Brickbat: You'll Never Hear One of Us Repeating Gossip

The Chinese government has reacted to online criticism of its handling of the coronavirus pandemic by implementing new Internet and social media rules aimed at promoting "positive"material and discouraging "negative" content. The rules define negative content broadly as "sensationalizing headlines," "excessive celebrity gossip," "sexual innuendo" and anything that can have a "negative impact."

Comments

[crufus]

On other posts, users wrote: “In the future there will be only good news, and no bad news.”

[CharlesWT]

Perhaps preparation for when the quarantines are relaxed and people realize how many of their friends and relatives are missing.

[Inigo Montoya]

Didn’t you hear? The number of new infections just stopped. There has also been not even a single additional death in weeks.

You can be assured their government is absolutely telling the truth, because they promised to never lie again after that being exposed by that now-dead whistleblower. They pinky-sweared not to lie anymore! That’s not good enough for you?

[Adans smith]

I guess they can go back to choking on smog and eating bats and dogs now. Move along, nothing to see here.

[sarcasmic]

Don't take your 1A for granted folks. This is the only country in the world that won't punish you for saying stuff.

[crufus]

Or a least the only country that is not supposed to punish you for saying stuff.

[sarcasmic]

In most of the world someone can call the cops on you for saying something they feel to be offensive. It's one of the reasons Americans are viewed as uncouth. We're not always thinking "I better be careful about what I say because I don't want to go to jail."

[Bubba Jones]

Lol. My experience has been different.

Was at a pub with Canadian work colleagues when the conversation got a bit racy.

One of them exclaimed “you can’t say that in front of him. He’s American!”

[Brandybuck]

When I was in Germany, all the Germans loves us Americans but couldn't stand Canadians. There was a small Canadian airbase down the road, and they got a reputation for being rude and boisterous. Imagine that, rude and boisterous Canadians.

Also, don't get racy with work colleagues. It will quite probably run afoul of sexual harassment policy. Not saying I agree with such policies, but they're probably still in place. And you can still get sued even if they aren't. Yeah, we're a LOT more sue-happy than the rest of the world.

[mad.casual]

One of them exclaimed “you can’t say that in front of him. He’s American!”

And then they both apologized.

[Think It Through]

Bubba, pretty sure that's a reference to PC culture, not free speech law.

[Jerryskids]

Yet.

[Brandybuck]

The only country where the government won't punish you for saying stuff. With very very exceptions (court gag orders, etc).

The society at large, however, is a different story. You are free to speak your mind, but I am ALSO free to yell at you for it. You may think you're being punished, but you're not. You are free to yell back. You don't have a right to someone else's soapbox, but you still have the right to speak your mind about it.

[JesseAz]

Daedelin in California disagrees. Only a dozen felonies for talking with PP reps on camera. Carter Page still is under threat from a judge for speaking out, gag order. Mann vs Steyn. I can point to gag orders as a standard in family courts.

1a isnt as strong here as many would hope.

[sarcasmic]

There are exceptions, but compared to the rest of the world we've got it pretty good.

[JesseAz]

Getting worse. Forgot to mention the california labor law that makes it illegal to disparage unions.

[sarcasmic]

And here I thought I was a contrarian asshole. You've got me beat.

[Brandybuck]

The law won't survive it's first encounter with a Federal court.

[AlbertP]

Link?

[GroundTruth]

Then I hope someone in California reads this: Unions suck!

[Matthew Becker]

You have the wrong name. It is Daleiden. Please get the name correct so that if someone wants to search for more information, they can.

[Longtobefree]

anything that can have a "negative impact." ?

So pretty much the whole damn wab,

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

Is that a Winnie the Pooh bear head, and does it represent Xi?

You magnificent devil, Oliver -- how on earth did you find such a picture?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Maybe the pandemic had the unexpected result of scaling back government intrusions on our liberties in the United States if we're doing brickbats from China.

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

Or maybe the opposite, like the old joke about the American who brags of speech so free that he can stand in front of the White House and yell that the President is corrupt, and the Russian says that he, too, can stand in front of his President's building ans how how corrupt the American President is.

[mad.casual]

Maybe the pandemic had the unexpected result of scaling back government intrusions on our liberties in the United States if we’re doing brickbats from China.

I won't hold my breath waiting for the realization that the Chinese government is pretty much just green lighting good faith moderation.

[rajinder]

It is because of the biggest lockdown now the gossip trends going to get down. However, women can still start gossip with online media. Funny though 😀