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Comment by rdiddly | Hacker News Reader

Sighhh... apparently they can't just report on a story from China without peppering it with statements about the US -- specifically about how this is a new salvo in some kind of healthcare war with the US. Sometimes stuff just happens when people do things. They're probably not pushing to advance healthcare just to fuck with the US.

Some made-up headlines from world history written from this incredibly narcissistic viewpoint:

Pharaoh to Build Great Pyramid, Challenging Structure-Building Dominance of Future Country "America"

Scientist Marie Curie Discovers "Radioactivity" in Effort to Humiliate USA

In Rare Reversal, Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" Better Than Similar American Art Works

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Not to say that they're by any means perfect, but I think what you've pointed out might help explain why many Americans i grew up around see the Chinese government as some sinister and inscrutable entity that is out to silently crush everyone. Also, you don't need to make up fake examples when you can look up anything in the past year about how they're making big strides towards reversing their smog problems and how that's somehow an attack on American industry. Even trump has made these claims ( https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/uDFmIDPzCo4znxgzKlT0_jgv4C... )

Younger me was a news junkie. Iran hostage crisis, USSR was gonna nuke us, Japan was going to buy us, etc. Of course, I believed it all. Over time, I noticed shit just didn’t add up. And no one did a mea culpa.

So I just stopped listening.

I figure all ad supported news media is ghouls profiting from human misery, stoking fear and anxiety to keep people numb, allowing the real outrages to happen unnoticed. (eg Project Censored)

I hope China continues to do well. Ditto everyone. We all do better when we all do better.

That sounds a little bit like survivor bias to me. Nothing bad happened to the US, but in other countries shit went down in the last century, stuff that if you were not informed and aware about, might lead you to... for example go to school in the morning and realise you can't go back home since you're on the other side of a new border.

Been chewing on your reply.

Plenty bad happened in North America. Project Censored is a good starting place, if you want to raise your blood pressure.

I still seek news. Mostly from HN, Democracy Now, Vox, misc. It’s just that now I consciously block any source that I feel is more noise than signal.

Noam Chomsky pointed out that, for the last century, US has been the most secure country, but its people are the most insecure.

Yeah I see what you're talking about, though I would add that there's a whole sub culture in the news about pointing out bad takes from among the fourth estate. It all seems to depend on where you "hang out" so to speak.

An outgrowth of American exceptionalism.

This deserves a.. LOL

thanks for making your point with humor, it’s underused on hn. i agree with the sentiment too

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