China Punishes ‘Excessively Pessimistic’ Social Media Users

China Punishes ‘Excessively Pessimistic’ Social Media Users

The authorities have punished two bloggers who advocated for a life of less work and less pressure; an influencer who said that it made financial sense not to marry and have children; and a commentator known for bluntly observing that China still lags behind Western countries in terms of quality of life.

China doesn’t just censor, they punish. 

Free speech on social media is important, particularly hate speech, with two caveats. It’s better to know who the haters are, so it should not be anonymous. Also, it should be able to be blocked or filtered if you don’t want it. 

Beijing is concerned that such pessimism doesn’t just discourage citizens from being productive members of society. It could turn into criticism of the ruling Communist Party.

I have been critical of NPR because it has become so partisan, but maybe it would be interesting to establish NPR as explicitly partisan.  NPR could be like a social media account for the administration.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is clear that they want to encourage their citizens to work hard, get married and have children.  Americans, as much as we care to, have to guess how the administration wants us to conduct our affairs.  What if they could just tell us on NPR?

The NPR CEO could be a presidential appointment.  It would be fun if the president’s spouse traditionally took that role and had a small staff.  The new NPR would need guidelines, like there would be no original content.  News reports could only come from identifiable organizations.  Broadcast time would be filled by licensing programs.

It’s interesting to think of what the programming would be like for different presidents.

Ronald Reagan might have a bunch of old radio Westerns, Billy Graham Sunday Worship and news from the John Birch Society.

Barack Obama might have urban voices like Ta-Nehisi Coates, and his favorite music.

Donald Trump likes social media, but what would he think we need?  Investment podcasts, Fox News, and the Village People.

It’s not clear what George Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. or Joe Biden would program.

A presidential administration bumps the needle on our culture, but it’s through second or third-order effects from programs that are funded and speeches given.  It would be an interesting experiment if public radio was openly programmed by the administration.  We’d get an idea what they really want us to know and do.