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I was in Chiang Mai, and it seemed dead but more alive than many places. I stayed next to Central Festival, the largest mall in North Thailand. Some places like Germany felt like a place frozen in the past, according to a friend who went there whilst China seems to be pushing towards the future, Saudi Arabia too in ways. We have a weird, global connected world where differences are not that hard to gauge. East Asia has a massive self-esteem problem, so passport bros go there. East Asia has a gutter tier tfr too beyond just low self esteem.
The world stopped being a place where the future feels bright to many. In Thailand, plenty of euros who could not hack it or got disillusioned find some solace. All the euros I met there would lament about things being way way worse. Whilst the locals would treat them better than other locals. The world even in the US is not as optimistic now, given demographic issues and the general unaffordability of real estate. Plenty of small towns are employed by one or two giant factories or industries, these people are at gods mercy if the owner packs up shop and leaves.
India is the same, the population is young but its mostly not smart, and people have accepted that the world is gonna get worse, hence the chad alpha phonk music edits of Ancient India. The breakdown of family, civil lives and places to these sterile multi-cultural grounds does not spark any joy. The story is the same in many places: the boomers sold the Canadians out, but they also sold us out. All we can do is pay for their retirements and hope that no one is that stupid. I wrote a comment in the thread about the same happening in India, you may find it helpful.
Quality comment op, very high effort!
Thanks for the kind words! Ah, Central Festival, I went there a few times- I stayed closer to some of the other malls but made the trip out to that one once in a while. Super fun. Small world!
I read your post about India when you posted it yesterday. I have very little knowledge of the country but the situation sounds pretty dire from your post. If I read correctly, it looks like the right wing Hindu party announced a census. Does this not benefit the right wing Hindu upper caste? If not, why did they agree to do a census? I think that you're opposed to the census because it will be used by the lower castes to demand reparations or better treatment from the right? (Sorry if I'm way off base with anything here)
Though I know very little about India, I do work in ecommerce and lots of people are eying India as an alternative manufacturing base post China tariff apocalypse, is this something that people in India are aware of? Would you see this as a benefit to your country, bringing in jobs and money, or not really because they are low paying jobs with long hours? (In my mind, the manufacturing is what built China from dirt poor to where they are today so I don't see it as a negative but feel free to tell me I'm wrong)
I didn't mention China in my original post at all because I haven't been there. But I believe they've grown massively in the past 2 or 3 decades. I imagine people feel great about themselves and their prospects. I'd love to have someone make an effortpost (or even a short post) about the way China would fit in with my analysis of things.
This is pretty true. The fates of entire cities in Ohio, Kentucky, Eastern PA etc definitely operate this way
So fascinated by this take! I found it super exciting and not dead at all. Then again I grew up in the midwestern rust belt so my standard for dead has to be way lower than someone from India.
Hindu upper caste is responsible for everything good in India and carries elevated levels of Aryan ancestry, thus being the least diluted descendants of the Indo Aryans. Due to the small size and historic overrepresentation, the underclass is extremely resentful, being dirt poor makes it worse. The Bjp is the Hindu or Upper Caste party the way Republicans are the white party, which is to say not all. They swindle Hindus and use Muslims as scapegoats but require more energy, a vision to get more votes.
India is 80 plus percent OBC or below, 20 percent isn't a large number. In reality upper castes lack a sense of identity strong enough to will the nation to acknowledge what's happening. All of the armed forces is made up of the same stock, yet people, bjps most ardent voters are upper castes who accept evil because the alternatives much worse.
The backwards are made up of three classifications, OBCs or shudras or peasant castes, SCs who are what you would call scheduled castes under which some were mistreated, also known as dalits. STs are the final which is a classification I could never make sense of as these are tribals. OBCs are the largest percentage share of the nation, followed by these two, Muslims and then Upper castes. Modi wants to win after all. They also took away land Vai redistribution, the state pays you 10k usd for marrying into another caste, you can barely get a job or a degree or get representation. How much more does one even need?
India can never industrialise properly, it's industrial base is a joke as the bureaucracy and politicians exist to only take kickbacks. Nothing of note will ever get made here the way it happens in China and it'll only get worse as automated customer care and 105 iq language models make junior Javascript devs obsolete. You just can't get things done here on scale, period. People know what's good, they just don't care, this includes upper caste elites unfortunately. They have one foot out the door already.
China is a fun place, it's got terrible demographics, lower tfr is bad because it means the people leave but I don't think China does anything super special, they just avoid stupid things liberal world loves. That's enough in this day and age.
Chiang mai felt dead to me personally. I was alone with my other ex co founder and it was a terrible time. I saw way too many passport bros and women, the local ones really like exotic men which felt unappealing to me, I don't like Asian women but there was something about it that felt kinda off. People led good lives, law and order was nice, hospitals worked, the roads were clean yet I never could relate to it as much. I did enjoy pai, the hippy village next to it a lot more since I'm young.
There are some places today like NY or SF and a few others that are epicentres of important things, the way Kashmir was to Shaivism a few centuries ago. But it felt dead to me because I'm not a local, it's pretty alive if you're one. Maya mall, nimman, the night markets, Zoe In Yellow, spicy, Chiang Mai Ram, the man made lake next to the law department were things that I still remember to this date. I'd visit this cafe called Vaana next to central festival. Though my time there was awful as I was on the mercy of my ex co founder, had zero money and was extremely stressed, I would love to visit again once I'm rich lol. It's a good place, I remember looking at the mountains from my apartment and the drive to pai. Feels like a lifetime ago.
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