Posted on 01/20/2022 3:30:51 AM PST by Kaslin
It was the statement that caused all the pearls to be clutched – when Chamath Palihapitiya, part owner of the Golden State Warriors, said he didn’t really care about the genocide the Chinese communists are committing against its Uyghur Muslim population. The Pavlovian virtue signaling reflex kicked in, from almost everyone, about how outrageous such a statement was. Then everyone who made it went right back to not giving a damn about the Uyghurs, just without saying it.
First, what did Palihapitiya say? “Nobody cares about what’s happening to the Uyghurs, okay. You bring it up because you care and I think it’s nice that you care. The rest of us don’t care. I’m just telling you a very hard, ugly truth. Of all the things that I care about, yes, it is below my line.” He said it on a podcast while having a discussion with some left-wing guy who kept citing Eleanor Roosevelt.
I don’t even care enough to look into whether or not he was a guest on the podcast or one of the hosts, it doesn’t matter. What he said was true for him and, with very rare exception, everyone else too.
Think about it, and be honest with yourself – have you changed anything about your life, in any way, because of what the evil Chinese communists are doing to the Uyghurs? Not because they started the pandemic and lied about it, or just because they’re evil communists who oppress their people and threaten the world, but specifically for their treatment of the Uyghurs. I’m betting it’s nothing.
I’ll be honest, in my life I’ve done nothing. I’ve tweeted about it a few times, at least I think I have, but in terms of using it as a weapon against some leftist or an account tied to the commie government. Otherwise, I haven’t done anything. I don’t buy Nike products anyway, and I’m not going to stop buying Apple products. I don’t know what else I buy that comes from China, probably some, but I’m not buying new TVs or whatever, so there’s not a lot I could do. Still, I probably wouldn’t.
It has nothing to do with who is being oppressed, what they look like, or their religion, it’s geography, mostly. I don’t support genocide and despise communists, but what am I supposed to do – spend my life being miserable because someone else is suffering? There is always someone else suffering, through luck of birth we were born in the greatest country in the world; most people born aren’t as lucky, I get that. But if people’s happiness were dependent upon the good behavior of the species, we’d all be miserable constantly.
Still, that simple fact hasn’t stopped the virtue signaling brigade from coming out in full-force. Why? When was the last time the NBA spoke out against any of China's oppression? Hell, aside from Enes Canter Freedom, is there another person associated with the NBA who’d say anything critical of China?
Lord knows there’s enough – the threatening of Taiwan, the suppression of Hong Kong, the pandemic and disappearing the scientists who pointed out the government’s culpability. There is no more evil government on the planet. But what are we supposed to do about it?
Our leaders sold out this country long ago. China was given most favored nation trading status, they were welcomed into the World Trade Organization. You name the mistake when it comes to containing communism and the free world made it, in spades. Should we really be shocked when totalitarian jackasses act like totalitarian jackasses? Or when communists go after religious groups? Progressives in this country would love nothing more than replacing religion with government, China is just a few small steps ahead of them.
China is dining out on the world’s indifference. But I don’t mean indifference in a negative way, per se. You can’t care about everything, or even most things, you never really see with your own eyes or are not directly impacted by. The genocide against the Uyghurs is horrible, but it hasn’t made a difference in your life in any way. It’s not cold to admit that, it’s just true.
As everyone, including Palihapitiya, scrambles to distance themselves from what he said, it’d be better to be honest. What China is doing is horrible, but it hasn’t impacted your life at all. If you cared, you’d sell Nike stock, not buy their products, and actively try to discourage others from buying it. Not because they use Uyghur labor, but because at the very least, they likely use forced labor.
But you don’t, nor should you unless you are actually compelled to by your conscience. It doesn’t make you a bad person. When tragedy befalls the American people, do you really think the rest of the world is losing sleep over it? No. They might feel bad, but then they move on. It’s human nature.
So you aren’t a bad person for not being consumed by the Uyghur genocide, but you kind of are if you pretend to be and do nothing about it beyond demanding the world acknowledge you care.
This sounds like a Jim Crow Democrat in the 1950’s.
I care about the Uyghurs if for the only reason that if the world allows a people group to be treated like this, the oppression will grow and eventually it will be me in one of those concentration camps as I am not in the favored group.
If we make distinctions about how it is bad if x people are oppressed but it does not matter or it is even okay if z people are being oppressed, because after all, z people aren’t really our kind of people, then how does that make us different from the hypocritical left?
That does not mean we should go to war at the drop of a hat and spend years in futile “nation building.” But if we can’t call good, good and we can’t call evil, evil, then aren’t we about the same as the insane, hypocritical left?
I heard what was originally said and was shocked that anyone would say that, but reading this article makes it clear, that I don't really give a fat rat's ass.
Yeah, I say it is wrong, but that is all I have ever done about it.
The question is, what can any individual do {and I don't mean donating to some NGO, like 'Feed the ...'}.
Paging all Muslims.
Speak for yourself. Derek Hunter simply doesn't get it.
i care. first the Uyghurs - then your group. look how the D’s want to put unvaxxed in re-education camps - the same Communist/Fascist tendencies. beware.
They’re moslems.
This is the absolute first thing this person has ever authored that I found the least bit entertaining.
We’re supposed to care when Muslims are oppressed, but not notice all the places where Muslims oppress Christians.
My attitude is let the Muslims bother the Chinese about the Uyghurs. Let them spend some jihad energy against the Chinese.
They won’t, because they know the Chinese would exterminate the Muslims if they feel truly threatened.
Yes, I don’t sympathize with the Muslim Uyghurs - primarily because we are fighting our own totalitarianism here.
Didn’t take long for the world to show that everyone tainted by Communism doesn’t care.
Be Honest, You Don’t Really Care About the Uyghurs Either
In the final analysis, we only care about our families and those we love. If you start carrying the burden of all the suffering of mankind, you would lose your mind. As civilized people, we should have some regard for people we don’t know, but the trick is to not let that concern manipulate you, or let others use it to manipulate you. And you can spend your whole life pondering where to draw the line. This earth has soaked up more blood than you will ever know, and we must get on with the business of living.
More countries enforcing the US and Europe example banning forced labor cotton (no shipments to third countries for clothing manufacturing etc) may help. But the geopolitics are muddy. Even Kazakhstan which has the largest Uyghur diaspora outside China has sadly become too economically and politically dependent on China to care.
Not holding the Olympics in China would be a good place to start.
I think a lot of people may underestimate the amount of antisemitism there was in the world 100 or so years ago. Hitler was oppressing the Jews? [shrug] Oh, who cares about the Jews?
Well, when the dust settled after WWII and people actually saw that Hitler had deliberately killed 6 million Jews, people sat back and said, “Wow. That dude went too far. That was uncool.” And I think that was a defining moment of the 20th century when people started thinking, “Prejudice is not good. I ought to care about people even if they aren’t quite like me.”
To see an article like this that openly says “I don’t care about the Uyghurs” is a little depressing. I think we may have lost something that we had previously gained.
The USA tried to care about the horror story of what the Taliban was doing in Afghanistan and how did that turn out?! Commies in Vietnam?! Saddam in the Middle East? What about Tibet?! History showed us that our efforts amounted to less than nothing. Neutron bombs would be nice to reduce the Earths population by about 90%. Yet, what if some other nation used one of those against us?! Heck, the USA does not know how to bother with commie Cuba. And what about all those drug dealers in Mexico? Moslems in China? Whatever…
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