this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2024
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Memes

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[–] [email protected] -4 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Very good point and one that people often forget. It's literally impossible to build high speed rail without first becoming an authoritarian dictatorship.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 months ago (2 children)

TIL Germany, Belgium, Austria, France and Portugal are authoritarian dictatorships

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

Don't forget Taiwan as well. They have HSR although to be fair it's also a very small country.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] -2 points 2 months ago (3 children)

I don't know, man. This sounds like some "the enemy is both strong and weak" BS to me. When they can't build a HSR in California they are an unplanned economy but when I point out the cost of China's flavour of government suddenly the US is a dictatorship?

I've got no issues acknowledging when China does some good things but come on. I was rightfully making fun of the implication of your meme here and you come back with doublespeak. There's really no need to pick a side and defend it at all costs, we can acknowledge the positive and negative things.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago

but when I point out the cost of China’s flavour of government suddenly the US is a dictatorship?

I mean I linked you a whole bunch of western studies showing that people living in China see their country as being more democratic than people living in US see theirs. Furthermore, a study analyzing decades of US policy has found the following:

That certainly does sound like US is a dictatorship of capital to me where regular working class people have little say in the running of the system.

My argument is based on the empirical evidence available, meanwhile I have no idea what you base your position on.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I'm confused by this, because it looks like China is proving you wrong right now?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Now I'm confused, what do you mean? I never said they didn't have a great high speed rail network. I think they've done a great job and I've got no problem acknowledging that. I was just poking fun at the implication of the meme.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Well, China, a participatory democracy with a 95 percent approval rating according to a Harvard study, is in the meme building high speed rail, and you're claiming you have to be an authoritarian dictatorship to build high speed rail?