this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2024
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[–] Saigonauticon@voltage.vn 22 points 9 months ago (2 children)

One thing you can personally do is try to cultivate friendships on both sides, and make an effort to share and appreciate the culture, history, and daily challenges of each. If we have populations that really don't want to fight, maybe that will help de-escalate things a bit.

China is my neighbor now (I immigrated to Asia). Some of their literature and history is really quite interesting! I'm not an expert, but I could make a suggestion or two if you like.

[–] bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 7 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I agree. I'm Canadian and recently started dating a Chinese woman and learning about eachother's cultures and languages has been a really interesting process.

[–] Saigonauticon@voltage.vn 2 points 9 months ago

Yeah I've ended up with some sort of syncretic mixed culture. It's quite good. You get to pick and choose what works best in your situation from both cultures. There are a lot of people from Asia who have done this, but not many from the West -- I think mostly because not many people immigrate from the West to Asia. I've managed to really push my business forward drawing on ideas from both cultures.

I've already started packing up and exporting concepts back to family in the West. The way Asian families handle family-level economics and real estate inheritance is something that I think early adopters would benefit from in the current ridiculous housing situation in many parts of Canada. Meanwhile, the Western tolerance of lawyers in family matters gives me a big edge here -- avoiding the family feuds that so much is lost to. Just the first two random examples that come to mind :)

[–] frightful_hobgoblin@lemmy.ml 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

This guy's dick is doing its part for world peace

[–] red_pigeon@lemm.ee 1 points 9 months ago

Tshirt quote:

My dick made a difference in me

[–] frightful_hobgoblin@lemmy.ml 5 points 9 months ago (3 children)

What Chinese literature do you enjoy?

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 9 points 9 months ago

Three Body Problem is a recent popular Chinese sci-fi series with a good translation that I can recommend.

[–] kurcatovium@lemm.ee 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] xilliah@beehaw.org 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

Why sarcasm? It's a good read and it occasionally comes to mind.

[–] kurcatovium@lemm.ee 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I've read it too (a long time ago, in a galaxy far... ehm, you know what I mean). I remember it was pretty good and interesting read. This sarcasm is more like a joke - when OP asks why superpowers can't get along, just recommend book about warfare and getting upper hand on your enemy.

[–] xilliah@beehaw.org 2 points 9 months ago

Ahh it flew over my head thanks.

[–] teawrecks@sopuli.xyz 1 points 9 months ago

"Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer" is often misattributed to Sun Tzu, but it's still a good joke in context lol.

[–] Saigonauticon@voltage.vn 5 points 9 months ago

I enjoyed Romance of the Three Kingdoms quite a bit. It was legitimately entertaining! I would recommend an abridged translation.

I've studied some Analects / Dialects / Neoconfucianism in school, Tao Te Ching, and Art of War. Those had some useful ideas in them, but were not exactly a laugh a minute (although Tao Te Ching has some funny bits). Those last two are very short texts as well.

Still on my list: Bandits of the Marsh, Journey to the West, and one other I can't remember the title of right now.

[–] Zahille7@lemmy.world 10 points 9 months ago (2 children)
[–] weeahnn@lemmy.world 32 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Why of course the US and Bhutan.

[–] AdamEatsAss@lemmy.world 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

As a USA citizen I spit out my drink when I read this. Had no idea what Bhutan even was. It's now on my list of places to visit.

[–] frightful_hobgoblin@lemmy.ml 5 points 9 months ago

They don't have visitor visas

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 0 points 9 months ago (8 children)

Bhutan might have to move over. Yemen's getting the upper hand over the US the past few weeks. :)

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[–] all-knight-party@kbin.run 10 points 9 months ago

America and Communism obviously 😎

[–] dzaffaires@sh.itjust.works 7 points 9 months ago (1 children)

A recent video by Veritasium tries to answer this exact question : https://youtu.be/mScpHTIi-kM?si=ubCMDqPrrlqYBQI8

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[–] davel@lemmy.ml 7 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I suspect this question assumes that all β€œsuperpowers” are the same, namely that they’re all capitalist imperialist states.

[–] CanadaPlus@futurology.today 6 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

They know the answer already, and are probably both trying it.

In US terminology, since that's the language I know, they try for "competition" rather than "conflict". The difference being whether they respect each other's sovereignty for the most part while trying to bury the other, and don't take straight-up military actions.

To achieve this, you provide a long series of "offramps" - opportunities to pause and de-escalate - on the path between peace and MAD, and ensure there is no benefit to either party to do any specific escalation. Mistakes will happen, both deliberate and accidental, but they're very unlikely to all happen at the same time, so even if things get tense there's offramps left, and game-theoretically they will take one because nobody wants a full-scale nuclear conflict.

[–] Omega_Haxors@lemmy.ml 6 points 9 months ago

Superpower wars are expensive and extremely unrewarding. Neither wants them. Sometimes they may talk the talk but when it comes to dedicating the next 10 or 20 years to a constant resource drain with no chance of recovering any of that, they'll find any excuse to get out of it.

[–] knfrmity@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 9 months ago (13 children)

What two superpowers?

I'll assume we're talking about the USA and China here.

It may sound reductive, but a peaceful coexistence between liberalism (aka capitalism / other ideologies where private property rights are enshrined) and communism (in this case used as a blanket term for ideologies which are against the concept of private ownership of the means of production) is not stable and will inevitably collapse.

All that needs to happen to avoid a war is for the US capitalist class to keep their grubby greedy hands to themselves. They can't do that though, for capital must grow. They must find more raw materials, more human labour, and more consumers to maintain their profits. They are incapable of cultivating good relations with anyone, let alone anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist entities, because every relationship they enter into is an economic one in which they want to be the exploiters, the winners, extracting obscene wealth from the losers.

The rest of the world is moving in a positive peaceful direction, but I'm concerned about what the capitalist empire will do as it becomes more and more desperate. It's already done some of the most horrific things in human history while in a position of unchallenged or nearly unchallenged hegemony. I can't imagine what it will try when it realizes it's about to lose everything.

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[–] Flyberius@hexbear.net 4 points 9 months ago

Just wait until the US stops being a superpower. It's inevitable.

[–] montar@lemmy.ml 3 points 9 months ago

Only by ceasing to exist.

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