Most people have seen the “2030″ advertisement produced by Citizens Against Government Waste. It’s an atrocious ad — not the least of all because it’s factually wrong — and sad proof that no matter how you dress it up, ‘Yellow Peril’ and ‘Fu Manchu’ are alive and well and lingering in the American psyche.
Fortunately, not everybody is taking the ad seriously, a campus group has released their own version, one which mocks the xenophobia and factual inaccuracies of the original. CAGW was unamused and has gone to great lengths to have the offending spoof removed from video sharing sites like YouTube, in a campaign against dissent that the WSJ Real Time China Report points out seems eerily reminiscent of the CCP circa 2010.
It’s hardly surprising, really. It’s a political axiom that the extremes often have a lot in common, and this is certainly true of the CCP and the American Right. In a recent piece on the desperation of the conservative media to smear President Obama for any slight or wrongdoing no matter how trivial, James Fallows remarked, “The combination of ignorance, lack of curiosity, and certitude is a very difficult one to offset.” Anyone who has spent even a few minutes watching Fox News or listening to conservative talk radio will immediately recognize the willful ignorance and proud parochialism wrapped in the flag of defiant anti-intellectualism which characterizes the Tea Party movement and their supporters. (See: Palin, Sarah)
But this ‘ignorant incurious certitude’ (to use Fallows’ phrase) is also very much a defining quality of the Chinese state media and Chinese nationalists. Paranoid xenophobia is the propaganda’s bureau most common coin, in fact one wonders if they know how to write any other way. The whole state media apparatus (and not a few nitwit nationalist Internet commenters) labor under a profound cognitive dissonance caused when trying to reconcile a pathetically narrow worldview with an increasingly cacophonous din of alternative perspectives and opposing evidence — in short, to borrow from Levenson, that which is mine is colliding against that which is true and the result is well…somebody like Li Hongmei.
What the American Right doesn’t realize however is that Li Hongmei is just a bespectacled slightly prim version of Ann Coulter; Xinhua and Fox News actually have a whole lot in common. Both maintain a thin fiction of objectivity while in reality functioning as the propaganda department for a single party. Neither has any room for ‘opposition,’ unless it’s to set up said opposition as a straw man. Finally, both are tone-deaf to their own inherent shrillness.
Perhaps the greatest commonality is this: When confronted with a situation that clearly challenges (if not dismantles) their painstakingly constructed ideological facades, rather than rise to the challenge, both organizations have an unsettling habit of diving for the deepest part of the muck — xenophobia and fear.
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I don’t know about the amount of noise coming from the right wing nuts, but I think most of the China bashing noise is actually coming from the left.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/10/us/politics/10outsource.html?scp=1&sq=china%20ads&st=cse
From this NY times article, it was mostly Democratic candidates bashing Republicans for shipping jobs to China. It it the current administration’s Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner who is pushing China to change its currency. Didn’t Obama went in front of the G20 this summer in Toronto and bashed China “Willful blindness” on the Cheonan matter?
You might be very well be right about Ann Coulter being ignorant. But even during the GWB years, there not alot of Anti-China rhetoric coming from the Republicans. But I am afraid that the anti-China ignorance coming from the current administration and the democrats is what fuels the legitimacy of Li Hongmei in the Chinese media.
Ah, it’s like an evil genie…I say “ignorant, incurious certitude” and Pugster appears. Funny that.
Sure, the left, in particular Nancy Pelosi, has been a strong critic of China’s human rights and labor record. But in this recent election it seems to be the Tea Party-types that are doing most of the China-bashing. That tends to be the case though, the party out of power criticizes the party in power for being soft on power because as the opposition they are not forced to listen as Chinese ambassadors whine about people teasing them on the playground.
But I the post has less to do with China bashing per se then it does with how similar Li Hongmei/knee-jerk Chinese nationalists, et. al. and, say, Sarah Palin are in their respective rhetorical and (anti)intellectual style, a style summed up pithily by James Fallows above.
Ignorant, huh? Seems that I see alot of dismissive attitudes towards these Li Hongmei and Chinese nationalists out there recently.
In that 2030 Ad about the Chinese professor, I think it was mostly attacking the Democrats big spending and healthcare rather than the Chinese.
FYI, those Tea party wackos aren’t doing the most of the China bashing, the democrats are. If you have proof to convince me otherwise, I would like to hear it. In the NYtimes article, Barbra boxer attacked Carly Fiorina for shipping jobs overseas while being the CEO of HP. Democrat Nick Rahall claims that Republican Spike Maynard supporting a bill that ships jobs overseas. Harry Reid showing an Ad of Sharron Angle as “a foreign worker’s best friend.” Democrat Joe Sestak attacking Republican Pat Toomey “He’s fighting for jobs – in China.” Sure Boehner blamed Pelosi and Obama for the stimulus money that shipped jobs overseas. But mostly, the Republicans and the tea party types are mostly pointing their fingers at the current Obama Administration in their ads. Personally, I think both the Democrats and Republicans are ineffective.
I think the major reason for such discourse of Li Hongmei and those Chinese nationalists is the current administration. I mean have you seen Li Hongmei or any other anti-American columnists 2 years ago in Xinhua while Bush was president?
Personally I don’t see why does Geithner have to go out of the way to embarrass China about the RMB situation when they could do this behind the scenes. During the Bush years the RMB appreciated against the dollar during 2005-2008 without much fanfare. I recall that at the height of the Tibetan protests in 3/08 Bush said that despite pressure from other politicians, he will attend Opening ceremony, but will talk in private about human rights issues in China as a separate issue. However, I think many Chinese nationalists will perceive Obama’s “Willful blindness” as an insult.
Pugster,
Obama, Geithner, whatever. You’re like one of my students — if they don’t know anything about the Opium War, then they’ll write their whole essay answer about the Taiping Rebellion and see if I’ll somehow fail to notice…
The larger point still stands: Li Hongmei, Knee-jerk Chinese nationalists like yourself, the CCP information apparatus in general, have for more in common with Fox News/Sarah Palin then they do with any kind of serious discourse. Tea Party and the CCP/Fenqing: (Anti)intellectual birds of a feather.
By all means, vote Republican. Vote early and vote often. You’re perfect for the GOP.
You think of me whatever you want, and claim that you have something to teach me as your ‘teacher,’ but I am not convinced. Perhaps the problem is that not everybody thinks like you.
For your record, I have voted Democrat for years before I voted Republican. So it is not like I am some ignorant fool who rubberstamps a party’s policies because both parties suck. They care more about the special interests rather than my vote. At times I wonder if democracy is the best way to go because these politicans spend more time pandering for votes and getting money rather than doing their job. The day when one of these politicans wake up to 2010 and not 1989, then maybe I will be enthustic about voting for that person.
I don’t really care who you vote for, and I have no doubt that Dems have been almost as vociferous as those on the right in bashing China…neither of which was the topic of the post. My point, which you have gone to pains to prove, is how similar are the ways in which the American Right/Fox News and the Chinese state media/Fenqing process the world and spread their ‘message.’ Frankly, if there were ever two groups which deserved each other…
First of all, this is not an article, as this is just part of an opinion column from Li Hongmei.
http://blog.foolsmountain.com/2010/08/01/obama-does-not-seek-to-contain-china-think-again/
2 Months ago, I wrote up an opinion about the situation where I believe that the US is trying to “contain” China. Even recently, NY times confirms that this current Administration is trying to do that.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/26/world/asia/26china.html?scp=1&sq=taking%20harder%20stance%20toward%20china&st=cse
Even if you believe if Xinhua some kind of right wing news production, I said that they started to have opinionators like Li Hongmei to have their ‘fenqing message’ after Obama administration took over. If US does not take a hard line stance against China, then many Chinese would be dismissive of Li Hongmei’s rhetoric.
A few things:
1) I understand that you are obliged, as a liberal in academia, to constantly prove your intellectual superiority over the proudly-ignorant Tea Party rabble; I also understand that using multi-syllabic words is an efficient method for distinguishing yourself from said rabble. Although I would normally try to avoid appearing pedantic in such situations, your false-erudition demands being called out. For instance, let’s examine the following sentence: “The whole state media apparatus (and not a few nitwit nationalist Internet commenters) labor under a profound cognitive dissonance caused when trying to reconcile a pathetically narrow worldview with an increasingly cacophonous din of alternative perspectives and opposing evidence.” In this freshman-seminar-worthy train wreck, you manage to turn the simple phrase “many” into the profound-sounding “not a few,” insert a nice psychological term to signal the breadth of your intellectual prowess (cognitive dissonance), morph internet into a proper noun, throw in several unnecessary adjectives, and, to top it off, inadvertantly say the exact opposite of what you (presumably) intended tended by misusing a Greek adjective. Cacophonous, as real (as opposed to psuedo) intellectuals should be aware, literally means ‘evil sound’. It does not, as you appear to think it does, simply mean ‘loud’. Thus, you are describing the “din of alternative perspectives” to the CCP, which you presumably support– or you at least support their free dissemination– as evil. Also, you could do well to learn how to use commas and semi-colons, although I don’t wish to spend my entire evening teaching you.
As for substance, what makes an intellectual, among other things, is the ability to make simple distinctions and understand subtlety (as you yourself argue elsewhere). Thus, it should be embarrassing for you to fail to point out elementary distinctions between Xinhua and Fox News (as awful as Fox News is). The obvious distinction here would be that Xinhua is an organ of the state, and holds an official monopoly over information (despite the extent to which that monopoly is being eroded by the internet, etc.), while Fox News is not only not an organ of the state, but an avowed enemy of the people currently administering the US government. There is a pretty big difference in legal and political standing between the two parties which you argue utilize Fox News and Xinhua as propoganda departments. There are certainly comparisons to be made between the fen qing crowd and the American right (and the American left- the Obama admin. is the only one in recent memory to actually try to effectively ban a news organization, and closed-mindedness is not the exclusive province of the right, as any, well, non-closed-minded observer realizes), but you would do well to also list where they differ.
Oh, and when Pugster pointed out that the Dems engage in the same China-bashing xenophobia as the Republicans, which is certainly relevant, you at first replied that, “… in this recent election it seems to be the Tea Party-types that are doing most of the China-bashing, ” before changing your mind and declaring that, “I have no doubt that Dems have been almost as vociferous as those on the right in bashing China.” Regardless of which of these opposing opinions is true, it would probably make sense to, you know, produce evidence for your position. At least Pugster tries to do so.
Stu Stu, Pugster. Pugster, Stu Stu. Glad I could bring you two together.
I at first thought Stu Stu’s post was a brilliant satirical rant following my post and doing a kind of “Tea Party” a la “Fenqing” but then I realized he was serious…
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/evanosnos/2010/11/the-communist-party-and-the-republicans.html
If you want a second opinion, he actually believes that the CCP actually favors the Republicans more than the democrats.
Pugster,
I have no doubt, it goes back to Mao. I’m pretty sure that in 2008 the only two organizations in the world who wanted a third term of W. were Al-Qaeda and the CCP.
We’re not talking politics, we’re talking intellectual style and rhetoric.