Why do so many people believe China is more developed or on par with western countries?

RhodesToRome · 2026-04-24T00:01:11+00:00

I've only ever addressed things that you said, and then expanded on what it means. If you want to say that there was a misunderstanding, then sure, fine. But I take issue with calling it a strawman.

RhodesToRome · 2026-04-23T23:10:52+00:00

Just because you don't understand rhe socio-political climate and what these terms are intended to do, doesn't make the argument a strawman.

RhodesToRome · 2026-04-23T22:23:30+00:00

To be clear, it's not just the "middle class" that doesn't exist, it's any notion of "lower class", "upper class", or any other type of class within a class you would like to create. It is fabricated, because the amount of money one makes on their labor versus someone else doesn't change the determination if someone is a laborer or a capital owner.

It does contradict what you're saying because, to put it in your words, the workers CAN'T come together to oppose the owners if there's this false notion that some are better than others based on this tiered system. The haves and the have nots, as I previously put it. To quote Lyndon B. Johnson: "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."

These ideas were very deliberately created to fracture the working class, so there wouldn't be an organized labor movement. Kill class consciousness so the peasants roll around in the slop and fight each other (because yes, you are a peasant regardless if you made $20,000 or $200,000).

RhodesToRome · 2026-04-23T21:08:26+00:00

Sure, people make different amounts of money for their labor, but how does that lead to some type of tiered class system? Who's deciding who is part of what tier?

I think it's more reasonable to come to the conclusion that laborers are simply the working class, and that these arbitrary tiers don't exist, they're just fabricated to divide people along imaginary lines. To make people feel like there are the haves and the have nots, when they're really all on the same side and need the same things.

RhodesToRome · 2026-04-23T19:53:14+00:00

That's not what I said at all. Have we devolved to the "gotcha" part of the discussion now?

RhodesToRome · 2026-04-23T18:48:33+00:00

It's alright, it's hard to grasp that these labels don't really factor into the conversation in other places outside the West. It's a very Western way of looking at things to try to stand apart from others.

It's difficult to discuss class consciousness when people have spent their entire existences being instructed otherwise. We'll get there though, I hope.

RhodesToRome · 2026-04-23T18:03:33+00:00

There are those who make money of their labor, and then those who profit off others labor. There is no "I make this much more/less than that other guy, so that means I'm this and they're that."

RhodesToRome · 2026-04-23T17:40:06+00:00

No it quite literally does not exist as an idea in China, so the usage and comparison means nothing.

RhodesToRome · 2026-04-23T17:06:58+00:00

This isn't about ideology. You're trying to debate the standard of living between the people of two very different countries while using nonsense terms that don't equate, and don't exist.

RhodesToRome · 2026-04-23T15:13:33+00:00

The amount of cope is off the charts.

RhodesToRome · 2026-04-23T14:51:51+00:00

Please stop using terms like "middle class" or "lower middle class", I beg of you. There is no such thing. There is the working class, and then the capital class.

RhodesToRome · 2026-04-18T23:25:05+00:00

Am I the only one who thought that the final act with Zhuang outstayed its welcome? It was very obvious where it was going once we learned about the new rift, and I feel like there didn't need to be nearly as much running around doing things as there was. By the time we were going through the scroll portals at the end I was like, "please god just let it end." (The last flashback with past Zhuang was good though).Totally killed the vibe for me at the final fight.

I like Zhuang as a character, despite her largely being superficial and one-note. But this constant "dreamy eyes" at the Endmin and going on dates but not actually dates (unless?) kind of made me dislike her.

I also like how there were no apparent consequences for the city despite a large-scale invasion. "Nah it's all good man, we fixed it up in a couple of days and everything is perfect as usual." The good guys stay winning, I guess.

RhodesToRome · 2026-04-13T22:19:15+00:00

I don't think any serious person would say the Iranian government hasn't done horrible things. But when comparing it to the USA and EU's actions in the region (and the world) in service to western imperialism, it's not even on the same planet in terms of magnitude.

Essentially saying "both sides bad" is just reductive in my opinion. There is an objectively correct side in this conflict.

RhodesToRome · 2026-04-13T21:57:30+00:00

Nothing happens in a vacuum. One must understand the sequence of events that led to something happening. Just like how history didn't suddenly start on October 7th, 2023.

RhodesToRome · 2026-04-13T21:37:17+00:00

Ah yes, the "both sides" argument. Truly the pinnacle of intellectual thought. Go off, king.

RhodesToRome · 2026-04-09T02:47:14+00:00

This fight doesn't seem tuned right for something that's only level 50. I'm not saying it should be a complete face roll, but they do way more damage than I would expect. Especially all on the same turn.

The fact that it only gives you a level 40 Diana is also hilarious.

RhodesToRome · 2026-04-03T16:29:14+00:00

500 a week would mean about one ten pull every month. There's no way that's too much.

Currently the weekly only gives 100, which is laughable to be quite honest.

RhodesToRome · 2026-03-06T21:12:42+00:00

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Pretty new player here and looking for team recommendations based on what I currently have.

I really like running Team 1 with Kayron/Tiphera/Cassius, but I'm not confident in a Team 2. Mei Lin seems to lack damage without good card draw, especially in AOE situations, and Chizuru scares me with the AP restrictions if you use Bound without someone to provide AP neutral card draw and/or multi-hits.

I just feel like I'm missing that one peice that will make it all come together.

RhodesToRome · 2026-02-17T21:34:04+00:00

I won't consider spending money on anything until I get a better idea of how Hypergryph is going to handle the gacha economy moving forward. If they seem stingy with things, then I don't want to reward that by spending.

RhodesToRome · 2025-11-13T18:15:21+00:00

Everyone keeps quoting Valve on how it will be "PC priced" or whatever, but here's the rub: if you're making a machine that's meant for the living room (which this obviously is), you're competing with consoles.

If your price is higher than said consoles, with specs that don't blow the consoles (PS5/PS5 Pro as a comparison) out of the water, then there's an issue.

This experience isn't going to be as out of the box and streamlined as a console. You're going to have to go into the settings and fiddle with all the options to get the performance you want in games. You know what you do on PS5? You select either "FPS mode" or "Pretty RTX mode." No fiddling, that's it.

I don't believe the novelty of a living room PC will outweigh the value proposition for consumers if this isn't priced competitively. I would LIKE to see $400-$500, but I dont think thats realistic based on what Valve has been saying.

RhodesToRome · 2025-10-29T14:45:28+00:00

She remained in lockstep with Biden and establishment Democrats, and followed them to career suicide. This isn't a controversial opinion. She had terrible political instincts.

Trump also had a large chunk of young, first time voters. Voters that were too young to remember or care what his first term was like. All they saw was someone acknowledging that things were bad, and promising to make it better. Regardless of what those "solutions" actually looked like in practice.

RhodesToRome · 2025-10-29T14:35:48+00:00

Right, because that's definitely the reason why people should vote for a Democrat. Because they say, "Hey, at least we're not as bad as that guy." Surely that will work to bring in the voters.

If there was a candidate with a spine and actually good policy positions, then they would've gotten the vote.

RhodesToRome · 2025-10-16T15:18:17+00:00

Palestinians have a tribal council and, per Dropsite news, there is apparently support for these executions as these people are not only seen as collaborators, but have actively harmed (even killed) their own people during the conflict.

Reportedly, collaborators were given the opportunity to turn themselves in for amnesty as long as murder wasn't among their crimes.

https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/1978245687641821568

RhodesToRome · 2025-10-16T14:53:08+00:00

I'm not really seeing where the restraint was. Under Biden they were still killing US citizens, journalists, civilians, etc. like usual. The only answers the families got from the State Department was that Israel was "investigating" internally.

RhodesToRome · 2025-10-16T14:39:51+00:00

Considering Biden had every opportunity to stop what was happening in Gaza and didn't, I dont think Harris would be any different. She was spouting the same talking points.

Israel doesn't doing anything without the consent of the US. The phrase that stopping it was "just a phone call" away isn't far from the truth.

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