I absolutely understand and appreciate that perspective. I meant to address WW2 specifically when I had added a footnote specific to it:

*There are relevant 20th century war crimes that affect the shape of today - namely the relationship between China and Japan. I do wish that the discussion would be regarding the grievance itself as opposed to slurs for the same reason the race algebra is a depressing thing to consider.

Which is to say that there are inseparable grievances tied to the Chinese identity in the modern day that propagate forward. Tension with the US is evidence enough of this.

So yes, I'm not here to pop off on some "all Chinese history matters" and I absolutely see that paragraph reading as such. I didn't mean it like that because I wrote it in aggregate with the specific point about Japanese WW2 atrocities in mind. So I apologize for the phrasing.

I don't think that's a fair characterization, no. You are correct that I wouldn't call being Chinese a blank check for an individual to start saying slurs against the Japanese. But I don't think it's by virtue of some requisite threshold/relevance of suffering or coherence of identity. It's also not one I'm familiar with. So the scathing rebuke of white identity and the state of race in the US which comprises the grand majority of my post doesn't cleanly map to the landscape of Chinese identity.

However, yes, I would love to see a world where interacting with a Chinese person doesn't implicitly mean I'm interacting with 5000 years of history projected onto this person. If they're dork then I don't want to consider their reasonable reason for being a dork.

So there are identities that a person could have like trans and black. If you say writ large that identifying with a group is stupid you run the risk of clashing with a group that has essential qualities for solidarity. Black lives matter vs all lives matter is the prime example and an easy one to conceptualize. Peace in the middle east versus standing with Palestine is another example of an identity that stands against oppression. Latinos is the US, for example, get racialized and therefore need solidarity in response to it. Trans people are convenient targets when the goal is the abolition of the LGBT. So these are identities that I might go "this is all so stupid" and they'd respond with "you're telling me! I just want to live."

But Chinese? White? If someone goes "it's okay to be white" it has the same rhetorical characteristics, right? But if we apply that same filter about an identity that is hard fought or stands against oppression, the oppression is a river back to fascist talking points, presumably about Jews (very distinctly not Zionists, for the record).

And at that point, even before you want to dissect whiteness as an ahistorical construct or even the validity of their talking points, I want to say: so fucking what? Who fucking cares? Oh, you invented every type of science? Oh, you created civilization? Oh no? You're just saying someone who had a similar skin color to you did that? What the EVERLIVING FUCK does that have to do with you? Even given these things what have you personally done? And what have you done lately? White people can be this and that, but I'm tired of even granting the frame like it means that it has any barring on me calling you an asshole. And to that end I would be shocked if that Chinese whoever who's calling Japanese people slurs had much relevant history* to justify it to assuage my opinion that they're just being a mean-spirited dork.

Which is to say that a race obsessed society like the US is profoundly sick. So much "these people are like this, those people are like that. I behave this way because I'm this!" Racializing people and attributing characteristics, accomplishments, and shortcomings to them seems like something straight out of Mein Summer Kamp. That's what I meant by good boy points - to do some kind of race algebra to decide if they're justified in being an asshole is stupid at some point. I'm exhausted by the idea that it's normal or acceptable. If the significance of race is not some kind of response to a specific grievance or a fondness of some kind of cultural moment then the pride is likely annoying to me.

So no, I'm not asking you a question. You haven't identified yourself as part of a group and given it rhetorical significance.

*There are relevant 20th century war crimes that affect the shape of today - namely the relationship between China and Japan. I do wish that the discussion would be regarding the grievance itself as opposed to slurs for the same reason the race algebra is a depressing thing to consider.

In my opinion, at some point, we gotta get circle back to going "I don't care that you're Chinese, I think you're an asshole." If the identity isn't hard fought or standing up to oppressive forces then it seems exhausting and weirdly horseshoe to give people good boy points for something they didn't fucking do. A Chinese dork is still a dork primarily. What have you done and, further, what have you done recently?

What's your opinion on the song "" by Gnarles Barkley? You know, the one that goes

I remember when, I remember I remember when I had an average day~

Oh, you mean the song "Crazy" by Ozzy Osbourne? Sorry, it must be a cultural thing or something

I am a Westerner with a different map.

The one that is defacto for all my stories has a big beautiful communist society to the north west separated by a mountain range from the exploitative kingdom-but-actually-"leaders of industry" to the east. They are flanked by an archipelago with a world capital bazaar south east, a true kingdom that's overthrown into a Republic to the south west. Then you have another continent to true south east of the map that's proto late stage communist that barely has a state.

Mostly the kingdom causes problems, but they each have had their historical quirks.

I would rather the lying machine either give you general advice or point you to a medical professional than try and do medical advice itself

I'm mad the same way the sun is out. Not for any particular reason, although there are good reasons for it, nor for any of the bad ones that are visible in my mind's periferal vision. Nope, just crotchety before and after my exercise.

I would take China frame 1. Escaping the anglosphere, being able to pursue the American dream of class mobility+home ownership, assisting a state project that isn't genocide & racism, and eating the dankest food known to man make China one of the most attractive places in the world to me. If I still wanted to go to the arctic afterwards I like my odds of going with a Chinese group over there and having more effectual and relevant research with them.

Not to mention the war on drugs 1) straight up doesn't work 2) serves the profits of the prison industrial complex bigly 3) giga funds police. If you could get clean drugs at the pharmacy next to the supplements that's BiS