Who else dreads this year?

[Yinko]

Taiwan's "Han"? I think there's something ironically very "selfish" regarding Communist/Socialist nations

They're more Han than the Mainland. There used to be five major ethnic groups in China, hence the five color flag of the republicans. Now there's only basically only one, Han. They acheived this through cultural and ethnic genocide, changing languages, dress and everything else, or wiping people out. A lot of mainland 'Han' aren't actually Han at all, they're Manchu, Mongolian, or some other ethnic group that has been absorbed into the mainland Han.

I think that the selfishness of at least the mainland Chinese comes from the intense competition they have to undergo. You're either born with powerful parents or you have to use everyone and everything around you to make it in life. Friends are just people you use, spouses only last till they no longer benefit you, children are born as a replacement to a retirement plan. I do personally know of some exceptions to this, but it works as a general rule of thumb.

 

[CarlManvers2019]

They're more Han than the Mainland. There used to be five major ethnic groups in China, hence the five color flag of the republicans. Now there's only basically only one, Han. They acheived this through cultural and ethnic genocide, changing languages, dress and everything else, or wiping people out. A lot of mainland 'Han' aren't actually Han at all, they're Manchu, Mongolian, or some other ethnic group that has been absorbed into the mainland Han.

I think that the selfishness of at least the mainland Chinese comes from the intense competition they have to undergo. You're either born with powerful parents or you have to use everyone and everything around you to make it in life. Friends are just people you use, spouses only last till they no longer benefit you, children are born as a replacement to a retirement plan. I do personally know of some exceptions to this, but it works as a general rule of thumb.

That’s rather horrifying to know

Yeah, I was already sort of getting that feeling of sheer cynicism and forced smiles, years ago when I was there

I keep wondering how with a population of “Tiger Moms” that ANY of the kids there can even have fun let alone for anybody around, adults included, to have past times if they’re all constantly climbing over each other otherwise they end up in horrible working class jobs in places where product is made extremely cheap and defective

 

[Urabrask Revealed]

They're more Han than the Mainland. There used to be five major ethnic groups in China, hence the five color flag of the republicans. Now there's only basically only one, Han. They acheived this through cultural and ethnic genocide, changing languages, dress and everything else, or wiping people out. A lot of mainland 'Han' aren't actually Han at all, they're Manchu, Mongolian, or some other ethnic group that has been absorbed into the mainland Han.

I think that the selfishness of at least the mainland Chinese comes from the intense competition they have to undergo. You're either born with powerful parents or you have to use everyone and everything around you to make it in life. Friends are just people you use, spouses only last till they no longer benefit you, children are born as a replacement to a retirement plan. I do personally know of some exceptions to this, but it works as a general rule of thumb.

Mao's Great Famine did terrible things to the culture of China.

 

[Arlos]

Mao did terrible things to the culture of China.

Fify
Mao had no business ever leading anything.

 

[Urabrask Revealed]

Fify
Mao had no business ever leading anything.

Yes, but his Great Famine did the largest damage. It killed off the kind and charitable, and ensured the survivors would be vicious and willing to screw others over at the drop of a hat to survive and thrive.

 

[CarlManvers2019]

Yes, but his Great Famine did the largest damage. It killed off the kind and charitable, and ensured the survivors would be vicious and willing to screw others over at the drop of a hat to survive and thrive.

Would I be wrong to believe that Socialist/Communist societies accidentally make its citizens far more “selfish”

As in closer to the traditional definition of selfish rather one with self-introspection & self-respect and ability to not fall for “great causes” and “praise”

These guys would snitch on each other “for the party” and act as if they do stuff for “the Greater Good”

Honestly, Honest Vice is way more preferable to Dishonest Virtue

The Robber Baron is better by comparison in that he may not even dedicate that much time and effort to ruling people down to their souls and getting total submission as someone out to brainwash others for some “Greater Good”

And you know what? Last I heard, China is buying into Japan’s stuff

They’re gonna be more and more censored, both steps1&2, don’t say this and start saying this from now on

 

[Yinko]

Would I be wrong to believe that Socialist/Communist societies accidentally make its citizens far more “selfish”

It probably depends a lot on how Communist/Socialist they are. Places like Vietnam, modern Cuba, Venezuela during the good times, they don't seem to have the same problem because their socialism is not very deep. Places like the early USSR, China and North Korea, their leaders use so much arbitrary brutality that people have to constantly tip-toe around just to survive, likely leading to that selfishness.

Though, that would actually mean that a lot of different kinds of brutal dictatorships result in selfishness, so long as they encourage people to turn on their own fiends and families, it's just that Communism tends to have more of these types because the degree of social change they want to enact is so overwhelming and the amount of power the leaders want to accrue is so total.

 

[Doomsought]

. Places like the early USSR, China and North Korea, their leaders use so much arbitrary brutality that people have to constantly tip-toe around just to survive, likely leading to that selfishness.

Romania still hasn't recovered from the systematic corruption left behind by its time under the Warsaw pact. Doctors get paid less than taxi drivers.

 

[prinCZess]

I had a similar person in my life when I was young, he used to say that in X number of years we'd all be speaking Mandarin. Really believed that China's path to being the prime super-power was merely an inevitability, and a welcome one.

Those sentiments seem to travel in waves. Back in the 80s, at least in the US, Japan was presented and accepted by a good number as a rising tech/economic superpower--some amusing pieces of media even that stressed the importance for the future of learning Japanese. Then back in the day for myself, the general accepted 'rising economies' and powers were Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. And...only China and India of those really seem to have maintained any long-term economic improvement. Brazil is...Brazil and South Africa both seem to suffer political issues, and Russia's had to deal with gas prices cratering. So...I guess the point being that predicting the future is chancy and we don't really know what's going to happen in the future, short-term or long-term.

Which is only further reason to dread this year.

 

[Tiamat]

India-China clash: 20 Indian troops killed in Ladakh fighting

It is the first deadly skirmish in decades between the two regional powers at their disputed border.

www.bbc.co.uk

Holy shit now it's 20 dead.

Yep, 20 Indians dead and somewhere Around 35 Chinese dead including the Chinese company commander,.

 

[Yinko]

Yep, 20 Indians dead and somewhere Around 35 Chinese dead including the Chinese company commander,.

About what I expected, I had a bet on 2-1 losses favoring the Indians.

The Indians have way better training and experience in mountain warfare. The Chinese military is rotten through, it's a cushy career to leverage political gain, not an effective fighting force. Xi started pushing to fix this, or maybe he was just pushing to remove power from military families, either way, it will take at least a decade to turn them into a disciplined fighting force again, while India has been in a semi-constant state of internal and external conflict since it gained independence.

 

[Cherico]

About what I expected, I had a bet on 2-1 losses favoring the Indians.

The Indians have way better training and experience in mountain warfare. The Chinese military is rotten through, it's a cushy career to leverage political gain, not an effective fighting force. Xi started pushing to fix this, or maybe he was just pushing to remove power from military families, either way, it will take at least a decade to turn them into a disciplined fighting force again, while India has been in a semi-constant state of internal and external conflict since it gained independence.

Im sure there is a virgin Chinese soilger and a chad indian one meme some where.

 

[Tiamat]

I heard the Chinese dead from the India/China border clash may, and I stress MAY have been as high as 53, but can’t confirm.

EDIT: Okay, it seems the Indians did lose 20 including their Company Commander. The Chinese casualties are still unknown but the Indians claim via radio intercepts there are probably about 43 Chinese dead.

indian soldiers killed | galwan valley: Over 20 soldiers, including Commanding Officer killed at Galwan border clash with China

At least 20 soldiers have been killed in clash with the Chinese forces. Sources say the toll may further rise.

www.google.com

 

[Tzeentchean Perspective]

Imagine the bookshelves of these people: clogged with every much-hyped book pushed by the media, usually neglected after getting through the first two chapters...

 

[Yinko]

Imagine the bookshelves of these people: clogged with every much-hyped book pushed by the media, usually neglected after getting through the first two chapters...

The hype was already dying for the anti-racism books. I use B-ok a lot and they show the most popular books at any given time, those books were dominating that list for the first week and then sharply trailed off in favor of the usual university textbooks and programming manuals.
It's like with most niche stuff, everyone who's going to buy those books will do it all at once, either when it's first published or when they are told to. It's how it works for fetish porn writers, why would it be any different for this?

 

[Cherico]

The hype was already dying for the anti-racism books. I use B-ok a lot and they show the most popular books at any given time, those books were dominating that list for the first week and then sharply trailed off in favor of the usual university textbooks and programming manuals.
It's like with most niche stuff, everyone who's going to buy those books will do it all at once, either when it's first published or when they are told to. It's how it works for fetish porn writers, why would it be any different for this?

That isn't a good comparison, the porn writers actually try to be entertaining.

 

[Tzeentchean Perspective]

Reddit is going mad.

 

[Zachowon]

So if there is any classified stuff in that book and has not been checked by the NSA and the like, it wont be sold, so I doubt a lot of it is true

 

[Floridaman]

Imagine the bookshelves of these people: clogged with every much-hyped book pushed by the media, usually neglected after getting through the first two chapters...

On the bright side they are prepared for any new toilet paper shortages.

 

[Bigking321]

I'm just annoyed at the fact that they are going to treat every ridiculous assertion as gospel, so the next couple months are just going to be, " trumps evil. Trumps a monster. Trumps rigging the election. It's all in this unsubstantiated book. It's obviously true!"