A scathing review of the West.

[Elliott]

How is the U.S. going to stabilize it's deficit and the dollar? How could the U.S. possibly do this?

[Hojo]

@enchantedTheir building are collapsing because they are moving so fast. Its not a good thing to rush like that. While being authoritative is better for getting things done they steal from the people.

Edited November 29 by Hojo

[Jodistrict]

Jayant Bhandari is positive on China.  

"This is a perspective on China you'll never hear in the mainstream media. Indian-Canadian investment advisor Jayant Bhandari, drawing from 16 years of firsthand experience, presents a stunningly contrarian view. In his eyes, China is not only home to what he calls "the most capitalistic economy in the world," but is also a society of astonishing safety and efficiency. From its incredible value-for-money services and high degree of social safety to its breathtaking systemic efficiency, Bhandari's personal accounts directly challenge the dominant media narrative. This rare testimony from "the other side" forces us to ask: How much of what we think we know about China is shaped by the media, and how much is based on on-the-ground reality?"

 

[zazen]

@Jodistrict Nice share. We’re gonna see so much cope in the next decades lol

 

Tristan Harris who made Social Dilemma :

We have to get our shit together to tackle the changes AI is going to bring. Perhaps that will bring the world together better than Covid did. 

[Breathe]

On 11/27/2025 at 10:26 AM, Hojo said:

@EskilonIve used their AI music generator and it sucks. Their ai is more censored than ours.

How are their roads highly developed? I have seen their architecture crumble after 6 years.

Their urban planning sucks you dont even know if you are on the ground or not. They have trains that go through apartment buildings where people live.

I very rarely see building just fall over in the west. I don't think I've ever seen it.

I saw they built a bridge in China that collapsed in a week. 

This is all anecdotal. China is leading the world in tech advancements. The US doesn't invest in its citizens while China does. Americans do not have access to quality, affordable education or healthcare so there will be no way to compete. China is on the rise and will be much better place as a healthy nation.

On 11/28/2025 at 10:00 AM, Apparition of Jack said:

A similar process is happening in America - the old, vested capital interests are proving unable and unwilling to address the vast needs of the people of the nation, but a new, highly mobalised grassroots version of democracy is taking shape to resist it (enabled by the rise of social media and spearheaded by figures like Bernie, Mamdani, AOC, and even liberals like Pete Buttigieg and John Pritzker IMO.) 

The oligarchs won't allow this to happen. I think the US is a sinking ship. They're keeping us in the dark, making us sick and poor as a means of control. They don't want us rising up and I don't think there's anything we can do to stop it.

On 11/28/2025 at 10:00 AM, Apparition of Jack said:

America will shift out of 1980’s style Wall Street orgies and bravado and to more communal-minded civic participation and celebration

Community is the only way Americans are going to survive once the authoritarian regime is firmly in place. Poverty, sickness, and crime is what's coming. Start preparing now.

The media uses hope as a means to keep us addicted to content. Don't fall into that trap.

Edited November 30 by Breathe

[Hojo]

@Breathe do you live in China? Or is this someone else's anecdote? You sound like a shill. Nothing I've seen about China backs what you are saying. Show me a peice of media that backs what your saying that isn't created by the ccp.

I'm guessing there isn't one cause there banned all foreigners except the paid shills.

Edited November 30 by Hojo

[Breathe]

@Hojo You keep talking about small observations and then jumping to inaccurate conclusions. This is what I mean by anecdotal.

Feel free to checkout out Richard Wolff as a source. He talks about the rise of China all the time.

What China did was notice catastrophic effects of unchecked capitalism. They maintain a good share of control over the economy but they also allow free trade. They just don't let free trade get out of control. Long ago they decided that they'd offer cheap goods to the rest of the world. There were growing pains, but they had a long term strategy, and eventually grew into a superpower. It was quite brilliant actually. One of the things that China does, and so does India, is the teach kids match at a very young age. The Chinese are much better equipped. It is mandated by parents and the government alike. China sees what the future holds so it invests in its citizens so that it is competitive.

This is anecdotal... I work in tech and the smartest people in my field are almost always Chinese. They do not fuck around.

[Breathe]

This guy sums it up quite nicely: 

 

[Hojo]

@Breathe this is propoghanda because of tarrifs. China is getting fucked by the tarrifs. Their economy is selling cheap trash to the rest of the world. The shit you buy from China breaks instantly. America is just saying we don't need your trash. And this is the prooghanda they use.

Edited November 30 by Hojo

[Breathe]

The US accounts for less than 20% of Chinese exports (you can double check the numbers). When Trump hiked the tariffs the math was wrong. After a certain percent hike increase it made no difference to Chinese profits. That's why China didn't bother to negotiate with Trump when he hiked up the tariffs. They were literally laughing at our stupidity. The US has no bargaining chip.

Here's a fun fact, China sells us the materials that we use to make our weapons. Our military is literally dependent on China. You see a short clip with Pete Hegseth even talking about this. Even the US knows that China has the US by the balls.

China does not need the US and that is precisely why the US is screwed.

[Hojo]

@Breathe then why are they throwing out propoghanda like that? This man is literally begging across the planet to stop the tarrifs. If it didn't matter he wouldn't make the video. The slaves are already working for bare minimum now you take 20 percent they cant live.

Now they are paying way more for the weapons to sell. China needs people to buy their trash. Slave labour pollute for a product you throw away is their economy.

Edited November 30 by Hojo

[Breathe]

@HojoI'm not sure what propaganda you are referring to. If you can point out a credible source I'll take a look.

[Hojo]

@Breathe i don't have one cause China will never admit anything that is going on in their country that is remotely negative. 

China said it had like 17 covid deaths in its whole country.

Anytime China comes out with new tech its after someone else creates it and they steal it and copy it.

 

Edited November 30 by Hojo

[Breathe]

This is cool. Look at the Chinese purchasing power (PPP) vs the US over the last 30 years or so. Their economy has literally exploded while the US roughly stagnated

 

 

[Breathe]

8 minutes ago, Hojo said:

China said it had like 17 covid deaths in its whole country.

Yeah, China has issues. I know they keep their citizens in the dark but I'm not sure what they are telling the rest of the world.

I'm not an expert on China by any means, but it is the one country that I've been diving into more deeply than any other.

[LoneWonderer]

China is becoming a global superpower and the hype is real in terms of their advanced growth. I believe their biggest limit moving into the future would be the CCP and their centralized authority model. Up to now the CCP has had final say in what gets funded, where resources are allocated and distributed. Anyone opposing the CCP or perceived a threat has been systematically opressed or eliminated (the uyghurs, tibet, freedom of speech etc).

There could be a case made that this has worked really well for China for achieving it's "5 year plans" with a single minded focus up to now. It is also not clear to me if moving towards democracy is a good idea for the country but I also wouldn't know what an evolution of the current CCP system would look like either. Making China a democracy would result in similar issues currently plaguing the west (AI algorithm addiction, drug addiction, homelesness, purposeless, laziness and lack of innovative spirit from a state of abundance, extremist movements etc). China may well end up westernized as the population of China emerges from poverty and a majority strong middle class emerges and who won't stand any longer for their lack of freedom of expression (will this happen in next 10,20 years? Quite possibly a lot longer 50+ years I believe) but modernizing in the same way the West has may also bring China all of the same social issues plagued currently in countries in Europe and US.

If in the future the CCP isn't removed it will become the bottleneck that will stop China from advancing to a new level of development. What form the new post CCP China will take? that is the million dollar question.

Edited November 30 by LoneWonderer

[zazen]

Shabby roads and infrastructure:

Their building cities just to show off and ''flex'' - not because they need to urbanize and lift 100's of millions out of poverty and rural living:

China's political system: 

 

On 11/30/2025 at 2:34 AM, Hojo said:

China needs people to buy their trash

People used to also view Japanese products as mass market trash and ''unreliable''. That's how industrial economies develop - they master mass manufacturing and climb up the ladder to advanced manufacturing and quality.

The value for money in China is strong too. Which is also what PPP compares better compared to just GDP - meaning,  people in their local currency have decent purchasing power and therefore better living standards. For people coming in with stronger currencies its quite a place to enjoy:

You can stay in 5 star hotels for £100 - £200 a night that would cost anywhere from £300 - £600 a night in the Western cities. Grand Hyatt, Sheraton etc. Even on their tropical island of Hainan with beaches.

What happens when you focus on building and re-investing in the foundation of a society instead of financializing your economy for a parasitic financial elite that bid up and milk the populace through a rentier economy that jacks up the price of essentials rather than supply them at scale. Of course no place is perfect - but there are lessons to be taken.

Edited December 3 by zazen

[zazen]

Define: scathing

6 - 9 min of the following (or the whole damn vid)

The West love bombed the world along with their real bombs.

From another thrrad:

”Spiral Dynamics assumes a linear, universal trajectory of development that’s actually Western centric in both its aesthetic and milestones. It interprets progress through the lens of the Western psyche: material mastery (Orange), then moral overreach and empathy (Green), then synthesis of the tensions and contradictions in the below stages (Yellow).

Other cultures with a spiritual or metaphysical anchor already resolved these tensions without collapsing into nihilism. Spiral Dynamics can’t see that because it reads history through a Western teleology and developmental arc, where everyone else looks like a “lower stage” for not following. It universalizes the Western developmental arc - as if that trajectory is the natural path for all humans. Every other culture is measured against this Western timeline and implicitly cast as “behind in development” rather than “differently developed”.

The West lost its metaphysical grounding and then tried to reconstruct it through psychology - then mistake its own rediscovery of balance as “the next stage of evolution.” It’s civilizational amnesia posturing as progress. As if these colour coded values never existed before and only “came online” in Ken Wilber’s terms - in recent history. How does stage green or yellow values only come online recently - as if they never existed before lol. It’s called spiral dynamics yet approached as if it’s ladder dynamics in some linear manner.

Concern for the environment and marginalized is a recent evolution? Tell that to Jains who’ve been practicing radical non-harm for 2,500 years, or indigenous cultures with sophisticated ecological wisdom embedded in their cosmologies, or mystics who experienced universal divine love. Tell that to every traditional culture that understood humans as embedded in - not separate from - the web of life.

Apparently none of that counts because it was wrapped in “mythic” or “magic” worldviews. It only becomes a real developmental stage when white Western baby boomers discovered empathy after dropping acid lol. The model literally takes Western culture’s temporary pathological detour through mechanistic rationalism and calls it a necessary path of evolution for the entire globe. It treats these values as novelties that “emerged” rather than a recovery from lost and found.”