SerpentZA on China's misery and American greatness

South African-born SerpentZA (Winston Sterzel; ZA is a two-letter designation for South Africa) and his American buddy Laowhy86 (Matthew Tye; a laowai is a foreigner) are two Chinese-fluent dudes who lived in China for well over a decade and finally decided, after threats from internet trolls and authorities, that they'd had enough. They took their families and fled to the States, where they continue to vlog about China and Chinese affairs, exposing the ugly realities that the Chinese Communist Party is desperate to hide.

Two of SerpentZA's (pronounced it "serpent-zed-ey") videos are featured below. One is about the sheer misery of living in today's China; the other is about how good it is to live in America. Together, the two videos present a contrast in how the media will seek to misinform by downplaying problems in China while exaggerating problems in the States. SerpentZA admits that the US has problems, but they're not nearly as bad as foreign media (and US-based bad actors) claim. Life in the States is actually wonderful—which could be taken as a rebuke of both liberals and conversatives who see the current situation negatively. Meanwhile, SerpentZA is firm in his conviction that China is a hellhole for most of its citizens; the first video below shows the long lines of people applying for visas to move to America—day after day, waves of people trying to escape their current travails in order to live better lives. I was lucky to watch these videos one after the other and to immediately see the connection between them. Even though, chronologically, the second video below comes first, I'd recommend watching the vids in the order I'm showing them to you.

While I'm not convinced the US currently is as rosy a place as all that, I'm willing to consider that SerpentZA's argument has at least some merit. Even today, if the choice were between living in China and living in the States, I'd easily choose the States despite all of its problems. Even the US-based conservatives I watch on YouTube, the ones complaining about how shitty the country has become, seem to be in awfully good humor most of the time: whatever they may think about the big picture, their everyday lives can't be that awful. So yes: SerpentZA is probably right that the gloom-and-doomers are cherry-picking the images they show to present the US in the worst possible light, but meanwhile, in China, you have to cherry-pick images to present China in a good light. China is a curated artifice, a Potemkin country not far removed from the nightmare of places like North Korea.