Eastman Kodak issued an Instagram post featuring images of Xinjiang, a western Chinese region where the government of China has committed horrific human rights violations
The post promoted the work of French photographer Patrick Wack, who made several trips to Xinjiang in recent years and has collected his damning images—all shot on Kodak film— into a book. Kodak shared 10 of his images with its 839,000 Instagram followers. In the Kodak post and on his own Instagram account, Wack described his images as a visual narrative of Xinjiang’s “abrupt descent into an Orwellian dystopia” over the past five years.
Oh-oh! As the disgraceful U.S. complicity in China’s Wuhan virus cover-up (also Orwellian) has shown, you don’t dare call China’s brutal regime what it is or demand accountability. Chinese social media users attacked Kodak, but Kodak, staying true to American principles of freedom of expression and refusing to bend a knee to tyranny, held its ground as it continued to support Wack and his work.
KIDDING!
I was just messing with you…of course Kodak deleted the post and grovelled an apology for “any misunderstanding or offense” that it might have caused. China, you see, is a big market.
So while our corporate giants have no hesitation in bombarding the gullible with nostrums during “these difficult times,” and announce their fealty to #MeToo, “antiracism,” and Black Lives Matter to pander to various consumers, never think that they really care about anything but their global profits.
Capitalism confers many benefits on society, but courage, integrity, and ethical values are not among them, and never have been.
Caught! Momentarily you did fool me. Silly. A corporation caring about more than profit? Stupid, stupid.
(cue music) – “These are the moments of your li-i-fe” (abrupt descent into an Orwellian dystopia)
“Passivity is fatal to us. Our goal is to make the enemy passive.”– Mao Zedong (dead Chinese guy, before he was dead)
“China, you see, is a big market.”
A big market for what? Kodak barely exists as a functional company these days. They sold off nearly everything of value in their bankruptcy proceedings a few years ago. Who would be better situated to stand up to this nonsense than a company that has no products or customers?