[M00nF1sh]

Is Trump really not a dictator? Meanwhile, China has been focusing on domestic development and investing in underdeveloped regions, including across Africa. China hasn't bombed girls' schools and then lied that it's their own country thrown the bomb.

[albelfio]

What the governments have done is different from what the cultural values of the two countries are. Chinese values and American values are different, and people can argue for one or the other. We, westerner, want our values to prevail. Dwarkesh wants to preserve our values of freedom.

[317070]

> We, westerner, want our values to prevail.

This comes to the core of the issue, and is where I think the disagreement comes from. Many Westerners in fact do not want "Western" values to prevail.

Why? For me those values have led to outcomes so horrendously antithetical to _my_ values, that I would not wish them for the rest of the world. Even worse, this Western centrism has led to jingoist conclusions for at least 400 years.

[JumpCrisscross]

> Is Trump really not a dictator?

No. There is no court in Beijing that can tell Xi to knock it off.

> China hasn't bombed girls' schools

Read up on the treatment of Uyghur girls in the Chinese schools. It’s Indian Removal Act stuff, except right now.

Again, nobody is arguing America is a beacon of anything right now. But between America and China, one is an explicit and proud autocracy.

[recursive]

What's the difference between a court whose orders you can ignore and a court that doesn't exist? Sounds like a question for the philosophers.

[JumpCrisscross]

> What's the difference between a court whose orders you can ignore and a court that doesn't exist?

SCOTUS isn’t being ignored.

> Sounds like a question for the philosophers

And lawyers. It’s an interesting series of hypotheticals.

[paulryanrogers]

> SCOTUS isn’t being ignored.

SCOTUS rules 90%+ for Trump (lower courts are 90%+ against). They've given him freedom from investigation and criminal prosecution. They aren't much of a bulwark.