5 ms·

People seem to be doing what losers do when facing destruction: move away. You see movement in both physical and virtual spaces. In people and in companies to

by babesh 6y ago

People seem to be doing what losers do when facing destruction: move away. You see movement in both physical and virtual spaces. In people and in companies to different states. In people moving to different social media. People stop fighting with you, they just avoid you. China is going to be the obvious dominant world power within Biden’s term.

jansan 6y ago
In Germany there is the term "inner emmigration", if people oppose to the current system, but keep silent in fear of repression. This was coined during Nazi time, but also used to describe part of the opposition during socialism in East Germany. What it basically describes people who: - are opposed to the current political system (originally the Nazi regime) - cannot speak their opinion for fear of repressions . cannot or do not want ot leave their country - do not want to adapt to the political system Currently we have inner emmigration among conservatives. It is almost impossible to speak out as a conservative without fearing consequences. People are not revolting, but they are bascially done with the political system.
- LarvaFX 6y ago
  My guess is that the fallout of the right wing's promised "tickle down" economics and the neoliberal politics of thatcherism is making people angry.
  - jansan 6y ago
    I think it is more the obvious ubiquitous hypocrism. Everybody is anti racist and anti sexist, but blames the white man. Looting and burning buildings is ok, as long as the ideology behind it fits the narrative. Everybody is anti fascist, but if you have a different opinion you will get fucked up. Who in his right mind wants to argue with this bullshit?
    - Jochim 6y ago
      I used to think this. I used to watch a lot of media from youtube creators that were previously part of the atheism movement and gradually transitioned into right wing content. Once I started also consuming media from people on the left, I found that this was a caricature designed to prevent me from listening to people on the left that did have good points. Yes there are extremists that like to shout, but they are in the minority or a person in riled up circumstances.
- iSnow 6y ago
  That's most certainly not true for Germany, at least if we are talking about German definitions of conservatism. A lot of GOP members are more close to what in the German political system would be seen as the extreme right, arguably bordering on the autocratic right. There is representation of the conservative voice both in media and the political system. There is repression, both informal and in the legal code, of Neonazi speech.
  - rayiner 6y ago
    Don’t you guys have crosses on government buildings? https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/31/europe/bavaria-germany-crosses-public-buildings-intl/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/31/europe/bavaria-germany-crosse... Didn’t Angela Merkel reject “multiculturalism?” https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/12/14/angela-merkel-multiculturalism-is-a-sham/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/12/14... Don’t you have religious education in public schools? https://www.dw.com/en/in-german-schools-opt-out-of-religion-at-your-own-risk/a-46806033 https://www.dw.com/en/in-german-schools-opt-out-of-religion-... Isn’t abortion still technically illegally in Germany? https://www.dw.com/en/activists-in-germany-demand-legalization-of-abortion/a-50613936 https://www.dw.com/en/activists-in-germany-demand-legalizati.... And as a practical matter, German abortion law would be unconstitutional for multiple reasons under our Roe v. Wade. Part of why the American GOP has gotten so wacky is that over the past 50 years American liberals have wiped social conservatism out of the public sphere in a way that doesn’t seem to be the case in Germany. In the US, saying what Merkel did that “multiculturalism is a failure” would get you branded a Nazi. Not even Trump would say that. Saying that abortion should generally be illegal after 12 weeks gets you lumped in with religious fundamentalists. This is due to two features of the American political system. First, our courts have taken it upon themselves to adjudicate social issues that are in Europe handled by the legislature. Second, our social conservatives are split into different parties along racial lines. The Democratic Party is a coalition, but white liberals firmly control the social platform. Biden has promised to appoint a Black women Justice. Statistically speaking half of Black women oppose same-sex marriage. Do you think there is any chance Biden will appoint a socially conservative Black woman? If the American political system was as meaningfully accommodating of social conservatism as the German one (and I think that would require getting our courts out of the business of being social moral arbiters) I think you’d see a lot more normalcy.
pelliphant 6y ago
Haven't China been the obvious world power for atleast 10 years now? Or, atleast, that it have been obvious that they will soon be...
- redis_mlc 6y ago
  No, and it's strange to keep seeing this false narrative on HN. In fact: - China's GDP is largely based on real estate inflation that is decoupled from other economic progress. The "lifting of the population out of poverty" was a political leadership target, not actually achieved. - several Chinese banks have failed in the past 2 years - BRI is funded by fraudulent accounting on Wall Street - China has no blue-water military capability. Many of their Army weapons were never tested, thanks to bribes. (One commander received a medal for actually testing armored vehicles and rejecting them. That was considered "novel.") - China relies on espionage globally to maintain progress. ie. 1000 Talents program. Rumor is that US society is so riddled with spies that Biden wants to announce an amnesty in case they're leftists/Democrats. - had Trump been re-elected, China would have had a US dollar crunch (that's what ultimately killed the USSR.) Every time Trump made a speech in 2020, the CCP had an emergency meeting to deal with the fallout - that tells you who was in charge. - Before the pandemic and natural disasters of 2020, China imported 30% of its food. In 2021, it's close to double that. - Xi's family lives in Canada and Australia - not China, because even he can't protect them from the CCP. Let that sink in for a minute. Despite the US leftist Marxist narrative to tear down US society and remake it in their own navel-gazing image, the US is the most powerful nation in the history of the world.
- babesh 6y ago
  I think what will happen is that a larger percentage of the US will realize it and not like it. I think the US lives in a bubble but other parts of the world are feeling that shift already. I wonder how many Americans know that Europe trades more with China than the US. Or that Japan also trades more with China than the US. Same with Africa. The US is retreating into protectionism, internal struggle, and the opiate of social media. It’s not that China didn’t play dirty. It’s just that the US is losing. Having the most expensive military force isn’t nearly as useful if other sides possess nuclear weapons like you. Then it becomes a struggle along other dimensions. The US seems full of entrenched institutions there just to increase their own power. Yet it is these institutions that are causing the greatest issues. You have medical costs spiraling out of control. You have educational costs spiraling out of control. You have infrastructure costs spiraling out of control. Changes in the political order have changed none of this. I don’t see the latest change addressing these either. You can see this in the actions of the current alpha and the previous alpha. Neither addressed or is addressing how the above consume the largest and ever increasing percentages of GDP without producing corresponding gains. Are Americans living longer and healthier lives? No, they are living shorter and less healthy lives. Can a high percentage of the population make good incomes with their expensive educations? No, many are relegated to low wage, dead end service and gig jobs. Why do we have to deal with inadequate and overpriced transportation, water, and energy infrastructure? How many consecutive years of forest fires does California have to live with? The new administration just patches things without taking on the institutions themselves. $15 minimum wage and making college free doesn’t make college more useful. It just provides an endless trough for bad education to feed. More medicine for all doesn’t address the problem that it is way too expensive. It just feeds more money into a money eating pit. More purchasing of clean energy infrastructure but enforcing domestic production doesn’t address the problem that your companies produce uncompetitive products. Will buying Ford electric trucks at higher prices than you could get elsewhere help anyone but Ford?

by babesh 6y ago

jansan 6y ago

In Germany there is the term "inner emmigration", if people oppose to the current system, but keep silent in fear of repression. This was coined during Nazi time, but also used to describe part of the opposition during socialism in East Germany. What it basically describes people who: - are opposed to the current political system (originally the Nazi regime) - cannot speak their opinion for fear of repressions . cannot or do not want ot leave their country - do not want to adapt to the political system Currently we have inner emmigration among conservatives. It is almost impossible to speak out as a conservative without fearing consequences. People are not revolting, but they are bascially done with the political system.

LarvaFX 6y ago
My guess is that the fallout of the right wing's promised "tickle down" economics and the neoliberal politics of thatcherism is making people angry.
- jansan 6y ago
  I think it is more the obvious ubiquitous hypocrism. Everybody is anti racist and anti sexist, but blames the white man. Looting and burning buildings is ok, as long as the ideology behind it fits the narrative. Everybody is anti fascist, but if you have a different opinion you will get fucked up. Who in his right mind wants to argue with this bullshit?
  - Jochim 6y ago
    I used to think this. I used to watch a lot of media from youtube creators that were previously part of the atheism movement and gradually transitioned into right wing content. Once I started also consuming media from people on the left, I found that this was a caricature designed to prevent me from listening to people on the left that did have good points. Yes there are extremists that like to shout, but they are in the minority or a person in riled up circumstances.
iSnow 6y ago
That's most certainly not true for Germany, at least if we are talking about German definitions of conservatism. A lot of GOP members are more close to what in the German political system would be seen as the extreme right, arguably bordering on the autocratic right. There is representation of the conservative voice both in media and the political system. There is repression, both informal and in the legal code, of Neonazi speech.
- rayiner 6y ago
  Don’t you guys have crosses on government buildings? https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/31/europe/bavaria-germany-crosses-public-buildings-intl/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/31/europe/bavaria-germany-crosse... Didn’t Angela Merkel reject “multiculturalism?” https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/12/14/angela-merkel-multiculturalism-is-a-sham/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/12/14... Don’t you have religious education in public schools? https://www.dw.com/en/in-german-schools-opt-out-of-religion-at-your-own-risk/a-46806033 https://www.dw.com/en/in-german-schools-opt-out-of-religion-... Isn’t abortion still technically illegally in Germany? https://www.dw.com/en/activists-in-germany-demand-legalization-of-abortion/a-50613936 https://www.dw.com/en/activists-in-germany-demand-legalizati.... And as a practical matter, German abortion law would be unconstitutional for multiple reasons under our Roe v. Wade. Part of why the American GOP has gotten so wacky is that over the past 50 years American liberals have wiped social conservatism out of the public sphere in a way that doesn’t seem to be the case in Germany. In the US, saying what Merkel did that “multiculturalism is a failure” would get you branded a Nazi. Not even Trump would say that. Saying that abortion should generally be illegal after 12 weeks gets you lumped in with religious fundamentalists. This is due to two features of the American political system. First, our courts have taken it upon themselves to adjudicate social issues that are in Europe handled by the legislature. Second, our social conservatives are split into different parties along racial lines. The Democratic Party is a coalition, but white liberals firmly control the social platform. Biden has promised to appoint a Black women Justice. Statistically speaking half of Black women oppose same-sex marriage. Do you think there is any chance Biden will appoint a socially conservative Black woman? If the American political system was as meaningfully accommodating of social conservatism as the German one (and I think that would require getting our courts out of the business of being social moral arbiters) I think you’d see a lot more normalcy.

pelliphant 6y ago

Haven't China been the obvious world power for atleast 10 years now? Or, atleast, that it have been obvious that they will soon be...

redis_mlc 6y ago
No, and it's strange to keep seeing this false narrative on HN. In fact: - China's GDP is largely based on real estate inflation that is decoupled from other economic progress. The "lifting of the population out of poverty" was a political leadership target, not actually achieved. - several Chinese banks have failed in the past 2 years - BRI is funded by fraudulent accounting on Wall Street - China has no blue-water military capability. Many of their Army weapons were never tested, thanks to bribes. (One commander received a medal for actually testing armored vehicles and rejecting them. That was considered "novel.") - China relies on espionage globally to maintain progress. ie. 1000 Talents program. Rumor is that US society is so riddled with spies that Biden wants to announce an amnesty in case they're leftists/Democrats. - had Trump been re-elected, China would have had a US dollar crunch (that's what ultimately killed the USSR.) Every time Trump made a speech in 2020, the CCP had an emergency meeting to deal with the fallout - that tells you who was in charge. - Before the pandemic and natural disasters of 2020, China imported 30% of its food. In 2021, it's close to double that. - Xi's family lives in Canada and Australia - not China, because even he can't protect them from the CCP. Let that sink in for a minute. Despite the US leftist Marxist narrative to tear down US society and remake it in their own navel-gazing image, the US is the most powerful nation in the history of the world.
babesh 6y ago
I think what will happen is that a larger percentage of the US will realize it and not like it. I think the US lives in a bubble but other parts of the world are feeling that shift already. I wonder how many Americans know that Europe trades more with China than the US. Or that Japan also trades more with China than the US. Same with Africa. The US is retreating into protectionism, internal struggle, and the opiate of social media. It’s not that China didn’t play dirty. It’s just that the US is losing. Having the most expensive military force isn’t nearly as useful if other sides possess nuclear weapons like you. Then it becomes a struggle along other dimensions. The US seems full of entrenched institutions there just to increase their own power. Yet it is these institutions that are causing the greatest issues. You have medical costs spiraling out of control. You have educational costs spiraling out of control. You have infrastructure costs spiraling out of control. Changes in the political order have changed none of this. I don’t see the latest change addressing these either. You can see this in the actions of the current alpha and the previous alpha. Neither addressed or is addressing how the above consume the largest and ever increasing percentages of GDP without producing corresponding gains. Are Americans living longer and healthier lives? No, they are living shorter and less healthy lives. Can a high percentage of the population make good incomes with their expensive educations? No, many are relegated to low wage, dead end service and gig jobs. Why do we have to deal with inadequate and overpriced transportation, water, and energy infrastructure? How many consecutive years of forest fires does California have to live with? The new administration just patches things without taking on the institutions themselves. $15 minimum wage and making college free doesn’t make college more useful. It just provides an endless trough for bad education to feed. More medicine for all doesn’t address the problem that it is way too expensive. It just feeds more money into a money eating pit. More purchasing of clean energy infrastructure but enforcing domestic production doesn’t address the problem that your companies produce uncompetitive products. Will buying Ford electric trucks at higher prices than you could get elsewhere help anyone but Ford?