Sorry for the reddit-logo link but this isn’t really picked up anywhere else. Predictably, the same disgusting people (referring to H3, Destiny, etc) who spread the dubious “Hasan shocked his dog” stuff don’t care about this one, so it isn’t all over the internet.

I’m not posting this to own everyone who said they like Hasan, but I do think it’s an important thing to point out to any fans of his on this site that animal rights have always been a huge weak point for him. I’m a casual watcher who was tuning in for the China adventures, but im-vegan so after the Panda zoo and this, I’m out for good.

Horse racing is such an obviously gross and abusive sport to anyone with sight to see it, so it’s annoying seeing how many people (though admittedly in collapsed comments) in his community just don’t care at all. Beyond the comments there, but in his chat in real time any time animal rights or veganism are mentioned.

Tangentially related, but freeze-gamers here should recognize that gacha slop like Uma Musume also funds horse racing (the franchise is basically PR for the Japan Racing Association) and is only a small separation from betting at the track. It was obnoxious seeing the wave of people talking about it at launch and seeing it plastered all over gaming sites, Steam, etc. Most people probably don’t think twice about it because horse girls in anime just ‘makes sense’ in a vacuum, but I want to bring more attention to the cruel industry by using that franchise and Hasan as a springboard.

Please educate your favorite streamer, celebrity, or whoever so they don’t use their platforms to promote animal abuse.

Edit: lmao their mods locked the thread that was significantly more supportive of the idea that races are abuse.

  • Leegh [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    9·
    10 days ago

    I mean, it’s really only significant because the British colonizers introduced it. Beyond that it doesn’t actually have much importance in HK society. HK films only had it to appeal to Western audiences. This is a bit anecdotal but I come from a family of Hong Kong Chinese and I do not know anyone who ever engaged in Horse Racing while they lived there. If anything it was something almost exclusively enjoyed by White people until the late 20th century.

    Furthermore, there are plenty of other sports that are played and enjoyed by many Hong Kongers that don’t involve animal abuse: Golf, Tennis/ Badminton, Football, hell even Pool are quite popular there. The HK government earlier this year finished building a huge shiny stadium in Kai Tak that was designed for all sorts of sporting events besides Horse Racing. It was also recently used for this year’s China National Games, which HK co-hosted alongside Macao and Guangzhou. Why didn’t Hasan show any of that off instead?

    So, I think it’s a bit disingenuous to defer to “cultural significance” when criticizing an American-brained streamer for not being at least a bit sensitive to animal rights in a foreign country. I also don’t think OP was saying Panda diplomacy is wrong but is simply apprehensive to the idea of animals being caged in unnatural enclosures for entertainment. Yes zoos can abuse animals too and yes China has zoos, but so does every other country in the world.