I don't know why they needed to reply with that, that's like 50% of his original post with all the crap like
> the slow creep of subtle fear porn that has filled the pages of mainstream “trusted” publications has caused you to take the climate issue more seriously
Suppose you are a strategist at the top of the Chinese government […]
Your information sources include all Chinese intelligence, but like all
worldly elites you rely on globally respected mainstream media like the
NYT, Washington Post,
I like how this guy is so committed to believing that global warming
is fake (even in his own dumb hypothetical) that he has to posit that
this hypothetical group has the foresight to be thinking about
mitigation strategies that last decades, the intelligence to create a
biological superweapon, and the will to deploy said biological
superweapon, but apparently at no point ever had the thought of “maybe
we should do our own research and come to our own conclusions about
whether or not global warming is real before we do this”. Because
obviously you’d only believe it’s real if you were brainwashed by the
Western media, of course.
Man what is with the nationalist anti-China fervor nowadays? Lots of
people making dogshit arguments against the Chinese goverment that could
easily apply to the US government. Do we need a scapegoat that
badly?
We literally do. The US is currently losing a trade war with China, and China's Belt and Road initiative promises to further increase its economic strength. This runs through Xinjiang, so there is a strong monetary incentive for the US to make a big stink about it to either interrupt the project or get the upper hand via sanctions. You can find many instances of alleged US funding behind the think tanks that have been releasing the most extreme stuff.
Of course, there's an equally strong incentive for China to do terrible things in the name of regional stability in the middle of their gigantic infrastructure/economic investment project. And there is some hard evidence (decline in birth rates, etc.) that gives me pause. But the recent surge of China hate certainly has economic underpinnings in addition to the usual political utility of xenophobia.
I'm not sure what bothers me more: How easily people across the political spectrum willingly accept modern nationalist propaganda, or how quickly individuals in our society throw their hands up and cover their ears when you suggest that societal problems we face (like climate change) require internal changes within *our* nation. We don't have agency over Chinese policies, but we DO have agency over our own, at least to a greater degree.
I had an hour+ long argument with some close friends of mine over this today. As soon as I level criticism against commonly-accepted bipartisan United States policies, I am a rabid communist apologist. I couldn't even get them to consider the idea of internal criticism until I re-framed the entire argument as tribalism on a national scale.
The US government is propagandizing against China hard right now because China is getting the upper hand on trade. Of course all these 420IQ genius rationalists fall for hamfisted propaganda.
Both for legitimate issues, COVID secrecy and lack of access for foreign researchers, Xinjiang, espionage and Hong Kong and for political/xenophobic ones to give cover to Trump’s abysmal COVID response, his asinine trade war and old fashioned jingoism in an election year.
What if COVID-19 was engineered by the heathen chinee to eliminate
true patriots? Only reply if you can prove that your IQ is in the 97th
percentile or higher.
This was the plot of kingsmen except it was mind control instead of a virus but in kingsmen the villains were going to kill enough people that it would actually make a difference. Our climate situation doesn’t much change even with a death count orders of magnitude higher than what we expect now.
I love how all the replies so far are “akshually global warming isn’t that bad though”, like that’s the most objectionable part
What if God was a rabbit?
Jesus these people have no idea
Imagine spending the time to write all that as an explanation for such a simple and stupid idea
I like how this guy is so committed to believing that global warming is fake (even in his own dumb hypothetical) that he has to posit that this hypothetical group has the foresight to be thinking about mitigation strategies that last decades, the intelligence to create a biological superweapon, and the will to deploy said biological superweapon, but apparently at no point ever had the thought of “maybe we should do our own research and come to our own conclusions about whether or not global warming is real before we do this”. Because obviously you’d only believe it’s real if you were brainwashed by the Western media, of course.
It’s only a…
T H O U G H T
E X P E R I M E N T
Man what is with the nationalist anti-China fervor nowadays? Lots of people making dogshit arguments against the Chinese goverment that could easily apply to the US government. Do we need a scapegoat that badly?
for identifying with the quality of “personal responsibility” they sure do like blaming china for a lotta stuff
What if COVID-19 was engineered by the heathen chinee to eliminate true patriots? Only reply if you can prove that your IQ is in the 97th percentile or higher.
tbf I prefer when rationalist self-insert fanfic takes place in the Harry Potter universe
I’ll be honest it reads like a pretty cool superhero movie plot
Hey! Whoever upvoted me better have High G
This feels like whoever wrote this read the first - I dunno - half of The Three Body Problem and got carried away on racism