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Comment by cultofmetatron | Hacker News Reader

> There are plenty of disastrous decisions in the last 70 years at the level of major policies.

one thing I've come to respect about the Chinese is that while they make huge decisions that sometimes have disastrous consequences, they don't make the same mistakes twice.

At this point they have fed information from their environmental impacts into reforesting entire mountains and improving air quality.

They went in on Evs. not just subsidies but recognizing that you need an entire supply chain. so while americans bitch constantly about the failing power grid and how we can't switch to evs cuz it would be disastrous, the chinese built renewable energy projects and a massive DC transmission line accross the entire country. This is also a big part of why they can provide AI services for way less than america can.

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> into reforesting entire mountains

I noticed that PR campaign on reddit to. Hope they planted the right trees (not like Eucalyptus in California, American pines in Sweden that weren't ideal). Meanwhile European and US tree cover is expanding naturally, we just don't really hype it. For example:

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/italys-forests-larger-than-a...

China is also all in on on building out new coal power plants.

https://apnews.com/article/china-coal-solar-climate-carbon-e...

"they don't make the same mistakes twice."

But they do. Even if we limit ourselves to post-1949 China.

Once Mao died, the Party decided to never allow a single leader to arise again, and switched to an oligarchic model. But Xi was able to break that system and once again you have a sort of cult of personality with One Dear Leader at the top, although we have to admit that Xi is a lot saner than Mao ever was.

But the negatives are once again rearing their head, worship of a single person, personal loyalty triumphing over competence, and the Chinese economic machine, subject to whims of a single person, seems to be slowing down.

> worship of a single person, personal loyalty triumphing over competence, and the Chinese economic machine, subject to whims of a single person, seems to be slowing down.

The whole world is swinging in that direction. its not like the US is any better in that respect in our current political climate.

I would say that is swing as already over and the US was a late comer to the trend. Of the ur-strongmen of the democratic world, Orbán just got the boot and Erdogan's genuine popularity peak is also long over, although he might be able to hold on power by simply hijacking the state and jailing his opponents. And there are quite obvious marks of Trump fatigue on the non-MAGA American right as well.

The one genuinely popular populist leader who seems to be holding is Modi in India.

The difference is that in the US there is plenty of criticism or, and open opposition to, the leader, or to any leader. You have courts that will restrain the government (as with the recent ruling on birthright citizenship).

I suspect Trump would like to be worshipped, but he is not being very successful at getting it outside a small group.

> once again you have a sort of cult of personality with One Dear Leader at the top

Sounds hell of a lot like USA right now.

Technically, it would be kachní ocásek, not kachnuv.

Yeah, the US has been flirting with similar approaches quite heavily, but I don't believe that Trump will get 15 or more years in power out of it like Xi managed to.

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