The Laogai System: the Horror of Mao’s Forced Labour Camps

แชร์
ฝัง
  • เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 มี.ค. 2024
  • Dive deep into the harrowing history of Mao Zedong's Laogai system, where millions endured forced labor, torture, and indoctrination. Discover the grim reality hidden behind the façade of Communist China's "reform through labor" policy.
    Simon's Social Media:
    Twitter: / simonwhistler
    Instagram: / simonwhistler
    Love content? Check out Simon's other TH-cam Channels:
    Warographics: / @warographics643
    MegaProjects: / @megaprojects9649
    SideProjects: / @sideprojects
    Today I Found Out: / todayifoundout
    Highlight History: / @highlighthistory
    Brain Blaze: / @brainblaze6526
    Casual Criminalist: / thecasualcriminalist
    Decoding the Unknown: / @decodingtheunknown2373
    Places: youtube.com/@Places302?si=u5C...
    Astrographics: youtube.com/@Astrographics-ve...

ความคิดเห็น • 1K

  • @connorrivers995
    @connorrivers995 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +833

    There is no war in Ba Sing Sei.

    • @nbarnes6225
      @nbarnes6225 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +20

      It's funny...but damn. It's too real.

    • @feraldelight
      @feraldelight 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

      My first thought too...

    • @Itsjustc
      @Itsjustc 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +21

      My name is Joo Dee

    • @willparrish3218
      @willparrish3218 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      😂

    • @smoadia85
      @smoadia85 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      bazinga i guess

  • @socialistrepublicofvietnam1500
    @socialistrepublicofvietnam1500 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +969

    Fun Fact: This is the reason why it is called Lake Laogai

    • @changlongwang9898
      @changlongwang9898 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +194

      Immediately thought of avatar lake laogai when I saw the video title

    • @tylerm6080
      @tylerm6080 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +75

      hearing this was literally a light bulb moment

    • @stevenkenney8747
      @stevenkenney8747 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +70

      Everything is fine,there is no war

    • @SitInTheShayd
      @SitInTheShayd 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +73

      There is no war in ba sing se

    • @sapphirejade5029
      @sapphirejade5029 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +27

      How funny that I JUST got off a video that was about ATLA Lake Laogai. It was an analysis video, and boy is it good.

  • @anthonymanderson7671
    @anthonymanderson7671 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +420

    One of the reasons why i hate people who idiolise mao.

    • @billpetersen298
      @billpetersen298 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +49

      Xi, is Mao, 2.0

    • @braedenhunter6501
      @braedenhunter6501 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +50

      @@billpetersen298When the reality of what has truly been done with the “reeducation” of Uighurs is revealed to the world, in its entirety, humanity will shiver.

    • @JustAnotherAccount8
      @JustAnotherAccount8 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Yeah socialists/communists, or more specifically 'tankies', are notorious for having such a profound hatred of the western world in which they hold basically every small action accountable, but the they turn around and defend and glaze everything communist countries do.
      Cuba is a good example, they idolize figures like Che, and also claim that the only reason Cuba is a failed state is because of the embargo, when in reality its a multitude of things like no freedom of speech, no freedom of assembly (they get arrested en masse for protests), horrendous economic management etc.

    • @j.lingle4713
      @j.lingle4713 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@braedenhunter6501- one can only hope, but given the fact the the internet exists and just a cursory search would inform people about the evils of Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Che, etc., leftists still admire them… 🙄

    • @alexcarter8807
      @alexcarter8807 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

      Found the land lord.

  • @SuperKendoman
    @SuperKendoman 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +431

    Thank god my grandmother crossed the borders of China to Hong Kong. I will always remember what my father said to me. He starved so much and was so grateful for watery gruel that he said he wanted be a chef, so that nobody would ever have to experience hunger like he did when he was 4 years old. And become a chef he did! Eventually he decided to migrate to Britain to start his own restaurant. I can't imagine what it was like for a child who survived that era and grew up in communist China.

    • @FinUgShiet
      @FinUgShiet 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +19

      I've read multiple books on about how it has been to grow up during Mao's Great leap backwards and the Cultural Devolution. It wasn't pretty in any sense of the word, except maybe the small things. But overall, the 50's-80's was something the CCP shoudln't have never put the Chinese people through. Many were scarred for life and left jaded, hence the system we have today...
      I got goosebumps reading your comment. I have some picture of what your grandmother ran away from and I can say with some certainty, that she made the right choice for herself and especially her future family. You might not exist if she hadn't moved then. Makes you think...

    • @bigpapi6688
      @bigpapi6688 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +16

      @@FinUgShietit is pretty wild to think about. Every one of our ancestors had to be in the right place at the right time, and likely had to make some tough choices or persevere some awful things, in order for us to be alive today. Most Chinese immigrants would’ve had family members that managed to get out of communist China, every first or second generation immigrant had a patent or grandparent was able to escape from the Kim family regime, the majority of European and Israeli Jews today descend from a holocaust survivor.. sometimes it seems crazy that humanity is able to even continue lol

    • @AnimeShinigami13
      @AnimeShinigami13 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +9

      I grew up in America, as a young adult in the late 2000s, just a couple of years of wondering where my next meal was going to come from sparked a lifelong love of agriculture, food, and eventually craftsmanship. If suffering begets beauty, if I may be so bold, I must imagine your father's cooking to be divine!

    • @freeworld88888
      @freeworld88888 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      western sanctioned china and when china was in a drought, i was there, in the coastal area, next to hong knog nobody were starving that is bullshit. people suffered were in sichuan inland etc. this is bs channel . cia scripts bs.

    • @cameronjones8641
      @cameronjones8641 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

      What is also mind boggling is people's unwavering belief that communism can be a success.

  • @Nurdjen
    @Nurdjen 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +143

    So that's where the inspiration for Lake Laogai came from? And also Monk Gyazo? Thanks for this Episode. Not only did it enhance my knowledge of history, but also taught me new things about one of my favorit TV shows of all time.
    Dark Episode, but at least no cabbages were harmed here.

    • @SlickTater
      @SlickTater 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +27

      Monk Gyatso was actually named after Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

    • @Jokesterloki
      @Jokesterloki 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      @@SlickTater W monk knowledge

    • @chart770
      @chart770 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      @@SlickTater And Aangs son, Tenzin

  • @xiphoid2011
    @xiphoid2011 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +74

    Both of my grandfathers were in it. One was a US educated professor who went back to fight the japanese during WW2, and the other owned a pharmacy. The professor was called a counter revolutionary because he rightfully questioned the absurd orders for the great leap forward. The pharmacy owner was still branded a capitalist's dog by the communists even after they took everything. Both were lucky to survive, finally released by Deng Xiaoping's reform after Mao's death. The US educated grandfather made sure my parents studied hard and got into US universities and immigrated out because the politic in China can change anytime at the whims of one man.

    • @hutchhud8252
      @hutchhud8252 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      N😅😂

    • @seanpetaia
      @seanpetaia 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Ohhhh gosh yu are right

  • @Kaltagstar96
    @Kaltagstar96 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +148

    That story of the guy who begged to be let back into the Laogi after being shunned by his family and his village is heartbreaking and harrowing, but just imagine being a guard at that camp and seeing him return at the gates and begging to be let back in; that would catch me so off guard.

    • @mariusvanc
      @mariusvanc 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +19

      People need belonging. In old times, being exiled was certain death. One could not survive alone, physically, and mentally it's equally deadly.

    • @robertortiz-wilson1588
      @robertortiz-wilson1588 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

      ​@mariusvanc deeply true.

    • @barackobama9343
      @barackobama9343 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      THAT is called "BEING BROKEN DOWN TO LESS THAN HUMAN"...THIS is a main tactic of Communism... LOOK at WHO funded the CCP originally...

    • @SkunkApe407
      @SkunkApe407 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +8

      ​@@mariusvanc exile wasn't a death sentence. The Greeks used to exile people all the time, and there are literally hundreds of recorded accounts of Greek generals exiled to Persia. There are just as many counts of Persians being exiled to Arabia and Greece. Exiles were typically shunned for a period of seven years, at which time they were allowed to return home. It was an alternative to imprisonment, not execution. You really need to do a little history homework.

    • @bunk95
      @bunk95 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Begging is fictional.

  • @worldofdoom995
    @worldofdoom995 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +323

    Minus 10,000 Social Credit Points!

    • @jesseberg3271
      @jesseberg3271 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +26

      They referred to Tibetans as a separate category from Chinese, so better make it 11,000.

    • @maxpower1337
      @maxpower1337 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +10

      That system is going to be installed in other countries.

    • @fpc8700
      @fpc8700 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

      Yes....hes gonna get a lot of flak for this.....

    • @Gas_Station_Tampons
      @Gas_Station_Tampons 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      @@maxpower1337 All that system will EVER achieve is producing liars, fake people, and 2-faced groids.
      In public : 😁 💖✌
      In private : 🤬💥👎
      Forcing people to behave certain ways has a 0% success rate throughout all of recorded history.

    • @DarkZodiacZZ
      @DarkZodiacZZ 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

      Better not take any flights that may maliciously be rerouted to HK.

  • @user-em2pe3rf4h
    @user-em2pe3rf4h 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +188

    To allow yourself to believe that things such as this cannot happen again in a major country would be the equivalent of an adult writing a letter to Santa Claus.

    • @j.dunlop8295
      @j.dunlop8295 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Stockholm syndrome, is when a victim totally sympathetic to their kidnappers, abuser's! (Subconscious survival strategy!)

    • @megsley
      @megsley 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +29

      lots of American kids seem to think they can make communism work, but they also think people should be forced into re-education seminars for not respecting pronouns, so I think we all know how communism would turn out under their guidance.

    • @mnj640
      @mnj640 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +10

      They still have these camps in China

    • @Howie900
      @Howie900 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      This could happen so very easily again, there is a lot of hate out their. It could happen so very very easily. There is just as much or even more polarised Hate out their now as there was in the first half of the 20th Century. There are people that would do it with ease.

    • @alphakevin687
      @alphakevin687 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      ​@@megsleyplease help me remember: which president put kids in cages again?

  • @JustAnotherAccount8
    @JustAnotherAccount8 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +36

    It never ceases to amaze me how much research the ATLA creators did for the show. From actual martial arts fighting styles being used to the cultures of each nation, to the fact that ba sing se has elements of communist china.

  • @xxMelaniexx
    @xxMelaniexx 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +180

    This is why democracy is so important to fight for. It isn't a guarantee, it takes constant work. Constant updating and moving forward.

    • @baneofbanes
      @baneofbanes 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +20

      @@joshuablair252no it doesn’t. The PRC is nowhere near democratic and never has been.

    • @baneofbanes
      @baneofbanes 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      @@joshuablair252also a constitutional republic is a form of democracy dim wit.

    • @baneofbanes
      @baneofbanes 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +17

      @@joshuablair252and the Nazis weren’t a democracy either.

    • @tobyhorn9641
      @tobyhorn9641 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +31

      That's why the second amendment is so important to Americans

    • @shatterquartz
      @shatterquartz 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +14

      @@tobyhorn9641 If privately-owned firearms were any good at stopping tyranny, Afghanistan would be a very different place than it is.

  • @bennygoodmanisgod
    @bennygoodmanisgod 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +134

    Gotta appreciate how much research went into even the most minute details of Avatar: The Last Airbender.

    • @taffiejosh
      @taffiejosh 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      But the research only focuses on the negative, any positive won't be acknowledged, and in other videos regarding Russia or China figures regarding death tolls have been inflated. This video conveniently avoided the condition of China before Mao took power, orr the brutality of Japanese and British colonisation. And the thousands of years of continues domestic wars between States,. To unify China at such a time was an accomplishment no short of s miracle. And the fact that the beginning needed to be brual and hard and authoritarian is evident to the history pre and post Mao.

    • @Kalahridudex
      @Kalahridudex 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      ​@@taffiejosh Tankies truly are nothing more than Red Nazis.

    • @Amazinglexi3
      @Amazinglexi3 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +8

      @@taffiejoshwhile I see your point and respect your opinion. I don’t believe in shedding light on Laogai is an intentional move to burry the havoc and ruin those outside empires brought on China. While violence and tyranny is typically way to gain control and “unify”, it’s not the only way. What the Western powers did to rip China “open” to the world is not talked about enough. The inhuman actions of the Imperial Japan has been intentional suppressed by Japan. Those don’t disregard the what Mao and the CCP did to the common people of China. Those truths are also intentionally suppressed and information in their state controlled media won’t report on its own corrupt governments. This isn’t a problem in only China, other countries did very similar things in the time period. It’s important to know information like this because it provides so much context for modern day China.

    • @Veritaserum90
      @Veritaserum90 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +15

      @@taffiejoshwhat fucking positives? xD

    • @albertchurchill4845
      @albertchurchill4845 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@taffiejosh Communists aren't people.

  • @JaelaOrdo
    @JaelaOrdo 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +424

    “Communism is not love. Communism is a hammer which we use to crush the enemy.”
    - Mao Zedong

    • @M0rshu64
      @M0rshu64 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +8

      Then what's the sickle for?

    • @GrievousReborn
      @GrievousReborn 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +57

      ​@@M0rshu64to remove a digit every time you don't tell them the truth

    • @Leo_Pard_A4
      @Leo_Pard_A4 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +26

      ​@@GrievousReborntheir truth

    • @woahblackbetty7691
      @woahblackbetty7691 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +26

      ​@@GrievousRebornBy "truth" you mean the official party message

    • @sten4982
      @sten4982 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      TBH honestly not much difference between them and Conservative parties like the Republicans & the LNP. If look up the Republicans Project 2025 which is 900 page on how to implement Fascism across the USA. I think we see the rise of the third R*ech again in the USA if Orange man gets in.

  • @iguiste23
    @iguiste23 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +86

    Us people in the Western world often complain about how hard we have it here. No, no. We have it on a platinum platter, Britain and Europe for the most part are 500star holiday resorts compared to the nightmares that take place over that side of the world.

    • @margaretreefer1145
      @margaretreefer1145 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +17

      What do you think is coming to us and to our future Generations? Here's a hint. Who is emerging as one of the world's greatest superpowers and who do we owe a shitload of money to? We are watching our rights being eroded every day and this is the end game.

    • @C0ldD1rective
      @C0ldD1rective 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      ​@margaretreefer1145
      Let's be honest with ourselves. Neither China nor Russia have the potential to match the western powers at their current state.
      China's corruption and *flagrant* human rights violations severely outweigh any economic output they muster. It doesn't help their military index is so full of corruption that you'll be lucky to find a working ICBM.
      Russia, I don't need to explain.

    • @chriskirk9708
      @chriskirk9708 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +14

      Just cause someone has it worse does not make your suffering any less important. We should be trying to make our species proliferate, but we would rather stagnate ourselves by dividing ourselves.

    • @somethingsomething8511
      @somethingsomething8511 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      ​@@margaretreefer1145if you think China is going to be able to project power you need to take a second look at their demographics. China will collapse in on itself in the next 20-30 years.

    • @Choochinc
      @Choochinc 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +8

      I really despise this argument. Just because others have it worse than you, doesn't mean you don't deserve to have it better. Explain to me why the existence of brutal authoritarian regimes means that we are not allowed to wish for things like reasonable wages or affordable houses.

  • @hectorr6299
    @hectorr6299 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +17

    This is why fighting for Democracy is imperative!

  • @mikets42
    @mikets42 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +24

    Simon, your script writers improved a lot. Years ago they were not accurate. Now - impeccable.

  • @Skorpychan
    @Skorpychan 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +137

    Chairman Mao's Little Red Book of Sayings was apparently mandatory reading for British Rail staff at one point. I have an uncle who used to work for them during that period, as a porter who wasn't actually allowed to do any portering.
    Also, of COURSE the laogai still exist. Where do you think lithium for batteries comes from?

    • @Baddy187
      @Baddy187 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Yeah, they have millions in concentration camps so forcing them to do something makes sense.
      Well sense in communist terms.

    • @basilmcdonnell9807
      @basilmcdonnell9807 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      You know how we know Uihgur children are smarter than American children? American children use Iphones; Uighur children make them.

    • @comment3711
      @comment3711 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +15

      You’re right, they certainly do still exist. It’s not just batteries but cotton and pretty much anything one can think of. I try not to buy anything made or sourced there because of it - and the pollution.
      Interesting that you say that about the rail workers. My husband (British) believes that Britain was a somewhat socialist country when he was growing up in the 80s.

    • @alexcarter8807
      @alexcarter8807 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      My mom had a copy in the mid-70s it was definitely going around.

    • @Skorpychan
      @Skorpychan 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      @@comment3711 It definitely was during the 60s and 70s, with the unions killing off the car industry and trying to choke out everything else. Containerisation and new port facilities came to britain because enough industries defied the dock worker strikes and built newer, automated ports further out to accept bigger, more automated, more efficient ships.
      My grandfather was part of the cooperative that built those, since he was a farmer and mill owner.

  • @evan-douglasmason3755
    @evan-douglasmason3755 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +140

    "Reform through labor"
    Sounds like.
    "Arbeit meicht frei"
    Sound familier?

    • @nerdy_dav
      @nerdy_dav 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      The term was coined in the late 1800's before the Nazi's co-opted it.

    • @timhinchcliffe5372
      @timhinchcliffe5372 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      It's all socialism... a completely unnatural system that needs violence to incorporate. The Nazis got their cues from Communists in Russia.

    • @somethingsomething8511
      @somethingsomething8511 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +13

      Marxists tend to think alike

    • @timhinchcliffe5372
      @timhinchcliffe5372 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +9

      😂 My comment got deleted because I mentioned one totalitarian regime copied their practices from another totalitarian regime. Mods don't like "hate facts".

    • @EnclaveOfficer1776
      @EnclaveOfficer1776 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      Sounds exactly the same to me

  • @LikeTheBuffalo
    @LikeTheBuffalo 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +34

    The Earth King has invited you to Lake Laogai.

    • @sofvpgn
      @sofvpgn 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

      My name is Joo Dee

  • @jamesbuck2378
    @jamesbuck2378 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +54

    It’s fun to find many names and references in Avatar Last Air Bender that come from China:
    Dai Li, Mao’s secret police chief
    Laogai, this labour camp
    The Earth King being a ‘God’ to his people, Mao’s personality cult
    And more, probably.

    • @jillianmyerly1818
      @jillianmyerly1818 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      Seems like the Earth Kingdom should have used red as their color, not the Fire Nation...

    • @slyninja4444
      @slyninja4444 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +11

      Fun fact: The Earth King was based on the real Chinese Emperor, Aixin Gioro Puyi.
      He wore glasses, dressed in manchurian garb, and never went outside his palace.

    • @michaelguderian2699
      @michaelguderian2699 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

      Dai Li is not Mao's secret police chief. The secret police chief of Mao is Kang Sheng. Though Dai Li was the 1st secret police chief of Chiang Kai Shek's KMT.

    • @jamesbuck2378
      @jamesbuck2378 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      @@michaelguderian2699
      I was close; going off memory

    • @Swiss_femboy
      @Swiss_femboy 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      @@slyninja4444luckily they didn’t also take over puyi‘s personality

  • @roberteischen4170
    @roberteischen4170 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +10

    We as Americans are scarcely educated on the history of the CCP I think that is a major problem.

  • @carlswenson5403
    @carlswenson5403 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +24

    Gulag Archipelago 2: Chinese Boogaloo

  • @tenhirankei
    @tenhirankei 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +17

    Laodong Gaizao reminds me of Arbeit Macht Frei.

  • @tonythekillab8189
    @tonythekillab8189 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +24

    Chairman Mao has invited you to Lake Laogai

  • @cantsay2205
    @cantsay2205 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +10

    "You guys can criticize me all you want, don't worry" why would people fall for that

  • @funpau7549
    @funpau7549 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

    Thank you for explaining it in detail. Why does such a proven bad system still exist to this day around the world? Humans are incomprehensible for allowing such to continue. It’s given that oppression limits productivity and advancement.

    • @ninjaswordtothehead
      @ninjaswordtothehead หลายเดือนก่อน

      Marxism/Communism is the easiest path to power for the incompetent. That's my guess why such a failed system still has supporters anyway.

  • @nbarnes6225
    @nbarnes6225 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +15

    Jesus Christ... "A prudent estimate." ?!?! Wtf are we doing in this world?!

  • @fantasywarhammer
    @fantasywarhammer 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +138

    Evils of communism

    • @tachyon8317
      @tachyon8317 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

      TRUTH*

    • @LambdaBricks
      @LambdaBricks 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      @@tachyon8317how is it truth?

    • @woahblackbetty7691
      @woahblackbetty7691 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +10

      Never forget who created communism and pushed it to spread around the world

    • @LambdaBricks
      @LambdaBricks 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@woahblackbetty7691 that asshole Lenin?

    • @georgecarlin2097
      @georgecarlin2097 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      ​@@woahblackbetty7691who? Weren't them dern chosen fellers was it

  • @Teguanna10
    @Teguanna10 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +42

    TLDR: Chinese Gulags were just as bad as Russian ones! another great video Simon!

    • @pyromania1018
      @pyromania1018 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +9

      "Soviet."
      ~Douchey McNitpick

    • @williamgrosbach4237
      @williamgrosbach4237 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      @@pyromania1018 A distinction without a difference.

  • @multiyapples
    @multiyapples 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +26

    This is why we should have democracy everywhere.

    • @alexcarter8807
      @alexcarter8807 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

      It would be rather nice to have it in my country, the USA.

    • @somethingsomething8511
      @somethingsomething8511 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Democracy doesn't prevent atrocities. Majorities are the ones who commit atrocities in the first place.

    • @edmondgreen7970
      @edmondgreen7970 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      LOLOLOLOLOLOL....as if democracy is the best system. As if HItler wasn't voted into office. Let's all pretend biden didn't cheat and we didn't see the videos of his minions counting the same vote over and over and over. You don't pay any attention at all to anything. Pittsburg has voted democrat for 100 years, literally, and now they don't even have cops between 3am and 7am. All voted for through democracy. Must be nice to think the world can vote it's way out of the mess low IQ voters wanted LOL

    • @superiorshotgun4348
      @superiorshotgun4348 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      You they were fighting for democracy
      And the usa has the largest prison population

    • @RealSaintB
      @RealSaintB 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Democracy isn't immune to this. Just more resistant to it than any kind of dictatorship

  • @peterbakker2090
    @peterbakker2090 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +19

    I'm Joo Dee, welcome to Ba Sing Se.
    We are so lucky to have our walls to create order

  • @kenpreston3898
    @kenpreston3898 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +11

    The Earth King invites you Lake Laogai

  • @ChrisVillagomez
    @ChrisVillagomez 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +43

    The Earth-King has invited you to Lake Laogai

  • @carlramirez6339
    @carlramirez6339 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

    Turns out South Park's episode about a Chinese prison was spot-on.

  • @DullyDust
    @DullyDust 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +37

    Simon, the Earth King has invited you to Lake Laogai

  • @Pbo91
    @Pbo91 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +12

    You should do a video about the Xinjiang papers that came out a few years ago

  • @Kalahridudex
    @Kalahridudex 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +8

    For context, I first watched Avatar as an adult.
    "Lake Laogai? Where have I heard that word before.. *does some Googling* oh..."
    And yes, Avatar being unbelievably based as usual, giving the CCP the middle finger.

  • @dustyloafers7448
    @dustyloafers7448 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +11

    this all sounds very familiar

  • @ameliaclauss4053
    @ameliaclauss4053 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +17

    Comrade Mao has invited you to lake Laogai

  • @coffeeandtrance
    @coffeeandtrance 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

    16:42 punished for "frequent visits to the latrine?" sounds like they was working for amazon

  • @colinr1960
    @colinr1960 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +10

    I worked in China in the mid ‘90’s. We had an interpreter who was a professor of electrical engineering. He grew up with the Japanese occupation in WWII. Later, he was in university when the “Hundred Flowers” movement was on and got denounced. During the Cultural Revolution he was denounced as an “Intellectual” and sent to the country side to “learn from the peasants” where, because he was a professor of electrical engineering, he dug holes for telegraph poles. He went to self-criticism sessions every single day. He was beaten often. He stayed in the countryside until Deng Xiaoping came to power and declared “It is glorious to get rich.” He was rehabilitated back into the city where he was allowed to teach and work as an interpreter.
    In the ‘90’s when he was with me he was escorting me around Tiananmen Square where Mao’s Mausoleum is. You could enter and pass by the preserved body of Mao himself…or a wax figure. Who knows? I asked the professor if he wanted to come though with me but he shook his head no, and whispered “I hate him, Mr Colin! I hate him!” I went through and when I came out I said “Good news, Professor!” and then whispered “He is still dead!” Well, the professor laughed and clapped his hands and repeated it to me…he is still dead! For the next two months we worked together he would sometimes look at me and laugh and whisper “He is still dead” and clap his hands. That was nearly 30 years ago and I think of him often.

  • @antiisocial
    @antiisocial 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +8

    Those poor people. It's so sad.

  • @archlich4489
    @archlich4489 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +7

    I don't think China wants us talking about this.

  • @myeyeswentdeaf6213
    @myeyeswentdeaf6213 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +16

    How many friggin channels does this guy have!? Half of friggin TH-cam is this guy.

    • @jesseberg3271
      @jesseberg3271 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

      TH-cam will only promote so many videos per channel per week. This group gets around that issue by having a lot of different channels. Same production company, same reader, different channel.

    • @gamerjaqi7873
      @gamerjaqi7873 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      @@jesseberg3271and each channel covers different topic themes.

    • @gamerjaqi7873
      @gamerjaqi7873 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      Megaprojects, sideprojects, decoding the unknown, places, warographics, science unbound, astrographics, casual criminalist, brain blaze, today I found out, into the shadows. Also pre 2023 geographics biographics and top tenz that are owned by someone else.

  • @alixzander6644
    @alixzander6644 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +12

    Simon, you most definitely should do a safety violation video.

    • @Danny0dbert
      @Danny0dbert 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Just watch any Chinese videos of people working.

  • @Hammerhead547
    @Hammerhead547 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +20

    21:22
    "I have 600.000.000 people, if I have to sacrifice 100.000.000 of them to the revolution then so be it"
    ~Chairman Mao

    • @mrvn000
      @mrvn000 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Real quote?

    • @thomasnapierjr4974
      @thomasnapierjr4974 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +8

      @@mrvn000 Yes. Mao also said: "It is better that 50 million should starve to death (which there were during the GREAT LEAP FORWARD), so 50 million can work"

    • @davidcox3076
      @davidcox3076 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Ah, the ChiCom new math.

  • @turdferguson9356
    @turdferguson9356 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +10

    they probably sent Tank Man to Lake Laogai

    • @alexcarter8807
      @alexcarter8807 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Apparently Tank Man wasn't some high-principled hero, he was just the local nut, who did erratic things and was tolerated because he was pretty harmless. He just did random things. Like in that case stand in front of tanks. Kind of like a homeless guy in a small town I used to live in, called "Moses" because he'd stand in traffic so the traffic would part like the Red Sea. Tank Man probably barely knew what planet he was on.

    • @turdferguson9356
      @turdferguson9356 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      sounds like pinko apologist rhetoric, but watching a young person cape for authoritarianism isn't anything new... seeing as no one has produced anything to positively identify him, I say your claim is bullshit, whereas the millions dead are very real

  • @AethrilCustom
    @AethrilCustom 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

    Hey, you should have gotten Temu to sponsor this particular video

  • @Adolphus91788
    @Adolphus91788 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +10

    “He loved big brother.”

  • @ferminbugallo8987
    @ferminbugallo8987 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +8

    No fkng way, this is tottaly the Dai Li

  • @buffgarfield3231
    @buffgarfield3231 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

    Is this what Lake Laogai in avatar is named after?

  • @JamesFromTexas
    @JamesFromTexas 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Perfect timing with 3 Body Problem being out right now.

  • @HyBr1dRaNg3r
    @HyBr1dRaNg3r 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +14

    Thank you, Arnaldo. Ppl in the US don’t know that criticizing the opposing political party(if there even is one) is all it takes to be sent to one of these places…The ones that advocate for it would be the ones imprisoned if they had the mental ability to reverse the roles. Or to realize that it’s almost impossible to 100% agree with anything, let alone political OPINIONS. It scares me that so many ppl in the US support a system like communism/socialism/statism(all the same damn thing, just different ways of implementing it)

    • @cg4432
      @cg4432 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      They aren't the same thing. Even Mao would tell you that.

    • @AgentMercer
      @AgentMercer 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      The US party that is promoting socialism is already attacking opponents by trying to get them all arrested

    • @megsley
      @megsley 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      ​@@cg4432 show me a country where communism worked - ill wait.

  • @GrievousReborn
    @GrievousReborn 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +8

    You should make a video on the seaorg of Scientology.

  • @aevenova9780
    @aevenova9780 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

    Chairman Mao has invited you to Lake Laogai.....

  • @theawesomeman9821
    @theawesomeman9821 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

    I see a lot of Dai Li Agents from the Earth Kingdom within this comment section

  • @Zappyguy111
    @Zappyguy111 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

    My grandmother used to tell me stories of how terrible it was, and how people would throw themselves off the tops of the prisons to escape. I'm glad she made it through and that the CCP recognised her usefulness for the country instead of stubbornly persecuting the educated.

  • @vermeiljardin8964
    @vermeiljardin8964 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

    This reminds me of the horrific torture and incarceration of the Uyghurs in China since approx 2017.

    • @Candlewick14
      @Candlewick14 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Yeah China didn't stop

    • @AmmMoorra-dn9rw
      @AmmMoorra-dn9rw หลายเดือนก่อน

      This reminds me of the forced removal of hundreds of thousands of indigenous peoples from their homes and repeated beach of treaties

  • @ZoomZoomMX3
    @ZoomZoomMX3 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +7

    Why does the world work with china at all

    • @oxylepy2
      @oxylepy2 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

      First, they offered the cheapest products through cheap labor and not caring about the environment. Second, they have natural resources that they have specifically tried to maintain the lowest cost for and really locked down that whole not caring about the environment thing. Third, they just kept doing everything they could to maintain that position so they could profit. It worked, it essentially became the basket everyone was putting everything into, until they began to see the writing on the wall and started freaking that they needed to move away from working with China so that their industries wouldn't be shut down by the CCP. The US started blocking trade with them and businesses were freaking out because they wanted the money from working with China.
      In short, China made itself cheap and did things others didn't want to do, and Capitalists LOVE setting tomorrow ablaze for higher share value today.

    • @tomhenry897
      @tomhenry897 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Cheap labor
      No labor laws
      No epa
      By rights we should have sanctioned them

  • @michaelreece2966
    @michaelreece2966 หลายเดือนก่อน

    There are a lot of channels or videos I’d like to watch, but I simply can’t because the person doing the voice over or narration is simply intolerable. But I have found three I think are by far the best. One, Coffee House Crime is a great and well done series and very easy to watch and listen too. Adrian Stewart does thorough research and has a very easy onscreen personality. Second is American Greed. Stacey Keach is a great actor and has a voice that brings life to that serious. And third, Into the Shadows. You do an amazing job with what you present and the work it takes doesn’t go unnoticed. Simon Whistler fits a great job and I can even live with him pronunciation of contributing. Thanks Simon 😎

  • @AngelWest58
    @AngelWest58 หลายเดือนก่อน

    how many channels you have bruh you rock

  • @tootallforyou112
    @tootallforyou112 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +11

    I guarantee this is still happening today. Just with a lot more secrecy

    • @eadweard.
      @eadweard. 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Are you in a position to guarantee such a thing?

    • @tootallforyou112
      @tootallforyou112 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      @eadweard. I know people who are. Unfortunately I can't identify them for obvious reasons.

    • @eadweard.
      @eadweard. 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@tootallforyou112 People will just have to take your word for it it.

    • @tootallforyou112
      @tootallforyou112 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      @@eadweard. unless you want someone to die yes

    • @eadweard.
      @eadweard. 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@tootallforyou112 You see funny things on the Internet but "Believe me unless you want people to die" is a new one.

  • @danielsantiagourtado3430
    @danielsantiagourtado3430 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +8

    Keep the videos coming

  • @MilesBellas
    @MilesBellas หลายเดือนก่อน

    Fascinating episode......it is essential to tell the truth.

  • @swlak516
    @swlak516 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Chilling episode.

  • @unkemptjargon91
    @unkemptjargon91 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    The Earth King has invited to Lake Loagai...

  • @jamesprice9139
    @jamesprice9139 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

    I love that the comments are flooded with ATLA jokes, made 1000 times funnier by the fact that Simon has probably never heard of it 😂

  • @Thelastborder
    @Thelastborder 19 วันที่ผ่านมา

    Great doc , thanks

  • @corporateck6900
    @corporateck6900 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Anyone got a list of all this mans channels? God damn legend.

  • @jethawk9941
    @jethawk9941 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

    Forced labor and slavery is still very prevalent in China thanks to the ccp

  • @sophiev1900
    @sophiev1900 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +7

    After watching the Decoding the Unknown video on Holocaust deniers, I can’t help but wonder why no (to my knowledge) people that have survived atrocities like this have ever denied this happens? Before anyone thinks I’m comparing these atrocities, I’m not. Not in the slightest. I’m only questioning why people are selective on what they believe and what they “think” actually happened.
    When I say ‘atrocities’ I mean all instances of genocide across the world. There are far more than my mind can comprehend.

    • @sknkwrksowner
      @sknkwrksowner 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      It's a hot take that will get 'unpleasant' reactions but I'm going to say it all the same. I think it was more about WHO the Holocaust effected than anything. Without going into what country did what and when, there was no other period in global history where genocide was acted out on a race of true Caucasians. Upto today, the closes that we've seen this again was former Soviet bloc countries (Bosnia, etc) and the UN, etc., stepped in immediately. All of the other places of genocide have been in countries whose citizens would be considered impoverished or third world (Rwanda, etc) and are politically ruled by dictatorships dressed up as Communist or Socialist Republics. These are dismissed as religious or civil political war actions within those countries. The Holocaust was multiple countries and the only notable violent action within Caucasians. The majority of those denying it are a small minority of Caucasians.

    • @sophiev1900
      @sophiev1900 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      I’d say that’s a fair point to make @@sknkwrksowner . Never thought of it that way.

    • @gamerjaqi7873
      @gamerjaqi7873 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Remember the Chinese hate the Japanese for what was done to their people. Then they do the same to their own people. Just instead of rape, murder and grizzly medical experiments it’s work camps, starvation and murder.

    • @jimb9063
      @jimb9063 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      @@sknkwrksowner I'd say a far more important factor concerning how the Holocaust was and is remembered is who did it and what else was going on at the time, not necessarily who it was done to.
      The people who it was done to had faced similar on and off persecution throughout Europe for centuries, the difference being the scale of it, which could be achieved with 20th C technology only. It was not the first time by any means.
      I don't know what your definition of a "true" Caucasian is, sounds like a get out clause to me (no true Scotsman vibes), but wouldn't you say that Armenians at least are Caucasian too?

  • @raynardhymen2139
    @raynardhymen2139 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    You're spoiling us today 😅

  • @js8971
    @js8971 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    How upsetting and depressing.... What one person does to another for control.

  • @mairiconnell6282
    @mairiconnell6282 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

    Oh Liu how you suffered. No words can express how you have your life has been affected by this doctrine. I hope your pillow is soft now.

  • @obioraabiakam1604
    @obioraabiakam1604 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

    😳🤯🙁 My faces this whole video......

  • @FluxDeimos
    @FluxDeimos 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    This one was hard to finish

  • @adamadkins9210
    @adamadkins9210 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    This one had to be demonetized, unless Simon and company get a pass others don't.

  • @acmelka
    @acmelka 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

    These days are coming back with Mao 2.0. the terminology of these times are back. The little vlogger girl who sung along sing songy humming with the national anthem disappeared and when she was heard of again it was one message of 'i will re educate myself and engage in rigouros self criticism

    • @MsJubjubbird
      @MsJubjubbird 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      The Uighur people are not allowed to leave their house without their phone so they can be tracked. And if they spend time talking to a person of I treat, they get a text from the government that says to stay away from that person or they will be sent for "re education"

  • @stephaneperron727
    @stephaneperron727 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +8

    Sounds how a lot of corporations and big companies operate to this day.

    • @josephgriffin2388
      @josephgriffin2388 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Thanks for the REDICULOUS, UNTRUE comparison!!
      "C'mon man, the A-BOMB is no worse than napalm!!"
      ....kinda sounds a bit like you.

    • @FT4Freedom
      @FT4Freedom 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Corporate rule is single party mono culture. Compliance is essential to life. It's why Americans are soft today.

    • @goodnightmyprince6734
      @goodnightmyprince6734 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Temu

  • @somedandy7694
    @somedandy7694 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    I had no idea the creators of Avatar: The Last Airbender were so plugged into history.
    Monk Giatzo, Lake Laogai. I wonder what else they coded in?

  • @Laeiryn
    @Laeiryn 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    The description of struggle sessions is exactly what's done in those 'straighten out your kid' camps...

  • @MsJubjubbird
    @MsJubjubbird 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    I imagine this still exists in some form.under a different name

  • @jontaedouglas7244
    @jontaedouglas7244 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +10

    I’m pretty sure Uyghur Muslims are still experiencing this

  • @farhanatoerien3437
    @farhanatoerien3437 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    Absolutely sickening

  • @rudejase
    @rudejase 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

    Living up to the name 'The Red Menace'

  • @fpc8700
    @fpc8700 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Oh Simon.....you are gonna get so much flak for this video. But thank you, it IS worth it !

  • @scottnrick
    @scottnrick 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

    Woooo

  • @coltonBigblood0045
    @coltonBigblood0045 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

    -200 social credit for simon lol

  • @user-wb6go8ff8s
    @user-wb6go8ff8s 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    Been watching your content for years and I’d say this one is very well made and very well said

  • @oxylepy2
    @oxylepy2 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    In before the mass reporting.

  • @MrApw2011
    @MrApw2011 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    While we are all aghast at stories like this, if we could truly empathize and feel what they felt/feel, we'd all be doing something about this. Both the convicted and the witnesses all become desensitized and it just seems like a ghastly story. This is why we walk by homeless people sleeping on the concrete and do nothing and in some cases even blame them, same as the family of the man who tried to return home. You only get one life to live and imagine if you were a slave of any sort and what that means to all the potential and experience those persons could have had.

  • @xeroterragoth1866
    @xeroterragoth1866 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

    This is one of many reasons I could never support any president who even JOKES about being a dictator.

  • @Googledeservestodie
    @Googledeservestodie 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +17

    My grandpa was in a similar camp in Vietnam after the war (arvn soldier). All day being told to memorize quotations from communists readings and then going outside to break rocks and build roads. Grandpa was always a book nerd, so memorizing quotes wasn't hard at all, but let's just say he didn't feel very reeducated at the end. Did drive him to alcoholism though.

  • @nomadbehappy1808
    @nomadbehappy1808 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

    I keep seeing people making comments about Canadian war crimes. Can you make it Into the Shadows about The war crimes that the Canadians did to shape the Geneva convention?!

  • @Jebbtube
    @Jebbtube 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

    Gyatso was a survivor?
    Starting to think the people who made Avatar TLA knew more about China than we thought.

  • @thatsrealroughbud...2394
    @thatsrealroughbud...2394 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I didn’t know what the “struggle sessions” Contrapoints kept on advocating for were. Really puts her in a different lens seeing how she sees them as a positive thing…

  • @tnima95
    @tnima95 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I’m incredibly grateful my dad and his family were able to escape from Tibet, survive as refugees in India and eventually make it to America. But I cry for my Tibetan brothers and sisters - the chances are that people in my family tree suffered such an engineered hell, and possibly maybe currently live through it… learning these details and statistics is gonna make it hard to sleep tonight. With much respect, thank you for making this video. The world needs to know.

  • @PlutoIsntReal_
    @PlutoIsntReal_ 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +26

    Every communist philosopher forgot to count in human nature 😭

    • @GrievousReborn
      @GrievousReborn 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      Yep human nature is why communism will never work because humans are inherently greedy

  • @Hudsoncolo
    @Hudsoncolo 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

    He finally found a subject that he couldn’t blame on the USA.

  • @timbo5053
    @timbo5053 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    This should be compulsory viewing in western countries schools.