Apples And Oranges

The Chinese media are trying to compare the case of the homeless man in New York who was pushed or fell in front of a subway train while people watched in horror with Yue Yue, the little girl who was hit by two different cars in the middle of a small but populated street while no one gave a shit. The Chinese point of view is that Chinese people are better than imperialist Americans because Americans also stand idly by and watch their own get run over.

For reasons known only to the Chinese and people who understand that the easiest way for the Chinese to show that they are not horrible people is to point out horrible things done by other people, subway tracks buried and barricaded underground are the same thing as a small surface road, and ten 42-ton trains are the same as two 800cc blue trucks. The Chinese media will never point out that picking a small child up from a small road and taking her to safety is not nearly as dangerous as jumping in front of a moving train and grabbing some homeless dude. Most Americans will never jump in front of a moving train to save an adult. Neither will most people in any country in the world. Neither would I. Every single American, and most people on this planet, would have picked up Yue Yue.

And, no, a little Chinese girl is not the same as some homeless guy in New York. Yue Yue did not choose to be born a girl in China. Destiny fucked her over on that one. Homeless adults in New York made questionable choices to get where they are. Like it or not, they could change their circumstances far more easily than a Chinese female can become a European male. It seems to be completely lost on the Chinese media that adults are required by common decency to help small children in danger. In our live and let die society, adults are on their own.

The Chinese media tell us that Americans do not give a shit about homeless people. This is true. The homeless in New York are invisible, just as they are every place I have ever been. Just as they are in China. The communist Chinese ideology of robbing from the rich to feed the poor has long since been replaced with the capitalist Chinese ideology of robbing from everyone to feed the rich. The homeless population in China is increasing as communist China becomes more capitalist. There may be a culture somewhere in the world where homeless people are not invisible, but I have never been there.

The Chinese media point to a court case in 2006 where a Chinese judge punished a good Samaritan for helping a stranger in trouble, as good Samaritans are wont to do. This, they say, is the reason Chinese people are selfish assholes and will willingly walk by a small child who is about to be killed. Anyone who knows anything about the Chinese id or basic sociology or group psychology or common sense can tell you that the Chinese masses were not selfless and compassionate in 2005 and suddenly became selfish assholes in 2006. The entire culture did not change its way of thinking after some minor court case that no one ever heard anything about until it was used as an excuse to stand idly by and watch a small child get run over. This was a selfish culture long before 2006.

Americans are also selfish, though not nearly on such an advanced level as the Chinese. But the homeless dude in New York did not die because of selfishness. It is not selfish to not jump in front of a moving train. One would have to be very brave to do so. Or very stupid, depending on the outcome. Only a coward would let a little girl die in the middle of a small street.