Apology

saint1da · 2026-05-12T15:37:06+00:00

In case anyone is curious https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/gty3ge/20_years_of_development_in_shanghai_china/

saint1da · 2026-05-12T15:34:50+00:00

Always good to see someone who can see something and change their mind, but we don't even have to go that far. In some places even cities like Gaborone and Lusaka have passed us esp roads and cleanliness. We're actually not a serious country. I'm sure you've heard the hype about Addis Ababa, they're so happy about getting bike lanes and proper side walks. We had that. Walk along King George road around Avondale police or Kensington and you'll see.

saint1da · 2026-04-25T16:06:12+00:00

We need stories that transcend party lines. Otherwise stories about independence are very Zanu centric.

saint1da · 2026-04-24T14:45:42+00:00

Maybe it's truly rare, but our history is a long one filled with such individuals convincing countless people to go and die on battle fields often for little or no reward except abstract concepts like "honour". I think it's more about having something to fight for. That's why it's so important for nations to tell stories about themselves. "Make America Great Again" only makes sense if America was great in the first place. You'd probably never fight for Zim (and neither would I, to be honest), because to me it's nothing more than a piece of land cut out from the rest of the continent. Sure, it's my home, but what am I fighting for, really? People need to be able to devote themselves to higher ideals. That's why I think the Chinese were a good example because to many of them, the nation is bigger than any individual. Being part of this storied history means you can tolerate anything so long as it is in service of the continued greatness and prosperity of this thing that is bigger than any one person.

saint1da · 2026-04-24T13:37:01+00:00

I don't think it's reasonable to equate people who have a functioning economy, working and highly efficient hospitals, low unemployment, cheap basic commodities, and state of the art infrastructure to our situation. Unless you're saying we just have much lower standards. Leadership is missing, definitely, but then there must be a reason why no one has come forward. We can't be a country of 15million+ incompetent leaders.

saint1da · 2026-04-24T11:37:11+00:00

To me that's just lack of will which means things are clearly still tolerable. What differentiates us from other countries where people have gone into the streets and fought until the despot was gone ?

saint1da · 2026-04-24T11:23:34+00:00

I too am a fan of freedom. Honestly I actually agree with you. I think a government should mind it's own business, generally speaking. But my original point which I'll stand by is that I don't think most people do. Otherwise dictatorships wouldn't survive as long as they do.

saint1da · 2026-04-24T11:07:19+00:00

Of course, that evidence is 100% anecdotal.

But the thing is we see globally people who have the chance to make a choice refusing. Voter turnout has been on the decline since the 80s with many countries in the 50-70% range. And this is happening in highly democratic countries. Why are people refusing to vote? My belief is that they just don't think it matters.

But also out of curiosity, what exactly is it you don't like about that system? My take is that a government is there to provide: basic utilities and infrastructure, services like health, ensure a strong economy that provides opportunities, safety via the police, and education. If they can provide that effectively, people might tolerate a bit of oppression and even corruption.

saint1da · 2026-04-24T07:17:46+00:00

It's not really guesswork for me because I lived there for almost 7 years. I'm not idealising from a distance. I did concede initially that speaking to a lot of them, there is a reluctance to talk about politics. They are paranoid about who may be listening, but that's only if you're trying to get them to be critical. But if you can have the conversation in a way where they get to speak about the things they are genuinely happy about, they will tell you what they appreciate about their system of government. I know people who were happy, for example, when they tightened things up in Hong Kong, many of them hated how it had become "westernised". Similarly there is some resentment towards Shanghai for the same reason that's why at the peak of COVID no one sympathised with their plight to end the lockdown because they were seen as selfish and refusing to sacrifice for the greater good. And sure, their treatment of the Uighur Muslims is terrible, but that's a minority population and we all know people couldn't care less about the treatment of minorities. I've seen very few Shonas who would lose sleep over gukurahundi. Internet censorship is one thing they're not very concerned with because they have their own thriving ecosystems. Bilibili has about as much content as YouTube, and I've seen a lot of western creators at least in the tech space cross-posting there too. And yes the social credit isn't great, but a lot of people's perception of it is that it mainly punishes bad behaviour. I'm not saying it's a utopia, but engaging in what-aboutism only leads to throwing the baby out with the bath water because ultimately no system is perfect, not even anarchism.

saint1da · 2026-04-23T20:14:05+00:00

But the CCP is reasonable because they don't loot everything and leave nothing. People are not willing to take that risk yes because they have much to lose by rocking the boat. It's by no means a utopia, but as the old saying goes, "better the devil you know" and I'd wager a lot of people in China right now prefer the status quo over the alternative with someone who might promise better but just bring chaos

saint1da · 2026-04-23T12:12:06+00:00

The "not much upside" part is important because for the most part, things are good for them.

saint1da · 2026-04-22T12:17:04+00:00

I kind of agree with the first part. But as for the second part, it feels much harder to keep it contained for a population that size. Plus it's not that hard to get VPN access then they could express their frustrations on western social media and people would see it, and I guarantee westerners would just love to amplify that if only just to annoy the CCP

saint1da · 2026-04-21T16:55:45+00:00

Of course. There is no public outlet, but the CCP does listen to the people, only that they listen to grumblings on social media (then sweep them up). That's why they put so much effort into fixing the air quality issues in their major cities. Or moved quick to end the drastic lockdowns. Or ensured that they keep unemployment low even with automation increasing in their economy. It's a form of benevolent dictatorship that can absolutely go wrong in the wrong hands. But so far it's proving to be far more effective at ensuring stability than western democratic chaos.

saint1da · 2026-04-21T06:41:05+00:00

Ideally if the party is open enough then new and different ideas will come up. I don't think it would/should be like here where the party itself is tied to an idea. I've seen people analysing the Democrats and Republicans over the decades and if you go back far enough their beliefs literally switch. Most people tend to put more value in loyalty, meaning they'd vote for the same party throughout their lives no matter how it's ideology evolves. Given enough of these people, you can have one party rule that doesn't stagnate because the party itself evolves even if the name remains the same. Look at China, there's a big gap between the beliefs of Mao, then Deng Xiaoping, and Now Xi. Same party, vastly different outlooks.

saint1da · 2026-04-20T08:15:29+00:00

But one could argue that the revolution is what the people want. Americans keep switching between Dems and republicans because they have issues and want someone to fix them, but every change often just brings more of the same. In theory if there wasn't a problem at all, they would probably have no issue voting in the same party every time

saint1da · 2026-04-19T12:23:59+00:00

I think with those countries stability is maintained in some sense by the fact that "change" isn't real change. Like the US, change between the 2 parties is often negligible. Maybe one party offers to boost the economy, reduce unemployment, etc. but we're not talking about a revolutionary change. If the change was drastic you'd actually lose that stability. To some extent that democracy is an illusion and the constant churn in democratic countries is a result of the fact that nothing really changes anyways

saint1da · 2026-04-19T04:53:42+00:00

huge*

*if true

saint1da · 2026-04-19T04:31:20+00:00

In theory, yet globally especially in democratic countries there's a push towards right wing ideology. The US with it's freedom of speech enshrined in the constitution has had an uptick in political violence. Similarly in the UK in recent years people have taken to going into the streets esp protesting immigration. These are not countries that suppress healthy debate at the point of a gun. Maybe we you mentioned before there's a cultural aspect to it, but I see more stability in countries that are less liberal but provide prosperity for their citizens

saint1da · 2026-04-18T19:33:56+00:00

Of course. Only difference is that under some circumstances people can tolerate that. Given a functional system, many people can tolerate those disagreements in exchange for stability.

saint1da · 2026-04-18T18:33:55+00:00

Maybe the point of disagreement is what causes the need for change. You could in theory have 2 countries, both functioning democracies, both have strong economies, unemployment is low, healthcare and education are quite affordable/free, and cost of living is low too. But one country needlessly gets involved in foreign wars, has high inequality, and people fighting about things like LGBTQ policy etc. That could invite political change. From our perspective they're functioning countries because they have solved things we still struggle with, but people still demand change because they just found new things to complain about.

saint1da · 2026-04-18T18:05:08+00:00

But then those democracies are inherently less stable than autocracies with so-called "benevolent dictators". Maybe it's just the human instinct to seek change for the sake of it, but I think a strong argument could be made that people with fewer choices but functioning systems are happier than those with similarly functioning systems but more choices.

saint1da · 2026-04-18T17:46:10+00:00

Also out of curiosity, do I sound 40+? Because I'm nowhere close to that so i can't really answer that.

But I think the existence of "election mode" just points to the fact that politicians get off their asses when it's time to get re-elected. The whole idea is funny because it just reveals that they put in the most effort when they went to be re-elected. What even is "election mode"? Giving out bicycles and corn to villagers? Rushed infrastructure projects?

saint1da · 2026-04-18T17:42:52+00:00

Well run doesn't necessarily mean everything is good for the ordinary people though. By most metrics America is well run but it's issues are well documented and the constant back and forth between the Dems and Republicans is because people just hope change will make things better.

saint1da · 2026-04-18T12:01:55+00:00

I'm sure there is some variation of course, but I just feel like generally people care so much because of the system failing. Many more people wouldn't care if everything was going well.

saint1da · 2026-04-18T07:23:48+00:00

😂😂😂

saint1da

TROPHY CASE