10/10/24 - The internet is the biggest source of democracy, security cameras are the biggest source of justice.
“Real story, guys.
Girl from a normal family, real pretty so she got a second-generation politician boyfriend [basically like a trust fund brat, but instead of having a rich dad, you have a high-ranking government official dad]. One day, her boyfriend called her out to a hotel for a date, so she dressed up all nice and went. After she got there, she found that it wasn’t just her boyfriend there, but a couple of other trust fund brats.
And her boyfriend gang raped her with all his friends. The girl fought back as hard as she could, screamed for help, but nobody came. She ran out of the hotel room naked into the corridor and got pulled back into the room. A lot of guests were alarmed and some people filmed it on their phones for evidence.
Later on, she sued her boyfriend, and the judge ruled that the case didn’t constitute rape or gang rape, so she lost the case.
She had to resort to the court of public opinion in her appeals to manage to flip the case. Dunno how many years those trust fund brats got sentenced to.
Why do I tell this story? Because I’ve been seeing a lot of gossip lately. Some netizens who think they have a lot of life experience is always arrogantly telling the victim, “If you think your rights were violated, go call the polite. Go take it to court. Why expose all this on the internet? Aren’t you defaming the other side?”
Some people saying this are just naive, some are young, some are dumb, and some are just evil.
Calling the police or suing does absolutely nothing for a lot of cases. They’ll either muddy the waters and not do anything, or punish both sides equally, or even worse, just outright protect the criminals. It’s only when the victim has nowhere else to go, no one else to turn to, that they take things to the internet. If they had any other option at all, nobody would want to expose themselves to all kinds of judgement on the internet. Because once you expose things on the internet, there’ll be people saying all sorts of shit. There’s a big market out there for victim blaming.
I’ve always been a proponent that the internet is the biggest platform for democracy in China.
It’s only when things are exposed on the internet that we get to see these monsters in the light of day. That’s the only reason they might hesitate at all before hurting somebody. It’s one more layer of security for peasants like you or me.”
Comments say, “Without the internet, we would be in eternal night. The internet is the biggest source of democracy, security cameras are the biggest source of justice. A phone means that everyone has a platform to speak.”
“A lot of people can’t even afford to sue. A couple of days ago, someone asked me for advice. Said that his company owed him 100K, and I said that the Department of Labour won’t help because they didn’t have an employment contract. He said that the fees for suing added up to almost 8K and he couldn’t afford it. China is too big. Most people are living hard lives.”
“That’s horrible…victims who have to resort to this to punish the culprits will often suffer a second round of harm at the hands of public opinion. She’s hurt her enemies by hurting her already tattered body.”
“185cm super hot employee lied but I don’t want to fire him (advice please).
Yesterday, a customer complained that there was curly hair in their fried chicken. I saw a notification from my store system that someone wasn’t wearing their hair net, so I opened up the security camera and there was the evidence, clear as day. I asked in the group chat yesterday, and everyone swore they were wearing a hair net, but on the security camera, he wasn’t wearing his hair net or his gloves. Do I need to fire dishonest employees like this? But he’s just too hot. 185cm, fair-skinned, abs…I don’t want to fire him. What should I do?”
Comments say, “Then keep him. It’s only one complaint anyways.”
“Do you offer the same privileges to pretty female employees?”
“Fire him. If you like him, you can take him home. Don’t keep him in your stores to disgust other customers.”
“After my second baby, does my first one still love me?
I’m taking care of the baby alone at night. I asked him to be quieter when he shuts the door, because the baby wakes very easily and he’s really hard to put down. But my older son was like, “That’s not my problem. You asked for this.” He even said really harshly, “Don’t bring this up again.”
His words and actions made me feel unprecedented disappointment and coldness. The exhaustion I feel in my heart far surpasses the exhaustion of my body.
Is this still the son that was so close to me, that saw me as the centre of his world? I reflected on myself and realised my mistake—putting too much focus on his grades and ignoring everything else. Trying to control him too much. For the longest time, we were in a very codependent relationship, and now, he’s went from one extreme to the other. This is a tragedy of my education.”
OP shows her text exchange with her older son:
OP: “Your brother is a light sleeper and wakes really easily. When you open the door to come out, could you do it slowly and gently so it doesn’t make too big of a noise? You might not notice, but over here, the sound is really loud. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.”
OP: “I’ve spent all night putting him to sleep. I’m so exhausted. You need to shower and rest too.”
Son: “You fucking had him on your own. What the fuck kind of business is it of mine? You asked for this. It’s not my fault. See what happens if you say shit like this again.”
Comments say, “Thank you for your understanding and cooperation? If I hadn’t read your post before, I’d think this was a text from apartment management.”
“What you sent to him was so detached and official. There’s no closeness or love in it at all. Of course your kid feels emotionally ignored.”
“If you have a child, you need to figure out how to love him, and not keep demanding that he love you.”
“This coworker in my company had been working there a little over two years, and around July of 2022, she suddenly announced she was quitting.
I was pretty shocked, because she was pregnant at the time, with a due date at the end of September. If she kept working another month or two, she could’ve gotten child subsidies.
It’s not like the child subsidy comes out of the company anyways. It’s something she’s entitled to. I fully support all our employees taking the subsidy instead of quitting as soon as they get pregnant.
She said she couldn’t do it because her MIL wouldn’t let her—insisted that she had to quit because she was so far along, and it was too dangerous. What if she bumped into something and went into premature labour?
I was like, “It’s not like you just got pregnant today. She wasn’t worried before but she’s worried now all of a sudden?”
She said that her MIL would pay her the same money anyways, so she doesn’t care.
She’s insisting on quitting, so there’s nothing I can do about it. She handed her work off and that was that.
Another year later, around July 2023, she called me about some paperwork and we chatted again.
She said she was close to depression. Her MIL refused to let her hire a nanny, saying you can’t trust strangers with your kid. Her MIL does chores around the house and she takes care of the baby.
I was like, “You’re honestly better off working. A is working now, and she feel like coming to work is like taking a break compared to minding the baby.”
She said she couldn’t do it. Her MIL wouldn’t let her. It’s too embarrassing to have a DIL who goes out and works.
But her MIL doesn’t give her money either. She just spends money on the baby and never gives my coworker any money.
She doesn’t have any money, so she has to ask for it from her parents and her husband.
It’s a little easier to ask her parents, but her husband gets annoyed every time she asks. He’s annoyed that she’s constantly nagging. He’s annoyed that the baby is crying or clingy. He’s moved out to his other house just to get some peace and quiet. She hasn’t seen him for a week now.
But maybe not seeing him is a good thing, because she asked her husband to come home and mind the baby before, and after just ten minutes, her husband got so annoyed at the baby for crying that he hit the baby.
She felt bad and tried to stop him and her husband hit her too. And afterwards, he was like, “You guys forced me to do this! I have a great temper! But if you keep pushing me, you never know what I can do!”
She told me that throughout the first two trimesters of pregnancy, her MIL acted like she didn’t even know anything was different. She just kept working as normal. And in the third trimester, her MIL just absolutely insisted she had to quit, that she was like their family’s great panda.
Now she realised that there’s no telling if a pregnancy would even last in the first trimester, so her MIL didn’t care. If she got bumped in the second trimester, she might not be able to keep the baby either, so there’s no need to spend money on it.
The third trimester is different though. It’d be fine if she was around her due date anyways, but if she got bumped at a stage where the baby can survive but it would cost a lot of money, that’d be a huge hassle.
She complained a lot to me and then said she had to go take care of the baby and she’ll chat when she’s free again. And that was the last time we spoke to each other.
Yesterday, I saw she posted a family photo to her social media. Her husband was holding the baby and she had a big stomach again. And the caption read, “Worried the baby will get lonely so it’s time to get a sibling loot box.”
Fine. I guess she loves it.”
Comments say, “Having a second baby so soon? Is her first baby a girl?”
“Some people suffer because they deserve it.”
“Holy crap, I just don’t get it. If you’re so unahppy with one baby, how would you dare to have a second? She’s already feeling upset, but she’s still trapped by traditional values. She can’t get out of her bindings herself, so she have to live in hell for the rest of her life. I feel bad for them, but I guess it’s a good warning for me too.”
“Village clinics are so brave with medicine.
I got a cold, and I already spent 2000+ on it in Beijing. Went back to my home village, and the village clinic doctor said he can guarantee he can cure me in 3 days. And all of this only cost me 45 RMB.”
Comments say, “Doctor here. Let me explain. Hospitals aren’t going to give you as much antibiotics and anti-inflammatories as you want, because there’s policies restricting them. And the reason for that is antibiotics and anti-inflammatories is bad for long-term health management. Take a big dose today, and you’ll build up more and more resistance, until you’ve created bacteria that’s super resistant to medicine and nothing can help you anymore.”
“Did he just give you a handful of candy and M&Ms?”
“This metaphor is probably easier to understand. Proper hospitals: slowly heals HP. Village clinics: Instant full heal + reduce max HP.”