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eynsham | 1 year ago

No, ‘all’ is not subjective. My threshold for ‘any’ is one, and threshold for all is, well, all of them. My threshold for a majority is the usual one, as is my threshold for eighty or sixty per cent. I am deriving the worldview that it would be absurd to deny that there is at least one dissident. It doesn’t matter whether I derive this based on an understanding of a sample that is representative of China as a whole so long as it is representative of a subset, since that is such a modest claim.

If you want to make a different point about the majority, or a very big majority, or two people, you should make that point instead. Obviously the Chinese with whom I interact are of a certain class and intellectual formation of which I must remain aware; in particular, the closeness of some to the party breeds a unique type of contempt. That is why I am not trying to generalise; seemingly, you are.

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