[kccqzy]

I have a friend who’s born in Xinjiang and she told me this kind of control goes far beyond just surveillance, physical control, ID checks and whatnot. In a very Orwellian way, it also extends to control of the mind. Schools, government agencies, and local companies have to have their students and employees routinely recite propaganda about “ethnic unity” and relevant official policies and conduct routine tests to make sure these things are memorized.

Big Brother isn’t just watching you, it’s also trying to sneak its way into your mind.

[zipwitch]

America is much better about this sort of thing. Aside from a few obvious holdover examples like the Pledge of Allegiance and the national anthem, the US doesn't bother with such ham-handed, last century techniques.

It's much easier to just coerce the media and get the public to consume the propaganda as entertainment.

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/aug/21/entertainment/la-ca-...

https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/exclusive-documents-...

[xster]

And the native culture is thriving. All tribal languages are taught at school. No child is being sent to resident schools and getting sexually abused. The native population is has lower rates of suicide, substance abuse, obesity, poverty etc.

Sorry, I had to.

[mr_data]

Typical. "I have a friend" comment. So many propagandist comments on HN lately with "I have a friend" or "I have a coworker".

[kccqzy]

Well yeah I get it that the HN crowd tends to have a love for hard data, but still I think HN is still a human community that welcomes anecdotes and personal communications. HN is not trying to be a strange comment-based Wikipedia where everything must be verifiable and objective. Telling stories is one of the oldest ways human communities thrive. But you don't have to believe my story; you could probably satisfy your curiosity by closing this tab and go read featured articles on Wikipedia.