I didn't ignore it. I actually mentioned it. Kinda like how I mentioned that it was the isolationism and deemphasis on trade and science during the Ming (an abandonment of Mercantilism) that lead to China falling behind the rest of the world, and thus being bullied by European powers during the Qing.

I've already gone over this and provided examples of how turning away from Marcantilism and free trade has always ****ed China over historically.

Fun fact: The vast majority of the steel that Mao famously forced farmers to make in lieu of planting crops ended up being too flawed for actual use. The Mao years may seem like a productive time on the surface level, but pretty much every "accomplishment" of his was actually a massive failure with a PR propaganda spin.

Communist China had a fraction of the relative power and influence it had during the Qin, Han, Tang, etc., and was already modernizing during the pre-Communist Republic years. If anything, most historians agree that Mao actually slowed progress down through his constant blunders and massive wasting of resources.

But hey, maybe the books I read in college were biased. It happens. If you have any books with dissenting opinions that you think might change my mind, I'd be happy to check them out. I love learning more about Chinese history.

Why not? The Republic loyalists that fled to Taiwan turned it into an economic powerhouse with a high quality of life that was only eventually eclipsed by the mainland due to its tiny size and population. In the end, I think Sun Yat Sen's ideas and legacy were more pivotal in modernizing China, even if the Republic he led technically didn't survive. To this day, even the die hard Marxists have tremendous respect for him and his influence, maybe even more so than Mao.

I'm learning. Keep arguing.

Curious if elph will come anywhere close to admitting he doesn't really know what he's talking about.

For 2000 years, at least, there was no hope for around 90% of the population whose lives were slavery start to finish. Beneath current African subsistence farming by far. Kingdoms came and went and wars were won and lost but the basic fact of life was that the vast majority was owned through all kinds of crazy debts and rents in an inescapable generational endless cycle of horrible economic oppression until the Red Guards exploded a destroyed the whole ****ing ****hole except for what Mao could preserve for himself. The Great Leap Forward was a disgusting cluster**** but it reorganized things that opened the gate for one of the most nihilistic hate **** civil rights movements the world has ever known. And they were inspired by Mao for whatever ****ing reason.

China’s still a ****ing mess but there is social mobility and growing middle class. It had to go down hard and nasty to break that kind of entrenched oppression. ****ing centuries of chains they had to remove. That **** wasn’t going to just happen. The power structure had to be decimated. The Red Guard were bad ass as ****. I wish we had those kinds of balls. Tear this **** house the **** down.

CIVIL WAR II BITCHES

Quality of life and social mobility were increasing during the modernization of the Republic period, a growth that was ultimately slowed down by the Communist regime, as evinced by the tremendous success of Taiwan (led by the surviving Republic loyalists). And historical records have shown the correlation between Mercantilist periods (Han, Tang, etc.) and their connection to a growing middle class of merchants, artisans, and skilled laborers.

So please stop with the boring broad strokes about China being a nation of slaves. Virtually every large country has had the same social progression. For example, India, a nation that imo has had an even darker social history than China.

Japan went through the same caste system bull**** and got two ****ing atomic bombs dropped on them, and yet after surviving WWII, after American advisors injected Capitalist steroids into their balls, they busted out as an economic and technological world power that utterly kicked the **** of China in every way, esp. quality of life. They were high fiving robots and **** while 99% of China was wondering if the human body could subsist on dirt.

:laughing:

.

serfs peasants whatever

people who toiled for others until they dropped dead on the job

Pointing to Hong Kong and Taiwan and saying see is the obvious rebuttal

I explain that by saying that America was the only industrial power that wasn’t decimated in WWII so America had the whole world by the economic balls. So yeah, little bitch butt-buddy countries like Taiwan took off. If Japan hadn’t gotten on our radar by bombing Pearl Harbor they’d just be another Bangladesh. But as we fall they fall because the endless expansionism of capitalism is a dead end simply because the world is finite. China’s going up and we’re going down. China also has some potential to mold a sustainable model and enjoys the advantage of not being a democracy.

Tbh, China is more Capitalist than the U.S. Has been ever since the years following Mao, when they realized they needed to get their **** together if they wanted to play with the big boys. An explosion of commerce with very little government regulation. All the gov gives a **** about is getting their cut, and making political rivals disappear, environment be damned. Only very recently have they shown any real interest in conservation, and they're still notorious for just bulldozing forests and old ruins for the giggles.

China is America on crack right now. It's just one big Florida.

Basically, the very thing you claim to despise. Goof probably jerks off to their economic model every morning.

So would you say they should change the name of the Florida state to Little China?

Only if there's big trouble in it.

This is how you fix big trouble.

http://gifimage.net/wp-content/uploa...hina-gif-3.gif

#Reflexes

Yeah I think that’s true.

Remember that exhibit China showed off a few years ago, where they posed a bunch of skinned human bodies that were donated to science? And then people started noticing bullet holes in the back of their heads, and the gov was like "lol, oops, they were actually political dissenters."

And the world was like "Oh, China," and just sort of shrugged.

Or the story about the last tenant in a falling apart building a company wanted to doze fighting a one man war against their demolition crew and hired thugs, while the gov sat back and laughed?

It's nuts. Pretty sure China Man and Florida Man are drinking buddies by now.

They're using giant lasers (DEWs) to burn down California to destroy the morale of those fighting to legalize pot accross the country because if we legalize pot it will boost our self esteem and help us realize how much power we truly have over the elite.

Seems stupid and futile to me because my morale is still intact and if they really wanted to retain power they'd patent common chemicals found in marijuana like Monsanto to take full control of the market rather than waste money burning down Cali with giant lasers.

They are using DEW's for reasons other than what you stated.

- Since Trump wants to de-fund California for harboring illegal immigrants, they are purposely creating disasters to get federal funding.

- They are testing out new weapons systems.

- They are doing it to clear land so that the governments and private corporations can steal it from private citizens.

- They are doing it so that they can utilize protected waterways/sources and convert them to government use rather than public use.

Also, the U.S. doesn't want to legalize cannabis because the CIA is one of the biggest importers and distributors of it, so it would put a dent in their profits. Same reason they don't want to open the borders. But like you said, they are patenting GMO cannabis to take control of the legal market.

And they're telling us that there's always a natural 'fire season' in Cali and that the fires are feeding off of the co2 emissions that are being released into our atmosphere to explain away what is really caused by giant lasers while simultaneously pushing this global warming hoax that the elite want us to believe, except the elites that make money off of fossil fuels, they don't want us to believe it so now there is a civil war in the elite over which elite will have more control.

And overgrown forests. Climate change is very much a secondary element of this fire season because it creates conditions that led to some of the fires, but it's not the leading cause.

Have you seen the pics of the so-called "forest fires" where houses and cars are lasered in half and the trees are untouched?

Have you ever seen the aftermath of a fire?

In pictures and on TV. Never experienced one up close [thank Jeebus]. But a naturally occurring[or man made] forest fire is vastly different than one created with DEW from a plane. Real forest fires aren't selective. They burn whatever is in their path [some things more so than others, based on what they are made of]. They don't laser perfect holes in cars and houses, leaving the surroundings untouched.

So you've never seen the aftermath of a fire and therefore you don't know how common it is for things to randomly be saved from the fire's path. They don't incinerate every bit of matter in their path (that actually sounds more like a laser to me than anything), they take on burn patterns based on what's fueling them and how the winds are affecting them. Real forest fires are chaotic and unpredictable.

Actually, Directed Energy Weapons are not chaotic and unpredictable, hence the term "DIRECTED."

You're saying that in the event of a forest fire, it is more common for people to let their cars and homes burn in order to save the trees from harm? That makes no sense.

Ja, that's exactly what I said.

What we're seeing here is consistent with a fire and your theory is garbage.

Nah I'm pretty sure that California libbys want forest fires to go out of control because, well, librals r evil.

You actually said the exact opposite.

Meaning that DEW's are direct in their burning patterns [which cements what I said earlier], as you went on to say:

The fires that we have seen have not been chaotic or unpredictable whatsoever.

Partially burned land, home, cars, trees, etc. is evidence of the chaos of forest fires, since you appear to think that forest fires burn everything within the radius they occupy. Hope that clears things up.

Partially burned is one thing. A perfect circle cutting through them, while leaving the rest of the structure untouched, is another

1. That's not inherently evidence against a forest fire, especially when all of the other evidence apart from your PERFECT CIRCLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! seems to point to a forest fire. What you could describe could very well come down to debris being blown in the wind.
2. Photos from a reliable source, thanks.

Why is forest fires in quotes?

I was intimating that they were not naturally occurring forest fires.

Frown, there is nothing that I can say or show you that will convince you. I could walk in your house soaking wet holding an umbrella and you would argue with me that it's not raining outside.

Most of the damning images and videos are not found on sites that you, specifically, would deem reliable. What would it benefit the mainstream media to show such images when it would hurt the lies and false narratives that they are spewing?

1. So that's a no on reliable sources, then.
2. To further your analogy to reflect this scenario, I can also see sunshine pouring in through the windows and have seen the rain several times before whereas you've only seen it on newscasts.

Doesn't have to be mainstream to be reliable, just well-sourced.

Do you do your reporting based on how it will affect the lies and false narratives that you're spewing? As they say, the thief thinks that everyone steals.

This isn't a good point to attach to your views though since like only 15% of forest fires are started naturally(Lightning strikes). The rest are cause by humans either directly or indirectly but not in the crazy ways you're suggesting.

Look man. I'm not trying to jump on the train but why does everything have to be a conspiracy with you?

For the ego boost of "I toda so."

Maybe.My friend does this too. Although not as passionate and "informed" as our bud Merit. He's always the first one to offer another theory on something even when it's pretty cut and dry what happened. I think it's an urge to be different than others. My friend is a great musician and a decent artist. He's always trying to be unique and throw out a perspective that he can really only call his own. That and an overwhelming urge to be correct all the time. It's almost like an inferiority complex.

If you have to constantly stand up and shout "I'm special", well, how special are you?

Ngl, the urge to be right is a big part of what leads me to embrace journalistic and scientific standards in being a skeptic. But it's also because I don't trust anyone, not even myself. Especially not myself.

Fair nuf

If you wanna blame forest fires on anything blame it on fire suppression. These forests are biologically "designed" to burn as part of their lifecycle. Preventing them from burning to protect the surrounding real estate from smoke and minor fire damage has lead to insane fires due to massive understory growth providing literal tons of flammable material.

I can try and find some of the work and calculations I did in college regarding the topic (as related to the NJ Pine Barrens) if you're interested. It has the second highest risk for catastrophic fire in the country behind Cali.