cecinestpasunbot @ cecinestpasunbot @lemmy.ml

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2 yr. ago

I think you underestimate just how many people are in China and how much development actually needs to happen in order to meet their needs. The urbanization rate of China is still lower than most developed nations despite the massive amounts of construction they’ve done in recent years.

Why would I lie and why does what I said make you so angry?

This is such a wildly naive and orientalist view of the Middle East. If you actually studied the modern history of the region you would know that since the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire western powers have ceaselessly meddled in the affairs of the people there.

They’ve supported coups in order to overthrow democratic governments. They funded right wing jihadis including the precursors to and allies of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. They’ve enabled war crimes left and right. They even invaded Iraq and Afghanistan and continues to bomb the whole region with an extensive and secretive drone program. Even now the west continues to defend authoritarian and genocidal regimes like Saudi Arabia or Israel as long as they serve their western interests regardless of their destabilizing effect.

The reality is you have no idea what a Middle East would look like without western intervention. To pretend that you do only reveals your complete ignorance and racist arrogance.

The problem here is western nations use orientalist and racist narratives to pretend as if their meddling in the Middle East is not the primary cause of modern conflict in the region. People just accept those natives uncritically and assume they must be the smart ones for having read articles in the NYT about it. Never do they study the modern history of the region and the ways in which western powers are constantly intervening.

I doubt the person you’re replying to would disagree that the advent of capitalism is in fact what brought liberal democracy into existence. The point though is that such progress is unsustainable under a capitalist system and that it will result in various crises, war, and fascism. Therefore we do need to find a way to move past capitalism if we want even the possibility of creating a better world.

Growth isn’t a problem when it’s sustainable. However, there are natural limits to how far and how fast technological development and resource extraction will allow us to grow the economy.

Additionally, competition within capitalism forces the wealthy to seek out any and all means of growth. If they do not they actually risk all of their wealth becoming devalued. This drives innovation but it also is the driver of imperialism, exploitation, environmental degradation, all of which grow the economy.

When growth because less attainable due to various natural constrains, the wealthy start to cannibalize the systems that keep society stable. Again, they can’t help themselves. If they don’t their class position is threatened as some other capital owner beats them to the limited profits that come from privatization and austerity.

This usually results in mass unrest across all the various classes in society. That includes some of the middle classes who also rely on exploitation to maintain their standard of living. In response to threat of social unrest, the wealthy usually align themselves with right wing authoritarians that claim to be able to bring order to the chaos and renew growth through imperial expansion. This kind of politics is often supported by some of the downwardly mobile middle classes. That’s how we get fascism.

How could you possibly come to think that Marx’s works are censored in China? Marxism is literally taught in schools there.

The false negative rate is also quite high. It will miss about 1 in 5 women with cancer. The reality is mammography is just not all that powerful as a screening tool. That’s why the criteria for who gets screened and how often has been tailored to try and ensure the benefits outweigh the risks. Although it is an ongoing debate in the medical community to determine just exactly what those criteria should be.

That’s just not generally true. Mammograms are usually only recommended to women over 40. That’s because the rates of breast cancer in women under 40 are low enough that testing them would cause more harm than good thanks in part to the problem of false positives.

It’s a common problem in diagnostics and it’s why mammograms aren’t recommended to women under 40.

Let’s say you have 10,000 patients. 10 have cancer or a precancerous lesion. Your test may be able to identify all 10 of those patients. However, if it has a false positive rate of 5% that’s around 500 patients who will now get biopsies and potentially surgery that they don’t actually need. Those follow up procedures carry their own risks and harms for those 500 patients. In total, that harm may outweigh the benefit of an earlier diagnosis in those 10 patients who have cancer.

Unfortunately AI models like this one often never make it to the clinic. The model could be impressive enough to identify 100% of cases that will develop breast cancer. However if it has a false positive rate of say 5% it’s use may actually create more harm than it intends to prevent.

Those damn retirees probably get a full pension too! Don’t they know it would be much better for the economy if they had a 401k instead?! That way they could lose it by random chance every 15-20 years and work as a Walmart greeter until they die like the invisible hand intended!

Jokes aside, that explains why whenever I go to China there’s always lots of older people hanging out in public parks having a great time. I just hope that can be me one day.

Don’t just ignore my questions. It’s relevant to the conversation and your perceptions of China.

I’m aware that work hours are long in China. I don’t think that’s a good thing. However, it’s not unique if you take into account China’s level of development.

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/annual-working-hours-vs-gdp-per-capita-pwt

It’s also not as if western countries like the US are great either. Full time workers in the US work more than 40 hours during a standard work week.

https://www.bls.gov/charts/american-time-use/activity-by-work.htm

All in all, the fact remains that for most Chinese people, quality of life has improved significantly within a very short time span. It’s likely why most Chinese people believe their government is democratic because they believe it’s acting in their interests to improve their lives.

she had absolutely nothing to do with […] any regime changes

That’s certainly not true if you if you know anything about recent Balkan history.

Between 1993 and 2001, Alexander was USAID’s deputy for the Europe region, focusing on immediate post-conflict reconstruction in the Balkans.

USAID financially supported anti-government organizations in the Balkans in order to foment regime change during her tenure. This isn’t a secret either. That information is publicly available. If she was working at USAID during that time at best she was only tangentially involved.

that there are Chinese who believe differently

The chart CascadeOfLight posted showed a minority of 17% of Chinese citizens think their country isn’t a democracy. What led you to believe COL didn’t think those people were real? Who exactly are you arguing against here?

You do understand that if workers are paid less in China but the cost of living is also lower then the level of exploitation isn’t necessarily greater right?

The Carter Center is literally run by a woman who worked for much of her career at USAID, an agency that has directly supported regime change efforts in Latin America.

You don’t have to white wash Carter’s foreign policy to criticize Maduro.

Carter’s own national security advisor tried to legitimize Pol Pot for fuck’s sake. That’s not to mention Carter continued support for the Indonesian dictator as he carried out a genocide in East Timor. Oh and we shouldn’t forget the Carter administration started the program which funded and armed the right wing islamist progenitors of the Taliban in Afghanistan. More relevant to Latin America, Carter’s support for the El Savadoran military dictatorship was critical for its stability as it committed unspeakable atrocities.

Don’t be confused by Carter’s outward humanitarianism in his post presidency. He was not an aberration when it comes to US foreign policy and I wouldn’t expect the Carter center to be either. It’s literally run these days by a woman who spent much of her career working for USAID.

AMLO is explicitly rejecting the idea that there is evidence of fraud which is what the article is about. The title is accurate even if AMLO is not taking sides.

What are you talking about? It’s not the opposite at all. The short article just states that AMLO said that there was no evidence of fraud and that he’ll wait until the full vote tallies are released before commenting. That’s basically exactly what the title says.