4 ms·

Why?

norikki 10y ago
Ethics issues are rampant at Chinese universities. Beyond that, even in the United States people like George W. Bush get "gentleman C's" instead of failing classes. If that happens in the USA, you better believe that privileged children of Chinese political insiders are not going to be allowed to fail out of an engineering program. If they get a degree at a university not in China, I would certainly be very impressed.
- protomikron 10y ago
  You are right, the same thing happens in other countries and people get awarded diplomas, etc. although they are not qualified. However it is hard to evaluate who is more corrupt (in the sense of "cheating" with certificates), so at the end of the day we do not really know and have to rely on the facts. The facts are that we have strong reasons to believe that humans are responsible for climate change in recent years and endanger several aspects of our ecosystem (there is a lot more data on that than on the analysis of the credibility of Chinese officials) and that a recently elected leader of a nation that has a big impact on world politics and economics thinks that it is a hoax by a foreign country. There are two narratives that one could construct: 0. "Climate change influenced by the industrialization of our society packed by big amounts of scientific data. Elected leader is uninformed and on the wrong side of history." 1. "Climate change is a hoax setup by a foreign country and powers supporting it are part of a big conspiracy thing going on that even goes miles to grant fake-certificates to political leaders to support the hoax." For me option 0 just sounds more reasonable. If Trump continues his Chinese climate-change hoax he might be one the wrong train and he and his followers will look stupider from day to day.
  - norikki 10y ago
    "On the wrong side of history" is a phase that draws from the ideas of Carl Marx, and is very popular among Marxists. It is an emotional argument that means to appeal to the universal human desire to be accepted by others. Be very careful when you see people use that phrase to make that point. If Hitler had won, would that have put the free people of Europe on the 'wrong side of history'? It is a logical fallacy. I have seen no evidence that China invented climate change. I chalk that up to Trump's propensity for hyperbole, but who first came up with it is irrelevant to what we do about it now. Also a fake-certificate is about the easiest thing to fabricate.
    - flukus 10y ago
      How about "on the wrong side of science"? This has a strong tendency to end up the same as being on the wrong side of history.
    - protomikron 10y ago
      Sorry, I am not from the US, so I am unfamiliar with the propaganda that McCarthy (not the Lisp guy, but the other) brought to the US so I might be not a good discussion partner. Let's just disagree.
- Tomte 10y ago
  I've read that GWB was a first-class student. Do you have sources that say otherwise, beyond what you want to believe because you disagree with his politics?

Why?

Ethics issues are rampant at Chinese universities. Beyond that, even in the United States people like George W. Bush get "gentleman C's" instead of failing classes. If that happens in the USA, you better believe that privileged children of Chinese political insiders are not going to be allowed to fail out of an engineering program. If they get a degree at a university not in China, I would certainly be very impressed.

protomikron 10y ago
You are right, the same thing happens in other countries and people get awarded diplomas, etc. although they are not qualified. However it is hard to evaluate who is more corrupt (in the sense of "cheating" with certificates), so at the end of the day we do not really know and have to rely on the facts. The facts are that we have strong reasons to believe that humans are responsible for climate change in recent years and endanger several aspects of our ecosystem (there is a lot more data on that than on the analysis of the credibility of Chinese officials) and that a recently elected leader of a nation that has a big impact on world politics and economics thinks that it is a hoax by a foreign country. There are two narratives that one could construct: 0. "Climate change influenced by the industrialization of our society packed by big amounts of scientific data. Elected leader is uninformed and on the wrong side of history." 1. "Climate change is a hoax setup by a foreign country and powers supporting it are part of a big conspiracy thing going on that even goes miles to grant fake-certificates to political leaders to support the hoax." For me option 0 just sounds more reasonable. If Trump continues his Chinese climate-change hoax he might be one the wrong train and he and his followers will look stupider from day to day.
- norikki 10y ago
  "On the wrong side of history" is a phase that draws from the ideas of Carl Marx, and is very popular among Marxists. It is an emotional argument that means to appeal to the universal human desire to be accepted by others. Be very careful when you see people use that phrase to make that point. If Hitler had won, would that have put the free people of Europe on the 'wrong side of history'? It is a logical fallacy. I have seen no evidence that China invented climate change. I chalk that up to Trump's propensity for hyperbole, but who first came up with it is irrelevant to what we do about it now. Also a fake-certificate is about the easiest thing to fabricate.
  - flukus 10y ago
    How about "on the wrong side of science"? This has a strong tendency to end up the same as being on the wrong side of history.
  - protomikron 10y ago
    Sorry, I am not from the US, so I am unfamiliar with the propaganda that McCarthy (not the Lisp guy, but the other) brought to the US so I might be not a good discussion partner. Let's just disagree.
Tomte 10y ago
I've read that GWB was a first-class student. Do you have sources that say otherwise, beyond what you want to believe because you disagree with his politics?