Observations 5/24

Hey, 1K! Wonder if I should do a retrospective.

Oh-hoh, 你们豺狼说什么? My, you lot have learned about as much as 桃头 and red banner hill have, haven't you?

As glad as I am to see news of this going up, I fully expect vandalism from those who oppose what it represents.

Ran into an article on cultural misconceptions fueling conflict (more recently than this article, but I'll address the second piece in a bit), which brought to mind what I've noticed over the course of several years:

- a movie with rebellious women in what I considered a society more patriarchal than it wants to seem now (and in which the term "bandit" in the English subtitles just might be a translation of "毛子," which I consider might be a historically accurate way for silk and other such products to make their way West. Even nowadays, how many people have bought or sought to buy items of dubious origin? And 'seem' is more accurate than 'be' here) Noting: 不错, 没错.

- a movie where the traditional ideal of a family structure is turned on its head to the detriment of a kingdom (along with the main players'... ambition? lust? vengefulness? the one thing these high-flying idiots actually agreed on, that they could have settled had they scrapped the internecine politicking sooner?)

- the pride of a nation (你们说的话) discarded once her recollections of her experiences were deemed unpatriotic

- the use of another country's film clips in one's own propaganda

- the use of TV series to promote an idea that's been put forward before (and how did it turn out that time, humans?). Looking for the specific episode with the map and the female lead praying for soldiers, which is in a series that turns out to be from a novel, I just found; though I should note that, considering the changes from books to screenplays even around here, I wonder if 你们写的字 also reflects 你们说的话 as shown in the series

- the comparison from 你们的国人 of oversimplified, cliché storylines (still looking for that article, the one with the street used as a social media backdrop that only looks like 纽约)

A couple of movies, a bit of serendipitous binge-watching, and some doomscrolling makes for an admittedly slim slice of awareness of this culture, but I'd like to think even this slice is pretty damn telling. Speaking of telling, here's the bit - “Projecting capacity of influence across the world serves as an instrumental means of eliminating otherwise viable challengers who can thwart the country’s quest for more resources, political control, and military security.” Claiming misconceptions of the legitimate and benign uses for artificial islands and farmland sounds very familiar indeed, so I ask you as well - wanna rephrase?

Adding this to ask - "economic coercion“ of who now? Either 怒吏僭 is clumsily trying to turn an accusation made recently against 她的国家的豺狼政权 back against those who made it, or 怒吏僭 is unintentionally admitting that 她的豺狼政权's economy is no longer as robust as it wants to portray itself to be. (More quiet part out loud-ish?)

Adding this to address three more mass mailers, one of which has as much right to claim the first two in the list as it does to claim me. Make that four, and adding this for the quote: “I only pick reporters who we know will paint the narrative the way we want.” Or how about the snippet at 0:07? Or how about some longer snippets, the first of which provides some fascinating insight into how that office handles its audio processing accommodations? Captioner - "doesn't," "loath." Summer child, bless your heart - she's not quoting you, she's recording you. I almost feel sorry for you. Babysitter.