[HN Gopher] The Triumph and Terror of Wang Huning
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       The Triumph and Terror of Wang Huning
        
       Author : remarkEon
       Score  : 21 points
       Date   : 2021-10-17 08:43 UTC (14 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (palladiummag.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (palladiummag.com)
        
       | imbnwa wrote:
       | So the CCP thinks it can have the fruits of high-growth
       | capitalist markets without producing a deterritorializing
       | desiring subject and its vissicitudes? CCP won't see the 22nd
       | century with that attitude, at least, not without a soldier on
       | every street corner if not a secret police informing on
       | dissidents. For sure, America's GINI coefficient will worsen, but
       | it'll always make concessions to progressivism that make it
       | palatable, e.g. eventual Federal legalization of marijuana and
       | prostitution (which lip service to Federalism will delegate to
       | individual states as with marijuana already), perhaps a more
       | approximate version of universal healthcare, etc. That power in
       | America appears decentralized, attributable to no one in
       | particular, is a feature, not a bug. The CCP will have no such
       | luxury since they're actively campaigning to divest themselves of
       | such. They also, owing to ideological committments, can't use
       | immigration to buoy their declining birth rates like the West,
       | not to mention the message they're sending with, you know, all
       | the ethnic cleansing going on.
        
       | scrubs wrote:
       | Thank you OP for posting: above average read. The paragraph,
       | 
       | "Instead, they see Wang's America: deindustrialization, rural
       | decay, over-financialization, out of control asset prices, and
       | the emergence of a self-perpetuating rentier elite; powerful tech
       | monopolies able to crush any upstart competitors operating
       | effectively beyond the scope of government; immense economic
       | inequality, chronic unemployment, addiction, homelessness, and
       | crime; cultural chaos, historical nihilism, family breakdown, and
       | plunging fertility rates; societal despair, spiritual malaise,
       | social isolation, and skyrocketing rates of mental health issues;
       | a loss of national unity and purpose in the face of decadence and
       | barely concealed self-loathing; vast internal divisions, racial
       | tensions, riots, political violence, and a country that
       | increasingly seems close to coming apart."
       | 
       | It's disheartening to read because several aspects are true. Some
       | are off: self-loathing except in a Doonesbury elite-white way
       | seems untrue. The issues that concern me the most are,
       | 
       | - profit: money is not the measure of all things. Money is a
       | tool. When I think of the opioid crisis and the manufacture's
       | owner's ability to shield money, or the deception on the part of
       | tobacco (nicotine addiction), oil (global warming) I become
       | frustrated.
       | 
       | - Worse, the powerful particularly since President Reagan whether
       | as individuals or companies are not held to equal accountability.
       | While societies have said for ages don't do 'X', people do 'X'
       | all the time. But there are penalties criminal, financial,
       | logical, and natural. People or organizations with money or
       | influence don't seem to have that problem.
       | 
       | - Elsewhere the article references governmental institutional
       | incompetence as companies, advantaged by the above issues, aren't
       | pulling their weight. Of our three federal branches, surely the
       | US Congress is by far the worst
        
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