The Joke

For John, BLUF:  .  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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China has fallen into a psycho-political funk

Here is the sub-headline:

Fragile consumer confidence is just one sign of a malaise that is not merely economic

From The Financial Times, by Reporter James Kynge, 11 August 2023.

Here is the lede plus three:

Sly, Soviet-style jokes are enjoying a subtle revival on Chinese social media platforms.  Their art resides in being too obscure for censors to understand yet clear enough for cynics to chuckle at their mockery.

Some are so esoteric that their satire is confirmed only by the censors’ decision to delete them — echoing the cat-and-mouse dynamic that distinguished dissident humour in the former Soviet Union.  One joke this week monitored by the China Digital Times, a US-based site that covers Chinese affairs, belonged to this genre.

It read:

While out and about on vacation, I stubbed my toe on something. Upon closer inspection, I saw it was a bronze lamp.  It was smudged, so I picked it up and gave it a good wipe — and out popped a genie!  The genie said it could grant me any wish. ‘Is that so?’ I said.  ‘Well then, could you make you-know-who you-know-what?’  No sooner had the words escaped my lips than the genie rushed over, clamped my mouth shut, and asked:  ‘Are we even allowed to say that?’

The author’s account appears to have been shut down after the joke was deleted.

I hope we are not headed down the path of a humorless social credit society.  That would be the end of open capitalism and the economic growth we need to give everyone a chance to achieve their best.  It likely would be the end of open worship of one's God.

Let us, as a society, accept that some people will be wrong, but the advantage to society of free inquiry requires we accept such people as our brothers and sisiters, even if they reject us.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff