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I am not American and you have misunderstood my point. The point is that if you want to have the privileges of a global hegemon and go around the world and acc

by Matl 5mo ago

I am not American and you have misunderstood my point. The point is that if you want to have the privileges of a global hegemon and go around the world and accuse others of being authoritarian governments i.e. China, then your shit better be close to exemplary counter to that. Otherwise people around the world might run out of patience with your shit. Looking at both countries and what system the majority of the world would increasingly rather live under, IMO it would be option b.) not because they love authoritarianism, but because they want to live well and be as free as possible while doing so. The US is increasingly authoritarian, (in China you may not be able to criticize Xi, in the US you cannot criticize Israel without consequences). There's multiple ways one can be 'free'. The US seems to define freedom only in the narrow sense of being free from overt oppression for political opinions, but for many being free from economic insecurity is at least as, if not more, of an important freedom. The US does not offer that second freedom, but increasingly not even the first one. In light of that, why should the people of the world tolerate US hegemony and not increasingly turn towards China?

juleiie 5mo ago
Wait so America is getting increasingly authoritarian and you are afraid of authoritarianism so you chose option B - Authoritarianism Make it make sense “ In China, criticizing the central government or Xi Jinping can result in forced disappearances, total digital erasure, arbitrary detention, and severe legal prosecution by a judicial system controlled entirely by the ruling party.” I don’t like this, I don’t like that option B at all. I got an allergy to detention camps
- Matl 5mo ago
  > Wait so America is getting increasingly authoritarian and you are afraid of authoritarianism so you chose option B - Authoritarianism > Make it make sense If Option A is a country that pretends is a democracy, but in reality is an oligarchy where you don't get taken care of if you're sick, has crappy infrastructure, most people can't afford a family or a vacation AND you increasingly can't express your opinion and Option B is a country where you can't openly express your opinion, but most of the other things I mentioned you CAN afford, then many people would go for option B, because with option A they likely can't express themselves anyway and CANNOT do things they can with option B. There's no simpler way to dumb this down for you. The point is not 'we love authoritarianism', but that America ONLY has the democracy claim going for it and NOT MUCH ELSE, therefore the democracy it has better be near perfect for that to be a compelling argument. And it is far from that. What I find frustrating with discussions like these is that many Americans seem content with the claim that America is a democracy without examining the reality, meaning the chance for improvement there is slim.
  - 0xDEAFBEAD 5mo ago
    >What I find frustrating with discussions like these is that many Americans seem content with the claim that America is a democracy without examining the reality, meaning the chance for improvement there is slim. Well it's not just the Americans claiming that America is a democracy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist_Democracy_Index https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist_Democracy_Index Your idea of what the US is like seems to be a mosaic of viral clickbait loosely tethered to reality
    - Matl 5mo ago
      The index you linked to is published by The Economist, a major pro-capitalist oligarchy mag, you citing it as objective is like when the IDF investigates itself. Yet even they admit the US is far from a full democracy. It's kind of like the Roman Republic. Was that more of a democracy than the Roman Empire? Yes. Was it a truly participatory democracy? No.
      - 0xDEAFBEAD 5mo ago
        >The index you linked to is published by The Economist, a major pro-capitalist oligarchy mag, you citing it as objective is like when the IDF investigates itself. They are consistently anti-Trump. If they're so horrifically biased towards capitalism, why do they rank Sweden over the US? Again, you're basically just a conspiracy theorist throwing darts at a board blindfolded. You don't have anything to say about the methodology of this index, or an alternative index you prefer and why. You're just making bold assertions based on clickbait you read.
  - juleiie 5mo ago
    But you know that average life and standard of living in China and purchasing power is far worse than in America yes? Do you realise that China is a downgrade in life quality wise? Option B is just some fantasy. It doesn’t really exist as you claim it does. You do not trade one thing for another, that’s just not how any of this works. So get a grip and fix America and no you don’t need to make it authoritarian omg. I don’t understand you people. Instead of focusing on fixing things you tend to idealise China quite fantastically. Hence I think it’s all on a payroll and I am talking to Claude. If you wanted to make an example of countries America could learn from there are much much better countries than hecking China of all. Nordics, Canada, hell even Singapore if you like authoritarian capitalism so much

by Matl 5mo ago

juleiie 5mo ago

Wait so America is getting increasingly authoritarian and you are afraid of authoritarianism so you chose option B - Authoritarianism Make it make sense “ In China, criticizing the central government or Xi Jinping can result in forced disappearances, total digital erasure, arbitrary detention, and severe legal prosecution by a judicial system controlled entirely by the ruling party.” I don’t like this, I don’t like that option B at all. I got an allergy to detention camps

Matl 5mo ago
> Wait so America is getting increasingly authoritarian and you are afraid of authoritarianism so you chose option B - Authoritarianism > Make it make sense If Option A is a country that pretends is a democracy, but in reality is an oligarchy where you don't get taken care of if you're sick, has crappy infrastructure, most people can't afford a family or a vacation AND you increasingly can't express your opinion and Option B is a country where you can't openly express your opinion, but most of the other things I mentioned you CAN afford, then many people would go for option B, because with option A they likely can't express themselves anyway and CANNOT do things they can with option B. There's no simpler way to dumb this down for you. The point is not 'we love authoritarianism', but that America ONLY has the democracy claim going for it and NOT MUCH ELSE, therefore the democracy it has better be near perfect for that to be a compelling argument. And it is far from that. What I find frustrating with discussions like these is that many Americans seem content with the claim that America is a democracy without examining the reality, meaning the chance for improvement there is slim.
- 0xDEAFBEAD 5mo ago
  >What I find frustrating with discussions like these is that many Americans seem content with the claim that America is a democracy without examining the reality, meaning the chance for improvement there is slim. Well it's not just the Americans claiming that America is a democracy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist_Democracy_Index https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist_Democracy_Index Your idea of what the US is like seems to be a mosaic of viral clickbait loosely tethered to reality
  - Matl 5mo ago
    The index you linked to is published by The Economist, a major pro-capitalist oligarchy mag, you citing it as objective is like when the IDF investigates itself. Yet even they admit the US is far from a full democracy. It's kind of like the Roman Republic. Was that more of a democracy than the Roman Empire? Yes. Was it a truly participatory democracy? No.
    - 0xDEAFBEAD 5mo ago
      >The index you linked to is published by The Economist, a major pro-capitalist oligarchy mag, you citing it as objective is like when the IDF investigates itself. They are consistently anti-Trump. If they're so horrifically biased towards capitalism, why do they rank Sweden over the US? Again, you're basically just a conspiracy theorist throwing darts at a board blindfolded. You don't have anything to say about the methodology of this index, or an alternative index you prefer and why. You're just making bold assertions based on clickbait you read.
- juleiie 5mo ago
  But you know that average life and standard of living in China and purchasing power is far worse than in America yes? Do you realise that China is a downgrade in life quality wise? Option B is just some fantasy. It doesn’t really exist as you claim it does. You do not trade one thing for another, that’s just not how any of this works. So get a grip and fix America and no you don’t need to make it authoritarian omg. I don’t understand you people. Instead of focusing on fixing things you tend to idealise China quite fantastically. Hence I think it’s all on a payroll and I am talking to Claude. If you wanted to make an example of countries America could learn from there are much much better countries than hecking China of all. Nordics, Canada, hell even Singapore if you like authoritarian capitalism so much