Do you agree or disagree?
Ai Weiwei grew up in NW China as the son of a political exile, living under brutal conditions imposed on his family by the communist regime.
Of course, the wokies at PBS had to ask about Orange Man Bad in this clip, ignoring the Left's authoritarian control of Congress, the White House, news, education, Hollywood, Big Tech, corporate America, and much of the legal system.
Weiwei says he saw Donald Trump's tweets as a practice that authoritarians use, but he was quick to back off the question of tweets and focus on what he thinks is the issue at hand.
Did you catch it?
If you are authoritarian, you have to have a system supporting you. You cannot just be an authoritarian by yourself.
Fact: The "system" hated Donald Trump with the passion of a thousand burning suns.
But certainly, in the United States, with today's condition, you can easily have an authoritarian. In many ways, you're already in the authoritarian state. You just don't know it.
"How so?" asked reporter Margaret Hoover.
Many things happen today in US that can be compared to Cultural Revolution in China... Like people trying to be unified in certain political correctness. That is very dangerous.
OH SNAP!
That doesn't sound like Donald Trump at all.
In fact, that sounds like the woke, who will endlessly harass you and get you fired if you, say, donate $10 to the legal defense fund of a teen who was attacked by three criminals, or if you refuse to get a vaccine for a virus, or if you disagree with them on any small matter related to sexuality, race, history, or your kid's education!
Probably not what Margaret Hoover or PBS wanted to hear.
Weiwei continued:
"It's very philosophical. With today's technology, we know so much more than we really understand. The information [has] become jammed. But we don't really — and really have the knowledge, because you don't work. You don't — You don't have to act on anything. You just think you're purified by certain ideas that you agree with it. That is posing dangers to society, to an extreme divided society," Weiwei said.
When asked how the U.S. could fall into authoritarianism, Weiwei said, "I think, for a long time, the West is material. We have much more than we needed. And we are not caring about global situation. But, eventually, all the policies and the politics we play has to be examined under the global situation, such as China become a very powerful state. And how the West should deal with it."
To sum up, this openly vocal Chinese dissident (criticizing the commies gets you killed, by the way) says America is at danger of falling into authoritarianism because of:
- Political correctness and cancel culture that is supported by America's institutions (which are all controlled by the political Left).
- Big Tech that creates divisive echo chambers instead of fostering cooperation and understanding (and is also working toward that goal).
- Laziness caused by material abundance that keeps us arguing about things like pronouns instead of the global threat of China and other foes that are pushing for world domination.
