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Comment by ss108 | Hacker News Reader

I was going to read his books, but then discovered he parrots Chinese government propaganda about the Uighur genocide.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liu_Cixin#Political_views

This is not intended to be flame bait, but what else would you expect? He is a Chinese national writing within China. This is not an ex-pat safely secluded in a western country writing sci-fi and attempting to get it allowed back in China. Even if he is aware of the full scope of the CCP’s actions against the Uighur peoples I don’t see how you expect a published work in China to contain anything but the Party line.

He is just a guy writing fiction in a country which does not tolerate political dissension from established narratives. As soon as he had any success the ability for him to deviate from Party approved thought became smaller and smaller.

But, I do like siblings suggestion to buy and read the books used if you want to avoid financially supporting the publishing/advertising machine (both East and West) that is profiting off material that ignores and covers for tragedy.

Edit: I should have specified that I am talking like it’s just his written output, but I think my comment applies to his presence or appearances in media in any form (interview, reviews, promotion, etc) not just the actual stuff in his books.

Why should I believe that such statements don't represent his actual views? Why would I want to consume anything he writes then?

It's amazing the mental gymnastics people can go through to tolerate evil. Most people nowadays to think that if they were in a really fucked up situation like Nazi Germany or something they'd be one of the good guys, like they'd be helping Jews escape the country. But I don't think that's the case...

Why would you not want to read fiction written by someone with political opinions far from your own? Isn't the entire point of speculative fiction about getting exposed to ideas you would not have yourself?

Right, the question of whether genocide, concentration camps, and rape are ok is just a matter of "political opinion"

I don’t understand where this line of thought can act as a standard. If you are advocating that reading a book by a Chinese author, even one who supports his governments policy, is the tolerance of evil, if not actual evil based on the reference to the Holocaust, then where do you draw the line? I can almost be assured that whatever operating system you are using is funded, in some part, by actors who are perpetuating ‘evil’. Those companies doing business with China, the US military-industrial complex, or even just providing services to violent terrorist group are, by your standard, tolerant or in some cases actually supporting ‘evil’. Do you give up anything that is produced by those companies, including your OS?

There are a good number of plausible standards whereby calling out an individual for publicly defending a genocide is ok, even though, e.g., I feel like I have to buy things that are made in China despite my efforts to avoid doing so, and despite the fact that my efforts could be stronger.

To be clear, I don't think what you're saying is without merit, but I think you're drawing an inapposite comparison between more complex cases and a very clear one.

Just buy them second hand then and don't put money in his pocket.

Or don't.

He does not mention Uighur genocide in his books.

He has hypothetical future governments doing things arguably worse. Fiction is largely about fictional people doing bad things, or being forestalled trying them.

> He does not mention Uighur genocide in his books.

So? lol

"It's ok if he believes putting certain people in concentration camps is good so long as he doesn't mention that in his books"

We don't know what he believes. We only know he is obliged to say what keeps him out of a re-education camp.

What would you be saying, in his position? Be honest.

This is true, but only by omission: we don't know everything he believes. We do know he publicly supports the genocide in order to protect himself. MLK day is around the corner. It's worth considering what it cost some people to do the right thing, vs what some people got paid to support the wrong thing.

Let us consider what it cost MLK, and whether we demand that of everybody.

I favor applauding people for speaking out in risky circumstances. Condemning them for failing to risk what we need not is questionable.

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