Because you used Russia and USSR interchangeably in your argument
No I did not, I very consciously made some comparisons to both, and some separately because USA used this tactic successfully against both Russia and the Soviet Union.
Soviet Union and Russia are NOT the same. But the tactic worked for half a century against them. And can still work against Russia, except if China goes all in on supporting Russia.
I think you can effectively compete with China but you would need a giant coalition of democratic countries that would move fast and stay focused.
Exactly, like EU and USA working together, but then Americans go ahead and elect Trump!?
As it’s going we were already losing, when China was behind. There is no way we can beat them when they are ahead, unless we dramatically up our game.
I’ve been cursing our (Denmark) government for cutting education and reducing taxes for 20 years. Instead of increasing education, and focus and invest in the sectors we are good at.
That’s what made us rich in the past, it’s like they think we don’t need to invest anymore, because we are economically doing fine cutting taxes and undermining the quality society we built in the past.
I clearly write: “China has 10 times the people Russia has,”
So why are you arguing a strawman?
Look at what I responded to To think Trump will improve: (physical health, homeless, mental health, etc). That’s what’s pathetic.
You have to be a special kind of naive to believe that.
I like dogging on Trump as much as the next guy, but until we have major problems (physical health, homeless, mental health, etc) solved in the US, I don’t give a fuck about our soft power.
has prompted U.S. tech executives to question the effectiveness of tech export controls.
It worked well against Russia and the Soviet Union, but it’s been my claim for years now, that this won’t work against China anymore. Because China is way more advanced now than the Soviet Union ever was by comparison for the time. And all it does is delay China while they build their own competing supply industries. And the end result will be that China will just dominate the backbone industries too.
The difference is in raw power, China has 10 times the people Russia has, and an economy that in real value more than matches USA now. In short China has all the advantages for long term developments. Except for not being ahead on chip manufacturing already.
China is already competing at top level in almost all key industries, and has absolutely unparalleled manufacturing capacity. but also technologically they are in the top of EV, Batteries, solar panels, and 44 other technology areas.
all of the world’s top 10 leading research institutions are based in China and are collectively generating nine times more high-impact research papers than the second-ranked country (most often the US).”
Trying to hold back China is simply not a viable option anymore.
Absolutely, it’s not the UK that are crazy, it’s everybody else.
It was a joke on UK putting water pipes on the outside of their houses.
Making them sometimes freeze and burst in the winter, but it’s easier to repair. 😋
I agree, the idea that free will depends on nondeterminism is flawed, but I believe that’s widely accepted now. Your explanation shows very nicely that it cannot be just about rolling dice, because essentially that doesn’t make sense.
we can see that decisions are made before we’re consciously aware of them.
Our subconscious is to a large degree trained by our consciousness.
A simple thing like walking takes huge conscious effort to learn. When it’s learned, the task becomes sub conscious.
So the decision making is not a one way event happening only in that moment, it’s based on our experiences, and how we have trained our subconscious to process things.
I haven’t studied that research, but I am VERY skeptical about it showing what is often claimed. The conscious/subconscious interaction is a 2 way connection, not just 1 way.
I genuinely believe that we live in a deterministic universe
No we don’t, radioactive decay is not deterministic. it’s statistical, and so is almost everything on the quantum level.
Just because natural laws like gravity seems to work every time on the macroscopic level, doesn’t mean everything is like that.
Do they have the wiring on the outside of the houses so it’s easier to repair?
I’ve heard in UK they tend to do such things.
Freedom from that control.
Free will can exist because consciousness is an abstraction created by the brain similar to a virtual reality on a computer, where the laws of physics is what the brain builds upon, consciousness is a function of the brain, and SELF consciousness is a layer above that, constructed by the functionality of the brain, that far exceed normal physical causality. While the brain is dependent on physics, the “simulation” is not.
There’s a reason we have a feeling of free will, if free will didn’t exist, a sense of it would serve no purpose. So Occam’s razor indicates that we shouldn’t have that sense without also having free will.
We can imagine a future far removed from our current state, fantasy and SciFi books are clear examples of that. How would that be possible without free will?
You don’t need determinism for that. Our brains are absolutely fallible, no need and it doesn’t help to punk yourself over that, with or without determinism.
But just as determinism for you can explain bad things happening, so can nondeterminism. We know statistically how fast radioactive matter decay. But it’s impossible to know for a single atom, it could be within seconds, or it could be in a thousand years. We have no way of telling before it actually happens.
Some things are impossible to predict, and some things just happen by accident. Whether the universe made it happen one way or the other, doesn’t really matter.
What matters is that you have a large degree of free will, and you can choose to cope the way that suits you best.
But your own actions are your responsibility.
They’ve already done that for years. Because it’s low hanging fruit, and most of those countries have strained relationships with USA for good reasons, much like the middle east.
USA has done way too much power-play for control and financial reasons, the Chinese are doing the same now.
but until we have major problems (physical health, homeless, mental health, etc) solved in the US, I don’t give a fuck about our soft power.
Oh boy, I think you are in for an awakening, because losing democratic and humanitarian values in general, will make all of that worse too.
Are you not aware what Nazism does? That’s what you have in USA. If Trump really wanted to solve those problems, he would have the blessings from most countries.
When did you ever see an authoritarian government care about the weakest in their country?
No they don’t, if they did, they wouldn’t escalate threats towards Taiwan. There is much more to be gained from increased cooperation with highly developed democratic countries around the world, but China is fucking up because of nationalistic ideological fanaticism that is very off-putting for democratic countries.
Yes absolutely, China has been going in places where USA doesn’t have a strong standing.
What I’m arguing is that China could go in where USA is actually strong, and create closer relationships.
Except for their behavior lately makes most US allies very cautious towards China with good reason.
The soft power of African countries is limited.
At least they are not fascist authoritarians…
Oh wait?
How is it a strawman to call a Nazi what he is? He even allowed Musk Heiling at inauguration, saying NOTHING against it afterwards.
If you think Trump is not a Nazi, I can’t imagine what it takes to convince you?