This is kind of a pointless statement when you make it that broadly. Are you talking about life in North Korea or in China?
And do you think American media really distorts the "other" side more than Chinese or Russian media distorts what life in the west is like?
> And do you think American media really distorts the "other" side more than Chinese or Russian media distorts what life in the west is like?
having lived for a long time in both china and america: yes. chinese people are given a much more accurate view of life in america than americans are given an accurate view of life in china
thats why there was that meme going around earlier this year when tik tok people joined rednote that said americans were shocked to learn their media was lying about how bad chinese people had it, while chinese people were shocked to learn their media was telling the truth about how bad americans had it
A quarter of their population doesn’t even have Internet access.
that's simply false. according to cnnic, china has 1.267 billion monthly active users of mobile internet services. that's 89.9% of the population, and about 10% of china is over 70 years old which is very likely a big percentage of the people who arent using the internet
When I visited Shenzhen and then came back to the US recently, I felt like I went back in time 15 years.
I've been saying on HN for years that the commenters here should buy a ticket and go see China for themselves. It's extremely safe. Far safer than any American city/suburb. No, they're not going to detain you and send you to jail. They don't care about you. People are generally friendly even if you're from the US.
“Reminder: On Chinese social media platforms, please do not mention sensitive topics such as politics, religion and drugs!!!”
"Some Americans reported having their content blocked or accounts suspended for material deemed sensitive by RedNote, as content moderators control what the Chinese audience can see. A search on RedNote for Xi Jinping, China’s leader, comes up blank."
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2025/0129/Ameri...
It seems like the Chinese government works pretty hard to make sure its own citizens don't understand how bad things are in China. Maybe they fail at that but it isn't for lack of trying.
"It's hilarious to me that one side is sharing that Chinese people are convincing Americans that they've been fed propaganda about China, and the other side is saying that no, it's the Americans telling the Chinese that THEY are being fed all the propaganda! This is hilarious and dumb, but not as crazy as what happened on the Tiananmen Square in 1989!"
https://imgur.com/gallery/idea-that-bunch-of-americans-flood...
For all its faults I think I trust America's freedom of speech to make information available better. We should be diligent in protecting it as a principle because although the government is somewhat constrained by the first amendment, others are not.
America's freedom of speech is vulnerable to "flooding the zone". I don't have a good suggestion for fixing that, but I would say that as a result the average American is not any better informed than the average Chinese citizen, despite greater freedom of information.
I think the common US view of life in North Korea and China is probably about 90% distorted, more propaganda than reality.
I'm not vouching for any country, I'm just saying the public perception in the US is completely distorted.
I wouldn't be surprised if the Chinese had a slightly more realistic view of the US.
That's a reasonable take. I feel like China has such extreme ends of the spectrum, from the most modern cities to the most distant rural regions. It's hard to think of China in any sort of unified, whole way.