8 ms·
No, let's not prematurely chalk up to ideology what is more reasonably explained by a capable government and a smaller country. Autocracy didn't help China nip
by jhanschoo 7y ago
No, let's not prematurely chalk up to ideology what is more reasonably explained by a capable government and a smaller country. Autocracy didn't help China nip the pandemic in the bud. Conversely, democratic Taiwan is managing the crisis excellently as well.
I observe this reaching for ideological explanations extremely frequently in US media and citizens, and these lazy rationalizations seem to me to be one of the ways the US public sphere collectively hallucinates that that they are the freest and first in the world, while promoting ideological tribalism and partisanship, as citizens vote away their interests to protect their ideological delusion.
- mthoms 7y agoI've long thought this, but you've articulated it way better than I ever could, so thank you. I'd argue that the "smaller country" explanation is also over-used. For example, when single-payer healthcare, gun control or effective government comes up, I often hear the excuse "The US is way more populous than $nation_x so it would never work here!". When asked to further explain their reasoning, many (certainly not all) can't seem to. It's like they never think past the nation-size excuse because it's simply accepted as fact.
- jhanschoo 7y agoI agree that "smaller country" really is also overused. I suppose what I was getting at was the distance of the highest levels of government from the citizen. Taiwan certainly isn't a small country, but its government is certainly in a closer relationship with its citizens concerns than the federal government is with US citizens.