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PaperclipPerfector  6d ago (text post)   2913 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for June 14, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Why Tianamen is such a big deal for China? I have read almost everything there is about it - and it is just meh. Compared to Prague Spring or the Hungarian events, it was peanuts. Especially on China's scale.

In what sense?

Why'd they crack down so hard? Why is it still held up as a pivotal moment in Chinese history or why is it censored perse?

About the censorship. When it comes to massacres it barely even qualifies as one. So no reason to be ashamed or somehting.

I think there's a bit of a self-perpetuating loop where the outside world making such a deal of it means that there's more desire to quash it, plus having violent crackdown happening in the absolute center of the country in a way that the powers that be almost instantaneously regretted means less willingness to go over it. China also seems quite happy to crack down on navel-gazing/revisionist history stuff to stop it gaining steam, and better to absolutely prohibit topics. A lot of Chinese senior leadership is very scarred by the Cultural Revolution (since they were the 20-30 year old children of higher-ups who got sent to the countryside) and thus try their utmost to stop popular movements gaining steam.

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