birigiadu
1mo ago
It is my firm belief that Chinese opera should be classified as a form of torture and America missed a trick by not staging mandatory performances at Guantanamo. Lion dances are great though, I'm fine with them exporting that.
No one watches those except for the tourists. They have their own modern entertainment, which... Okay, I've seen some of it and it's not my cup of tea, but it's definetely a normal, modern entertainment.
birigiadu
1mo ago
The Chinese tech sector is second rate, and only survives on the absolute impenetrable protectionism that the government provides
What? Chinese companies absolutely curb-stomp their competitors on international markets (especially the European ones)
birigiadu
1mo ago
Other than being a totalitarian police state with no civil rights
They are authoritarian, not totalitarian. That's an improtant distinction. Also, big deal, most countries in the world are authoritarian to some extent, most countries in history were. Hell, democracy does not guarantee freedom, just look at UK or Germany and how wrongthink there might get you in trouble.
birigiadu
1mo ago
Ok, so I know that it undermines my main point, but regarding the DEI afaik there is indeed affirmative action in China towards their ethnic minorities.
birigiadu
1mo ago
So there is a question that has been gnawing at me for the longest time: is PRC... Good? I mean:
- wildly economically succesful with a dynamic tech sector
- conservative and nationalistic population, proud of its' culture and heritage - this is the big one tbh, even the more liberal side of the population doesn't seem that bad, none of that self-hatred of the West
- technocracy - yeah, they may not be AS meritocratic as they advertise, and personal connections play a huge role, but comparing their officials to whatever the hell Western politicians are doing is not favorable to the latter
- willing to forego some comfort and economic progress for the sake of national power and sovereignity (as a European, seeing how our societies prefer to bend over looking for outside help instead of taking the harder route of building capacity for assertivness - yeah, China seems really vindicated right now)
I mean, there are obviously some tough things to get over (the whole free speech thing, how they handled COVID with safetyism that would make many in the West blush, all the other usual stuff), but genuinely, honestly... Following the news from China for a few years, I really can't help but envy the Chinese. Take down the communist iconography and I think that many on the right would see it similarly to Japan.
Ok, but both bad decisions and fertility exist in the West too. It's hard to gauge whether on average Chinese government makes more bad decisions than an average Western one (probably not even possible to objectively measure), but it's not evident to me that they don't have an advantage on this one.
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