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The Triumph and Terror of Wang Huning

32 points by remarkEon 5y ago

imbnwa 5y ago
So the CCP thinks it can have the fruits of high-growth capitalist markets without producing a deterritorializing desiring subject and its vissicitudes? CCP won't see the 22nd century with that attitude, at least, not without a soldier on every street corner if not a secret police informing on dissidents. For sure, America's GINI coefficient will worsen, but it'll always make concessions to progressivism that make it palatable, e.g. eventual Federal legalization of marijuana and prostitution (which lip service to Federalism will delegate to individual states as with marijuana already), perhaps a more approximate version of universal healthcare, etc. That power in America appears decentralized, attributable to no one in particular, is a feature, not a bug. The CCP will have no such luxury since they're actively campaigning to divest themselves of such. They also, owing to ideological committments, can't use immigration to buoy their declining birth rates like the West, not to mention the message they're sending with, you know, all the ethnic cleansing going on.
scrubs 5y ago
Thank you OP for posting: above average read. The paragraph, "Instead, they see Wang’s America: deindustrialization, rural decay, over-financialization, out of control asset prices, and the emergence of a self-perpetuating rentier elite; powerful tech monopolies able to crush any upstart competitors operating effectively beyond the scope of government; immense economic inequality, chronic unemployment, addiction, homelessness, and crime; cultural chaos, historical nihilism, family breakdown, and plunging fertility rates; societal despair, spiritual malaise, social isolation, and skyrocketing rates of mental health issues; a loss of national unity and purpose in the face of decadence and barely concealed self-loathing; vast internal divisions, racial tensions, riots, political violence, and a country that increasingly seems close to coming apart." It's disheartening to read because several aspects are true. Some are off: self-loathing except in a Doonesbury elite-white way seems untrue. The issues that concern me the most are, - profit: money is not the measure of all things. Money is a tool. When I think of the opioid crisis and the manufacture's owner's ability to shield money, or the deception on the part of tobacco (nicotine addiction), oil (global warming) I become frustrated. - Worse, the powerful particularly since President Reagan whether as individuals or companies are not held to equal accountability. While societies have said for ages don't do 'X', people do 'X' all the time. But there are penalties criminal, financial, logical, and natural. People or organizations with money or influence don't seem to have that problem. - Elsewhere the article references governmental institutional incompetence as companies, advantaged by the above issues, aren't pulling their weight. Of our three federal branches, surely the US Congress is by far the worst

32 points by remarkEon 5y ago

So the CCP thinks it can have the fruits of high-growth capitalist markets without producing a deterritorializing desiring subject and its vissicitudes? CCP won't see the 22nd century with that attitude, at least, not without a soldier on every street corner if not a secret police informing on dissidents. For sure, America's GINI coefficient will worsen, but it'll always make concessions to progressivism that make it palatable, e.g. eventual Federal legalization of marijuana and prostitution (which lip service to Federalism will delegate to individual states as with marijuana already), perhaps a more approximate version of universal healthcare, etc. That power in America appears decentralized, attributable to no one in particular, is a feature, not a bug. The CCP will have no such luxury since they're actively campaigning to divest themselves of such. They also, owing to ideological committments, can't use immigration to buoy their declining birth rates like the West, not to mention the message they're sending with, you know, all the ethnic cleansing going on.

scrubs 5y ago

Thank you OP for posting: above average read. The paragraph, "Instead, they see Wang’s America: deindustrialization, rural decay, over-financialization, out of control asset prices, and the emergence of a self-perpetuating rentier elite; powerful tech monopolies able to crush any upstart competitors operating effectively beyond the scope of government; immense economic inequality, chronic unemployment, addiction, homelessness, and crime; cultural chaos, historical nihilism, family breakdown, and plunging fertility rates; societal despair, spiritual malaise, social isolation, and skyrocketing rates of mental health issues; a loss of national unity and purpose in the face of decadence and barely concealed self-loathing; vast internal divisions, racial tensions, riots, political violence, and a country that increasingly seems close to coming apart." It's disheartening to read because several aspects are true. Some are off: self-loathing except in a Doonesbury elite-white way seems untrue. The issues that concern me the most are, - profit: money is not the measure of all things. Money is a tool. When I think of the opioid crisis and the manufacture's owner's ability to shield money, or the deception on the part of tobacco (nicotine addiction), oil (global warming) I become frustrated. - Worse, the powerful particularly since President Reagan whether as individuals or companies are not held to equal accountability. While societies have said for ages don't do 'X', people do 'X' all the time. But there are penalties criminal, financial, logical, and natural. People or organizations with money or influence don't seem to have that problem. - Elsewhere the article references governmental institutional incompetence as companies, advantaged by the above issues, aren't pulling their weight. Of our three federal branches, surely the US Congress is by far the worst