181–190 of 193 posts
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Yes, you can see them growing weaker every day can't you, as they fall further and further behind the US.
I meant they will get stuck with whatever paradigm works for them right now. So they might have some nice decade, then hit a plateau, then decline, like always when they followed their "safe philosophy" in the past (look at e.g. Qing dynasty).
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>Right. The one who participates in and wins the most wars or murders the most people becomes the superpower. If merely winning the most wars and murdering the most people automatically made one a superpower, then the United States would not have become a superpower, because they did not win the most wars, nor did they murder the most people, at the end of World War 2, when they gained superpower status. You're tryin…
>States would not have become a superpower, because they did not win the most wars, nor did they murder the most people, at the end of World War 2, when they gained superpower status. The US suffered less casualties than all the other major powers (USSR, China, Germany, Poland, Japan, France, Italy, UK) in WW2 and their infrastructure was not destroyed. So kill/death ratio and net destruction are quite indicative of…
You're moving the goalposts now. Your earlier comment claimed the method for becoming a superpower was to "participate in the most wars and murder the most people." The number of casualties or infrastructure damage relative to the rest of the world shouldn't matter, as that implies a degree of complexity in the nature of superpowers that your prior rationale doesn't allow for.
>Which country would you guess has committed the most large scale invasions and longest lasting wars since world war 2?
You obviously want me to say the US, and you're hedging your bets with the weasel terms "large scale" and "longest lasting" and I really don't care enough about this to go look it up, so fine... the US. But since the US was already a superpower after World War 2, that's not really germane to the US's rise to superpower status.
>Did the Mongols not achieve their super power status because of how successful they were at mass murder?
Maybe, but the point is that the US didn't achieve superpower status through success at mass murder, and that they're not like the Mongols.
I understand the inclination to do this - I think it's natural to want to live in a meritocracy. But I just can't image this not backfiring. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Perhaps that is a good thing. There is no argument more convincing than a demonstration. So I'd rather observe this scheme's first failure in China than elsewhere. The rest of the world can learn a lasting lesson in what not to do. And if it succeeds, then I'd be glad to be wrong.
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He is not talking about China but about people on HN who allegedly want this. I don't see how traveling to China helps, you need to travel to this website that you are already on to prove or disprove the claim :-)
Meeting the naive expats there is a very eye opening experience.
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You should travel to China and see it for yourself. Americans are so incredibly naive. I’m not saying you’re American but you definitely should get out more.
I have been to China and it did not allay my fears about a CCP-centric world one bit. Also I'm an American and I don't appreciate your pseudo-racist condescension.
Not sure where race is coming into it for you. American is not a race. Chinese is more a culture, than a race, if you look at the diversity of China outside of just Han. ??? Maybe we should just leave that one alone, it may have been a misunderstanding.
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> They wish China would be the one that takes over US as the superpower of the world. I have literally never seen this.
You should travel to China and see it for yourself. Americans are so incredibly naive. I’m not saying you’re American but you definitely should get out more.
I come from an English spring country but have spent extensive time in various other countries where I have family. Thanks for being a total dick whilst knowing nothing about me.
That being irrelevant though I suggest you re-read the post I was replying to. And then the honourable thing to do would be apologise to me.
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Good point. At some point WeChat, Weibo, et al will want to expand outside of China, and they could apply this system to everyone who uses those platforms. Just imagine, your social media profile on WeChat, your messages on Weibo, your searches on Baidu, your images on Meipai could all feed into your score. Maybe Momo could display and sort dating matches by their score so you don't end up with someone who's undesira…
Your sarcasm aside, the problem is the definition of "undesirable" is controlled by a central authority which regards criticism and association with other free thinking people to be undesirable behaviors.
Edit: was it the part about momo that makes you think sarcasm? It wasnt.. if the chinese are ok with this scoring and see it as useful (or its important because it limits your career path, for example), I can see private companies building it into their apps to extend it... using it for dating, apartments, loans, etc. There's no reason a tool like this would be limited to government only uses if the people approve.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You should travel to China and see it for yourself. Americans are so incredibly naive. I’m not saying you’re American but you definitely should get out more.
I have been to China three times, for a total of about a year spent there thank you very much. I come from an English spring country but have spent extensive time in various other countries where I have family. Thanks for being a total dick whilst knowing nothing about me. That being irrelevant though I suggest you re-read the post I was replying to. And then the honourable thing to do would be apologise to me.
I was responding to this part. I apologize that my comment was poorly worded and I'll admit slightly obnoxious.
Still I am surprised that you never noticed, during your visits to China, the degree to which they wish China would be the one that takes over US as the superpower of the world. When I have been there it has never been hidden, but then I tend to get down into the culture rather than remaining at the expat bars. Again I'm not saying YOU stay at expat bars... like I wasn't saying YOU are American... but just responding to what you actually wrote about what someone else actually wrote.
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China is not a dictatorship. It is a single party representative government system that does not directly elect as many officials as the US does. However even in the US most officials are not directly elected (including the president) and people are still limited to two parties. Consider the last US election, Donald Trump lost the popular direct election, but was still elected by president by the Electoral college (a…
There are many strong criticisms of the electoral college. It being "a separate body chosen by the 2 dominant political parties for electing the president" is not one of them, because everyone chosen by the parties is almost guaranteed to vote as they are supposed to. The outcome is known and isn't pulled out of thin air, and has a direct relation to how people voted.
For example there are super delegates which are fundamentally undemocractic. There are also "winner take all" caucuses which has a tendency to support and overrepresent the majority.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
China is not a dictatorship. It is a single party representative government system that does not directly elect as many officials as the US does. However even in the US most officials are not directly elected (including the president) and people are still limited to two parties. Consider the last US election, Donald Trump lost the popular direct election, but was still elected by president by the Electoral college (a…
China is a dictatorship. Don't delude yourself.