Xiaohongshu user shared a compilation of rumors circulating China about the US. : chapotraphouse

[–] Dirt_Owl@hexbear.net 98 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (4 children)

It's not an exaggeration that US propaganda is insanely powerful.

As someone who has never been to America, growing up the only thing I had to judge American life were sitcoms where the "average Joe" was depicted as having a gaint two story house and having a ton of expensive shit on a single income.

It wasn't until Malcolm in the Middle that a non-rich family was even depicted as the norm.

"We were saving that money for our kids college" always confused me as a kid though, my thought was always "But wait, what if they can't afford to save for college? Do that just not get to go? That doesn't seem right. That would be too unfair."

[–] driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br 57 points 2 weeks ago

Kids growing up watching Disney channel is the most powerful propaganda tool of the cia.

[–] ratboy@hexbear.net 33 points 2 weeks ago

It's just wild to me to think that, you know, the Chinese government is too fucking busy TAKING CARE OF ITS CITIZENS to even care to spread vile propaganda about the US like we do about every other country. We'll, maybe it's not "wild", because even if other countries fabricated lies about the US they would probably be accurate lol

[–] dustcommie@hexbear.net 32 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (3 children)

There was Roseanne, but I don't know if that was popular outside the US (ignoring Roseanne Barr currently and the "revival")

[–] Des@hexbear.net 32 points 2 weeks ago

stalin-stressed it still blows my mind she used to consider herself a "socialist"

[–] Dirt_Owl@hexbear.net 21 points 2 weeks ago

It was around but I think it was before my time

[–] CloutAtlas@hexbear.net 16 points 2 weeks ago

I keep trying to think of who/what Roseanne is and my mind just starts playing the drum beat from Rosanna by Toto.

[–] ratboy@hexbear.net 28 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Also I never thought about how little media shows families realistically. But even then it's still a father raising three kids and providing for a stay at home wife which is....lol. Maybe it was doable pre-2008 though.

[–] ComradeMonotreme@hexbear.net 34 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Lois isn't a stay-at-home mother, despite having 4 children, she works part-time at a large pharmacy store and some other gigs. I believe it also talks about how despite having a college degree, she is unable to find better work due to long gaps of unemployment due to pregnancy and child-rearing.

[–] ratboy@hexbear.net 22 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Oh shit that's right I totally forgot! Damn that is pretty surprising considering the time it came out

[–] Nakoichi@hexbear.net 21 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Malcolm in the Middle is down right Marxist in its portrayal of class antagonisms compared to literally every other sitcom.

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[–] SorosFootSoldier@hexbear.net 91 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

My dad solidarity People in China

still thinking it's the 50's

[–] ratboy@hexbear.net 54 points 2 weeks ago

Love the fried chicken myth in there along with fair wages, affordable housing, and government subsidies

[–] Voidance@hexbear.net 71 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Not rumours so much as people just watching American movies where everyone is upper middle class. This is how most of the world imagines the US

[–] Awoo@hexbear.net 48 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Whenever I watch tv with other people now I like to point out class in the show. Most shows are petty-bourgeois where everyone is a small business owner, particularly american shows though.

[–] Mardoniush@hexbear.net 16 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah, I remember looking at Gilmore Girls and thinking "the entire class divide here is upper middle/lower upper vs Upper Class, loosely elided by the main character slumming it as a maid for a year before her employer realised she was "one of them"

[–] OperationOgre@hexbear.net 47 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Yeah this is basically a summary of the living conditions of the Simpsons family

[–] GrouchyGrouse@hexbear.net 42 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Which were lower middle class when it came out. Plenty of plot lines revolved around money being tight.

3 kids, 2 cars, a house, all on one salary these days? Unthinkable.

[–] CloutAtlas@hexbear.net 30 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Frank Grimes episode already made fun of it in season 8 because it was dated by 1997.

A single worker's salary afforded him an apartment above a bowling alley and below another bowling alley. Homer could miraculously afford lobster for dinner, a stay at home wife, a 2.5 storey house, 2 cars, a cat, a dog and a drinking habit while being a college dropout.

[–] ComradeMonotreme@hexbear.net 29 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

As you say they lampshaded it already.

But Homer got his safety inspector job he was unqualified in season 1 as a bribe from Mr Burns after he got fired from a more menial job at the plant and became an anti-nuclear activist.

He then finished his needed college courses in Season 5.

Also he's a union man.

[–] barrbaric@hexbear.net 66 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Meanwhile, in reality, Joe Biden STILL owes me $1400.

[–] Belly_Beanis@hexbear.net 31 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

"Gave out tens of thousands of dollars" meant $30,000 divided among 300 million Americans.

[–] Hexamerous@hexbear.net 17 points 2 weeks ago

It's because he had to do all that student loan forgiveness for like... ummm... 0,01% of what he promised.

[–] ratboy@hexbear.net 23 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I can't believe that shit, really. How the hell are there still people who haven't been paid? Because the tax system is such a pain in the ass or what?

[–] Florn@hexbear.net 47 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

It's not because of some kind of bureaucratic error, it was an intentional failure to honor a promise. Trump sent out checks for $1400, and Biden promised checks for $2000. When he made it into office, he decided that his actual promise was to bring the total to $2000, and he sent out checks for just $600.

[–] GrouchyGrouse@hexbear.net 40 points 2 weeks ago

Huge "fuck you" to everyone actually paying attention. They even called them two thousand dollar checks. Joe called them that. He said "vote for Warnock and those $2000 checks will be in the mail" or something like that. Said it with his mouth. On camera. I remember it. And then the whole 1400+600=2000 narrative came out. Total horseshit. And basically nothing compared to all the PP loans the businesses got.

What should have been a really basic layup of a talking point: "I gave you more $ than Trump" turned into a spectacle of gaslighting bullshit.

The democrats love being losers.

[–] Hexamerous@hexbear.net 15 points 2 weeks ago

In a good Banana republic you at least get the cash in hand at the voting booth.

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[–] Awoo@hexbear.net 64 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

That third one is true for most of western europe. Not america. But I suspect it won't be true for western europe for much longer, starting with the UK and Germany when AfD get in.

The rest are bs.

This just demonstrates that propaganda through treats is the strongest form of propaganda because that's where the Chinese have gotten all of these ideas, the depiction of american lives in american entertainment products. Entertainment industry products should be a priority focus of any leftist state's propaganda machine. Television, movies and videogames.

[–] ratboy@hexbear.net 39 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Oh yeah, I'm an American and I WISH that any of these were true kitty-cri-texas

The fact that there wasn't one negative "rumor" really shocked me. My impression was that the entire world thinks of this country as a joke of a hellhole

[–] CarmineCatboy2@hexbear.net 27 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Sorry to break it to you but everyone thinks of your country like a movie set in a 1990s high class suburb.

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[–] vovchik_ilich@hexbear.net 32 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

That third one is true for most of western europe

Immigrant workers are definitely exploited more than 40h/week in western Europe, and unpaid extra time is also plaguing most new hires in consulting and financial office jobs.

[–] Awoo@hexbear.net 19 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Yeah that's fair. This is why I chose "most" rather than just saying it is true for those here. Generally speaking social safety nets are what keep these total hours down, people can (usually) claim enough to survive, meaning that they can actually just be unemployed rather than forcing upon themselves absurd hours just to avoid homelessness. These nets aren't always easily accessible if totally honest about circumstances though, and they're not accessible to various migrants or those without documents.

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[–] take_five_seconds@hexbear.net 49 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

rumor

life in america is good, actually

[–] CloutAtlas@hexbear.net 19 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction 21st century edition

Premise: 2 income family doesn't have to resort to selling plasma to afford baby formula

Jonathan Frakes: Not a chance, we made this one up

[–] Yuritopiaposadism@hexbear.net 19 points 2 weeks ago

[–] Diva@lemmy.ml 43 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

damn, it always surprises me how much staying power US propaganda has

[–] ratboy@hexbear.net 38 points 2 weeks ago

Right? Literally all of it is so positive, yet all of our propaganda against China is so vile. Gives a pretty good picture of how much the Chinese government cares to brainwash peoples perceptions of the country even though their propaganda would be totally correct lol

[–] Lyudmila@hexbear.net 19 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

The Utopian legends of Omelas inspire the whole world.

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[–] Frogmanfromlake@hexbear.net 42 points 2 weeks ago

As I’ve always said, soft power is no joke and the biggest reason the US has so many immigrants. People like to say it’s actually to avoid imperialism and that’s assuming most people immigrating to the US are as versed in politics as we are.

They see Americans living it up on US shows and movies, assume everybody lives like that, and make the journey instead of moving to a wealthy country in the region that wouldn’t have been as difficult to get to.

This is where the USSR struggled. This is why Japan is beloved in countries like the Philippines by their younger generations. It’s also why South Korea is seen so positively. Shit, I’ve even seen it in my country. We have a famous singer in Latin America and people have assumed that Guatemalan men are also attractive and smooth talkers because of him.

Soft power is an absolute must and it doesn’t even need to be blatantly political. China seems to be on the right path with stuff like Genshin and Wukong, but it will be an uphill battle with how hard US media demonizes China.

[–] tombruzzo@hexbear.net 38 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Be the type of American the Chinese think you are

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[–] stigsbandit34z@hexbear.net 36 points 2 weeks ago

doomer

[–] Pili@hexbear.net 32 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

What's even the point of the great firewall if they are getting propagandised like that anyway?

[–] CutieBootieTootie@hexbear.net 47 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Actually it was mostly to develop local tech industry and be able to enforce laws against American tech products; which considering China was able to leapfrog ahead to create the US' most popular social media app I consider it a rousing success.

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[–] CliffordBigRedDog@hexbear.net 31 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Is amerikkka even amerikkka if borger is not cheap

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[–] ZWQbpkzl@hexbear.net 28 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

1950s
1950s
1950s
free meals are very nascent trend, idk about "napkins" I'm assuming you mean pads.
Only true if you're counting unemployment checks or PPE loans.

Man Kissinger really fucked the US hard

[–] CloutAtlas@hexbear.net 32 points 2 weeks ago

You see on TV where kids get their shitty meals in a school cafeteria? The food is shown as bland, the cafeteria is usually used to establish cliques/groups like jocks/nerds/geeks/Asians within the school or Edward Cullen sparkling in the sunlight or setting up for a food fight or something. But they rarely, if ever, show the students actually paying for the food they get, hence the assumption.

You see dads go to work in the morning roughly the same time as the kids, finish work, maybe get a beer at a bar before going home. Or go home then go to a bar. The wife is rarely seen working full time if at all. They live in a 2 storey house with a furnished attic and large yard. They have time for trips to national parks or money for carnivals or flights to Hawaii or whatever.

US pop culture is a stronger propaganda machine than Eglin Air Force Base or the Pentagon.

[–] ratboy@hexbear.net 19 points 2 weeks ago

They did mean pads/tampons, yes. This shit is so sad, this seems close to normal standards of living elsewhere. I've known my country sucks ass but it never feels any less disappointing

[–] DragonBallZinn@hexbear.net 27 points 2 weeks ago

MFW Chinese state propaganda literally makes capitalists look good by comparison.

[–] glans@hexbear.net 23 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I don't believe anyone thinks that in 2025.

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[–] robot_dog_with_gun@hexbear.net 17 points 2 weeks ago

fried chicken is a dollar if they mean per wing