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> If you don't like autocracy, China is way worse than the US The US only has one additional political party beyond China has, and arguably both US parties are

> If you don't like autocracy, China is way worse than the US The US only has one additional political party beyond China has, and arguably both US parties are simply 'wings' of a larger party owned by the actual ruling class, something neither party wishes to acknowledge. When viewed through this lens the US and China aren't that different politically, and at the same time China is far more meritocratic and promotes leaders on a much more results-oriented basis. It's like a household where the voters are the kids and the leaders are the parents. In China the parents are happily married and communicate with each other. Kids can't really manipulate the parents, but the parents are reasonable and the household is demonstrably a successful one. In the US the parents are bitterly divorced, bickering, and are easily played against each other by the kids. The household is a disaster, in constant disarray and the kids are going to end up dropping out of high school. However, at the end of the day both of these households are overseen by the same leadership system: the parents.

nxor 1y ago
Yeah, when Trump was in the news for having said in another world him and Biden would have been friends, it was celebrated, but to me it was just one more indicator that they have more in common with each other than with the people who put their faith in the one or other. Their lifestyles seem similar, the people around them are similar ...
davidw 1y ago
Uh, in the US I can (still) criticize and mock the people running things. That's pretty important to me.
- NoGravitas 1y ago
  Even when criticizing and mocking the people running things doesn't have any effect? The point of free speech was supposed to be that you'd be able to make material changes in your living conditions and government policies by convincing people that they should be made. That's not really true anymore for anyone in the US except the very, very wealthy. But don't take my word for it: https://archive.org/details/gilens_and_page_2014_-testing_theories_of_american_politics.doc https://archive.org/details/gilens_and_page_2014_-testing_th... What would happen if we took a more consequentialist look at democracy rather than caring mainly about the forms?
_qswe 1y ago
I think there's an important material difference between the two. China's single party is authoritarian and uncontested. America's two major parties are mildly authoritarian on different axes, but average out to a mostly liberal status quo in practice. The relative chaos and transparency of America's system are what they are, but it isn't an autocracy at this point. There's also a significant growing political push to transition away from FPTP voting in the US, which would dismantle the current duopoly.
- mullingitover 1y ago
  > The relative chaos and transparency of America's system are what they are, but it isn't an autocracy at this point. You can get locked up with a 2 million dollar bond for posting a facebook meme in the US, as demonstrated by a recent case[1]. I don't know what value the transparency holds here? It's certainly already crossed the Rubicon into overt authoritarianism in the past year. [1] https://reason.com/2025/10/10/tennessee-man-arrested-gets-2-million-bond-for-posting-facebook-meme https://reason.com/2025/10/10/tennessee-man-arrested-gets-2-...
  - _qswe 1y ago
    Thanks for sharing, that is really bad. I did say "mostly", though. A bizarre anomaly that will most likely get thrown out in court is still pretty different from comparable practices in e.g. the UK that are standard procedure. The transparency I referred to was primarily to the American political system's airing of its dirty laundry out in the open, which is inherently going to look more chaotic than disputes between internal factions of a single party because so much of it is performative.
tempestn 1y ago
I imagine that analogy won't go over well with some, but at the very least I think it's an insightful look at how someone who was pro-CCP might look at the contrast.

nxor 1y ago

Yeah, when Trump was in the news for having said in another world him and Biden would have been friends, it was celebrated, but to me it was just one more indicator that they have more in common with each other than with the people who put their faith in the one or other. Their lifestyles seem similar, the people around them are similar ...

davidw 1y ago

Uh, in the US I can (still) criticize and mock the people running things. That's pretty important to me.

NoGravitas 1y ago
Even when criticizing and mocking the people running things doesn't have any effect? The point of free speech was supposed to be that you'd be able to make material changes in your living conditions and government policies by convincing people that they should be made. That's not really true anymore for anyone in the US except the very, very wealthy. But don't take my word for it: https://archive.org/details/gilens_and_page_2014_-testing_theories_of_american_politics.doc https://archive.org/details/gilens_and_page_2014_-testing_th... What would happen if we took a more consequentialist look at democracy rather than caring mainly about the forms?

_qswe 1y ago

I think there's an important material difference between the two. China's single party is authoritarian and uncontested. America's two major parties are mildly authoritarian on different axes, but average out to a mostly liberal status quo in practice. The relative chaos and transparency of America's system are what they are, but it isn't an autocracy at this point. There's also a significant growing political push to transition away from FPTP voting in the US, which would dismantle the current duopoly.

mullingitover 1y ago
> The relative chaos and transparency of America's system are what they are, but it isn't an autocracy at this point. You can get locked up with a 2 million dollar bond for posting a facebook meme in the US, as demonstrated by a recent case[1]. I don't know what value the transparency holds here? It's certainly already crossed the Rubicon into overt authoritarianism in the past year. [1] https://reason.com/2025/10/10/tennessee-man-arrested-gets-2-million-bond-for-posting-facebook-meme https://reason.com/2025/10/10/tennessee-man-arrested-gets-2-...
- _qswe 1y ago
  Thanks for sharing, that is really bad. I did say "mostly", though. A bizarre anomaly that will most likely get thrown out in court is still pretty different from comparable practices in e.g. the UK that are standard procedure. The transparency I referred to was primarily to the American political system's airing of its dirty laundry out in the open, which is inherently going to look more chaotic than disputes between internal factions of a single party because so much of it is performative.

tempestn 1y ago

I imagine that analogy won't go over well with some, but at the very least I think it's an insightful look at how someone who was pro-CCP might look at the contrast.