I don’t know or care what Chinese internal media is reporting — this is a significant story in the U.S. that is getting less play than it should. It’s an ecological disaster with potentially significant health concerns, and likely involves corporate negligence as well as a failure of governance by both political parties who recently forced rail workers back to work despite complaints related to possible causes of this derailment (and others).
The spy/balloon thing is way less significant and has been ongoing by both sides for years or even decades if my understanding is correct.
> It’s an ecological disaster with potentially significant health concerns
Counterpoint, we deal with hazardous chemical spills all the time, especially when you factor in all of the semi crashes that don't make headlines. There is a very robust set of clean up procedures set aside for these chemicals ahead of time, and they are being followed. What we are watching now are the automatic precautions of our system kicking in as intended - like taking soil and water samples and testing air quality.
The system is working as intended - we only think it's a disaster because we are being told it is on social media. And often the evidence of the system working is being used to argue it's not.
Outsider efforts that seek to undermine these efforts or make big deals of the mundane should be taken with a grain of salt for the same reason ballot recounts shouldn't be proof that our election process is broken.
You must live on another planet if you think we have a good record on cleaning up hazardous spills, in an era where oil wells that can't be plugged continue to bleed into our oceans. Most cleanup operations are matters of triage, we almost never are able to undo the damage, in the best case scenarios, ecosystems are able to recover over time, but in many places, ecological damage might as well be permanent. Entropy is not to be trifled with.
I mean, I live near the Hanford nuclear site. Despite the unseen horrors this patch of land has seen, people continue to grow food in the area and live to ripe old ages.
For sure, I don't really know how much continued damage the gulf spill might have caused. But I have been swimming in the Caribbean since the spill and didn't particularly worry about it anymore at the time.
As far as I am concerned, if the Chinese state is pushing a grassroots recognition of this event that could lead to accountability and improved safety practices, then they are doing us a public service.
And the fact that it was "liked" by Chinese people silently used to imply that it's obviously evil. It may be that Chinese people are not stupid, and that the Chinese government has no desire to censor the smart things that Chinese people say that are also supportive of China.
I've seen a ton of people acting like one of these events was intended to cover up the other. Usually people saying that the balloon shoot-downs were entirely manufactured and/or overblown to distract from the train derailment. I don't think that's likely... I think they're just both interesting stories happening at the same time, but the media can only have one "top story". The balloon stuff is fantastical and geopolitical, the toxic release is fantastical and environmental.
I mean thats being pushed onto the Chinese domestic population, probably to drown out any coverage of the balloons for them. Maybe its bleeding over to US media but I suspect its more propaganda for them than a concerted propaganda effort for foreign audiences.
I don't think that's what he's saying - but rather that Chinese-controlled media is blowing this out of proportion to distract you from the chinese spy balloon story (reserving judgment whether this is actually the case - it's plausible, but would still be surprising - I just think that's what OP is trying to say, not that the balloon itself had anything to do with the derailment).
I understand his intended message, I was just being snarky, which I accept is crappy of me and against the guidelines. Just tired of the mindless xenophobia and American exceptionalism despite the US being objectively one of the most, if the the most, problematic countries on the planet.
The UK and the BBC have a long history of being lackeys for the American war machine [0], there's been ongoing tension between the UK/BBC and China for years [1], and American and UK intelligence agencies work very closely together and have made joint anti-China remarks increasingly often.[2]
Lastly, despite the exact link being BBC, it's also pushed plenty by American media outlets.
