It's really annoying how conservatives view resources as basically infinite and infinitely wastable but the fictional bullshit we use to account for it's so limited and precious and can never be wasted or squandered.
this post was submitted on 13 Apr 2025
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Turtle_and_the_Monkey
This fable has been on my mind today. A turtle and a monkey find a banana tree. The turtle says that they should plant the tree in the turtle's garden and they'll share the fruits. The selfish monkey thinks it can outsmart the turtle. They agree to cut the tree in half. The monkey takes the top half of the tree because fruits come from the top of a tree. The monkey plants the top half of the tree and the turtle plants the bottom half. Over time, the monkey's tree has wilted and the turtle's tree has grown back to be full and bearing fruits. In the end, the monkey steals bananas from the turtle and then the turtle kills the monkey as revenge.
The tariff war is kind of like cutting the banana tree in half. America thinks that they have the high ground because they think that value comes from money and America controls USD, but China has the better material circumstance because they have the manufacturing capabilities. China wants to share the fruits, but America is selfish. You can see where this going.
In the end, the monkey steals bananas from the turtle and then the turtle kills the monkey as revenge.
I've been consuming a lot of rednote content recently and this feels spot on for the proud/nationalist vibes on social media, not undeservedly so
There's this Terry Pratchett novel where there's a revolt against the unpopular ruler of a city. The army secures the palace, the banks and other posh neighbourhoods. The rebels - who are mostly working-class and have a better idea of what actually matters - take over the markets, the industrial areas, the city gates (through which food comes in and goods go out) and so on.
I wish I knew why Westerners think they need to destroy China
I mean, I know why, because they think this shit is a zero sum game of domination. But what do they think will happen when this is all over, even if they were correct (which they aren't).
what do they think will happen
China will become a copy of the US (i.e. no public infrastructure, rent seeking/enshittification as the main economy, shitty chain restaurants, Walmart, 20' tall pickup trucks/SUVs, etc.) and the Chinese people will worship white people as saviors. Whitey will get to go to China, take whatever he wants, abuse whoever he wants, and exploit anything he sees.
The main wish? Whitey's foreign policy problems will go away. No China means a return to USA being #1 with the military to back it up.
Walmart, 20' tall pickup trucks/SUVs, etc.
They already have these (well, they have Costco), at least. So the transition won't be rough in terms of treats.
America really saw the demise of it's greatest adversary, the USSR, and promptly forgot that happened and while things keep declining here decided it's China's fault suddenly and if they could only defeat them then we'll really be free this time f'real
For the rank and file at least, I think a lot of it comes from a lifetime of unexamined white supremacy. If China emerges as a legitimate opposing pole or worse surpasses the US, that means that maybe whitey isn't #1 at everything.
It's called propaganda
I'm pretty sure it's really just trying to cling to the idea of the US as the dominant global imperial power. Not in those terms, ofc, but that's what it is.
The way liberals play it kinda is zero sum, but I know what you mean
The true believers I’ve seen online are all 100% convinced that the reshoring of manufacturing will happen overnight. As if all the factories are sitting there, just waiting for the lights to turn back on, and that the institutional knowledge needed to run the factories is a given. They treat any questioning of the material barriers to reshoring as a lack of faith in the elbow greasing powers of the American entrepreneurial spirit.
I will say that these are predictions made almost entirely by people who do not work in manufacturing, or if they do work in manufacturing, they have very limited contact with Asia and over-value the overall quality of their production (even if they may have better quality standards in particular products). Anybody I know who actually has experience working with Asia and Asia manufacturing are incredibly pessimistic about the effects of this, because the main reason that things are 'still' in Asia is because there is no work force to sustain American production. It doesn't matter if you reshore it if there is no one to work it.
Oh yeah, it’s either people with no experience romanticizing the mid-20th century “golden” era or it’s boomers that retired from their legacy manufacturing job 15+ years ago and have completely outdated notions of what modern manufacturing is like.
Like the thing that's throwing me for a loop is that Trump still hasn't had to face any tangible consequences for anything, not the fucking with the stocks, not the blatant insider training, not the dismantlement of the administrative state. He's having the time of his corpulent little life over there and it turns out the president could do whatever the hell he wanted the whole time. I'm getting increasingly annoyed with all the people in the little pro-Trump alternate reality where it seems like everything is going exactly according to plan.
The sooner you understand that genuine Trump supporters are just in a cult the more it makes the sense
The thing that doesn't make sense and is blowing my mind a little is where it seems like reality is actually obeying their whims.
Their entire economy will just implode without our money
Lmao 3% of their GDP is attributable to the US.
What percentage of products in america is attributable to China though?
Lmao 3% of their GDP is attributable to the US
where is this number from, I see between 15 and 20% of Chinese exports go to the US, & US dollars are worth more than others. Like, China has actual competent people managing their economy and will weather whatever comes but this isn't going to be nothing
China's export of goods and services constituted nearly 19 percent of its GDP.
I see between 15 and 20% of Chinese exports go to the US,
0.19x0.15=0.0285
0.19x0.20=0.038
3% sounds about right
this isn't going to be nothing
this is true since so much of the rest of the economy is entwined without necessarily being direct US exports
It's the figure from SCMP but they only say "official Chinese data", presumably because they don't want to link to a Chinese language source in their English language paper.
they say "official chinese data" for the same reason others say "hamas run health agency": to activate the westoid "theyre lying!" neuron
They would simply say "official data" if that were not true
"official" is to indicate that the data is certified by some authority. So the question of which authority is relevant. You trust some more than others, even if you trust china more than, say, france, that is a relevant piece of information.
3% isn't nothing, but I am curious where the number is from
Their entire economy will just implode without our money.
They have their own currency you dumbfuck boomer-ass chud what the shit are you even talking about?
Tell your dad a sentient jelly bean called him a donut brain. A pastery with a giant ass hole in the middle.
I'd like to tell him a lot of things, unfortunately I am both a coward and dependent.
Owned by a 
My God, imagine taking Bill Maher serious. He's like if Keith Olbermann hit super Saiyan levels of being high on his own supply.
He actually, physically resembles 
he was probably the actual inspiration for that toon
Customer always wins because you know customer is king in the free market ... heh. We have all the money.
Customer is king, but corporations are Jacobins.
Damn, my dad's a lib but he knows Bill Maher is a scumfuck. Condolences.
I'm really curious how old your dad is -- but please don't answer if you shouldn't or if it might dox you.
He's gen X.
I've been meaning to look into lead poisoning and understanding it better 
but he is- definitely in that age range.
My sister is in that same 'generation' .. i'm not far behind I guess.. but its interesting to me because when she was in her teens and 20s she was super liberal and 'anarchy rules' and all that. But she kinda did the whole "when you grow up you'll become a conservative" thing.. not to the degree in which it happened with the boomers, but its definitely noticeable. I wonder if your dad did the same thing. I could probably see my sister thinking Maher is some sort of super liberal now.
I'm only a few years behind her but if anything I've gone further and further left as I get older. I was always "fuck the system" but for most of my life I didn't realize just how much the system needs to get fucked.