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Comment by dtquad | Hacker News Reader

In Communist theoretical texts the term "propaganda" is not negative and Communists are encouraged to produce propaganda to keep up morale in their own ranks and to produce propaganda that demoralize opponents.

The recent wave of the average Chinese has a better quality of life than the average Westerner propaganda is an obvious example of propaganda aimed at opponents.

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Is it propaganda if it's true?

I haven't been to China since 2019, but it is pretty obvious that median quality of life is higher in the US. In China, as soon as you get out of Beijing-Shanghai-Guangdong cities you start seeing deep poverty, people in tiny apartments that are falling apart, eating meals in restaurants that are falling apart, and the truly poor are emaciated. Rural quality of life is much higher in the US.

> Rural quality of life is much higher in the US.

There’s a lot of rural poverty in the US and it’s hard to compare it to China in relative terms. And the thing is that rural poverty in the US has been steadily getting worse while in China getting better but starting off from a worse off position.

I agree with you that Chinese rural poverty is probably improving faster, but I'm not sure that rural poverty has been "steadily getting worse" in the US as you claim. This [1] page with data from the census bureau make it look like rural poverty goes in waves, with the recent local maximum in 2013 about half of the initial 1959 measurement.

But this is all confounded by definitions. China defines poverty to be an income of $2.30 per day, which corresponds to purchasing power parity of less than $9 per day in the US [2].

I wasn't exaggerating about emaciation: bones were visible.

[1] https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/rural-economy-population/rur...

[2] https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/PA.NUS.PPP?locations=CN

Well, in the US you have millions of foreigners and blacks who live in utter poverty, and sustain the economy, just like the farmers in China.

The fact that we have foreigners immigrating just to be poor here should tell you that its better here than where they came from. Conversely, no one is so poor in the USA that they are trying to leave.

Technically, as long as the aim/intent is to influence public opinion, yes. And most often it is less about being "true" or "false" and more about presenting certain topics in a one-sided manner or without revealing certain information that does not support what one tries to influence about. If you know any western media that does not do this, I would be very up to check and follow them, even become paid subscriber.

Yes. True propaganda is generally more effective too.

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