Pretty weird that you were “blown away by China” then… No need to get mad 🤷♀️
My anecdotal experience is different than yours, but everything I’ve said is nothing but facts. China is a country of 1.4 billion people and 3.7 million sq mi, so obviously sentiment will vary. But I based my opinion on what I’ve personally seen and people I’ve talked to across half a dozen cities, so I feel pretty confident in my pessimism.
So you’ve been in the last few months since you learned these great things? Or was it before Covid, when people were physically caged into their apartments?
Was it only to the sterilized foreigner hotels on business trips? Or did you ever stay with locals who had to register your passport with the local police?
Were you able to spend physical currency or was everything already hooked up to official biometric identification (payments tied to socials tied to state id)?
I’m not asking to be confrontational, but the shiny foreigner facing China of yesteryear is nothing like the domestic atmosphere of China today. Their international digital presence is as carefully managed as their local platforms.
The locals I’ve met definitely have a positive view of the US, but things have gotten very dark very quickly under Xi. Think about why they could have started their emigration at any time but are choosing now.
Have you uh… actually been to China? Or talked to anyone from China (in real life)? I do both, quite often. Without fail, anyone with the means is actively trying to leave. And not in a “grass is greener” way. Those emigrating to America are fully aware of the political turmoil, they’d just rather be out before it’s not physically possible to leave.
It’s unlike we’ve been told in almost all respects…
Based on testimony from a demonstrably censored platform?
I’m not arguing for American superiority or that the vacuum won’t be easily filled by other countries. But that change isn’t automatically an upgrade.
Nobody answer, this guy might be a fed
I’d just like to step in here and remind the people at home that appeals to hypocrisy are a logical fallacy. Just because someone isn’t doing what they say should be done doesn’t mean they’re wrong.
Thanks, I’ll hang up and listen.
Edit: Forgot to add one thing. This conversation is about collective action, a particularly silly place to judge the actions of a single individual
Not a lawyer but I wonder how much teeth that law has. The GOP/Trump has put on a clinic on how to legally gum up the wheels of justice, it seems like unions could try the same. Delay, argue technicalities, appeal, rise, repeat…
For example: if you spend 2 months in court arguing about who organized what and what they’re technically striking for, damage could still be done even with the strike broken up. Multiply that by a few major unions and it adds up.
You can already see a similar plan coming together with UAWs 2028 contact expiration plan. Its not a general strike, there’s just coincidentally a lot of strikes at once.
Of course there’s a stricter set of laws and leeway when you’re not a corrupt oligarch so it wouldn’t work. But it’s fun to think about…
Don’t disagree that civilization is a parasite, but a lot of parasites evolve to not kill their host 🙂
Well, the alternative is very foreseeable consequences for aquatic life. I’m sure they’d be on board
I’m not sure why Trump is front and center in the picture. Putin should be center pulling Trump on all fours with a leash
If anything the current political context makes what needs to be done pretty clear. There’s a difference between downplaying the problem and realizing that if laying down and dieing isn’t an option.
God forbid someone tries to think past the next quarter.
If the future can’t be livable and people just wants a quiet suicide for the human race I’ve got good news. There’s a very easy solution for avoiding that discomfort that also happens to be the #1 way to reduce your carbon footprint.
But if you want to keep living and not just surviving, suck it up…
Personal consumption accounted for 68.8% of US GDP in at the end of 2024, an all time high. Granted, ~45% of that is very hard to cut back on (healthcare, insurance, housing).
But even still, a drop of 10-15% would be devastating. If you could organize it, you could even skip payments on the big ticket services. Everyone skipping a month of bills at the same time would do serious, recession-level damage.
It’s not a direct fix for our problems, but you can play serious economic chicken when most of the economy flows through your wallets.
It’s literally illegal for these publicly traded companies to do anything that would be detrimental to their shareholders. The guy in oval office is telling them there will be consequences for not following his EOs (ie: lowering shareholder value). There’s not any decision to be made here (not that they aren’t laughing to the bank either way)
You proved it’s impossible to be a completely ethical consumer, but did you prove that it’s necessary to be a consumer at all? Or that all volumes of consumption are equally culpable?
People view boycotting as if enough homework will find them the fabled Free Market Unicorn©️, with sparkling udders they can ethically consume from to their hearts content.
Guess what: your coffee and chocolate are slave labor all the way down. Nestle owns all your water and 6 media conglomerates get your entertainment money no matter where you swipe your credit card.
But do you actually need to make those purchases in the first place? There’s nothing other than habit, comfort, and convenience keeping you from cutting most of it out of your life. It makes the ethical calculus so much easier.
Of course, how much austerity you can stomach in your modern life is a personal threshold. But every dollar you don’t spend is a dollar less to our corporate overlords. You could even donate it to a worthy cause for double the satisfaction (if you care to do that homework…)
My assumptions were built off your original comment, in which you said it was recent and driven by XHS:
I don’t know your life story and it didn’t seem like a leap to think “He uses TikTok” and “It doesn’t sound like he’s been to China from his reaction”. I could be wrong about those assumptions, but it wasn’t unreasonable. It’s pretty wild that you’re trying to walk it back even though it’s right there, verbatim.
Again, my intention wasn’t a personal attack, I’m just trying to provide a counterpoint to the sentiment I often see; that China is a bastion of progress and everything I’ve been told is western propaganda. My anecdotal explanation is to show this isn’t coming from what I read on CNN or second hand but my lived experiences in the country.
And if you want to think I’m a douche: go for it, more power to you. I just wanted to voice my thoughts on the matter.