if you’ve got something like bypass paywalls clean, the comments are pure gold

  • BelieveRevolt [he/him]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    47
    ·
    4 days ago

    Both push a muscular patriotism, are obsessed with manufacturing and hostile to immigrants. Both want a country where ethnic minorities are expected to bow to the dominant group

    So many liberals keep calling China racist, but they never give any real evidence. This article just links to another article about how racist the MAGA movement is, yeah, I know Trumpers are racist, but you just said China was exactly the same and didn’t back it up at all? They didn’t even mention Uyghurs, surprisingly.

    • darkmode [comrade/them]@hexbear.netOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      21
      ·
      4 days ago

      The article does this on more than one occasion. I think it’s a GPT article. The paragraph about how China supposedly “punishes neighbors after mere slights” includes an article as evidence that states trade with Japan resumed

      but also a funny bit about how when reached for comment a Chinese office refused to comment over the phone and told them to fucking fax the questions. The fax was ignored.

  • PostyourJaggaHogs [undecided]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    46
    ·
    edit-2
    5 days ago

    There is indeed much that America can learn from China. But perhaps the most important lesson is to stay true to who we are as a nation. That’s what China did. It adopted aspects of the American way that would make it strong again, while sticking to its core system of Communist Party political domination and heavy state involvement in everything. And it has been spectacularly successful. Trump’s America, on the other hand, is beginning to seem as if it’s taking cues from China’s political model. That’s not who we are.<

    I think this is my favourite part

      • alexei_1917 [any]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        25
        ·
        5 days ago

        Of course not. Because to make it work, the US would need a Communist Party that isn’t totally useless. And no one who lived through the Cold War is going to allow that to happen.

    • darkmode [comrade/them]@hexbear.netOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      4 days ago

      I wasn’t even gonna bother posting to slop bc it is mostly the typical pablum but this paragraph is truly shocking. I can’t remember the last time one of these articles very nearly called China’s political model a good thing

      • RedWizard [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        14
        ·
        edit-2
        4 days ago

        There is so little introspection on the mater, too.

        But perhaps the most important lesson is to stay true to who we are as a nation.

        Oh ok, so what does that mean?

        That’s what China did. It adopted aspects of the American way that would make it strong again, while sticking to its core system of Communist Party political domination and heavy state involvement in everything. And it has been spectacularly successful.

        Hmm, right I see. So China did market reforms but maintained its communist state, got it! So, Communist State + Market Reforms (aka do a little capitalism) = Great Success! But what about America?

        Trump’s America, on the other hand, is beginning to seem as if it’s taking cues from China’s political model. That’s not who we are.

        Oh. Ok, Which parts of China’s political model, exactly? Hmm, it doesn’t say. This could mean anything. Is it the “core system of […] political domination and heavy state involvement in everything.” but without the Communist Party? If only the author had come to some kind of conclusion about what exactly Trump is appropriating from the Chinese model. If Trump is doing the “bad” part of the model, what part of the Chinese model are we supposed to be doing, exactly? If doing a little “capitalism” for China = Good, are we supposed to be … doing a little … communism in America? What would that even look like, I wonder. Nothing comes to mind, I guess.

        The United States can and should consider adopting some of what has worked for China, such as transitioning to renewables; revitalizing industrial policy; supporting science, research and education; reinvesting in infrastructure, housing and safe cities; and above all, having a sense of collective purpose that leads to national strength.

        Instead, Mr. Trump’s administration is undermining or slashing funding for critical things such as public safety, infrastructure, education, scientific research, clean energy and semiconductor manufacturing, while fanning political divisions.

        Oh, I see, this is what we should be doing. That seems obvious, right? But why can we never actually seem to get there? What is it, exactly, that makes China so on task, so focused, and so driven to meet these goals?

        It’s natural for Americans who want a better future to look, albeit grudgingly, at what China has achieved. To be sure, leaders in Beijing don’t have a messy democracy to get in the way of their plans, but that’s hardly the only reason for China’s success. It came also from strategic foresight, investing in the future, a sense of national focus and unity — not division — that comes from the top and millions of individuals working hard to build the country up. China followed America’s lead, but it stuck to its own systems and stayed focused on meeting the basic needs of its population.

        Is it really “millions of individuals”, that make all these dreams a reality in China? What can the author tell us about Chinas “own systems” which it “stuck to”? How does a Country like China build “a sense of national focus and unity”, which of its systems ensures this unity? How does its systems handle division? What are these systems exactly? Come on, author, you’ve been in China since 2008. You can’t elaborate on any of these things?

        • Horse {they/them}@lemmygrad.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          10
          ·
          4 days ago
          But perhaps the most important lesson is to stay true to who we are as a nation.
          

          Oh ok, so what does that mean?

          genocidal imperialists?

        • darkmode [comrade/them]@hexbear.netOP
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          4 days ago

          I just get the feeling there is a quota on these types of articles at this point. We know a sort of elaboration on the subject would demonstrate the vacuousness of the author’s “analysis” too clearly.

          What we should be discussing is how many guys the NYT has trapped in China for years in order to, in their view, substantiate their credibility. C = Number of Years Lived in Place * Age / Skin Tone

  • alexei_1917 [any]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    44
    ·
    edit-2
    5 days ago

    America: dictatorship of the bourgeoisie does dictatorship of the bourgeoisie things

    Outraged liberals so close to getting it: “What are we, a bunch of COMMIES!?”

    I wish y’all were, buddy. If only.

      • micnd90 [he/him,any]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        11
        ·
        4 days ago

        They have universal public option for insurance to cover the bases. People who can afford it also get supplementary private insurance. This is more or less same as Australia or Germany. The only difference is that being a developing country with large population the basic public option is not as good.

          • micnd90 [he/him,any]@hexbear.net
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            6
            ·
            edit-2
            4 days ago

            To my knowledge it is a bit fragmented. Like there are different tiers of public option for rural vs. urban people, and employers still obligated to provide insurance to their workers (also with different tiers), and a lot of people do out of pocket supplementary insurance. The rural vs. urban divide creates weird problem like some of my colleagues from China said if city people went hiking in rural areas, roll their ankle and had to be helicoptered out, they are out of coverage because they live in cities. But more or less the whole population have some base of insurance (e.g., universal coverage), and emergency services are covered, so people never got bankrupt from ambulance trip. It is just that for very expensive medical treatment, like cancer treatment or some specialist visits, MRI, etc. it is not completely free.

      • Dirt_Possum [she/her, undecided]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        15
        ·
        4 days ago

        What is the healthcare in China like? It may not be true universal healthcare, but surely it’s nothing like the “die of poverty from crippling medical debt before the terminal cancer kills you” style of US healthcare?

    • darkmode [comrade/them]@hexbear.netOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      14
      ·
      4 days ago

      ignoring English class was (not sure if anyone cares enough anymore) basically presented in American media as a virtue. combine that with 24/7 access to computer and here we are.