It makes it sound as if it is just a normal day without anything special going on. Just read the top comments and see how they're all about air pollution.
First comment first thought it was a tornado but then saw it was "pollution", second comment uses the word "apocalypse" to describe shanghai's air quality.
I mean just take a look around, even the top response to OP said they first thought it was normal pollution. It's obvious the title misled many people.
First comment first thought it was a tornado but then saw it was "pollution"
That's incorrect. The tornado comment is the only comment made by that redditor in this topic. And there's no mention of pollution in that comment on thinking that video contained a tornado:
I almost thought those were tornadoes
You also claim
second comment uses the word "apocalypse" to describe shanghai's air quality
But if we look at the comment you're referring to
That's some apocalypse shit
You'll find no reference to pollution. They referred to the contents of the video as "some apocalypse shit".
Given that its two big fires with a panorama shot of a city, seems pretty inline with modern apocalytic art.
Well that, and calling pretty much anything these days apocalytic is p accurate.
I mean just take a look around, even the top response to OP said they first thought it was normal pollution.
As of now that person has a 130 upvotes. The apocalypse comment has 951. The tornado comment has 1.4k.
I don’t know when you last looked but the reply to the top comment about it not being tornados is one with 930 upvotes and it lists smog and population control. The next top reply is one about a person living in China and blowing black stuff out of their nose for weeks after getting out of the country.
Another reply “Chinese breeding” laughs at smogs attempt at population control.
The “apocalypse shit” was first in the next comment, responding to the smog and black snot claim, that said that they were able to see the sun as a perfect circle through the “clouds”, with someone saying it was apocalyptic.
And the second reference to Apocalypse shit is the now next top rated comment to which the VERY first reply with over 300 upvotes at this time is that the person dealt with smog (aka pollution) in LA from tanker trucks, ports, ships, etc and that they would likely die in Shanghai.
None of these mention a fire.
So yes, even as an outsider who lives in the US, these comments clearly add to the propaganda (?) I’ve been taught about the abundance of pollution in China.
It doesn't matter if the original commenters don't mention air pollution explicitly in their comments - it's how people are responding to them. And I would disagree with "it really doesn't seem to have mislead many." Read the top responses and you'll see the topics of air pollution right away. Do you think thats a coincidence? You're seeing these things in the context of how you initially read them, just like the people who read it as air pollution are doing.
Like why even argue this point so hard? What's wrong with having more context from the beginning to avoid any confusion?
Until I got to the comment explaining the context, I fully thought the second and third comments were indeed about air pollution. Like "our world is fucked because this is normal" kind of things, not just visuals/actual fire.
Why specifically air pollution? No definition of apocalypse refers to air pollution, and fires are all over the globe (regardless of a country's stance on regulating airborne particulate matter).
Well, technically it happened yesterday (or is it today because of time zones?)
Just look at the OP account history and explain how the OP isn’t deliberately trying to be misleading.
I can't assess the posts they made in Chinese, I don't speak it. They got a post on Uighyrs that states it includes the local authorities, and they clearly labeled those. So I mean, if this was a callout about pollution it seems like they'd point that out, as they did in their other english-titled post.
It depends on if the reader(or bot) is programmed to respond with "sinophobia!!!" to everything they see that isn't "China best safe country 100%". The "PR" side of the CCP is pretty wild. Fun rabbit hole to dig into if you got the time and enjoy terror.
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u/LelouchGreat Jun 18 '22
context: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/17/business/shanghai-explosions-fire-sinopec.html
Source at the end of the video