this post was submitted on 14 Dec 2024
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I was responding, originally, to this statement:
I asked because I didn't know of anything that backs up either of those claims. I still haven't seen anything that does.
In non-authoritarian contexts, it's actually pretty normal to ask "Why are you saying this, what is the evidence," instead of just accepting a browbeating message as, in itself, proof of what's being claimed. And usually, if someone's asked for proof and then their proof doesn't match the thing claimed when you examine it, or they're hostile to the idea of needing to provide proof in the first place because that's "sealioning" or whatever, that's a huge red flag. Likewise it is a red flag if someone makes a claim, and then when asked for evidence they pivot instead into a whole bunch of new claims.
It doesn't look like you or the other speaker are interested in backing up this stuff. I don't want to play the Gish Gallop game of indefinitely checking out all these new claims. I really did read the report. I don't know all that much about Xinjiang, so it was informative for me to see it, so thank you. I didn't see a strong indication, one way or another, that what's happening either is or isn't a genocide. It's definitely not on the same scale as Gaza or Nazi Germany, but it still does sound to me like they're aiming to eradicate the culture of these people and replace it Chinese culture, alongside a lot of other human rights abuses. The forced sterilization and wide-scale destruction of mosques, in particular, sounds exactly like eradication.
Okay, so you're not sure whether the report you sent me was accurate. You're just interested in using it to back up something that it doesn't actually back up, but at the same time throwing shade at any part of it that says something you don't want to hear.
That fact that it doesn't use the word "genocide" is not, to me, a specific finding that there is not a genocide. They seem like they're just focused on what the facts of the matter are, instead of the question of whether it fits into some specific value judgement or not.
I'm done here. I was just curious, that's all. Have a good day.
The UN report you asked for and that I kindly, without thanks, provided, does so, as I have explained.
What on earth are you talking about
Cool well I am not the person who originally said anything about this and you have been provided with evidence that you are now more or less ignoring and dismissing out of hand.
It does match the claim, you are just not engaging in good faith with what was presented. You have literally not responded at all to my contextualization and are now grandstanding instead. Is that a red flag? And again, I am not the original person you were talking to. Not only have I not been hostile to "providing proof", I went out of my way to provide what was being referenced.
At no point have I pivoted. I have provided you with context you help you understand something that is clearly new to you, however.
I provided the document, explained its relevance, and provided context you help you understand where the genocide narrative is coming from and how unserious it is. I also offered some possible context for what OP was referring to by people getting rich.
You are now avoiding responding to what I said. If you cannot critically engage with this topic, you do not need to take it out on me with these silly accusations.
There is no Gish Gallop, this is just a topic you don't know anything about and I have provided you with several facts. This is not a debate.
It is not the destruction of a people in whole or in part as described by the UN definition, which is obvious by simply comparing it to the report. There are not mass graves, there is no forced migration, children are not stolen, there is no substantial diaspora. There is nothing to the narrative. The onus of proof is actually on those making these claims. I have described, in general terms, where they come from, who makes them. Can you tell me the names od the organization(s)? What were they doing before 2018 or so? Do you know why you are even entertaining this possibility in the first place? Where is your evidence? The UN OHCHR didn't claim genocide.
Xinjiang is Chinese. China is a multi-ethnic state. Uyghurs in China are not more or less Chinese than any other citizen in China and it would actually be racist to say otherwise.
The OHCHR report also does not claim that China is trying to eradicate their culture. Where do you get that idea from?
It is important to critically interrogate this claim. What did the OHCHR report provide as evidence? What are they specifically referring to as sterilization?
This did not happen and the OHCHR repory does not make this claim. Take note of the limited examples provided and follow the rabbit hole of sourcing. It will be revealing.
That is why the accusers use language like "forced sterilization" to describe the insertion of IUDs and play with implications based on tortured per capita statistics that are far less scary than presented. If you don't investigate, all you walk away with is the bad words and no sense of scale or impact.
You are confused. I have merely supplied you with what you asked for. Don't ascribe things to me that I haven't said.
You can of course use your brain to compare what is claimed to what genocide is. I have already explained this.
On the contrary, this report was created at the behest of those accusing China of genocide and this is what they were then provided with.
Your responses are combative, not curious. They are about doubting and fighting, often against things I have not said, and you are not asking questions and then accepting or building on the answers. This is despite you admittingly knowing little about this topic, whereas I clearly feel comfortable speaking about it purely rrom memory because I have actually done the work, done the curious thing.
You can do that, too, but it looks like you will need to stop treating this like some kind of debate to the death first.
I asked, "Can you link me to the UN report where they found there was no genocide, and the so-called victims were millionaires?" You sent me a report. It doesn't say there was no genocide, and it doesn't say the so-called victims were millionaires. I realize you're saying that a reasonable person can read the report and conclude that obviously there is no genocide at all, but I don't completely agree with that. I'm allowed to not agree with you. That's not "fighting."
I'm really not trying to be hard to talk to or get you riled up. What you describe as "fighting" or refusing to absorb the information you are providing, I view as just healthy skepticism. If you run way, way ahead of your sources by painting a huge picture, you are completely correct that I'm going to refuse to become passive and let you educate me and believe everything you say. I'm going to take a step back and say, "Well, okay, I get what you're saying, but what is your backing?" I can do that even if I'm not that familiar with the topic. The fact that you're so upset that I'm not just believing everything you say is weird to me.
A few detail points:
This is not accurate. Forced sterilizations, forced insertion of IUDs, and forced abortions are measured as separate things, although they're sometimes talked about as the related issues that they are. It's in section 108 which I already quoted.
Why are you so skeptical, now, of the source that you provided? It's either trustworthy, when it says that women are being sterilized against their will, or it isn't. I generally trust the UN, and it seems well-sourced, and you were the one that provided it in the first place, so I see no reason to assume that "sterilization" means something other than sterilization.
Yes it does. It's in sections 85 and 86. I picked one of the rabbit-holes of sourcing, and found https://uhrp.org/report/demolishing-faith-the-destruction-and-desecration-of-uyghur-mosques-and-shrines/, which said "The Chinese government’s current crackdown in the Uyghur region is aimed at eliminating Uyghur ethnocultural identity and assimilating them into an undifferentiated “Chinese” identity. As one of the cornerstones of their identity, Uyghurs’ Islamic faith has been a major target of this campaign, resulting in many Uyghurs being sent to the network of concentration camps. This campaign has also taken the form of eradicating tangible signs of the region’s Islamic identity from the physical landscape. This has involved the whole or partial demolition of an unprecedented number of mosques, including several historically significant buildings."
The UN definition of genocide is "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:"
I already said this: I'm not convinced either way. I read parts of the report, and took it seriously. It talks about forced sterilization and family separation, deaths in custody and executions, and other things that very clearly meet the numbered criteria. But is that being committed with intent to destroy the group as such? I don't really know. But I don't think that the UN putting together a report which describes it, but stops short of calling it genocide, means that it's conclusively proven that it is not genocide.
I'm losing my patience with this conversation, to be honest. It seems like your model is that you say things and I accept them, and I'm "fighting" if I don't. My model is going to be that I'm going to compare the things you say with things I can source, and see if the claims change or if the backing is solid, and then if after a couple rounds of that it seems like you're well in accordance with things outside of you that I can find, then okay, I become more trusting. If you're going to get offended by that, I think you're going to keep being offended by the conversation, and I think maybe this isn't going to be productive.
You're really demonstrating why it's easier to just remove comments like yours rather than try to disprove them when you're just going play Calvin Ball and argue in bad faith
“Another writer again agreed with all my generalities, but said that as an inveterate skeptic I have closed my mind to the truth. Most notably I have ignored the evidence for an Earth that is six thousand years old. Well, I haven’t ignored it; I considered the purported evidence and then rejected it. There is a difference, and this is a difference, we might say, between prejudice and postjudice. Prejudice is making a judgment before you have looked at the facts. Postjudice is making a judgment afterwards. Prejudice is terrible, in the sense that you commit injustices and you make serious mistakes. Postjudice is not terrible. You can’t be perfect of course; you may make mistakes also. But it is permissible to make a judgment after you have examined the evidence. In some circles it is even encouraged.”
—Carl Sagan, The Burden of Skepticism
Case in point
When I said:
And explained in some detail how I interpreted the report, I got in response:
In the world I inhabit, people are allowed to make up their own minds about things. I explained how I took the report, and this person told me I took it wrong, and “explained” how was the correct way to take it, and demanded that I prove that there was a genocide going on, when I’d already said that after read the report I wasn’t really sure whether there was or not.
I’ve spent some time talking about this at this point, but ultimately, I am not interested in that type of interaction. I think enough words have been spent on this at this point. Have a good one.
You were, and are, being deliberately disingenuous.