Understanding America’s China Problem

[@simonnilsson5356]

Loving the upload frequency. This has gone from a top 15 pod of mine to top 3 over the last three months.

[@Efficienado]

Curious what your other top 3 are?

[@alchemist_one]

Econ 102 is great. I subscribe to 7 econ podcasts and the only one I like as much as this one is Tyler Cowen's.

[@Efficienado]

@simonnilsson5356 I figured you also liked dwarkesh and cowen lol! Ill check out the others thanks!

[@Reftsquabble]

social media has made people's understanding of the world much shallower

[@JoeSaw-86]

It always surprises me how people struggle to understand non-economic interests of other nations when domestic politics is so willing to sacrifice economic benefits in return for ideological and/or cultural wins. 48:25 Labenz implies the only reason China has a significant interest in Taiwan is for the chips. But I doubt this is even the main reason, as chips were available from Taiwan before the US export controls and China was still significantly motivated to bring Taiwan under it's thumb. The main thing he seems to miss is that different regimes have genuinely different interests which can be ideological and culturally driven, not just economically. His biggest hangup just seems to be that he can't see how the world would change if someone else was at the top, because they would be under the same economic pressures. This ignores how much of those economic pressures, and how much of the global economic system, is contingent on the cultural and ideological convictions of those with power over the economic system.

[@eden5260]

China has very close to zero interest in "bring back" Taiwan because of chips It's entirely about culture and history. Just like they could have left HK to rule itself for many more decades with no issue and even a big economic benefit.

[@csjonswanson]

Really smart and competent people in one area like investing/coding/economics/etc., overestimate their competency and knowledge in every other area of life.

[@alchemist_one]

I've lived in Taiwan for most of the years since 2002 and China has been talking about the importance of unifying with Taiwan for all of them. Every time I've heard Nathan Labenz talking about China, it's been both surprisingly ignorant and surprisingly smug. Honestly, it lowered my opinion of Turpentine as a whole when I heard some of his discussions on Cognitive Revolution. When I hear someone so confidently ignorant about something I understand well, how can I trust anything else he says? Or even the selection process of hosts?

[@SLF-o2w]

@@alchemist_one The history of China’s century of humiliation from the eight nations scramble, Japanese war of aggression, and the civil war between Chiang and Mao is not understood here. You do not have Mao or Xi right.

[@niponapichonkit6791]

Nathan, I think you need more information before making comments on China, especially about Taiwan issue. It's a province of Chaina.

[@redskins973]

Why was this video deleted and re-uploaded?

[@igolfer]

This Noah Smith guy is either ludicrous or ignorant. My comments were deleted because he couldn’t handle the truth.

[@alanpentz692]

Is this guy for real?

[@wunwong9251]

It's good to see different view points, but boy is Nathan F'ing wrong about just about everything.

[@SLF-o2w]

My immigrant working-class fluent English-speaking father always said “It all boils down to economics!” Check out Ben Norton’s Geopolitical Economics Report podcast with Ha-Joon Chang Kicking Away the Ladder and Bad Samaritan, etc. Also you do not have Mao right and the political economy between Western imperialism (Dulles brothers) and Vijay Prashad Red Star Over the Third World. Sarah Payne is wrong. Anti-communism and anti-socialism misunderstands the post-colonialist resistance rising now. Your Chinese political history is all wrong.

[@danwelterweight4137]

China and the US are similar. Wrong. They are totally different. The two countries basically have two different civilizations. Americans value individualism. China value the good of the collective. American value are values are based in the philosophers of the Enlightenment. Chinese values are based in Confucianiam. American values are based in free market capitalism and what is best for greedy corporations Chinese are based on communism, and the well being of the people. Americans are warlike and Imperialist. Chinese are introverted, don't like war and like peace, stability and oder. US is only 250 years old. China is 5000 years old of recorded history. Americans fight wars and invade other countries all the time. China hasn't fought a single war its entire 5000 years of recorded history and no war for over 46 years. And thst war only lasted 1 month. Americans are arrogant, boastful, ignorant, conceited. Chinese are humble, reserved, wise, think of things in the long term.

[@simonnilsson5356]

This similarity view is a Gerard/Thiel pipeline. I think both your argument and theirs hold.

[@kirks386]

More like Understanding China's America Problem

[@alexc6926]

What’s wrong with this guest? He’s a dogmatic appeaser

[@aaryantiwary3505]

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