Comment by mindslight | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mindslight | Hacker News Reader

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1. Have a politicized society that is so dysfunctional that it is incapable of coherently focusing on a shared problem.

2. Downplay common sense individual actions like wearing masks, because it would demonstrate lack of preparation

3. Bail out large businesses quickly, throw individuals and small businesses some scraps as a distraction.

4. After gross shutdowns are effected, don't spend the effort to refine them - eg reopening various small businesses that could operate hygienically.

5. Reject fine-grained policy that would repudiate business-uber-alles, like forcing new safety guidelines on essential industries.

6. Get fatigued from the above, and write off everything that was attempted as unnecessary waste doomed from the start. (thread article)

7. Rationalize that nothing could be done, things just happen. The idea we could do anything about it was a hoax. (your article)

8. Repeat for next disaster.

We've basically given up, end of story. I keep trying to grasp the idea that this is the societal death spiral taking hold, but I can't yet wrap my head around it.

As an Aussie I grew up on a healthy diet of US exceptionalism propaganda. At some point I came to the realization that the US is an empire in decline.

Now, I’m starting to think the US is already a failed state. I’m pretty frightened to be living in this timeline. It’s like the collapse of Rome, but with wifi, vape pens, memes and nuclear arsenals.

The seeds of the civil war were sown during the writing of the Declaration of Independence. The cracks were always there. I see the same left/right arguments from friends in the UK and Brazil.

This has been the party line since at least the 1970s if not earlier. Like a lot of similar predictions, it's sure to be true eventually. However, the propaganda makes it impossible to judge if it's happening now.

There may be a resurgence in covid cases in the US shortly, but it's interesting that there are some countries not named America, Italy, or Spain, that are seeing daily growth of 5-10% and we're not talking about them.

Keep in mind that Rome collapsed over centuries, and as it did so many people barely noticed it happened and lived out their lives like generations before them in small farming communities. Even if the US collapses, there'll be vast parts of the world like in Africa and India where it'll just be an interesting international news tidbit with little impact on their actual lives.

As for someone living in Australia, you'll be fine in that corner of the world. Why do you think so many billionaires are buying bunkers in New Zealand?

>As for someone living in Australia, you'll be fine in that corner of the world.

(While not a member) Australia relies on NATO. Without it they would exist at the mercy of China. Without the US, NATO goes limp, especially in the naval power department.

Why would China wander over to Australia? China would probably look west into the Indian ocean more than they would look east, because that's where their oil comes from. They'd also have to get past Indonesia first, and frankly Australia has had more foreign policy problems with Indonesia in the past than with China. East Timor and illegal migrants come to mind.

Australia is as safe from a war in Eurasia as the Americas are. The events of WW2 made that quite clear. Imperial Japan even at its greatest extent was only able to make bombing runs on Australia's north coast. Frankly, there's nothing really worth fighting over as far away as Australia is from the rest of the world. Australia's key foreign policy objective is to play nice with the global naval power. Not because it needs protection, but it needs to not get locked out of the global shipping and trade network.

This whole argument is silly. War is dead. China will not conquer your land but they will buy your corporates and leaders souls. Why did the brush fires happen?

The decline of the USA, to the extent that there is one, is due to demographic and dysgenic changes.

This can be alleviated by fixing housing costs in the most productive cities - SF etc. - where the most intelligent and productive people congregate. Cheaper housing will encourage these people to have children instead of forgoing them.

It can also be fixed by fixing immigration, so that the most intelligent and productive can migrate, ensuring diversity (no more than 10% from any one country) and equality (no more than 50% male from any one country).

The country also needs to fix the 'welfare cliff' - where under certain conditions it is more financially rewarding to have children and not work than to do the opposite.

> This can be alleviated by fixing housing costs in the most productive cities - SF etc. - where the most intelligent and productive people congregate.

You can barely convince these intelligentsia that street defecation is problem that can actually be solved. No thanks.

Please be more concerned about China. Why did so extreme brush fires happen? It wasn’t US stealing your water was it?

What a weird and disconnected response. Why divert attention to China when the US is being discussed? Feels like whataboutism.

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