In a new ad, the Citizens Against Government Waste, an advocacy group for fiscal conservatism, predict an Orwellian future in which China has taken over as a result of US government overspending. The clip – set completely in Mandarin – takes place in a Chinese university lecture hall in 2030, where students are learning about the collapse of the US.

The video is a throwback to the days of McCarthy and the Red Scare – a textbook example of xenophobic fearmongering. Images of Mao and retro communist propaganda posters adorn the walls as the crowd of Chinese students laugh maniacally. Blatantly racist and uninformed, the ad represents the latest addition in a wave of intolerance from right-wing extremists in America.

The original “Chinese Professor” video:

As The Atlantic points out:

If you know anything about the Chinese economy, the actual analytical content here is hilariously wrong. The ad has the Chinese official saying that America collapsed because, in the midst of a recession, it relied on (a) government stimulus spending, (b) big changes in its health care systems, and (c) public intervention in major industries — all of which of course, have been crucial parts of China’s (successful) anti-recession policy.

Responding to the ad, Campus Progress lampooned the original video by taking it and redubbing the subtitles in the style of the Downfall / Hitler Meme. The spoof has since been taken off YouTube due to a copyright claim (i.e. a total denial of parody as fair use).

Ben Smith over at Politico reports:

A spokeswoman for Citizens Against Government Waste, which produced that striking “Chinese Professor” ad, says they’re not amused by CampusProgress’s re-adaptation.

“We love parody as much as anyone (I was a huge fan of the Downfall series myself), but what Campus Progress did was not ‘parody,’” she emails. “They basically hijacked the and adulterated it to help raise money for themselves. We have already asked YouTube to remove it b/c it is a copyright violation.”

But this is the Internet, and just as the producers of Downfall were unable to remove every single parody video to spring up, the Citizens Against Government Waste may soon find themselves unable to handle a hydra of snarky remixes and rebuttals. Behold!

Campus Progress Action Spoof (re-uploaded to Vimeo):

Citizens Against Snake Oil and Scapegoats:

Thanks Tea Party and Republicans:

As we saw with Meg Whitman, karma has a weird way of setting things right, especially on the Internet. We’ll continue to update this post as more remixes come in — keep watching this space.

UPDATE: A coalition of Asian American blogs — Hyphen Mag, Angry Asian Man, Disgrasian, Reappropriate, and 8Asians — has created a video contest to see who can create the best “Chinese Professor” remix. The general idea is to get as many parodies out there as possible and the meme will snowball from there. After all, this is the Internet — our turf. Haul yourself over to any of those sites and submit an entry of your own by November 27!

[via BuzzFeed]

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TAGS: Campus Progress • China • Citizens Against Government Waste • Downfall • fearmongering • fiscal conservatism • Hitler • parody • propaganda • xenophobia

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