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Comment by free_rms | Hacker News Reader

This comment carries a barrel full of assumptions that the lines you were fed in civics class are fundamentally right and destined to prevail.

Consider: other countries have their own civics classes where they get fed a similar line about their systems.

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I believe that some systems are more moral than others.

That said, it's pretty clear from many comments on HN that people have no clue how far along China is, perhaps stuck in a early 2000s mindset. Nor do they seem to have any serious understanding of Chinese government.

Where do you place China yourself development wise today?

What does that actually mean as a questio ? Like what is the range of possible answera, is it answered with a year, or something else?

I mean do you see China becoming the next world power? I do myself, though not nearly as long as a reign as America had, I foresee a 15 year thereabout hold from China until the country falls into the typical issues that the Western world has faced + Japan faced since the 90's.

> I mean do you see China becoming the next world power

I don't see there being a next clear world power because I don't think the world works that way anymore.. capital is way too trans-national at this point.

China is a split society. Many are still in poverty, per capita gdp is very low. However it’s a huge country and several hundred million now have western standard of living.

This is definitely true, although it is worth noting that many of those in rural poverty have also seen huge improvements to their condition (number making under $2 PPP/hr has gone from 700 million to 2 million in a matter of 2 decades) and many of the cities in traditionally rural provinces are booming.

I am usually fairly relativistic on moral questions but, it's too long to really do it in a comment, but I think you can devise a good (ex vacuo) argument for - in short - the good parts of what we in the west would characterize western ideals to be.

I feel the same way when Peterson-types try to say it's impossible for atheistic ethics to "exist" logically, the argument is again just too long to do justice outside a monograph.

Civics classes are not the intellectual battlegrounds of the past or future.

Whether those ideals are destined to prevail is not really a scientific question.

Xi Jinping is a gutless coward who's scared of a cartoon bear. I can't fathom why you so frequently seem eager to defend the CCP.

I'm reminded of the time Bill Maher got cancelled for saying of the 9/11 terrorists "whatever else they are, they're definitely not cowards".

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/04/06/born-red if you're interested in a more nuanced take.

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