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We could, like, stop framing it as us vs them to start. We could also elect leaders who want progress and are willing to squeeze the 1% even a little bit to mak
by forestrywat 2mo ago
We could, like, stop framing it as us vs them to start. We could also elect leaders who want progress and are willing to squeeze the 1% even a little bit to make that progress.
China is taking long term views. Transit and rail, solar energy, batteries, manufacturing and automation, science investment.
The US is thinking very short term, to benefit very few. Ignoring rail, cutting renewables, building highly speculative and unpopular data centers, and cutting funding to science and the arts.
I see the 30 year vision for infrastructure in China and I think we could do it here. We just... don't. Because we have somehow made long term investments that benefit many a political dead end so our two "teams" can argue about how the other team is evil.
- virgil_disgr4ce 2mo agoChina is an authoritarian regime that brutally punishes dissidents. Just throwing this out there because apparently everyone seems to have forgotten this.
- forestrywat 2mo agoSo is the US, to be honest.
- isatty 2mo agoNot even close to the same level as China. What’s up with whitewashing China on all online platforms these days? You, on hacker news, should know better.
- virgil_disgr4ce 2mo agoYeah I'm wondering the same thing. It's bizarre and unsettling and seems off-brand for HN.
- Sabinus 2mo agoThe left is having it's Tea Party/MAGA movement, it's only going to get worse for the foreseeable future.
- bothers 2mo ago> Not even close to the same level as China. Have you been paying attention? At all? The US is really trying to cut off its own legs and branding it as removing unnecessary weight. Give it time, we'll get there.
- forestrywat 2mo agoThere are people being arrested for being in Signal chats where non violent protests are being discussed. People being arrested for carrying water bottles. ICE is shooting people who are not even in the way, just making noise across the street. Rubio called the DSA a terrorist organization. And second, I don't think I said "at the same level as China". It can be the case that both countries are authoritarian and punishing dissidents. And still be the case that China is worse.
- maxglute 2mo agoPRC slapping fraction of % dissidents is magnitude more benevolent than US incarceration complex. Authoritarian system that delivers is better than sclerotic "democracy" that doesn't. Just throwing this out there because apparently LIO ideologues never seem to learn this.
- _DeadFred_ 2mo agoWhat? Tiananmen Square was not more benevolent. When I worked in the bay area we had a ton of Chinese Americans who happened to be college students when Tiananmen happened who then stayed instead of going home. Do you people no longer work with them? Never talk to them? What is going on. Also https://www.google.com/search?q=china+execution+van https://www.google.com/search?q=china+execution+van is pure dystipia.
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- maxglute 2mo agoDid you know the founding fathers slaughtered indigenous and enslaved blacks, or women couldn't vote? With respect to modern discursive, who cares. It's 2026, only LIOtards still grasping at lame Tiananmen shit from ~40 years ago. Might as well be different era on PRC timescale. What's going on is PRC sea turtles are returning in record numbers, while no one particularly thinks about diaspora who fled decades ago stuck in their time capsule of what PRC was. 40 years ago, when PRC didn't have riot police and slapped some comprador with lethal prejudice with only means a developing country had, now it's light touch, polite invite to drink tea and self criticism essays while Americans still getting executed on the street without the dignity of van (pure dystopia etc etc) at ~2x the per capita while getting locked up at ~4x per capita. What's going on is some people can't do math nor accept times change. Democracy may just be the worse form of government vs whatever modern system PRC is trying. It sucks LIO experiment failed, but it's time appreciate history = national power being by weeding dissidents - Patriots certainly don't seem to be getting the hint and refreshing that liberty tree from time to time.
- krapp 2mo agoThe US is not a moral agent - it counts authoritarian regimes that brutally punish dissidents among its closest allies.
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- pudgywalsh 2mo agoIt's easy to build railroads when you have no safety rules or oversight and can force the Uyghurs to build the parts in slave camps.
- eli_gottlieb 2mo agoYou're going to get a lot of angry responses about how China can only accomplish what it does because it's an authoritarian regime and very bad, but you're actually correct. Historically, authoritarian countries are held back by their regimes, which means China is likely underperforming what it could accomplish if Xi Jinping Conservative Boomer Thought with Chinese Characteristics wasn't strangling everything. The United States very much started trying to invest seriously for the future in the Biden years, and as it turns out, people associated that with consumer inflation and chucked it out in 2024 for another round of the Republican "wrecking crew" dismantling and demolishing the federal agencies that the USA has historically used to Get Stuff Done in the long term. At this point it's hard to point to a major country or bloc that isn't shooting itself in the foot.
- forestrywat 2mo agoOh you'll get no support for me about Biden. Shutting down rail strikes and declaring Covid over very clearly put him in the "protect the owners, not the people" camp.
- esseph 2mo ago> Shutting down rail strikes Congress, but President signed. And it was broadly bipartisan! The House voted 290–137, and the Senate voted 80–15 to pass the measure, which was then signed into law. The entire US government looked at working people and said, basically: "No, you are not allowed to take time off work for cancer treatments".
- forestrywat 2mo agoGotta get our Christmas treats or else.