• StinkySocialist@lemmy.ml
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    3 days ago

    Can someone smarter than me tell me if I should be worried about the Chinese century as an American? I’m just hoping to get a good deal on one of those byd cars eventually lol

    • OprahsedCreature@lemmy.ml
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      3 days ago

      Yes you should be. China’s going to be making lunar and orbital bases and cities and having huge parties they won’t invite you to unless you know the super secret handshake which you only learn after reading Das Kapital in its entirety.

      I’m sorry comrade, I know this is a bitter pill to swallow 😔

      • StinkySocialist@lemmy.ml
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        3 days ago

        Orbital bases and parties I’m not invited too are fine but I draw the line at actually reading theory 😤😤😤 /s

        • OprahsedCreature@lemmy.ml
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          3 days ago

          My only respite from this agony is knowing that as a leftist I only have to finish reading Capital. I heard they’re going to make the reactionaries that survive read Hegel in the original German too. Granted a decent percentage of them will already know German but as I hear it even Germans prefer the English translations.

          • Lemister [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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            3 days ago

            Why would marx ever want that? He wrote das kapital for the masses to understand learn from. Hegel can be valuable to read in the native language if you want a closer representation of continental philosophy. Its still difficult because its in older german, I read schiller in higher education and most people flunk out and did not understand a thing - and we were all native speakers.

            • RNAi [he/him]@hexbear.net
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              3 days ago

              Marx was allegedly really bad at writing and actually publishing his own thoughts, and he got shit done only thanks to his wife Jenny von Westphalen and his husband Fred Engels

            • OprahsedCreature@lemmy.ml
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              3 days ago

              I mean for my part I’m just totally joking. I think it’s all valuable to read when you have the time. I’ll make my jokes about linen here and there, but the last English translation I read of capital was a bit verbose and dated and I think a good bit of praxis would be to simplify it even more for people.

    • ChaosMaterialist [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      3 days ago

      The Chinese aren’t going to be the problem. It will be the American ruling class (and their supporters) that will go deeply reactionary as their global power slips into Chinese hands.

      • In the near term, a lot of products will become more expensive (tariffs, manufactured overseas, etc) as waning American global hegemony no longer can use it’s power to keep foreign countries exports inexpensive. Chocolate and Coffee are a preview of coming attractions.
      • Longer term the US might no longer be seen as a place for International Students and workers. They might go to China instead to study and get jobs. US Citizens might choose to study/work in China too, causing a brain and talent drain from the US.
      • It will be foreign policy where the “Chinese Century” will be felt most directly as they become the new global hegemon. You can already see how this works with their “Belt and Road” initiatives as they now have sizable trade partners around the globe. It also slots well with the overall Chinese strategy of building infrastructure. It also circumvents the US trade hegemony.
      • The Yuan becomes a serious contender for the worldwide Reserve Currency as trade with China booms. This replaces the dominance of the Petrodollar, and is an existential threat to both US soft and hard power.
        • It cripples the US’s ability to unilaterally sanction anybody out of US banking, thus becoming increasingly powerless.
        • It also makes the US’s ability to constantly run deficits much harder as US bonds aren’t sold.
        • Harder to raise deficits to support the US military as it takes up the most of the Federal budget.
          • Expect drastic cuts (like DOGE :melon-musk:) to make way for the military spending to…
          • …prop up the fading global influence militarily, like invading Canada/Greenland a-little-trolling
        • Of everything here this will trigger the largest and deepest period of Reaction because the consequences hit everybody, from the Military, to Politicians and their bureaucracies, Capitalists and their companies, and finally regular grillman Americans.
    • darkcalling [comrade/them, she/her]@hexbear.net
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      3 days ago

      From the Chinese? No. From the US/collective west? Very much yes. Our world has not yet experienced an empire falling and being replaced by another empire* in the nuclear age.

      *At least not unfriendly empires. The British/French empires would absolutely supplanted by US post WW2 hegemony but as the US was a white supremacist power like them it was more like handing it off to a relative than losing it to a total stranger which is how the racist rage will regard China taking first place. Additionally the interests of the European bourgeoisie were harmonized with US interests. The US in fact saved them from socialism by occupying western Europe and suppressing communists rather than what would have happened had the USSR won all on its own in Europe and then let them have buy-in. Though the Chinese have given western bourgeoisie some buy-in they have zero power unlike in the aftermath of the Europe to US empire transition.

    • SevenSkalls [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      3 days ago

      If they treat the world like the US did during its century, probably, but so far that doesn’t seem to be the case. They don’t have military bases spread all around the world, they haven’t dropped a single bomb, they have businesses and loans they give out but they don’t force you to have a certain political or economic system (unlike the West which gives their loans with requirements for austerity attached).

      I think the only issue is that they seem to be over correcting and are too uninvolved with other countries. So it will probably be fine lol.

    • driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br
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      3 days ago

      Read somewhere that the dollar being the de facto international currency gave Americans like 30% in purchase power or something like this.