@owenjonesjourno The first part is very dubious. I think that if you say "I support Israel’s onslaught against Gaza”, there can be repercussions for your career.
@struggleberries@michaelturton@donaldcclarke That's true. But then again, calling the Taiwanese Chinese is a lot less ridiculous than calling Nigerians British, even though I think Taiwanese should be allowed to decide themselves whether they are Chinese or not.
@struggleberries@michaelturton@donaldcclarke In Nigeria people still subconsciously favour politicians who speak proper English. Does this mean it's still a British colony? This stuff happened everywhere.
@struggleberries@michaelturton@donaldcclarke Well yeah, and according to this standard every post-colonial society is still under a colonial regime. Democratic elections and self-rule will never undo everything in one go. It's fine to look at the legacy of the KMT's regime, but don't talk like Taiwan is still under it!
@struggleberries@michaelturton@donaldcclarke China can't change its constitution because of the threat of war from China. And so? What does that have to do with it still being under colonial rule? It clearly isn't. It has a democratically elected government of the Taiwanese, regardless of whether it calls itself the ROC.
@struggleberries@michaelturton@donaldcclarke I'm pretty sure the Taiwanese weren't able to vote for the Japanese who were actually running their island. There are elections in China too, does that make China as democratic as Taiwan? Taiwan today is a genuine democracy with meaningful elections.
@struggleberries@michaelturton@donaldcclarke 1) they still don't hold power. 2) they hold those seats because Taiwanese voted for them. How on earth is that a "colonial regime"? Be serious.
@kana_suki_cs It's not true they all do, but Jakarta's middle and upper classes do tend to speak it extremely fluently, in a way that you don't find in Bangkok or Hanoi for instance.
@D162Michele Every single building in the centre of the Italian village I grew up in is older than the US. In China it's actually quite rare to find anything that old. Across the Mediterranean it's completely normal.
@WarrenVsCCP This is simplistic. There are ordinary Chinese who access Twitter through a VPN. Some of them have then got into trouble for posting anti-government content. Don't paint every Chinese with the same brush.
@TheKiranHill@polanskydj@daveweigel Pretty sure the "moral consequences" of letting Israel be overrun by Syrian and Egyptian tanks, and a few million Jews killed or displaced, would have been far more severe.