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A whole of stuff here feels... emotionally loaded in a way that's designed to be manipulative rather than heartfelt. Saying "A gun craves to be shot" is a clear example -- guns don't crave anything. I'm a pro-gun leftist, so maybe I'm just sensitive to this specific example. Another example, much of the article uses "China" to suggest a broad, villainous other. Like so much American media, this reads like, "What are we, China?" or alternatively, "Surely we are better than China..." Which assumes a level of backwater, out of date, poorly run culture in China. As a concrete example, the author says something to the effect of, "China claims to have quickly built a hospital, which I very much doubt." And explains nothing further -- why do you doubt that? What evidence do you have? Or are you just relying on your audience to credulously agree that because it came out of China, it's bad or a lie? Additionally, the article appeals to the idea that we are all self interested by our fundamental nature. That we're all programmed to survive at all costs, and the means of that survival is individual self interest. Plenty of folks (myself included) believe that our survival instinct is one of social cohesion -- we survive because we band together into social groups. So I agree with the conclusion -- we should be fighting fascists, and we should be doing it with strong policy and aggressively pushing fascists out of shared spaces (a bar that permits one nazi to be there is a nazi bar), I just think this article doesn't make the case for that very effectively. |
I do not think at all that individual self-interest is our only motor. I'm saying we underestimate the extent to which it motivates us. I should probably clarify that.
My view of China is informed by my months-long stay there during the pandemic (among other stays but that was the most ... uh... impressive one). It is my only direct experience with autocracy and I assure you it was scary as heck. Make of that what you will.
And I'm European.