See I don’t find any of those arguments persuasive, and if someone is genuinely looking for rigorous critique they shouldn’t either.
The existence or non-existence of a refugee crisis is probably the strongest argument, but is easily challenged. “China’s control is just that powerful”, “The genocide is through authoritarian control and only limited state violence. So refugees aren’t necessarily present.”
As for the Muslim countries claim, there’s a lot of weird assumptions there. Primarily that state actors would give a shit about human rights abuses when it goes against their national interests to complain.
And finally, Zenz is a creep. Yeah some folks will find this persuasive, but it’s still a bad argument. A fallacy is a fallacy, if you’re talking to someone who cares about the weight of evidence they (and I) won’t give a shit about who he is unless you can demonstrate how his others beliefs affect how he interprets his research.
What weight of evidence? The studies use flawed methodology, the people involved have shown their bad faith. You can’t prove a negative, all you can do is discredit the evidence. People are always going to have a rejoinder which amounts to “I just know in my heart that China is evil”.
unless you can demonstrate how his others beliefs affect how he interprets his research.
He believes god sent him on a quest to destroy China, I’m pretty sure it affects how he interprets his research. He also works for the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, known CIA cutout IIRC.
He can believe all these things and still have a correct methodology with accurate data.
Yeah, but the methodology isn’t correct. For instance, there was a study that involved a lot of extrapolation from a small number of interviews, and people were regularly bringing that up as a criticism.
Also, regardless of what you think, Zenz being a nutcase does cast doubt on what he says and is a very convincing argument for many people.
Unless you can demonstrate how his work is flawed I don’t find it persuasive.
