Scary depends on perspective.
In China, the government is mostly seen as a concerned parent, leaving you alone for the most part, but keeping an eye on you to make sure you're doing OK.
This is totally misunderstood by the west.
Discussion
Partly true. Courts & criminal justice systems specifically are very different.
USA is still the best in the world even with all its faults. We still have rights. Not so much for the rest of the world.
Step out of line in other countries & see how that works out for you.
You're right Sats.
Team USA ๐
I think the US has the highest incarceration rate. In other countries people are more live and let live.
All countries have great stuff and bad stuff.
You can either focus on the good or the bad, but dismissing any country because of the bad is a mistake.
Speaking with natives who lived through the lockdowns in Shanghai, they didn't describe it as a concerned parent. More an organisation that imprisoned them and nearly starved them to death. Otherwise I agree with your take, you are mostly left alone.
Natives ๐
There is such a thing as observer bias.
There are Americans who hate America, there are Brits that hate Britain, there is an entire culturally range within any culture.
As an outsider you can never understand a system.
I am less of an outsider, but I am still one.
The great thing about the Internet and platforms like rednote is you get to hear people from the inside, all of them, across the whole spectrum.
Listen to the people you don't have affinity with or would not normally talk to, get a real sense of a place.
That would be my suggestion.
Just to give some insights:
There are over 300 living languages in China and 56 officially recognised cultures.
Concerned parent was the vibe I used to get off my dad when they called time at the pub.
Chiefly concerned theyโd be no more booze. Not sure I really figured in the equation tbh.
Is that what Chinaโs like?!
Are you asking if China is like a drunken cohort at pub closing time?
No, not really ๐
Well in Shanghai they didn't allow people to leave their homes, not even for food. After a week when people were starving to death, they brought rotten old potatoes and tomatoes.
It wasnt like in many other countries where people called takeaway every night and made tiktok videos.
While different culture, I was allowed to sit at the back of the pub with a packet of crisps and a coke.
Although they also had regular lock ins.