• booty [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    62·
    6 days ago

    I’d be more hyped if I had any prospects of getting to live there. I’m gonna be stuck here in the collapsing empire while the cool guys are doing communism across the sea sicko-wistful

  • came_apart_at_Kmart [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    28·
    6 days ago

    I was in a situation where I was all set up to learn basic/introductory mandarin in person in a classroom setting for no cost but my time, and covid hit and wrecked everything.

    that opportunity is gone now, but if I can every orchestrate something like that again, I am going for it.

    I’ve tried conversational audio lessons on my own, and have done that for basic skills in a few other languages… but the tonal thing with mandarin throws me and I can hear myself as being way off. baby needs in person instruction!

    • Inui [comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
      2·
      5 days ago

      I know AI isnt very popular around here and for good reason, but this is one of the legitimate uses I think. Just like anything else, stuff like ChatGPT will hallucinate if you ask it direct questions, but its actually pretty helpful if you say something like “I’m going to speak to you in Mandarin Chinese, repeat back to me what I said in English and output my text in Simplified Chinese characters”. I’ve used the new conversation feature of the mobile app to help me drill sentences and practice tones, along with stuff like Hello Chinese that has speech recognition for its lessons too.

  • Tomorrow_Farewell [any, they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    26·
    6 days ago

    Moderately hyped, given that the PRC is definitely better than NATO by orders of magnitude.

    I would be much more hyped if the PRC abolished private property.

    However, I think that the celebrations over the disintegration of the empire are premature for many reasons.

  • SexMachineStalin [comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    18·
    6 days ago

    Please Xi, can I have honourary Chinese citizenship so I can become a train conductor for CRH?

    I told Drew Pavlou on Twitter that me and his mother had sweaty, animalistic, National Geographic-levels of sex while Comrade Hao’s rendition of Without the Communist Party there would be no China was playing on the surround sound

    • CloutAtlas [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      39·
      6 days ago

      I mean I’m Chinese and I live in China and it’s pretty chill rn. More like “hundred years of technological advancement, affordable housing and food, indoor smoking and space exploration hooray”

      Like you can’t fathom how little people care about such pressing issues in day to day life. Public spaces are public for the people to walk and loiter, old ladies will get together and form dance troupes on the side of the road, abundant housing and the public transport to access them.

      Its pretty good.

      • CleverOleg [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
        13·
        6 days ago

        This is another point in favor of “yes China is actually socialist right now” to me. Honestly one of the things that drew me to socialism early on was precisely what you are describing: a dream of a society where concerns for the essentials in life are minimal, people have spaces (and time) to socialize, and overall you just have a more socially healthy society. Would love to have this in the US but it’s pretty great that the largest country in the world (and ascendant) has it.

        • FailedAtAdulting [she/her, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
          12·
          6 days ago

          I mean, Temu, Shein, and gacha games suck, there’s no doubt about that. Could China be doing a lot more to reign them in? Absolutely. But I’d argue that even if we’re just focusing on companies making a profit, a Chinese century IS better than the current state of affairs.

          For one, as crappy as those companies are, they’re not a monopoly and aren’t likely to become monopolies anytime soon because China has an anti-monopoly law.

          Secondly, Elon Musk has threatened to coup Bolivia (and “whoever we want! Deal with it!”) over lithium, and while he is just one example, many western companies have couped or otherwise coerced/destabilised other countries to protect their profitability, and they’re continuing to get away with it scot-free. Coca Cola’s death squads in Colombia is another example that comes to mind. None of China’s companies, as far as I know, have couped or coerced/destablised a country for business interests. I’d say that alone makes for a more peaceful 100 years.

          Thirdly, as @SmokinStalin@hexbear.net mentioned, Chinese billionaires have been executed for doing things that go against the public good, whereas billionaires get total impunity in the west, regardless of how much their actions harm the general population. The billionaire class is also accountable to the government, rather than the government being influenced by wealthy donors like we have in much of the west (and other neoliberal countries).

          Of course, China can always do better. But I’d be hard-pressed to find how things can get worse (or even make no improvement) under a Chinese century compared to a continuation of what we currently have.