Just had a company event and out of nowhere they all started talking about ma freeze peach and how China is "literally 1984" and how we can see that our main conflicts nowadays are between "evil autocracy" and "democracy with western values where it could never happen that the press is lying". I had to bite my tongue so hard the entire time, which I think they noticed. In the end I just said that I don't want to provoke the inevitable world war 3 even more, which killed the mood hard lol.

It's so frustrating to be alone in a group of "intellectuals"... Especially if you need to stay civil to not get fired.

I know people are saying Shanghai is a shitshow because of the local government. But do you think it might have been a bad idea in general to deploy such a harsh policy in the country? (asking in good faith as someone who would not mentally survive such long lockdowns)