Comment by fc417fc802

It was not my intention to quote you but rather to give short and direct names to the categories as I see them being used (which is of course subject to my own biases). Unfortunately punctuation and convention is such that "" or () are the only things that come to mind.

The point I'd intended to convey is that both cultures see various pieces of information as acceptable to censor in certain contexts. It's which pieces and in what context that people tend to disagree on. Despite disagreeing with both you and (my impression of) the Chinese, when framed in such general terms I can't even claim to be different myself - I studiously avoid sharing detailed information about certain sorts of chemicals and processes with people I don't know to be emotionally stable mature adults.

When I say "extremely western" I refer to the distinction you are drawing between the categories of (purportedly) harmful information. The view that it is inherently safer or more ethically acceptable or etc to subject one versus the other to censorship. The western view (which I tend to align with!) seems to be that social harmony is not terribly important or at least not overly dangerous to disrupt and that anyhow the government shouldn't be involved in maintaining it whereas that is not at all the vibe I get from Chinese policy.