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The Big [Censored] Theory

(pudding.cool)
1444 points feross | 4 comments | 29 Aug 22 17:34 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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joe_the_user ◴[29 Aug 22 19:56 UTC] No.32642764[source]▶
It's worth noting that American censorship in, say, 1960, was at close to the same level.

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_censorship_in_the_United_...

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pnemonic ◴[29 Aug 22 20:04 UTC] No.32642876[source]▶
Is it just as worth noting then that China is more than 60 years behind the US in terms of social progress?
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1. planb ◴[29 Aug 22 20:14 UTC] No.32642977[source]▶
“Behind” implies that they’re following and moving in the same direction. Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s the case.
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2. vkou ◴[29 Aug 22 20:51 UTC] No.32643394[source]▶
No, behind implies that they are currently in the opposite direction of the current direction of western cultural movement. If the direction of our movement changes, they will, without lifting a finger, become ahead of us.

Social progress is inherently subjective (because progress in one value system is actually a regression in a different value system), and the observer always grounds their claim of 'behind' or 'ahead' in their culture's viewpoint.

3. pessimizer ◴[29 Aug 22 20:58 UTC] No.32643470[source]▶
The incarceration rate of the US in 1960 was about 225/100K, and in China it's currently around 120/100K, so China is doing a little better than we were 60 years ago.

Of course our incarceration rate now has nearly tripled to 640/100K, so thank God they're not following us.

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4. fortuna86 ◴[31 Aug 22 12:27 UTC] No.32661216[source]▶
Are you including the camps in XJ in that metric ?