Chinese cities are not really "cities". They are closer to counties and in some instances like Chongqing, a literal province. The bigger cities are a administratively half a level above counties.
Ya, CQ is about the size of Maine, hardly just a city. Core urban CQ is only around 9.5 million people, which isn't that large by Chinese standards. Shanghai is much less rural at around 22-24 million people.
Everything is arbitrary. What's even more arbitrary than descriptive truths are moral truths - like - don't kill the innocent. The sooner we reconcile our differences and realize that society is only possible through tethered connections biologically programmed into us, the better we will all be. The alternative is groups of people feuding over "moral truths" that are IMPOSSIBLE to reconcile because "moral truths" are inaccessible.
We will cease to be "humans" as we are now. It's weird to talk about consciousness as a being who is conscious but can't explain how, but the fact that I have the capacity and disposition for moral deliberation drives me to pursue morality. Perhaps it's because of an emergent biological state, or a supernatural soul, or something else, but regardless it's a core part of who I am. I recognize the moral relativism pitfall, but I don't think that means we should ignore morality either. I have beliefs on at least core moral principles that should be upheld, if nothing else. I couldn't tell you why I do, but I do. That's enough for me to keep going.
I think you can still have morals - I'm just saying that your morality is a product of you personally interacting with the world. There's no fountain of moral knowledge that we collectively drink from. So.. don't be surprised when your morals diverge from another person.
Oh, I think I understand what you mean. Still, I don't think we can reconcile our differences if we can't agree on and enact some morals as law. We agree that there's no objective morality we can discover, but acknowledging that doesn't solve the very real moral conflicts.
The biggest value for me is that it helped me breakdown my moral positions so I figured out what I truly cared about. I had previously held many culturally influenced moral positions which I found little to no grounding when seriously considered.
"Objective morals" are extremely religious, culty, hivemind-like because they are passed on as matter-of-fact truths that don't need to be examined, regardless of whether it comes from a region or your favorite insta influencer. They get repeated as mantras by many who cant back up their beliefs.
What an underdeveloped perspective. You would constrain humanity to the biology that birthed it. By your reasoning we ought to crawl back into our mothers because that is where we are meant to be.
You opened with “everything is arbitrary” and now the only thing you’ve said isn’t is that we should procreate?
> The sooner we reconcile our differences and realize that society is only possible through tethered connections biologically programmed into us, the better we will all be. The alternative is groups of people feuding over "moral truths" that are IMPOSSIBLE to reconcile because "moral truths" are inaccessible.
Moral truths are not impossible to reconcile and they are not inaccessible. You just aren’t yet equipped with the discernment to distinguish between accurate ones and arbitrary ones.
Biology is constraining when you rely on it to dictate the path forward.
>Well it wasn't always a case for the Asian community either yet somehow the Asian community thrives today.
That's because the Asian community has had the (stabler, more beneficial) conditions I've speak about for 3-4 decades at least -- it's not the time of the railroads of the WWII camps. Meanwhile, blacks and latinos still face those issues to this day.
Even so, even those Asians from poor backgrounds who do make it, have to work at it far harder than a middle class/rich kid. Equality is not just about a class of people (e.g. poor immigrants) getting the same outcomes. It's also not having to work harder and under more adverse conditions to get them.
(The injustice is the same to how to women had to be much better and work harder to "prove themselves" in order to get them same career outcomes as men).
The experiences for different Asian origins are different from my understanding; the experience of say Burmese or Lao immigrants is likely different from Chinese or Indian ones.
Back in the 70s, the Pet Rock became all the rage. Considering all the novelty gag gifts that come and go, why did that one catch fire? Some memes catch on while most don't for inscrutable reasons. Most likely there was some notable cultural reference to it and its nudge into cultural relevance further fed to more gains.
I've eaten a wide variety of weird food over the years. I recently tried a kelp burger and it was better than expected. I also felt pretty good after eating it. Would eat again.
This thread reminds of facebook comments of people saying AWS is dumb because you can just put 10 CPUs and 5 sticks of ram for a quarter of the price. I don't get what's so hard to understand here, it just glamping for rich people who aren't very outdoorsy.
Arguably, any system of assessing and forcing people to pay for the assessed external costs is at odds with capitalism (it is arguably a form of central planning and interference with the free market).
Which is not to say that it isn't a good idea, and the minimum deviation necessary from capitalism to address externalities, but ideological capitalism/free-market purists tend to oppose it pretty strongly.
"Capitalism" does not mean "free market". It literally means that the profits go to investors (capital) instead of to the workers (labor). You can certainly have a capitalist system that does not have a free market, and you can certainly have a free market system that is not capitalism.
Are you talking about the Nord Stream pipeline blown up last year?
Because this specific pipeline has nothing to do with Russia. The opposite, it connects Finland to the Baltic States which have a pipeline with Poland and then the rest of Europe...
So if Russia is indeed blowing up pipelines blowing up Balticconnector would make perfect sense.
One theory is that it allows the Russian company that was supposed to deliver gas to Europe to get out of paying fines for not delivering enough gas - they'd blame it on force majeure. They were intentionally limiting gas deliveries to pressure Europe out of helping Ukraine, and this was a way to blame it on someone else.
> it allows the Russian company that was supposed to deliver gas to Europe to get out of paying fines for not delivering enough gas
I think the evidence favors either Russia or Ukraine having destroyed the pipeline. But this isn't a great reason. Russia straight up stole the airplanes its domestic airlines leased. It could simply refuse to pay the fines, too.
> Russia straight up stole the airplanes its domestic airlines leased. It could simply refuse to pay the fines, too.
Well, the planes already were in Russia, foreign lenders can't seize them. But fines for non-delivery can still be taken in by seizing assets of the Russian companies in Western countries. Our legal systems unfortunately don't allow wholesale seizure of everything Russia, so it needs an actual contract violation for a seizure order to be upheld.
> the planes already were in Russia, foreign lenders can't seize them. But fines for non-delivery can still be taken in by seizing assets of the Russian companies in Western countries.
You can do the same thing to compensate the owners of the planes.
No. You can't go and seize a random oligarch's assets to compensate the lenders of airplanes, and Aeroflot takes great care to avoid airspace where Western sanctions could hit them - the exception being Turkey, but they won't do anything that endangers their sort-of "neutrality".
They destroyed their own economy for no good reason, why wouldn't they blow up their own pipeline too? Very little makes sense with regards to Russia's belligerent actions.
All things considered? Their economy is doing much better than the majority of Europe. [1] Austria = 0.4, Canada = 1.7, France = 0.8, Germany = (-0.3), Sweden (-0.5), Switzerland 0.8, Italy = 1.1, etc. The overall growth rate in Europe is 0.6. Russia is at 1.5%. And Wiki is somewhat outdated. Their 2nd quarter growth has been published, and it's now up to 4.9%.
IMO we're currently looking at a major inflection point in history, yet so many have no idea of what's happening. In the USSR there were two major state newspapers, pravda (meaning truth) and novosti (meaning news). A USSR era joke was, "Why do we have two newspapers, truth and news? Well that's because there's no truth in the news, and no news in the truth."
I added the "all things considered" because someone would inevitably come along and suggest that they could be doing better had they not invaded. It's much harder to disagree with the statement I made while also still making the point I wanted to make.
But yeah, I agree with you. Russia's economy is looking very robust right now when compared to many major European economies.
The fact is the Ruble has been in steady decline. https://www.google.com/search?q=price+of+ruble Hit the "Max" tab. If that isn't what destroying their economy looks like, then maybe you need to take a another look.
The data on Wiki is from the IMF. [1] Incidentally it's also outdated there. The recent changes continue to trend in the same direction. They're reporting Russia's growth as 2.2% while Germany's down to -0.5%. Interestingly Russia is now growing even faster than the US as well.
It's definitely true that Russia's currency is currently weakening, but the reason this is a threat is not because that in and of itself, but rather knock-on effects. A big one is inflation. And Russia is absolutely seeing rapidly increasing inflation right now [2], but it remains to see if that starts hitting threatening levels.
In the current state of the world I think putting your money in any currency is absurdly risky, with very little hope for meaningful returns. It's the reason even US treasuries are paying out such high interest rates. As always, it seems the only real hedge is "real" things - precious metals, real estate, and so on.
Russia is a pariah state, sanctioned and with more sanctions coming. Yes, the sanctions are working - they take time, and the fall of the ruble absolutely shows this. The ruble has done nothing but drop over time. The Euro and the Dollar fluctuate but are not in the shitter like the ruble is. The more war that russia wants to wage, the lower their currency will fall and the rest of the civilized world turns their back to russia. And nobody should believe that russia's growth is "2.2%" when they lie about everything and anything, including the state of their economy.
Again, the figures are coming from the IMF, who not only assess the figures independently, but also offer their own independent projections as well. And a weak currency is not an inherent problem. For net exporters it's a benefit. It means that right now Russia is getting more ruble for every ounce of oil they sell, yet the buyers aren't paying anymore for it. Win win for everybody. If those inflows don't create real problems, like inflation, then the low exchange rate is just driving wealth generation and economic growth. This is why export heavy places like China go out of their way to weaken their currency.
As for pariah, the main countries trying to "isolate" Russia are the US and the usual suspects. And "we" make up less than 15% of the world. It's why we carried out the equivalent of a nuclear economic attack with the sanctions, yet here we are, a year later, debating minutia when looking at the impact.
The ruble peaked in 2008 at 0.043USD, and this week it was at 0.009, and you're trying to tell me this is a good thing? lol, quit huffing Putin's farts.
Right, now look at economic data that directly influence things like quality of life, or economic stability of the country, and compare between 2008 and today. You'll find that things are better to a degree that cannot really be overstated. For instance real wages are up to a somewhat ridiculous degree, home ownership rates are substantially up (now higher than 90%!), and so on.
This [1] page is a data orgy for any sort of economic indicator that might interest you. The one thing to be careful about is to ensure you're using real (inflation adjusted) values and PPP adjusted values. A dollar goes much further in Russia whether buying tanks or tacos, so doing something like comparing nominal GDP values is misleading. It's like how a guy earning $70k in Bodunk is, in practice, earning dramatically more than a guy earning $70k in San Francisco. Even though the nominal figures are identical, $70k goes much further in Bodunk than San Francisco. Same thing, often to an even more extreme degree, between countries.
>For instance real wages are up to a somewhat ridiculous degree, home ownership rates are substantially up (now higher than 90%!), and so on.
lol, everyone with half a brain ran from Russia as soon as they could, and they aren't coming back if they can avoid it. And the ruble will continue to sink lower and lower. There's no reason to think it wouldn't and no matter how you try to spin it, that's not a good thing for Russia's economy.
In 2008, there were 68 million employed persons. Today there are 74 million. In 2008 there was a population of 142 million, today it's 146 million. Even their fertility rate is up, after much focus on it. In 2008 it was 1.456, today it's 1.825 [1]. Still far too low, especially for a country with so much land, but this is a struggle all developed nations are currently facing and, by that standard, 1.825 is better than average.
These are simply data. The spin is how the media takes one single data point, and disingenuously frames is as a core targeted effect. The sanctions are certainly having an impact, but in terms of the desired outcome - the destabilization or collapse of Russia - they have been a complete failure. Instead the primary consequence of our actions has been to split the world in 2, almost certainly to our own detriment.
You work hard to serve Putin. Lies are all that Russia has. There is no reason to believe any numbers that Russia supplies about their economy. They lie about literally everything. It's easier than having actual prosperity.
You know you can take a stroll around e.g. Moscow anytime you like? Search YouTube for something like "Прогулка по Москве". That means 'taking a walk around Moscow'. Change москве to Санкт-Петербург for St. Petersburg. Here's [1] a video from a couple of months ago in Petersburg at the tail end of summer. Here's [2] one from literally 2 hours ago in Moscow. That would've been at around 7pm, and in 13C Fall weather, so not the most enticing, but it also gives an interesting perspective IMO.
Russia is the new enemy, or the old one I suppose. We've always been at war with Eastasia after all, right? Perhaps a more appropriate reference would be, "The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command."
Up to you. Personally before deciding to hate something or somebody as much as you seemingly do, based on the words of others, I'd like to ensure that what they're saying is at least true. Otherwise, you risk just becoming a hate fueled tool, literally no different than Germany circa 1935.
I'm certain you've exposed yourself to a quite impressive volume of Irrefutable and Undeniable [1] information. The problem in society is people not learning from the past. What happened yesterday is happening today, and will happen again tomorrow.
Russia doing awful shit and getting sanctioned for it is nothing new. It happened yesterday, is happening today, and will continue to happen so long as they are a mafia state that uses violence to achieve their wrong goals.
So which super-power would you hold up as a model of integrity that Russia ought strive to emulate? The one upon which you are basing your standards of acceptable behavior?
Any one except the thuggish lying mafia state of Russia. It's really not difficult to be better than Russia. Maybe if you get rid of Putin and get rid of the mafia bullshit you'll have a brighter future.
Because there are a number of internal actors who would have benefited from doing so. For example, if Putin had felt threatened by someone trying to overthrow him, and negotiate an end to sanctions (and the Ukraine war), it might make sense to sabotage Nordstream and reduce the potential financial benefits from the coup.
In short, while it might not make sense for "Russia to blow up its own pipeline", it would make sense for 'certain Russians to blow up a pipeline owned by other Russians'.
It’d be surprising if that stopped being true in college, in fact. It’s definitely still true from about 6th grade(!) on, at least in lots of schools. Ask some teachers (who aren’t also coaches) what that dynamic looks like—all the stuff about star athletes getting away with bad behavior, coach-teachers letting them get away with doing almost nothing in their classes, and other teachers being pressured to give them higher grades than they earned is still there, straight out of an 80s movie.
The special treatment star athletes get in many US universities with well-funded prominent sports programs, especially American football and basketball, is well-documented. Even not-so-star athletes get the benefit of the doubt. What reasons do we have to believe Ivy League universities are different? They may emphasize different sports – crew or field hockey instead of football – but the results are the same.
