Viewing profile — free_rms

Is "communist" not a description of the economic system? How "communist" was Pinochet? He had total 1-party control, after all. Is North Korea a Democratic Republic? That's what th…

It's not a personal attack, you're still calling China communist and don't seem to understand how things work there. They're something else. There's more small business than americ…

US politics have had a "big bad" for 80 straight years now, it's basically a reflex.

I'm all for securing domestic chip manufacturing but can we stop with the vanquishing? It sounds like you're talking about an army of orcs.

I did say I was out on a limb.. Anyways, you've made clear that your reference point for understanding China is Soviet Eastern Europe. If you check a map and a calendar, you can se…

> You don't know the first thing about my information diet. You've given some pretty strong hints about it in fact, and tripled down in this comment. I'll go out on a very specific…

In the book we're discussing, the Cultural Revolution is presented as a catastrophe where the heroes are well-meaning scientists who's neutral observations of nature are twisted in…

This thread started under the topic "believe it or not, Chinese people are actually pretty happy with their government given the record over the last few decades". Can you think ab…

Do you even know who Deng Xiaopeng is? Changing systems without a massive, disruptive loss of life is actually a huge accomplishment. No other nation has transitioned out of commun…

The third book is good, almost as good as the second imo. Manages to become completely insane while still feeling believable at each step.

Germany's an ally. We don't try to beat them up over hitler, and it wouldn't make sense if we did. For basically the same reasons, so good choice of analogy I guess.

I don't know if you read the books but there are some pretty severe consequences.

Can you name the dates and major events within the Great Leap forward or Cultural Revolution without googling and reading wikipedia? I'm not trying to assert authority here but you…

Apparently the evil alien robot in book 3 is waaaaay more Japanese-sounding in the Mandarin version.

What's happening in India is that farmers were/are going to be screwed, and they're really mad about it. What has happened in China is that a billion farmers are massively, undescr…

I didn't get that from it at all. The theme of the last book is a conflict between values and survival. What's the point of survival if you sacrifice all values to do so? Liu is Ch…

Expert programmers should write 'low quality' programs if that's what the situation calls for. Most of us are solving business problems, and lateral thinking can be worth more than…

Absolutely right, and I should have written that :) That said, seems like the easier narrative for the NYT to go with as well -- they don't have to own up to their editorial failur…

It's concerning that that's the lever, though. Break every rule of your profession and publish a bunch of BS? We'll give you another chance. Gave an inappropriate backrub 10 years …

If the UK is banning Chinese 'State Media', the BBC is a pretty natural target for a clap back..

Which society should they demographically match, America?

They have a lot of experience in every part of the car except the drive train. And once you have the battery, the rest of the drive train is.. pretty easy? I think? You're just hoo…