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Because if you say "China is a totalitarian state", is an implicit admission that totalitarian states can be ashtoningly sucessful. Would you want to admit tha

Because if you say "China is a totalitarian state", is an implicit admission that totalitarian states can be ashtoningly sucessful. Would you want to admit that totalitarianism could be a better, more effective way than democracy?

mensetmanusman 5y ago
More effective at some things, like making all your neighbors mad.
yann2 5y ago
The right path always depends on the problem being worked on. So if you are running a cow farm ofcourse you dont want the cows to say, think and do whatever they feel like.
tharne 5y ago
> Because if you say "China is a totalitarian state", is an implicit admission that totalitarian states can be ashtoningly sucessful. This is exactly right. For the longest time, it was widely-believed that only liberal democracies could be extremely prosperous countries. The fact that 1) this is clearly not true, and 2), it's quite possible that being a liberal democracy may not even be the most efficient way to become a prosperous country, is a very uncomfortable thing to acknowledge. I think the other piece is that there's a very vocal subset of the western population that is completely uncomfortable criticizing any non-western country, because it doesn't mesh with their worldview.
- 1231sdfsaf 5y ago
  > it's quite possible that being a liberal democracy may not even be the most efficient way to become a prosperous country I can't phanthom what could happen on the planet if at some point China becames a democratic republic..and it fails. And then you could have a good chunk of the planet in chaos. I think that for the time being, if anybody with chances of success, tries to pursuit a democratic revolution in China, many West forces would came in aid of the CPC just to make sure that their own countries remain safe. If you want to extend the idea, I think the same could happen for many powers, US, Germany, England, France, etc. The "regime change" is an extreme strategy, not much wanted to happen by most powers in other great powers. There are simply too many variants that could go wrong, and most could not be contained. A single (out of control) army regiment with the control of 1 (one) ICBM could be nightmare scenario to solve.
rchaud 5y ago
You don't "have" to admit or concede anything, because the world is large, complex and fluid. Nothing is set in stone, and people and societies are full of contradictions. I'm reminded of the Churchill quote "Democracy is the worst system of governance, except for all the others that have been tried". It's taken at face value, despite coming from a head of state who reports to an unelected Monarch, under whose name a globe-spanning colonial empire existed.
dirtyid 5y ago
Hence why propagandist like Salvatore Babones insists on totaliarian without qualification like "successful totalitarian" or dictator without "benevolent dictator".

mensetmanusman 5y ago

More effective at some things, like making all your neighbors mad.

yann2 5y ago

The right path always depends on the problem being worked on. So if you are running a cow farm ofcourse you dont want the cows to say, think and do whatever they feel like.

tharne 5y ago

> Because if you say "China is a totalitarian state", is an implicit admission that totalitarian states can be ashtoningly sucessful. This is exactly right. For the longest time, it was widely-believed that only liberal democracies could be extremely prosperous countries. The fact that 1) this is clearly not true, and 2), it's quite possible that being a liberal democracy may not even be the most efficient way to become a prosperous country, is a very uncomfortable thing to acknowledge. I think the other piece is that there's a very vocal subset of the western population that is completely uncomfortable criticizing any non-western country, because it doesn't mesh with their worldview.

1231sdfsaf 5y ago
> it's quite possible that being a liberal democracy may not even be the most efficient way to become a prosperous country I can't phanthom what could happen on the planet if at some point China becames a democratic republic..and it fails. And then you could have a good chunk of the planet in chaos. I think that for the time being, if anybody with chances of success, tries to pursuit a democratic revolution in China, many West forces would came in aid of the CPC just to make sure that their own countries remain safe. If you want to extend the idea, I think the same could happen for many powers, US, Germany, England, France, etc. The "regime change" is an extreme strategy, not much wanted to happen by most powers in other great powers. There are simply too many variants that could go wrong, and most could not be contained. A single (out of control) army regiment with the control of 1 (one) ICBM could be nightmare scenario to solve.

rchaud 5y ago

You don't "have" to admit or concede anything, because the world is large, complex and fluid. Nothing is set in stone, and people and societies are full of contradictions. I'm reminded of the Churchill quote "Democracy is the worst system of governance, except for all the others that have been tried". It's taken at face value, despite coming from a head of state who reports to an unelected Monarch, under whose name a globe-spanning colonial empire existed.

dirtyid 5y ago

Hence why propagandist like Salvatore Babones insists on totaliarian without qualification like "successful totalitarian" or dictator without "benevolent dictator".