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You missed Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates. There are 10 members and 26 applicants. Combined some ~57% of the world population and they have twice as muc

by 6510 2y ago

You missed Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates. There are 10 members and 26 applicants. Combined some ~57% of the world population and they have twice as much land as the EU and US combined. They also have terrifying amount of cheap labor and China is far ahead of the west in many kinds of manufacturing.

shiroiushi 2y ago
It'd be really interesting to see some sci-fi set in the not-so-distance future (maybe 50-200 years ahead) predicting a future where the western-aligned democratic nations fall, and various brutal authoritarian regimes take over the world and variously compete or collaborate with each other. It wouldn't look pretty I think, but at least it'd probably be a realistic look at humanity's future. I'm guessing it would look something like "1984" but with more political powers and much better technology.
- saturn8601 2y ago
  Lets hope that remains sci-fi. A better future is the rest of the non western world improving their living standards and eventually transitioning to some semblance of democracy.
  - shiroiushi 2y ago
    At the moment, that possible future looks like total fantasy. Instead, it seems like many of the western democracies are going to turn into authoritarian governments, and meanwhile the non-western nations seem to be more than happy with their authoritarian leaders (or at least not unhappy enough to actually do anything about it). When was the last time an authoritarian system was toppled from within anyway, without a big western power coming in and doing it for them by force?
    - saturn8601 2y ago
      We just passed the 60 year anniversary of the Civil Rights Act. Since then we have seen enormous progress with humanity across the globe. Some have progressed faster than others and yes there has been some regression but if you zoom out, its a massive net improvement. The US has even been here before. After Lincoln was assassinated, he was replaced by a guy who many historians agree was the worst president in the history of the US, a man who arrived to his own inauguration drunk and someone who plunged the country into a shameful part of its history. Im not saying we aren't in for some serious tough times but I am feeling confident that in the long run it will swing back into the direction of progress. The US is currently in a period of immense transition to a new chapter. The upcoming generation (Gen Alpha) will be the first generation that is majority non white. What will the country be like when they come of political age? What values will it have? Given what I have seen so far from Gen Alpha (and Gen Z) Im feeling quite good that they will be positive values. >When was the last time an authoritarian system was toppled from within anyway, without a big western power coming in and doing it for them by force? Well you could argue the Soviet system was bound to fail due to the inherent hypocrisies it had. China is powerful enough that they cannot be easily influenced by the US but there is still massive trouble ahead for them. Their birth rate might stall their economic growth and that is the only thing really keeping the machine going there. I'm not saying they are guaranteed to collapse but it isn't looking good.
      - shiroiushi 2y ago
        >Given what I have seen so far from Gen Alpha (and Gen Z) Im feeling quite good that they will be positive values. From stuff I'm reading (and what I've seen myself too), the men of Gen Z are much more conservative than older generations. The women are the opposite, of course, and as a result they're not dating each other and Gen Z men are basically turning into angry incels. Hopefully the media is overblowing the proportionality of this, but it doesn't sound good. >The upcoming generation (Gen Alpha) will be the first generation that is majority non white. What will the country be like when they come of political age? I don't know, but I do wonder if it's going to just cause more trouble. Do we have examples of other cultures that had huge ethnic divisions like this, yet were successful? As it is, it already seems like the US completely lacks any kind of real shared culture, and is basically a bunch of radically different cultures living among each other but not interacting more than absolutely necessary. It's been like this for ages (centuries really) but with a dominant ethnic majority, it didn't matter so much (though of course it frequently sucked for the minority groups, unfortunately). But in a situation where there's no majority, I really wonder how effective the nation will be, or if it'll balkanize. And these days it isn't just racial either: there's an enormous division (probably the biggest division), for instance, between white rural culture and the culture found in many cities (which seems to be majority-white but with some other groups assimilated); the two groups really don't share the same values at all (e.g. religion+guns on one side).
Etheryte 2y ago
United Arab Emirates is not a part of BRICS, at least not as far as I last checked. They were invited to join and were scheduled to join early 2024, but at least early this year they still had not joined the organization [0]. I think the Wikipedia article intro for BRICS is incorrect, if you check the members list [1] then you see UAB is not in it. [0] https://www.reuters.com/world/saudi-arabia-has-not-yet-joined-brics-saudi-official-source-2024-02-01/ https://www.reuters.com/world/saudi-arabia-has-not-yet-joine... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BRICS#Member_states https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BRICS#Member_states
- 6510 2y ago
  https://www.mofa.gov.ae/en/mediahub/news/2023/8/25/25-8-2023-uae-brics#:~:text=The%20UAE%20has%20been%20a%20long-term%20partner%20of,Meeting%2C%20chaired%20by%20the%20Republic%20of%20South%20Africa https://www.mofa.gov.ae/en/mediahub/news/2023/8/25/25-8-2023....

by 6510 2y ago

shiroiushi 2y ago

It'd be really interesting to see some sci-fi set in the not-so-distance future (maybe 50-200 years ahead) predicting a future where the western-aligned democratic nations fall, and various brutal authoritarian regimes take over the world and variously compete or collaborate with each other. It wouldn't look pretty I think, but at least it'd probably be a realistic look at humanity's future. I'm guessing it would look something like "1984" but with more political powers and much better technology.

saturn8601 2y ago
Lets hope that remains sci-fi. A better future is the rest of the non western world improving their living standards and eventually transitioning to some semblance of democracy.
- shiroiushi 2y ago
  At the moment, that possible future looks like total fantasy. Instead, it seems like many of the western democracies are going to turn into authoritarian governments, and meanwhile the non-western nations seem to be more than happy with their authoritarian leaders (or at least not unhappy enough to actually do anything about it). When was the last time an authoritarian system was toppled from within anyway, without a big western power coming in and doing it for them by force?
  - saturn8601 2y ago
    We just passed the 60 year anniversary of the Civil Rights Act. Since then we have seen enormous progress with humanity across the globe. Some have progressed faster than others and yes there has been some regression but if you zoom out, its a massive net improvement. The US has even been here before. After Lincoln was assassinated, he was replaced by a guy who many historians agree was the worst president in the history of the US, a man who arrived to his own inauguration drunk and someone who plunged the country into a shameful part of its history. Im not saying we aren't in for some serious tough times but I am feeling confident that in the long run it will swing back into the direction of progress. The US is currently in a period of immense transition to a new chapter. The upcoming generation (Gen Alpha) will be the first generation that is majority non white. What will the country be like when they come of political age? What values will it have? Given what I have seen so far from Gen Alpha (and Gen Z) Im feeling quite good that they will be positive values. >When was the last time an authoritarian system was toppled from within anyway, without a big western power coming in and doing it for them by force? Well you could argue the Soviet system was bound to fail due to the inherent hypocrisies it had. China is powerful enough that they cannot be easily influenced by the US but there is still massive trouble ahead for them. Their birth rate might stall their economic growth and that is the only thing really keeping the machine going there. I'm not saying they are guaranteed to collapse but it isn't looking good.
    - shiroiushi 2y ago
      >Given what I have seen so far from Gen Alpha (and Gen Z) Im feeling quite good that they will be positive values. From stuff I'm reading (and what I've seen myself too), the men of Gen Z are much more conservative than older generations. The women are the opposite, of course, and as a result they're not dating each other and Gen Z men are basically turning into angry incels. Hopefully the media is overblowing the proportionality of this, but it doesn't sound good. >The upcoming generation (Gen Alpha) will be the first generation that is majority non white. What will the country be like when they come of political age? I don't know, but I do wonder if it's going to just cause more trouble. Do we have examples of other cultures that had huge ethnic divisions like this, yet were successful? As it is, it already seems like the US completely lacks any kind of real shared culture, and is basically a bunch of radically different cultures living among each other but not interacting more than absolutely necessary. It's been like this for ages (centuries really) but with a dominant ethnic majority, it didn't matter so much (though of course it frequently sucked for the minority groups, unfortunately). But in a situation where there's no majority, I really wonder how effective the nation will be, or if it'll balkanize. And these days it isn't just racial either: there's an enormous division (probably the biggest division), for instance, between white rural culture and the culture found in many cities (which seems to be majority-white but with some other groups assimilated); the two groups really don't share the same values at all (e.g. religion+guns on one side).

Etheryte 2y ago

United Arab Emirates is not a part of BRICS, at least not as far as I last checked. They were invited to join and were scheduled to join early 2024, but at least early this year they still had not joined the organization [0]. I think the Wikipedia article intro for BRICS is incorrect, if you check the members list [1] then you see UAB is not in it. [0] https://www.reuters.com/world/saudi-arabia-has-not-yet-joined-brics-saudi-official-source-2024-02-01/ https://www.reuters.com/world/saudi-arabia-has-not-yet-joine... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BRICS#Member_states https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BRICS#Member_states

6510 2y ago
https://www.mofa.gov.ae/en/mediahub/news/2023/8/25/25-8-2023-uae-brics#:~:text=The%20UAE%20has%20been%20a%20long-term%20partner%20of,Meeting%2C%20chaired%20by%20the%20Republic%20of%20South%20Africa https://www.mofa.gov.ae/en/mediahub/news/2023/8/25/25-8-2023....