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PaperclipPerfector  18hr ago (text post)   2633 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 23, 2026

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I don't give a damn whether it's a black cat or a white cat so long as it catches mice.

This position works because the government of the person who said it is not democratic. It actually does matter in America if the masses think the government is right or legitimate in what it does.

If the illusion of democracy is good enough for you then you will of course be satisfied with that answer.

Countries do what they believe makes sense in their circumstance. And if it produces the outcomes that are agreeable to the people there, who are you to tell them they're wrong (by that standard)? It's a very western centric attitude that leads people to say something like that. But man judges everything in relation to himself, so it's not uncommon. And as the US loses power overtime as all empires do, you'll see it being lowered into the grave and people will be saying "but... we're... free! This isn't supposed to be happening..." And they won't be able to come to grips with where they went wrong in their thinking.

You misunderstand. I don't care that the Chinese have a different system, I may even admire parts of it. I'm saying that the democratic/American system cannot be blase about this in the same way. Americans are very puritanical about their liberty, if nothing else.

Countries don't do things, people do. The question is whether the American people will tolerate that argument baldly put. I think there's obvious financial incentives in destroying the last guardrails of the old world, but the arguments about freedom that license it find far more purchase than they did in the past and that's because of the people.

It's self-evident to me that Islam Is Right About Women Gambling. But "this is simply a net loss for society and you're fooling yourself if you think we need to run this experiment again - humans are still as weak and stupid as they ever were" probably would have failed on many, many people and that matters.

Xi doesn't have to care. Small d-democrats do.

Americans are very puritanical about their liberty, if nothing else.

If by puritanical you mean have our head up our own ass, then I’d agree. Americans tend to fetishize the concept. We proudly go around thinking we’re the freest and most open society on Earth. And in some ways that’s accurate. But in reality America is an open society with a closed mind. Americans tend not to listen to the rest of the world.

Countries don't do things, people do.

And people are what make up countries. Families make up nations. Nations make up state’s.

Xi doesn't have to care. Small d-democrats do.

And democrats only have to pretend to care. To me bread and circuses are insufficient to have a functional democracy.

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