LastWeekTonight
3 HN recommenders · recommended in 4 months, 2020–2025
20:52 · 10M views · Jul 27, 2020
John Oliver's Last Week Tonight segment on the Chinese government's treatment of the Uighur people, covering the human rights abuses in Xinjiang and why they deserve attention.
HN points to it as an accessible, well-made mix of education and entertainment for anyone wanting to understand the Xinjiang situation.
6 comments from Hacker News
John Oliver did an excellent piece on the situation of the uighur last week you can watch it here: this video I have to say he has really developed his show into an excellent mix of education and entertainment. I used to not like him very much (didn't like his type of humor), but I learn something every time I watch one of his shows, even if it covers a topic I'm already quite familiar with.
I see. That question makes sense. I don't hate China. I'm very glad we have a competing model of governance, and I'd like to see a diverse range of governments in the world. China is experimenting with a very different model, and for all the faults with that model, I'm grateful for that. If the goal is to understand the anger and hatred, a good place to start is the persecution of the Uyghurs. That one is pretty over-the-top evil, and you can learn more here: this video There are many other such things happening. In general, hate is based on cherrypicking the bad things about "them" and the good things about "us." That's as true across political lines, as across countries, as across some religious divides. To your original question: "What makes the Chinese government evil in a way that the US Government is not," the US government does NOT do things like this. It does a completely different set of evil things, and a completely different set of good things. Part of the reason cherrypicking works is there is no equivalence between e.g. Muslims in Gitmo and cultural oppression in Tibet. They're different. The Chinese government is evil in a way the US government is not, good in a way the US government is not (and vice-versa). Which is worse depends on your set of values, and consequently, it's very easy to make one side seem like pure evil and the other side to seem like pure good. All that said, I do think TikTok (and a lot of other social media) has about the same level of negativ
In case anyone's not aware of what's happening in Xinjiang, this is a great Last Week Tonight episode about it: this video
Well AT&T and Warner/Discovery own the show, so one significant difference is it's a joke about just their company that they can determine if they're okay with or not, and don't have to worry about losing anything due to external third party retaliation. Whereas with a topic about China, that's a whole government that has a history of not being able to take a joke, and will likely retaliate and cost Apple a significant amount of money. Not saying it's good or right, though. John Oliver also had a whole show about China and their treatment of Uighurs, though, so that seems to be a more direct comparison. That aired back in 2020 and his show hasn't been cancelled yet. this video
John Oliver recently made a episode on the subject (China & Uighurs: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)) this video The Communist Party of China (CPC) are running sinicization and antireligious campaigns of ethnic and religious minorities. The totalitarian and authoritarian countries don't make good neighbors. China will be making inroads into Taiwan soon if the world does not act.