Stovo

Officially Taiwan does lay claim to the entirety of mainland China, plus sections of other countries such as Mongolia. In practice, Taiwanese people have more of a Taiwanese identity rather than a Chinese one nowadays. You are right, of course, that fear and anxiety affect how people think about China, but it would be foolish to suggest that they wouldn't try to expand their influence as much as possible. This is how power works.

Ah gotcha, we have roughly similar views in that case. My base case is that the system is only sustainable given high economic growth, which obviously they cannot sustain forever.

If Leo's teachings are correct, and we hypothesise that spiral dynamics is also correct, and humanity moves up the spiral over time, then you'd imagine a world that is, relatively speaking, gradually getting more selfless and loving over time. Based on previous world history, this has held true.

Marriage doesn't equal happiness. I met a girl on the weekend and we spoke about marriage, she had an interesting perspective. She said that the only purpose of marriage is to sign a legal document which outlines the consequences of breaking up. Therefore, marriage is just the first step to divorce.

Only time I've been kicked out of a club is when I was a student me and another student pretended to have a fight. The bouncers thought it was real so grabbed me from behind and threw me out. But I'm pretty well behaved, I just drink and dance. I don't really care about pulling girls at all in clubs, I lose interest after drinking. You're better off using dating apps or doing day game.

I was watching Leo's latest video titled "Why Valuable Things Require Development Over Time". In it, he mentions how he built up his skills over a long time, and that he is better now at making videos than he was 8 years ago. Out of interest I checked back to his first video and noticed it was on "How to Invest in Yourself". VERY similar topic, I thought it was really ironic haha. It was also interesting to see how Leo's skills have developed, and also how he's integrated the ideas better over the 8 years.

@Leo Gura Don't you think it's a mix of good and bad? Some of it is very healthy, especially fighting the excesses of capitalism. But other things like limiting children's online gaming hours, banning western influences, punishing actors for not being masculine enough? Imo China has these authoritarian backlashes that are healthy in many ways, but which go too far. But maybe I'm looking at it from my own eyes, and not from the average Chinese person. Most Chinese people I speak to are broadly in support of their government, even if they don't agree with everything they do.

@snowyowl God save the Queen - says stage blue Stovo

@Fleetinglife thanks for sharing. It'll be interesting how things pan out. Some of the proposals sounds good in theory, for example lowering inequality, but let's see if they work in practice. Other policies sound downright regressive, especially all the extra authoritarian measures, censorship, and the whole toxic masculinity vibe. I feel like they are shooting themselves in the foot a bit, but let's see.

@Willie I didn't ask, I should have. These things spread, could just be a coworker or social media. A successful invasion of Taiwan would be a big political win for the CCP, which should ensure they stay in power for the foreseeable. Militarily it breaks the island chain that the US has which effectively surrounds China in the Pacific, from Japan to the Philippines. This is also why China is making so many claims in the south China sea too, they are militarily surrounded and need a way out. Economically, they gain a powerhouse of well educated people and strong industries. It would also demonstrate Chinese strength Vs US weakness to the rest of the world. Soon you'd see Korea and Japan trying to forge new relationships and alliances with China out of fear of an attack. Lesser nations side with the powerful. It would be a huge blow to democracy, and a big win for authoritarianism. So yeah Taiwan matters a lot.

@Willie You underestimate the power of propaganda. My Chinese ex recently texted me, a well-educated woman, to tell me that she heard the virus originated in the US. She genuinely thought it was a real fact. I had to tell her to be very careful what both sides are saying because the US and China are in a type of war. You also underestimate the strategic importance of Taiwan.

Well said.

Yeah, I've seen a lot of his videos. It's funny because China is clearly having a stage blue backlash to stage orange, whilst Winston here is having a stage orange backlash to stage blue. There's a ton of propaganda in China yes. They are at war with the US, and the only way to convince their people that freedom and democracy are bad ideas is to use propaganda to convince them otherwise. The US employs propaganda too, but it's more covert. Will it escalate to a shooting war? That's a tough one. The Thucydides trap says in most cases a rising power will go to war with a ruling power, but it hasn't happened directly between two nuclear powers before. There's also the game theory, it would be advantageous for China to wait for war because their strength is growing relative to the US. For the US it would be better to have a war sooner whilst they are still stronger. From what I understand currently is that if a war occurred today then China would win it within its local Asia region, whilst the US would win a larger global war. If I were the US President, and it's difficult because I don't have all the information that military commanders would have, I would concentrate on uniting the US and growing it stronger through big investments in infrastructure and education. This is what Biden is currently doing. I would then speak with the leaders of the US allies, especially Nato allies, and ensure unity between allies whilst helping them to grow stronger too. This would be key because the US has very strong allies that share its values, whilst China does not. I'd then bide my time, I wouldn't strike first because I don't believe in wars. Countries should set themselves up to defend themselves if need be, however. Also, in the very long term, China's population should start declining and they cannot rely on immigrants the way the west can because 1) China is anti-immigration, and 2) nobody wants to live there. This will weaken China in the long term. Potentially Winston is right too, in that they will weaken due to these recent reforms towards a more command-based economy, but I'm not so sure about that. The only very difficult question is the area where war is most likely to break out: Taiwan. On balance I feel it would be right to defend them as they are de facto an ally, but the argument could easily be made that it's China's internal affairs. I think the outcome of any war would probably be decided here. Ie if Taiwan is successfully defended then it'll be a western victory, if it falls to China then it's a China victory.

Sounds like you're making good progress and being a bit harsh on yourself for having some flaws. If anything maybe you're caught up in too much "doing" and you need to concentrate on "being" a lot more. This will help you integrate everything.

Tibet, Xinjiang, Mongolia, Taiwan, Hong Kong... You could say that all these parts are a part of China, as the Chinese would, but the history is complex and murky. China has a history of various clans or dynasties fighting between themselves for various parts of what we now call China. Also, although China did not conquer some surrounding areas like Japan, the lesser powers in the region did acknowledge China as the dominant power and paid tributes to avoid any potential wars or invasions, which the lesser powers would clearly lose. The US history you describe there is relatively similar. Ie wars that involved the formation of modern-day USA, and limited in scope to their local region. If one day China has the largest military, and some terrorists in Afghanistan decide to blow up 2 skyscrapers in Shanghai, and going to war to stop those terrorists could be done without antagonising other strong nations, you better believe they would go to war. Yes, I agree

@Fleetinglife China does not intervene in other countries or sanction them because it has limited ability to do so. ONLY the US can do significant sanctions because they control the world's reserve currency. ONLY the US can intervene in other countries in a significant way because their military is, and has been since WW2, by far the most powerful military in the world. Prior to WW2, the US was almost entirely isolationist. They rarely interfered in other countries and had no desire to do so. They were quietly building up wealth and power. Only once a country becomes the predominant world superpower can they intervene in any significant way, and they usually do so to protect their status as the world superpower. If China grows to be the most powerful nation I am absolutely certain that they will intervene militarily when it suits them, and when it suits their interests to do so. My thoughts are that China will never become as dominant as the US was at its height. The US after WW2 was something like half of world GDP, which is absolutely mind-boggling. I'm not sure if a single empire has ever managed this before, which means the US after WW2 was potentially the most dominant power ever to exist in history. My best guess is that western nations will unite as a kind of counterbalance to Chinese influence. China will likely be the most powerful single nation, but with a significantly powerful western bloc on par with them in many ways. In which case, China will be unable to intervene as significantly as the US had been able to because their relative level of dominance will be lower.

Thanks for sharing, interesting perspective. I did think of Japan as extremely blue, but I assumed it had quite a lot of orange too? I mean it's so modern and capitalist at the same time.

@Fleetinglife They just want investment, and China is more accomodating to corrupt/unethical regimes yes. China also happens to have more money to spend due to a flood of US dollars they receive from their trade surplus. They no longer wish to buy US bonds with these dollars because of the poor returns these now offer, so are more inclined to invest it in other countries for their own benefit. How does this make China the lesser of 2 evils, however?

@erik8lrl Yes, you've articulated this well.

China is lower on the spiral than the US, so is more likely to behave in selfish ways. Of course, the US also behaves incredibly selfishly because they are relatively low compared to higher stages. It is true, however, that most Americans believe China to be more "evil" than it really is because they find them threatening and are brainwashed by American media.

"Almost impossible" I agree with all your points in bold.

Not dismiss, just take with a pinch of salt. Feminine women feel in the moment, and those feelings change constantly. She thinks she wants one thing, then a completely different guy shows up and suddenly she's into that. It's just difficult to get dating advice from people who aren't sure what they want themselves.

Agree with this. It's actually almost impossible for men and women to have a sensible discussion on this subject, because they come at it from different angles and attraction is so often misunderstood. Men will always try to rationalise the situation, whilst women will feel in the moment. I've had good dating advice from both men and women, but the best advice I have received are from masculine men who understand how to attract girls. Sometimes dating advice from women should be taken with a pinch of salt. Most women I know end up with completely opposite guys to the type they say they are attracted to, so how can you trust them to give you dating advice? Also, is it very masculine to ask a girl for dating advice? Absolutely not, it lowers your status immediately. General rule of thumb for me, I consult guy friends for actual dating advice. When I am with female friends, I just get to know them and observe their dating preferences Vs what they say.

Less developed countries are more racist, however, so depends on where you're from and what race you are. White people from the west are treated very well because the people believe these people to be from very rich and successful places, they attach status to you straight away. You'll probably find this warm and welcoming aspect doesn't always apply to local people, or other races.

Feminine people ordinarily feel in the moment, that's why feminine women are attracted to confident, masculine men, who can hold a decent conversation and show leadership abilities. BUT a feminine woman will never rationalise it that way. To a feminine woman the underlying emotions take charge, and to her it was just a "strong vibe".