So this is what you do? Make laughably ignorant posts and then smear people who call you out?
That must be how it works, I can’t imagine how such stupidity can take root unless it’s because you’re accustomed to being completely free from criticism.
Just because China has a very shitty government doesn’t make Taiwan the good guys alright. They are both extremely shitty governments, one of which was heavily subsidized.
If you think this guy is a China shill, you haven't followed his posts. He doesn't have a whole lot of respect for the CCP and he's really a detached observer. He's a valuable KF poster about this stuff. And apparently he's well known from SA and SASS, so... Some of the stuff I've heard him say contradicts some other expats in China but a lot of it matches, and of course even in America you'd get two very different perspectives made in good faith. Hangly is a good faith poster with a lot of interesting things to say.
I'm sorry I hurt your feelings Hangly. You were just being an apologist, not a shill.
Taiwan might not be the good guys, but they still lifted similar people out of similar circumstances without communism. In my opinion, all of the Asian Tigers refute arguments that the brilliance of Chinese governance should be credited with that accomplishment.
I agree that China would probably be a better place today if the nationalists had won the civil war and China didn't have to endure decades of Mao's incompetent rulership, but at least from Deng onwards China has been on pretty much the same trajectory. Mainland China today is closer to Chiang's political vision than modern Taiwan is.
This is just a really bad attempt at armchair anthropology. Christianity didn't invent the concept of human dignity, good grief. In fact the adoption of Christianity in the 4th century Roman Empire was a significant step away from classical notions of liberty, the Christian Byzantines were culturally a lot closer to Imperial China than they were to ancient Athens or Rome. The vast majority of Christian societies throughout history were feudal and extremely hierarchical. The modern west's valuing of individual rights stems from the Enlightenment and the thinking of political theorists like John Locke and Adam Smith, there's nothing inherently Christian about any of it, and it only took off within Protestant societies (which is reformist by its nature). Even today Catholic and Orthodox societies are still very collectivistic.
The Romans were hardly champions of human dignity. Most of their population were slaves, they debased themselves in drunken orgies, and their main sport was watching people fight, often to the death. Their republic, while it lasted, was largely a sham, a rule by a small cadre of elite families.
Christianity took root among Romans because it did posit equal dignity in all human life. Women were elevated in that Christian men could no longer kick their wives to the curb in divorce when they were tired of them, guaranteeing women much more economic security and dignity. Paupers were judged as princes in the eyes of god. It had and still has massive appeal, and it swept the roman empire like wildfire, to the point where even feeding Christian's to the lions by the hundreds couldn't stem the tide.
Worth mentioning that re ancient Greece and dignity, platonic influences, including the idea of the Logos, were an influential component in the development of early Christian philosophy. It could probably be argued that Christianity in many ways is an outgrowth of Grecian ideas. For example, in the saintly tradition, Saint Catherine of Alexandria purportedly debated and persuaded the empires greatest scholars that Jesus was the manifestation of the Logos before she was martyred.
Anyway that's not to say that Europe didn't fall into more primitive political systems when the empire collapsed. It's not to say Christianity hasn't been hijacked and used by leaders for all kinds of selfish and nefarious ends, and is still, at times. But Christianity introduced a new standard, concepts of sin and repentance, a degree of accountability that applied even to kings. The enlightenment was a ripening of Christian philosophy, and the thinkers you mention, like the other enlightenment luminaries, had god on the mind.
I dont think you are giving Christianity credit for the pivotal role it has played in the development of Western philosophy and culture that it deserves.
Anyway, that's my armchair anthropology / theology. Actually, right now its porcelain throne anthropology. Are you a licensed anthropologist or something? Should I be shitting on a different kind of chair?
