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Michael Green's avatar

Hey Society. The simple answer we need to believe that China is evil is because we are told to by the massive propaganda apparatus in our country. And that is being enforced by arrests, de-banking, accusations of being a communist agent, loss of internet access, and so forth. It doesn’t help that we are being dumbed down also. It is becoming dangerous to speak kindly of a country that the Empire has declared an enemy, Cuba, Venezuela, Russia, China, Iran and so forth. I myself look at China as a 4000 yr old civilization that has wrought miracles as of late with a population number that is staggering. Rebuilding modern cities, energy efficient, bringing the rural downtrodden into the middle class in a matter of years. I often wonder whether the answers to many of our woes could be more rapidly solved with a benevolent dictator rather than the crushing wheels of our so called democracy. Just think, with one click of the fingers, the entire country goes to alternative green energy in 5-10 years. Just fantasizing, maybe. I certainly appreciate the wonders of this country but our house is on fire and no one knows where the fire extinguishers are.

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Starry Gordon's avatar

"Benevolent dictator" is pretty much an oxymoron.

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Michael Green's avatar

Yes the words do not belong together, but Xi comes close.

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Starry Gordon's avatar

Mr. Xi is a curious case. He seems to have said in an interview that equality was a terrible thing, and yet he supposedly calls himself a Communist. I'll have to ask him about it next time I see him.

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Ohio Barbarian's avatar

Like every Chinese leader, with the exception of Sun Yat-Sen, Xi is an authoritarian. He may be an authoritarian socialist, but he still believes in a small group of people telling the large majority what to do.

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Starry Gordon's avatar

Confucian?

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martin's avatar

why do you think xi is (or comes close to) a dictator?

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Michael Green's avatar

He heads a one party authoritarian government and maybe is president for life. Close.

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martin's avatar

can you still elaborate? they contend to be communists, which would mean they'd espouse something like a 'dictatorship of the proletariat' (less personal).

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russian_bot's avatar

And why is it necessarily negative? Why does "dictator" carry a negative connotation?

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Starry Gordon's avatar

Well, how would like being dictated to? If I may refer to a famous proverb of Mr. Lincoln's cast in slightly different terms.

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Michael Green's avatar

Ah, and that is how I started this thread with the comment about benevolent dictators.

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Aug 12, 2023
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Starry Gordon's avatar

I mean it's a contradiction in terms. No doubt there have been dictators who thought they were benevolent because they didn't know any better, were victims of circumstance, and so forth, but surely the first task of a benevolent dictator would be to resign the dictator part.

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Patrick Powers's avatar

When King Wangchuck of Druk Yul[Bhutan] abdicated the throne and started a democracy the people protested. One said, "they [the legislators] will only look out for themselves."

I could go on...

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Aug 13, 2023
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Society's Stinky Parts's avatar

Heroic myths such as Smith's capitalism often employ the fallacy of the false alternative to produce (and reproduce) themselves. There is no philosophical warrant to respect that process nor any part of it.

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Starry Gordon's avatar

Objectively, what you're saying makes no sense. "We must have this dictator, or that" is apparently a choice made collectively by the people; yet nobody wants to be a slave, which is what dictatorship is, and in reason no one should want to be. Why would they? Maybe these communities are under foreign duress, like Syria, Iraq, and Iran, who, as nations and communities, have been under attack for generations, mostly from European and American powers. Being invited to enslave yourself by armed thugs is not really a choice.

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Aug 13, 2023Edited
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Susan Mercurio's avatar

It's laughable to me that you accuse China of creating "an authoritarian capitalist system," while remaining blind to the authoritarian capitalist system right here in the good ol' US of A.

I remember to have read a comment somewhere about "seeing the splinter in your neighbors' eye while missing the beam in your own." Maybe you can find it.

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