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See this is what I don't understand. Everything you just said about China is a positive. Everything you said about China is achievable in the USA, and we at lea
by platevoltage 1y ago
See this is what I don't understand. Everything you just said about China is a positive. Everything you said about China is achievable in the USA, and we at least HAD a head start on soft-power influence.
Instead we should just have tariffs instead of actually making the lives of Americans better while FIGHTING affordable housing, high speed rail, and EVs.
We've got an entire team of goons who would rather rack up penalty minutes than score goals. These freaks think we are competing with China in an MMA fight instead of a Hockey game.
- kimixa 1y agoI feel it's more they're not actually playing for the scoreline. They want to be the team #1, even if that causes the team to lose in the end.
- sneak 1y agoWhen people see everything as an ego-based competition, they lose track entirely of the fact that trade is not zero-sum: both parties (or nations) benefit from increased trade. It’s the zero-sum mindset of leadership that only ever learned to excel by cheating and stealing, not cooperating, building, or synergizing.
- niek_pas 1y agoAnd unfortunately, it is exactly the Gorilla chest-pounding politicians “we are #1” that attract particular large swaths of the voting population who tend to see everything as a “me first” zero-sum competition.
- platevoltage 1y agoI'll add that the team leader doesn't expect to live long enough to see his team lose, and that's all that really matters to him.
- pydry 1y agoThe ironic thing is that tariffs are the right tool to reindustrialize America (over the period of ~a decade) but theyre being wielded with the skill and grace of a crack addled ferret by somebody who thinks it's a magic wand.
- jennyholzer 1y agoi don't see any indication that either republicans or democrats intend to reindustrialize america
- bediger4000 1y agoAgreed. This is hermeneutics for Trump's self enriching or just plain dumb actions.
- estearum 1y agoHere's private construction of manufacturing facilities in the US. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PRMFGCON https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PRMFGCON Biden was inaugurated in January 2021 and Trump won the election in November 2024.
- jibal 1y agoBiden's major bills were very much indications of that ... even more so for the version before Manchin took a hatchet to it.
- pydry 1y agoThere is evidence they are trying it just isnt particularly effective. Part of the problem is that it runs up against the corporate lobbies who would rather take a higher short term profit margin, let American industry hollow out and buy gold + a luxury bunker in New Zealand to prep for the worst case scenario.
- selectodude 1y agoReindustrializing America requires people that are actually willing to work in a factory.
- anon291 1y agoYeah it's a crab mentality. I'm ideologically opposed to communism, but I'm happy for the Chinese people. I don't understand why our response is to tear them down, instead of building ourselves up. Seems backwards. When you even mention building ourself, you are accused of being anti American simply because you point out a deficiency in our current development.
- amrocha 1y agoChina is the most capitalist country in the world.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- platevoltage 1y agoI've never been to china, but I've seen pictures. It doesn't look like a stateless, classless, moneyless society at all. To me anyways.
- pillefitz 1y agoAnd of the more communist ones
- mensetmanusman 1y agoLeader for life choosing winners is max capitalism.
- bongodongobob 1y ago[flagged]
- platevoltage 1y agoIs it weird that I get more worked up about the misuse of "literally" than your use of a slur?
- tbossanova 1y agoWhat’s the misuse here?
- jibal 1y agoIt depends on which definition of the word is being used. For the informal one, "very foolish or stupid", it's literally true.
- tbossanova 1y agoI’m still not sure what the misuse is. “Literally” is now commonly used as an intensifier, like how “awesome “ used to mean inspiring awe, including if you were scared of something, and now is mostly an intensifier. Awesome, dude!
- jibal 1y agoC'mon ... you know what "misuse" refers to, even if it's no longer considered to literally be a misuse. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/literally https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/literally
- tbossanova 1y agoHaha nice meta-usage of literally there
- bongodongobob 1y ago
- ehnto 1y agoI do think the state of progress in China is vastly underestimated by the west. It has been fast and messy, not evenly distributed, but it is staggering. The rhetoric around them is changing too, I think they are making significant soft power gains. I could easily see them filling the voids that US policy chaos is currently creating.
- generic92034 1y ago> The rhetoric around them is changing too, I think they are making significant soft power gains. I could easily see them filling the voids that US policy chaos is currently creating. As long as they are cooperating with Russia at least European countries will have a hard time to accept China's advances.
- remus 1y ago> I could easily see them filling the voids that US policy chaos is currently creating. More than that, I think China would be mad not to step into the vacuum the US is creating with it's isolationist policies. For years US aid has been extremely influential around the world, doing a huge amount of good (e.g. USAID) and buying relatively cheap influence in many countries. Countries that were reliant on that aid are going to be understandably jaded by their experience with the US and looking for more reliable allies.
- bavell 1y agoChina has a demographic time-bomb about to go off in the next decade or two. We'll see if they can survive it.
- mensetmanusman 1y agoIt already did, labor force shrunk for the first time a few years ago.
- StopDisinfo910 1y agoChina has been making soft power gains for a decade. They are everywhere in Africa. When I went to Macedonia five years ago, there was a giant screen in the main square explaining how their medical cooperation with China was such a boon for the country. China already is a diplomatic giant. I think American are partially blinded by the crazy negative propaganda against China you see all the time in the US. They significantly underestimate where China stands and overestimate the impact American tariffs can have.
- lm28469 1y agoIt's the whole "benevolent" dictatorship VS flawed democracy debate.
- AlecSchueler 1y agoIt might be an authoritarian one party state but China isn't a dictatorship right?
- wood_spirit 1y agoTechnically China is a dictatorship. The constitution of the People's Republic of China and the CCP constitution state that its form of government is "people's democratic dictatorship". The current president has done much to make his appointment for life, so it is a dictatorship that is on the road towards having a dictator. Cue comparisons to what is currently happening in the US.
- AlecSchueler 1y agoYes, 人民民主专政. A socialist state under the people's democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on the alliance of workers and peasants. I think you're ignoring some of the poetic intention of those words, the idea is that the Marxist collective is the dictator. It's turning the concept on its head to put the people at the forefront. In other contexts such as casual conversation here in the West the term dictatorship means something quite different and you seem to understand that too because you say they're "on the road towards having a dictator" which is surely an admission that they currently do not have a dictator and are ergo but currently a dictatorship. I'll certainly grant you that Xi has made moves to consolidate power in the individual but that's a separate discussion.
- Propelloni 1y agoSo it is a tyranny of the majority? That's not the vibe I get from China at all.
- Der_Einzige 1y agoHockey games are often AS violent as MMA fights with less regulation and more equipment which can cause injury. People really watch Hockey cus they want to see the guys beat each other up - not because they care about the puck. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fighting_in_ice_hockey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fighting_in_ice_hockey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violence_in_ice_hockey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violence_in_ice_hockey
- platevoltage 1y agoYou missed the point. The point of Hockey is to score the most points, not win the most fights. If fact, you are penalized for fighting. The more violent team often loses the game. The point of MMA is to win the fight by using violence. The people who watch this metaphorical hockey game for the violence have a 4 letter acronym that they label themselves with.