As a European, I've never been so pessimistic about the EU but so optimistic about the USA. I really feel like European leaders need some kind of wake up call.
China is betting that the West is in irreversible decline
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Re: China is betting that the West is in irreversible decline
#82If you post paywalled articles we get a paywalled internet. Stop posting them.
It's enough to read the headline though :)
Re: China is betting that the West is in irreversible decline
#83We are declining because we are becoming more like China. More censorship, larger control of central government, currency manipulation. I actually see this as inevitable as you get a larger and larger population freedoms need to get reduced to maintain a stable society.
Disagree. The first part, becoming more like china due to censorhip, etc is true.
The 2nd part has no basis in reality. The issue is the concentration of power in the hands of the technocrats who now make decisions for everyone on censorship, currency manipulation, etc.
It isn't inevitable, its the result of the concentration of power and the failure of the US government to regulate massive monopolies especially in the tech space that have crushed or bought out newcomers, concentrating power further and ruining progress via buyouts and copying.
Re: China is betting that the West is in irreversible decline
#84The west is in decline because progressive values don't promote strength. They focus on class and are inherently divisive. Ironically, they only blossom in strong societies. The decline will allow other societies with a more conservative philosophy to take over and it will be their turn in a few centuries to succumb to the same tragedy. The baizuo tragedy.
I need to learn how to pronounce "baizuo", it's a great word.
Re: China is betting that the West is in irreversible decline
#85And I am betting that CCP will implode within the decade. If west is in decline please stop sending your top students abroad to study (and stay there). Great job promoting brain drain. I am tired of this unfounded narrative that the west is in decline. No, it’s not. It’s actually getting stronger by the day especially the US.
The CCP isn’t sending them in hopes they’ll return. A large number are tasked with infiltration and subversion.
Re: China is betting that the West is in irreversible decline
#86That's ridiculous.China is the one in irreversible decline. Most people in the West get to enjoy freedom and access to utilities money cant buy in China. 1) For once most people in the west have access to safe and good tap water.Chinese urban dwellers dont. 2) Most people in the west live in places with significantly better air quality than chinese. 3) Most people in the west get to enjoy freedoms chinese cant even t…
This is factually untrue. By pretty much every imaginable metric China has improved for nearly everyone (in China) for the past 50 years. Is this also true in the USA? I don't think China is superior to the USA, but to say China is in a "irreversible decline" is ridiculous. https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/ce/celt/eng/jmgx/jjxs/t124869.htm https://www.visualcapitalist.com/china-economic-growth-histo... https://www.cfr.org/ti…
It is factually true.
Chinese have access to poisoned shitty water that everyone has to boil first and that's not only because of that chi bullshit.
Meanwhile I have access to delicious spring water from Alps.
China has achieved only superficial changes that will bite them in the ass in the future.
Re: China is betting that the West is in irreversible decline
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
> so far in 2021 there have been more homicides in Portland than there were in 2017 and 2018 and we are on track for over 100 homicides this year Out of curiosity, have any other items than "defund the police" happened in, say, March 2020 through the present, that might've affected crime rates?
Yes, the gun violence reduction team was disbanded. Since then the number of shootings has skyrocketed. Police are in such disarray and completely disrespected that they don't even go into certain neighborhoods anymore.
I'll be a bit more direct.
Claiming "defund the police" is the obvious cause of an increase in crime while completely ignoring the global pandemic and its economic/employment effects and their resulting impact on crime is confirmation bias.
Re: China is betting that the West is in irreversible decline
#88They are probably not wrong. When you look at the infighting within the US that is front page news every day...the decline is in full swing. People care less about how to actually improve the country than they do about trying to hold entire professions accountable for the actions of a few (not just cops)...then we are focused on the wrong things. Spending hundreds of days protesting something instead of putting that…
> putting that time toward actually cleaning up neighborhoods or tutoring underprivileged youth
EDIT: Before you downvote what I say below, read about the Defund the Police movement. Start with the wikipedia page. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defund_the_police
This is EXACTLY what the Defund Police movement is about. It's recognizing that half of city budgets are used for policing and some of those resources instead could be used to cleanup the neighborhoods and teach children.
If policing takes half the budget and nobody wants to raise taxes, then clearly to get resources to do other things, like teach underprivileged youth and cleanup neighborhoods, you must take away from some group, and since police take up such a HUGE part of the budget and they already do things they shouldn't be doing (like dealing with mental health issues), then it's clear we must reduce police budgets to free up resources.
EDIT: Before you downvote, take a moment to actually research why people are wanting to defund the police. And If I'm wrong, show me.
Here is the wikipedia page to start. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defund_the_police
Re: China is betting that the West is in irreversible decline
#89The west is in decline because progressive values don't promote strength. They focus on class and are inherently divisive. Ironically, they only blossom in strong societies. The decline will allow other societies with a more conservative philosophy to take over and it will be their turn in a few centuries to succumb to the same tragedy. The baizuo tragedy.
I wonder if hawkish foreign policy along with an Imperialist mindset, is a crutch leading to the degeneration of domestic society.
Logic being: having & maintaining the dollar as a reserve currency created a context where it becomes more economically efficient to offshore labor & production, causing broken domestic feedback loops.
History demonstrates that Empires do not last forever. The contexts that lead to the rise of the host nation/entity taking on the mantle of Empire and the host nation/entity of the Empire change.
Re: China is betting that the West is in irreversible decline
#90I hope the world can exist with a strong China and a strong US. Why are they mutual exclusive? We both have our strengths and weaknesses.