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PaperclipPerfector  9d ago (text post)   25038 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of February 23, 2026

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Thinking toward China, there's just a huge amount of uncertainty about how its military would do against any country, let alone the status quo superpower. I don't think anyone, even Xi Jinping, has a good idea. The fact he hasn't acted yet is good piece of evidence that he thinks the US would win; but that's inherently a point at time estimation, and he has the advantage of choosing the most advantageous time he wants to, up until his death.

I am very confident that China would put up more of a fight than Iran, which admittedly is a bar so low it's on the ground.

The fact that a good proportion of American civilians are contemplating about striking China is a good reason why Xi should stop sitting in the cuck chair and do somethingTM. A couple easy things to try first: Myanmar rebels? Naughty Zimbabwean who threaten to stop selling China lithium? Malays and Indonesians who abuse (or used to abuse) our brethren in SEA? Hope that day comes sooner than later.

China seems to be doing pretty with well "do nothing, win" as an ethos.

Exactly short of the US actually meaningfully conducting themselves in a way to present an existential threat in the short term, momentum on most relevant factors is probably going China's way

Yes; if China wants to be a world power, it needs to put its military through its paces as a kind of stress test. Beyond pointing firehoses at Filipino fishing boats.

I don't think China does want that. I think they want the Islands and Taiwan and the US to fuck off from there side of the pacific. But they have zero interest it establishing global hegemony. Iran was actually closer to that with their network of bases, spies and proxies.

Getting the US to fuck off from Taiwan is equivalent to being a world power.

I agree that they're not looking to create a world order where they have replaced the current role of the US, though.

Yeah they're willing to deal with smaller countries through belt and road if there's a clear rationale, but the post-Cold War status of the USA having tentacles and responsibilities everywhere isn't something they want.

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