I can’t understand it. Look at what Covid is doing right now. It’s fucking awful. Why couldn’t they just stay with Zero-COVID till everyone got vaccinated? Why haven’t they vaccinated everyone by now? It’s so frustrating. Who the fuck cares if someone assholes protested with blank paper? Just…why?

    • shiteyes2 [any]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Oh yeah it's a boo post for sure and that's what makes it so fun to deliver. What I said is true and this reopening is the turning point. China will not "implode" but also will not overtake the United States economically for decades if ever. The extended lockdown didn't help but won't do nearly as much damage long term as what the depression of 23 is going to do to the entire planet. Which China is now scrambling to prepare for with this reopening which will cost a lot of lives to get their production kick started again.

      It's a joy to watch the next generation realize they got bamboozled just like I did once. Go communism with Chinese characteristics woohoo! If they try harder I'm sure they'll show us real good.

      • Ram_The_Manparts [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        It’s a joy to watch the next generation realize they got bamboozled just like I did once.

        :brainworms:

      • ssjmarx [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        China will achieve socialism by 2050, and at that point fully 1/5th of the world's population will be living in the new high water mark of human achievement and freedom. At about that time, the western labor aristocracy will be fully proletarianized, and aside from the top strata of their society Europe and the Anglosphere will be experiencing precisely the conditions of exploitation that they have benefited from hoisting upon most of the rest of the world for hundreds of years.

        • shiteyes2 [any]
          ·
          2 years ago

          I guess we'll find out, it's always good to have something to look forward to

          • LiberalSocialist [any,they/them]
            ·
            2 years ago

            I mean I’m getting anarchist vibes from your comment but you said you got bamboozled by China before? I just don’t know what your solution to covid is.

            • shiteyes2 [any]
              ·
              2 years ago

              There isn't one besides just taking a beating and hoping they come up with a better vaccine.

              Go watch Rising Sun from 1993 and then take a look at Japan's current economy. Getting caught up in the growth hoopla of industrializing Asian nations assuming they will grow forever at the same high rate as when they were picking up the low hanging fruit then watching them slowly plateau out into blah economies has been a thing for a while.

              Marx's theory of the falling rate of profit applies to good communists as well unfortunately.

                • shiteyes2 [any]
                  ·
                  2 years ago

                  Yeah sitting there in stasis forever is definitely a strategy. If the CCP's prolonged existence wins us concessions I'll be far from mad. I'm just not seeing any kind of utopia worth lauding unless they somehow convince the rest of the planet to do the same. Which it will, eventually but I probably won't be around to see it.

                  In the end I think praising or envying China is just taking the exit too early when humanity has much further to go yet. State of ascendancy for decades and all that yes until just around right about now. Give it a few years and tell me how they look then, probably not much better or worse than anyone else. From here on out it's just empty arguing on who thinks what will happen so I really am stopping here.

                    • ClassUpperMiddle [they/them]
                      ·
                      2 years ago

                      The move to relax covid restrictions is shrouded in western propaganda. Say if it is a disaster, people are getting horribly sick at alarming rates.... China has the ability to just resume restrictions. The framing weve been getting is "china will now all die because they turned on the covid switch and it can never be turned off"

                    • shiteyes2 [any]
                      ·
                      2 years ago

                      Yeah I get it, you think parabola of progress keeps going up and this is just a short waffle, and I think parabola of progress flattening out and this is the inflection point. Lots of progress yes! Nothing lasts forever. Who's right? Future will tell! Bye bye.

      • TreadOnMe [none/use name]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Except it already has? If you look at non-financialized GDP, China outstripped the U.S. back in 2017 and has only gotten larger, with better manufacturing capabilities and shipping industry, COVID policies or no. They just aren't going to seek a nuclear or any war exchange because why stop and change things when you are already winning? The biggest concern for them atm is making deals with third world countries to offload excess construction bids as their local economic demands slows and facilitate resource extraction, which they are still committing to a far more ethical game plan than any other world power (which is why they remain popular most in under-developed countries), and making sure the U.S. doesn't interfere militarily to disrupt those processes or make it prohibitively expensive. Perhaps it will come to a head eventually, but if it does, the U.S. is far more vulnerable than it appears because it has been cost-cutting labor and down on recruitment for the last three decades. The tech is there but there is no one to man it.

        I get that dooming is fun, but seriously, have some actual perspective.