So late stage communism is the same as late stage capitalism. Toilet paper for me but not for thee.
this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2025
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It’s just capitalism.
Funny, everyone perceives China to be some socialist giant. I just spent a week there and it's more capitalist and consumer centric than anything I've ever seen. Certainly more than Singapore, USA, UK. All the brands x all the shopping. It's not a tourist spot, it's a shopping experience.
I'm here right now and can confirm, shopping is great here. Also, the McDonald's grilled chicken sandwich needs to come to America.
Yep. My Chinese colleagues hobbies were shopping and shopping.
You've always paid for TP in China. At least now there's a way to get it for free. I see this as an improvement.
Yeah i came to say this. There's no toilet paper in most of China. Some fancier shops may have it but most don't. Even McDonald's in China doesn't have toilet paper most of the time.
On one hand, the government can absolutely afford to piss money away on stolen toilet rolls or whatever. On the other hand, this locking-down only happened because some people couldn't be trusted and did the stealing in the first place. If everyone had respect for public amenities this likely wouldn't have happened
It's the old people. They still remember famine and live like they're going to go without any day now. Honestly how randomly china manages stuff the old people are probably right.
Sounds like a job for looBlock Origin or a PeeHole.
The advertisers demand to view any generated log.
It's either that or you have to pay for the shit tickets. Program is called "feces or see fees."
Feces or watch shit.
LOOOL
Very socialism much Marx wow
Please wipe verification ass to continue
If only we had something shitty and easily spreadable at hand that could be applied to the screen on order to inconvenience the operator of the extortion device.
"Combining the worst of Socialism and Capitalism"
Coming to you from the country where HOAs are funded by ad monitors installed in almost every elevator in commercial/residential high-rises, and public restrooms (even in the hospital!) never stock toilet paper because "people will steal it" (not joking)? Color me surprised...
Don't forget no hand soap in the hospitals.
Don't remind me that... I was taking a stool sample at a Chinese hospital just 2-3 months ago (allegedly the best hospital in China, btw); my Americanized brain was not able to handle... what I had to do to
When will people learn that any advertising that occurs during extortion like this is the focal point of hate and fear?
This is like anti-advertising.
They count on you recognising the brand name and eventually forgetting why.
farts
"Mmm, I should buy some Nikes"
It's not "they count", it's a working conversion. Which is why it's being stuffed everywhere.
Recognition absolutely trumps everything. You'll be more suspicious of a noname good thing looking good and cheap than of recognizable bad thing looking bad and expensive.
In store:
Clerk: "Well, then... I'd guide you to ShinyBrand. They tick all the marks for what you're looking for and...
Customer: aren't those the guys that made me watch a 7 minute unskippable ad, when I was in town on a public toilet suffering a spontaneous and explosive diarrhea, while waiting for a new piece of toilet paper to wipe my sore ass from all that shit?!
There's been countless studies on this. That's not how our brains work. After the short term, or a scant few outstanding ones that stay with you, the only thing left long term is the brand recognition. That steers your choices when you buy things.
Put simply, people don't have the mental capacity to keep a full list of every company that advertised to them in a shitty way in the front of their minds constantly, beside everything else required for daily life.
The solution to putting ads in bathrooms is that they can be easily defaced.
Unless China is crazy enough to record their people in the bathroom, which I wouldn't put past them.
It's been a while since I've been to China. But even in the 2000s it was not uncommon to have to pay for toilet paper at a vending machine. Not at all public facilities but the more local you went, the fewer tourists would be there, the more this happens. So getting roll for watching an ad is an improvement.
And as the article points out, they cannot have nice things, i.e. free sandpaper toilet roll, because people will just steal it. I feel like this becomes exponentially less dystopian when you frame it as you can either have no paper at all or watch the ad/pay for it.
And there is another cultural difference. The Chinese are more like the Romans when it comes to these bodily functions. Much more willing to take care of it communally or at a hole in the ground surrounded by a thigh high "modesty" barrier. So asking an attendant for extra roll is something that the majority of Chinese would have less of a problem with, I think.
i.e. free sandpaper toilet roll, because people will just steal it.
So they call it socialism but have no working social safety net?
Not necessarily true. You're guaranteed work and a minimum wage and if you're disabled government will take care of you. Also basic healthcare is basically free. Things like electricity and telecom are subsidized too. But no, it's definitely not a socialist utopia. It's oppressive and censored and restrictive. Hyper consumerism is the norm.
You have inadvertently hit the nail on the head. They just call it socialism. There are several shades of poverty, for different reasons. One shade is due to the fact that a lot of services, like welfare, education, and medical, are only available to you in your hometown, probably the one you were born in. But if you have migrated from bf nowhere Gansu province to a big city where the jobs are, you rid yourself of that safety net. It's hard/costly to change this hometown registration so most don't and become quasi undocumented workers in their own country. And they are the ones who work insane hours in shitty and dangerous work conditions and it's then who will look for anything to save a yuan.
I had a rural hukou so I couldn't go to public school in a city. There was like this "private" school which mean money out of pocket and is supposedly worse than the public schools (its opposite of the US, where private schools are better), and thats where I went to school for the grade 1 and 2.
And there is another cultural difference. The Chinese are more like the Romans when it comes to these bodily functions. Much more willing to take care of it communally or at a hole in the ground surrounded by a thigh high “modesty” barrier.
What lol?
I don't think so?
I don't think so, I have witnessed so.
This is an improvement. A lot just don't have any paper at all because they are afraid people will steal it and bring it home
But China is still communist!
This movement paves the way for their transition to commodeism.
Western propaganda
I've been to China many times, and this is arguably the least offensive TP situation.
You've always had to pay for TP in China. Free toilet paper in public restrooms is exceedingly rare. Same with hand soap. So honestly this is an improvement. The west got this one right I'm afraid.
Wouldn't people use tissues and cause pipe blockage in the long run?
My sweet summer child. Oh how green you are. You put the poopy paper in the poopy paper bucket next to the hole in the floor that you squat over and pray you hit the hole. You also put the poopy paper in the poopy paper bucket next to your toilet at home.
I have declared war on all toilet based advertising
Tell ya what. You're about to get half of my handkerchief and we'll call it even.
Good thing I always have my multi-tool with me.
Poop knife?
Poop knifes are the shit.
I would start the ad, fish my shit out of the toilet, and smear it across the screen so I wouldn't have to watch it.