For everything that's wrong in the United States, it's just terrifying to think of what it's like to be in China/Russia/Saudi Arabia/etc., where the government has no qualms about poisoning, arresting or otherwise silencing you if your disagree. I have endless respect for people who stand up to those governments, because quite honestly I'm far too much of a coward to ever do so in their position.
It makes one really appreciate the concept of having rights here in the West. Granted sometimes the police or the government overstep and don't respect those rights, but it's a far cry from the norm in much of the world where you only have rights to the extent permitted by the capricious whims of the people in power and it can change instantly with no recourse or appeal.
Agreed - and FWIW even with what Trump has tried to do to give himself dictatorial powers (and the enablement of the Republicans to that end), our democracy has still held up pretty well.
It's not just rights. There are many countries that purportedly offer the same rights as the US. Another key differentiator is the rule of law. Granted, both are slowly eroding.
For all the faults of American governance, it is extremely resistant to authoritarianism. There is currently an American president openly trying to have the election rigged and he has a pile of people behind him.
And despite having a majority in one legislative house, despite appointing tons of the judges, and despite having the ability to ruin the careers of numerous state legislators and executives, he is almost certainly going to fail.
There have been plenty of attempts to imprison people on a whim in the USA and while they have succeeded for a period, they tend not to survive long term either.
I have this same thought a lot - even though Trump highlighted the fact a lot of our governance practices are simply norms rather than being enforceable, he also demonstrated that our system is actually pretty resilient to raw evil. Despite his constantly talking about wanting to do dictator-like things, and frequently trying to, he was never really able to in practice (though there are a couple arguable counter examples - one particular usage of police violence springs to mind).
Alexis De Tocqueville in his book "Democracy in America" identified one of the foundations of American democracy is our social mores. A lot of the reasons why the judiciaries appointed by him didn't go along with his blatant attempts to undermine the election has to do with their values and believes.
I'm not trying to say Americans are somehow better people than others but want to point out the important role unwritten rules and social norms have in our governance. Quite a few countries have tried to establish their government along the same lines as the US, UK, etc. but failed even though their structure is similar to ours and I think a lot of it has to do with what sorts of values people have and hold onto. In fact, the UK has even more unwritten rules than the US -- they lack a constitution but still functions well as a democracy. Pre-WWII Japan copied their government from the UK and it ended up more or less a military state.
For everything that's wrong in the United States at least the creators of the nation believed, enough to memorialize in it's founding documents, that it is self evident that that certain freedoms should be absolute weather or not earned or deserved...
I guess what I'm getting at that you might have missed is that "rights", especially "unalienable rights" are things that by their very definition do not have to be earned in order to be deserved. Otherwise, what would they be?
The rumor in China is that Jack Ma is part of Jiang Zemin's clique of politicians/sphere of influence. Alibaba's backed by and invested by Jiang's families.
Xi has been purging Jiang's people/influence on the Central Government for the last few years to strengthen his ruling. Originally he was going to leave Ma alone as he has proven himself to be useful.
But 2 things happened- 1. people start to idolize Ma the businessman over the party's absolute rule. 2. Perhaps as a result Ma is embolden to speak out against Xi's government directions.
So now Ma has to go. Ma knew this and that's why he resigned from Alibaba's Chairman position, but it was too late. Ant Financial, with its main backers from Jiang's gang, was put to a standstill. This is only the first step. Expect the party to eventually to take over the Alibaba group (国进民退). No private civilian will be allowed to gain this much power again.
“There is no so-called [Ma] era,” read a recent headline in the CCP mouthpiece People’s Daily, “but only an era that has [Ma] in it.”
Anyway, to quote House of Cards-
“Such a waste of time. He chose money over power, in this town, a mistake nearly everyone makes. Money is the McMansion in Sarasota that starts falling apart after ten years. Power — is the old stone building that stands for centuries. I cannot respect someone who doesn’t see the difference.” - Frank Underwood
26 comments
[ 0.26 ms ] story [ 72.3 ms ] threadhttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25627043
And despite having a majority in one legislative house, despite appointing tons of the judges, and despite having the ability to ruin the careers of numerous state legislators and executives, he is almost certainly going to fail.
There have been plenty of attempts to imprison people on a whim in the USA and while they have succeeded for a period, they tend not to survive long term either.
I'm not trying to say Americans are somehow better people than others but want to point out the important role unwritten rules and social norms have in our governance. Quite a few countries have tried to establish their government along the same lines as the US, UK, etc. but failed even though their structure is similar to ours and I think a lot of it has to do with what sorts of values people have and hold onto. In fact, the UK has even more unwritten rules than the US -- they lack a constitution but still functions well as a democracy. Pre-WWII Japan copied their government from the UK and it ended up more or less a military state.
https://www.opb.org/article/2020/10/13/new-eyewitness-accoun...
Xi has been purging Jiang's people/influence on the Central Government for the last few years to strengthen his ruling. Originally he was going to leave Ma alone as he has proven himself to be useful.
But 2 things happened- 1. people start to idolize Ma the businessman over the party's absolute rule. 2. Perhaps as a result Ma is embolden to speak out against Xi's government directions.
So now Ma has to go. Ma knew this and that's why he resigned from Alibaba's Chairman position, but it was too late. Ant Financial, with its main backers from Jiang's gang, was put to a standstill. This is only the first step. Expect the party to eventually to take over the Alibaba group (国进民退). No private civilian will be allowed to gain this much power again.
https://time.com/5926062/jack-ma/
“There is no so-called [Ma] era,” read a recent headline in the CCP mouthpiece People’s Daily, “but only an era that has [Ma] in it.”
Anyway, to quote House of Cards-
“Such a waste of time. He chose money over power, in this town, a mistake nearly everyone makes. Money is the McMansion in Sarasota that starts falling apart after ten years. Power — is the old stone building that stands for centuries. I cannot respect someone who doesn’t see the difference.” - Frank Underwood
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2019/03/the-untold-stor...