because lockdowns destroyed a lot of political goodwill and have ruined a generation of children? climate change is overblown and we wont see any actual major effects for another century.
climate change believers really are just an apocalyptic cult at this point. it defies reality
there are many other, actual issues that should be addressed. housing shortages, mass illegal immigration, inflation, geriatric politicians, corruption, education, environmental protection from chemicals and other toxins, deforestation, pollution in general etc etc
climate change isn't even close to whats important. but because it has had no actual effects, and the real effects are a century away, its easy for people to posture without committing to an actual solution. there are other issues that should be addressed that people are forgetting about. its a joke
except prepping mostly isn't "I got mine, screw you" but "I need to protect myself and my family". even then, US society isn't even "I got mine, screw you". I don't understand where that even came from because its not even close to true. maybe europeans thinking they're somehow more collectivist even though I've found Americans to be far more friendly and collectivist than europeans.
exactly. every single one of these cases is an absolute stretch and diminishes the work of the people who actually developed it. its historical revisionism at best
at worst its offensive to the person because it suggests they were so small minded that they didn't or couldn't actually develop the technology to a sufficient enough degree such that they are actually associated with it. these people are hidden not because they're women, but because they didn't really contribute anything at all to the field
The article doesn't even mention his religion/beliefs which is odd despite saying
> They are shamelessly moralistic, written on the basis of exhaustive literary theory, linguistics, geography and world-building, and quite devoid of social commentary or Empsonian irony
yes, because it was a heavily catholic work.
> This mythology, he felt, must “reflect and contain in solution elements of moral and religious truth” but must lack all explicit reference to the Christian religion or the “real” world as we know it
This is especially true though and undersold. Tolkien's catholicism had an immeasurable impact on his writing and LOTR. he wrote: "[LOTR was a] fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision. That is why I have not put in, or have cut out, practically all references to anything like ‘religion’, to cults or practices, in the imaginary world. For the religious element is absorbed into the story and the symbolism."
have you read the article? youth unemployment rate is far higher with many, even in STEM degrees, struggling to get any jobs. social pressure to succeed academically is far higher in China and there is nothing equivalent in the US. 996 culture is an insane concept. censorship in entertainment is pervasive. rampant sexism.
its easy to say "oh yea the US has these problems too" but it is 1000x worse in China, and its extremely privileged to even try and say its the same as in the US. The cultures are so incredibly different in every single way.
Plus, some aspects of Chinese society make the end impact of youth dissatisfaction worse than in the US.
For one, the CCP's rule and legitimacy are tightly coupled with performance. China has experienced unprecedented economic growth in these past decades, and that makes the citizens more willing to tolerate the annoying (or outright evil) things the CCP does because at least it's helping everyone in aggregate. But now that that growth is slowing, they have to worry that their justification to power is in jeopardy. And because the CCP obviously doesn't run elections or allow any dissident groups, the only way for widespread dissatisfaction with their performance to surface is unrest. Their bungling of the latter half of the pandemic certainly didn't help their case here.
For another, as the article alludes to, it's thought of as impossible for a man to get married without owning a home, and failing to start a family is failing as a human (particularly as the CCP explicitly calls for citizens to have more babies). Skyrocketing home prices compared to stagnant wages are growing the pool of "logistical incels" who have no realistic trajectory to ever being married or starting a family, which was already a grave problem due to lingering sex imbalance from the one child policy. The CCP is deeply concerned with this because large pools of incels tend to grow unstable and even turn to violence, out of desparation.
And for yet another, the extent to which Xi Jiping is able to promulgate and impose his philosophy has no analog in the west. If that philosophy is "you need to stop whining roll up your sleeves and be willing to work long hours in a factory like we did during the Mao era, even if that means your degree is wasted" -- which is a message the CCP is currently pushing, as cited in the article -- that's going to dramatically exacerbate the frustrations the young are already feeling, again even moreso because they have no way to voice their hopelessness. The nihilism compounds.
The Economist does a great job covering China in general, and especially in pointing out the ways that though their challenges and structures may appear superficially similar to Westerners, often the subtleties make them completely different. I'd especially recommend their podcast Drum Tower, if you're into that.
more accurately, it was a synagogue in Amsterdam that excommunicated him and the current Rabbi upholds this. But many in the Jewish community have called for it to be reversed. Excommunication is different in Judaism and Catholicism though, since in the latter Rome enforces this whereas in the former its very much local.
He has an interesting interpretation of g-d and it is understandable the friction this caused given the religious nature of Europe during the 1600s and the desire for the Jewish community be preserved. Given it was a Sephardic synagogue and this is only a hundred or so years after the Alhambra decree which forced Jews out of Spain lest they convert to catholicism. Portugal did the same, but did not allow Jews to escape so they either converted or were executed. Persecution against Jews continued in the Iberian peninsula for hundreds of years. As such, preservation of the Jewish community and way of life was extremely important.
> Portugal did the same, but did not allow Jews to escape so they either converted or were executed.
Yes, they did have the option of escaping. Portugal initially took in Jews expelled from Spain, in 1492, then in 1496 the Portuguese king Manuel I gave Jews the choice between conversion and expulsion. Those who who did neither by the Easter 1497 deadline were put to death.
as a counterargument, every single aerospace engineer I know (a few dozen), mainly in socal, has no plans of ever leaving. in fact, aerospace engineers I know from the UK and europe are dying to move to the US.
I buy that people they spoke to "think" about it, like people saying they were going to leave the US when trump was elected but no mass exodus occurred. it feels like pure fear mongering with people "thinking" or "considering", since that means nothing. The US isn't falling or dying, and even if it was its worth saving rather than running away. they're even spouting misinformation like the USG is preventing people from revoking citizenship because they dont want people to leave, despite the reason this was occuring was because of COVID regulations.
The US is the greatest country in the world, bar none. It has a lot to improve upon and these intelligent people should try their hardest to improve it. this article is anti-american at best and is abundant with conspiracy theories to the point it is noncredible.
Many companies are indeed leaving California [1], and moving to 'friendlier' areas. The same has been true of numerous high income/wealth individuals. If California levies a wealth tax, I'd expect them to accelerate the decline. Norway actually had their own experience with this recently. They decided to slightly raise the wealth tax (which they already had in place) to try to squeeze their highest wealth citizens even more. Enough people left the country that their net tax revenue actually decreased. [2] To stop this, they're now considering trying to pass an 'exit tax' where people who leave the country will be taxed. I'm sure that'll work out great for them. I'd never heard the term kakistocracy before this article, but wow does it fit for much of the world's governance in modern times.
it definitely screws with incentives. the success of a military or superpower is ultimately in deterrence, but lack of direct conflict makes people think less of or think the military is useless. its like people thinking their door locks are useless because they haven't observed someone trying to break in. or thinking a fire extinguisher is useless because they've never been in a fire and had to use it.
when social media, and media as a whole, fuels "america bad" rhetoric and with russian propaganda of "american imperialism" combined with no active conflicts where the US is threatened, its no surprise.
but I don't think its about people not supporting state-sanctioned violence, because many support US assistance to ukraine and other allies and understand the defensive nature of it.
likely it was just the incompetance of afghanistan and iraq occupation that messed people up. the gulf war was a massive success, at home and for kuwait (sans gulf war syndrome due to iraqi chemical weapons). when we are pushed into another conflict, OPTEMPO increases, we are united against a common enemy, confidence will increase.
