this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2025
155 points (93.3% liked)

Ask Lemmy

30907 readers
1938 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

This is literally my parents. They told me to stop criticizing the people in power, even going as far as saying I shouldn't criticize the government of my former country. I don't even have citizenship in my former country anymore, not sure how I could even get in trouble for criticizing is effecively a foreign country to me. (I'm talking about PRC btw).

My mom told me to "just focus on improving your own life and stop worrying about things like you can't control like politics" (as in, both the politics of my former country and the politics of my current country)

Am I in the wrong here? Should I just keep quiet and not say anything so that I don't "get in trouble"?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] jonne@infosec.pub 6 points 5 days ago

There's very little upside to attending a protest in the PRC, and a huge downside (cfr. 1986). The calculation is different in the US, obviously, although Trump is potentially changing this as well. They're just using their past experience and they're trying to keep you safe.

You just need to make a decision for yourself, are you willing to go to a protest now, potentially be imprisoned, deported to China, or do you just focus on getting a job and hoping it blows over. In a lot of ways it's a prisoner's dilemma: if you're only a small group protesting, you'll be crushed and nothing will change. If everyone's protesting and organising some kind of resistance that can't be ignored, you can win. The tricky part is making everyone come to the same conclusion at the same time to maximise chances of success.