Posted on 01/20/2022 4:39:03 AM PST by Kaslin
A rare moment of truth from billionaire National Basketball villain Chamath Palihapitiya the other day when he frankly suggested in an interview that “nobody cares” about the persecution, internment and extermination of the Uyghur minority in China. The “nobody” that he refers to are the elites who he hobnobs with and who often own or play for NBA teams. China can do no wrong because it is a source of vast capital. You don’t criticize a mountain of money like that. You don’t even suggest there is anything worth assessing. You just remain silent.
Of course, China is poised to host the 2022 Winter Olympic Games and that means a lot of money for a lot of people, especially the U.S. media so this is not an opportune moment to start caring about the Uyghurs or asking questions about concentration camps.
When Germany hosted the 1936 Olympic Games, there was little criticism of the Nazi’s persecution of the Jews because as far as the elites were concerned, nobody cared. The Nazis did their best to cover up all traces of the systemic anti-Semitism in the country, removing the “Jews noted wanted here” signs and ensuring Jews were allowed to walk unmolested on the streets. We remember those games today as a triumph for racial equality because of the gold medals won by Jesse Owens but at the time, the Nazis claimed victory by winning the most gold and most medals overall.
The Holocaust was ignored by the Western media and no democracy had any time or room for Jews trying to esape Nazi Germany before the war. There was a lot of talk but no action. Nobody apparently cared that much, The same denial applied to the Soviet Union. Even though the New York Times had a correspondent on the ground in the Soviet Union, he either deliberately ignored or lied about the millions of people who died as a result of Joseph Stalin’s contrived famine that swept through Ukraine and parts of Russia. We were trying to get along with the Soviet Union, so nobody cared if Stalin’s domestic policies trampled on basic human rights.
While the American media covers the games, do you think they’ll do a feature story on how the Chinese system oppresses its journalists? Or how dissenters are silenced? Or how it covered up the origin of the coronavirus? Or how unpopular groups are put in concentration camps or used as slave labor? Very unlikely.
Just look at how professional basketball has treated China. Los Angeles Lakers egomaniac Lebron James embodies the profound respect that the league and its sponsors have for China. James, who lives in a mansion – yet routinely plays the race card and pretends to be an oppressed person of color – is fond of eviscerating any police officer who enforces the law but is loath to question China crushing the resistance in Hong Kong because that is about money.
“We all talk about this freedom of speech — yes, we all do have freedom of speech, but at times there are ramifications for the negative that can happen when you’re not thinking about others and only thinking about yourself,” James said during a press conference in October 2019. “I don’t want to get into a word or sentence feud with Daryl Morey, but I believe he wasn’t educated on the situation at hand.”
“So many people could have been harmed not only financially, but physically, emotionally, spiritually,” James said.
Thank God for NBA stars who have their priorities straight. Enes Kanter wasn’t even born in the United States but he recognizes what is great about America and refuses to bow to China. He would think that putting people into concentration camps is something to care about and something that America should be utterly opposed to. He is becoming an American citizen because he believes America still cares about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
The Boston Celtics center recently told Fox News that said America values free speech and that is what he tells people who want him to keep silent about human rights abuses in China.
“I wore those Free Tibet shoes, right before the game there’s two gentlemen from the NBA came up to me and said, ‘We are begging you, please take those shoes off,’ and I was like, ‘Listen, am I breaking any rules?”
The two unidentified men had to admit that Kanter wasn’t breaking any rules because the NBA had yet to amend the Constitution to strike out freedom of speech or expression. So Kanter responded, “I’m getting ready for my citizenship test, and there’s 27 amendments and my First Amendment is the greatest amendment, freedom of speech.”
Kanter told the NBA Gestapo that he wasn’t going to remove his shoes, was prepared to be fined for wearing them. The thugs told him he could be looking more than a fine but a ban. Kanter says he was ready for that as well.
So who cares about the Uyghurs? America does. It doesn’t matter if we agree with what the Uyghurs believe in. It doesn’t matter if China thinks they are contributing to the latest five year plan. Any country that keeps political prisoners and utilizes slave labor deserves our contempt, not our respect – no matter how much advertising revenue or consumer base they offer. Six million Jews died because nobody cared before it was too late. How many Uyghurs and others will die in China, how many other pandemic cover ups will occur, how many stories will be buried because gutless cowards like Lebron James value their millions more than their factitious principles?
It is time to care again.
The jews were not in the business of slaughtering infidels or flying aircraft into freestanding structures.
After 9/11, I could really care less about what happens to muslims.
Most people did not care about the Jews.
Lets not have sand thrown in our eyes here. The only real problem is that we have a ruling elite which doesn’t care. An influencer of those elites said nobody cares.
We’re influencers as well, and while the elites have been attackingour freedom to vote, it still exists to vote out those who don’t care about the root problem of the Uyghurs.
Its Communism.
China is a monster towards EVERYONE, the Uyghurs are just the current victims
When China is finished with them, then who will they attack next? And after that?
Monsters need to be recognized (and stopped) early
I’ve mentioned the Uyghur’s to just about everyone I know to see what they knew. In a way, I’m upper middle class. A few of my friends are very wealthy by local standards. The rest are either retired workmen or currently working workmen. No one even recognizes the word Uyghurs. I’m not saying they don’t care. I’m saying they are ignorant about things going on in China. All the things they know about China are negative. They know all about the government shipping American jobs to China. They know nothing about persecution.
Part of the issue is, the Uyghurs are so removed from our daily life there’s just nothing left over in our day to even think about them. And if we did think about them, what can we do? Already everyone I know looks for alternatives to the Made In China label.
In order for the ordinary man to care, it needs to be a central focus brought on by the media. That would sway polls and those would sway Congress. Failing that, the focus of our average guys, me included, will be the economy.
I thought about this, and I am just not fond of those of that religion. However, I have to ask myself if the women should be raped by their Chinese jailers? No, no way!
Uyghurs are SLAVES dems have always loved slavery and support this too.
Warriors part-owner Chamath Palihapitiya says he doesn’t care about genocide in China, then backtracks
Dems supposedly are against slavery and the rich. UYGHYRS are SLAVES in China. Here you have a RICH dem who supports slavery. Dems were ALWAYS the ones who supported slavery. Repubs were the anti-slavery party. Always was.
13th amendment-ABOLISH SLAVERY
R voted 100% D voted 27%
14th amendment-GAVE CITIZENSHIP TO FREED SLAVES
R voted 94% D voted 0%
15th amendment-RIGHT TO VOTE FOR ALL
R voted 100% D voted 0%
I have not seen any mass push to censor China about how they treat Christians there.
Let the Saudis, Iranians, Pakistanis, etc push China to treat Muslims better. The Uighurs are not high on my priority list.
But that’s the point.
If you don’t support the uyghurs, how can you, in all honesty, support the Christians, etc.
As bad as China is about tolerance, it MUST INCLUDE ALL TOLERANCE, unless it goes against normal society mores and norms.
They have no right to take a group and demonize them, even their beliefs are corrupt, perhaps not ALL of them feel
that destructive.
It is a conundrum.
And to pile on to what you said,
1500 years of conquest, genocide, hatred, enslavement, forced conversion, murder, rape, terrorism, beheadings, pederasty, freakshow politics, domination, abuse, threats, etc, etc, etc, etc,, has a way of jading one’s concern. My guess is, the Chinese feel similarly.
Chamath is correct. Yes, it would be more accurate to say governments and elites, who make sure most of their populations are unaware or unconcerned, even unbelieving.
The author is mistaken, So who cares about the Uyghurs? America does. If America cared there are a multitude of actions we could take, particularly financial. Most short term financially painful to us as well though beneficial in the long run. We don't.
I have something in common with Mr. Big, I don’t care about the NBA.
If they say I don’t care about what happens to the Uyghurs because I don’t obsess about it, think about it, and modify my spending habits while shouting out the the world that I care, then I, as many people like me, would honestly plead guilty as charged.
And people are correct to say we have bigger fish to fry. We have plenty of problems that are making me lose sleep, and a world without a strong America is one of them. The USA is not, and has never been perfect, but a strong America has a positive and steadying influence on the world.
And we have our purely domestic issues that have my full attention from rampant totalitarianism to intentional destruction of our energy sector and economy, as well as the intentional subversionjust to name three of them.
But to say people don’t care about what happens to the Uyghurs under a thumb of a Communist/Marxist/Maoist regime, which is showing clear signs that it wants to export its ideology and influence all over the world (including Southern and Central America as well as Cuba) using its industrial clout coupled with its Belt and Road initiatives, does concern me. Because anyone who looks at the way the Chicoms deal with the Uyghurs (or any other individualistic dissidents) and thinks it won’t happen here is dead wrong.
So, yeah.
I care about what happens to the Uyghurs, because I care what is happening with the Chicoms.
And the fact that our government is nearly completely bought by them (if not bought outright with money, or by blackmail, but also purchased enthusiastically by starry-eyed Marxist ideologues that demonstrate that it is openly embraced not only by many in our culture, entertainment, and media, but openly embraced in our government itself) means that it is coming here.
So in that sense, yes. I care about the Uyghurs. Because if we ignore it and don’t care, it could be us hooked up to an EMCO machine to keep us alive while our organs are harvested one at a time for party members who need them. Which is what the Chicoms do to the Ugyhurs and other dissidents.
We should care about them, because if we don’t, it will be us.
The Uyghurs (and most Islamist for that matter) would be doing the same thing to the Chinese (as well as us) if they had the power.
The Uyghurs are in no way better than the Chicom’s. /spit.
I haven’t seen that much evidence that we care much about the terminal problems of our own Nation. Blogging in anger, and the band played on.
"...And we have our purely domestic issues that have my full attention from rampant totalitarianism to intentional destruction of our energy sector and economy, as well as the intentional subversion of our electoral and judicial processes just to name three of them..."
“We should care about them, because if we don’t, it will be us.”
Well said and best reasoning so far.
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