Jerykk

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Comments to Jerykk

oritteropo says...

It comes back to the question of who gets to choose? In your opinion Falun Gong is harmless but that is clearly not the opinion of the Chinese Government. So should it be you who chooses whether an organisation should be outlawed? How about me?

As a thought experiment, suppose we say that the U.S. government should request their diplomats to tell China to lay off the Falun Gong dudes because they're OK really... what do you think they will be told when they say this?

I completely agree that comparing Falun Gong to rape or theft is ridiculous, but comparing it to, say, running an on-line poker operation, some drug offenses, public nudity, or similar activities is a fair comparison. In each case the activity has no violence, no victim, and is against the law... but who chose which activities were legislated against and which were permitted?

Jerykk said:

People in U.S. prisons aren't always there for violent crimes, that is correct. However, they are in there for other crimes like theft, burglary, rape, molestation, etc. Comparing those crimes to the practice of Falun Gong is ridiculous and it's even more ridiculous to compare China's treatment of Falun Gong practitioners to the U.S. imprisonment of thieves and rapists.

If the U.S. suddenly decided to ban Islam and put all Muslims in prison camps, your comparisons would be justified. As it stands, they are just silly because they completely ignore what Falun Gong actually is and why it's being banned by the Chinese government.

oritteropo says...

You actually ignored the weaker parts of my argument.

If a history of violence against military and civilian targets is your grounds for banning an organisation, does that mean you want the Republican party banned for attacking a civilian news organisation, or military targets? How about the Democratic Party for essentially the same thing?

Who gets to choose when violence is justified?

Should the U.S. get to choose for everybody, including the 95.5% of the world population who are not U.S. citizens?

Claiming that an organisation is non-violent is not sufficient to prove innocence. It is quite possible to get a lengthy stay in prison in the U.S. for non-violent activities, such as online gaming, and in fact although I take the statistic with a grain of salt I have seen it claimed that 60% of U.S. prisoners are in prison for non-violent reasons. The number of U.S. prisoners (730 per 100,000) is in fact far higher than Chinese prisoners (121 per 100,000) by such a large percentage that the total prison population in the U.S. is higher than China despite having only about one third the total population (I hasten to point out that things have improved slightly since 2008, but my point stands).

BTW, don't get the idea that I have anything against the U.S., because I don't. I just don't accept that it is the bastion of freedom and that China is the evil empire.

Jerykk said:

Except the reasons behind the bans are completely significant. Hamas wasn't banned because of ideological differences. It was banned because the organization has a history of violence against both military and civilian targets. Conversely, Falun Gong was banned because it went against the status quo and China was threatened by its growing popularity. There has never been a case of someone committing violence in the name of Falun Gong.

There's no reason to put quotes around "security" or "public order" when referring to the reasoning behind the Hamas ban because those reasons are historically justified.

oritteropo says...

Ah ha! Someone is awake

The organisations are very different, but both have been banned by at least one major power's government, for reasons of "security" or "public order".

I wasn't judging either organisation on its merits, only that it had been banned.

Jerykk said:

Wait, wait, wait, did you just compare Falun Gong to Hamas? Hamas, a violent resistance movement with a history of deadly attacks against both military and civilian targets? Falun Gong is a spiritual discipline about bettering oneself and attaining spiritual enlightenment. Being a member of Hamas is in no way similar to practicing Falun Gong.

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