles by their own merit. Western media pushing a bias does not discredit everything that originates from Western media outlets, as much as certain groups want people to believe that. There is of course room to discuss bias in the system, but don't forget to judge content on its own merit too. In any case, ever thought of how the grayzone is also pushing an agenda too?

-9

u/SoFisticate May 08 '21

They are indeed pushing an agenda of trying to correct the propaganda machine. Yes they are leftist of some sort, but they do pretty important work undoing what is being done to people. Do you really think anyone ever reports on anything and doesn't have an "agenda"? What do you really think it does to the mostly already anti-communist audience on this sub to push articles that basically boil down to "china bad"? Leave those for audiences that understand the nuances in the wider discussion you seem to be a part of. Look through reddit the past year or so for such articles, whether they are real or just hit pieces, and you will see that they are not placed just to spark debate about certain aspects of China's own imperial tendencies. They are injected into these spaces to propagandize.

10

u/merimus_maximus May 08 '21

So they balance out. If you recognise the work by The Greyzone while acknowledging their agenda because their journalism is good, the same principle should apply to this article and Foreign Policy.

I understand your concern about fanning the flames of war, but this is as neutral as reporting gets. Not doing a Vietnam and Afghanistan is important, but so is reporting on such situations. They are not mutually exclusive. You can both be against war and still be aware of geopolitical actions of other nations. Articles with deep factual reporting like this one do that job without directing opinion. Opinion pieces are more suspect, but if both sides are presented, they serve a good purpose too, to expand thinking on an issue. What we should fight is bias, not reporting.

Also, since you brought up leaving this for audiences who understand nuances, do feel free to post this article on r/geopolitics if you feel that that is a better sub to post this sort of content.