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China & Uighurs: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

LastWeekTonight · 10.4M views · 2020-07-27 · 20:52

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Overview

John Oliver's Last Week Tonight segment on the Chinese government's treatment of the Uighur people, covering the human rights abuses in Xinjiang and why they deserve attention.

On Hacker News

HN points to it as an accessible, well-made mix of education and entertainment for anyone wanting to understand the Xinjiang situation.

Recommended by 3 HN people across 3 months · HN mentions 2020–2025

Topics

Geopolitics & foreign policyMedia, journalism & propagandaFree speech, censorship & civil liberties
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uighursxinjiangchinahuman rightslast week tonight

What people said

cycomanic · 2020-08 · Strong recommendation

John Oliver did an excellent piece on the situation of the uighur last week you can watch it here: [VIDEO] I have to say he has really developed his show into an excellent mix of education and entertainment. I used to not like him very much (didn't like his type of humor), but I learn something every time I watch one of his shows, even if it covers a topic I'm already quite familiar with.

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blagie · 2025-04 · Recommendation

I see. That question makes sense. I don't hate China. I'm very glad we have a competing model of governance, and I'd like to see a diverse range of governments in the world. China is experimenting with a very different model, and for all the faults with that model, I'm grateful for that. If the goal is to understand the anger and hatred, a good place to start is the persecution of the Uyghurs. That one is pretty over-the-top evil, and you can learn more here: [VIDEO] There are many other such things happening. In general, hate is based on cherrypicking the bad things about "them" and the good things about "us." That's as true across political lines, as across countries, as across some religious divides. To your original question: "What makes the Chinese government evil in a way that the US Government is not," the US government does NOT do things like this. It does a completely different set of evil things, and a completely different set of good things. Part of the reason cherrypicking works is there is no equivalence between e.g. Muslims in Gitmo and cultural oppression in Tibet. They're different. The Chinese government is evil in a way the US government is not, good in a way the US government is not (and vice-versa). Which is worse depends on your set of values, and consequently, it's very easy to make one side seem like pure evil and the other side to seem like pure good. All that said, I do think TikTok (and a lot of other social media) has about the same level of negativ

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mkolodny · 2021-03 · Recommendation

In case anyone's not aware of what's happening in Xinjiang, this is a great Last Week Tonight episode about it: [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by LastWeekTonight, played through YouTube.

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