The foolish temptation to feel superior \ stacker news ~AskSN

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1666 sats \ 15 comments \ @SimpleStacker 15h AskSN

I was walking in Tokyo airport and saw a restaurant advertising "Japanese Dipping Noodles" in English, and I caught myself sneering, thinking to myself, "This is for tourists who don't know what tsukemen is."

How foolish. It's literally the Japanese people providing a more descriptive name for their dish for the benefit of their guests. Who am I to judge?

I also thought about how, as a fan of Panda Express, I get annoyed when people sneer at it calling it "fake Chinese food". As a Chinese person, I like it. Why should a non-Chinese person get to sneer at what they deem good or bad Chinese food?

What tempts you to a foolish sense of superiority?

Tsukemen

Panda Express

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113 sats \ 4 replies \ @Undisciplined 15h

My Chinese friends all loved Panda Express

136 sats \ 2 replies \ @kepford 14h

I imagine that is common. Panda Express is pretty good. One thing I heard many years ago is the American Chinese food is actually based on 50s era Chinese food. But has evolved to suit American taste. That it doesn't have much in common with modern Chinese food in China. Not sure this is true but it makes sense.

I imagine China like most countries have region cooking styles as well as evolutions in cooking. This is true in the US and Mexico.

164 sats \ 1 reply \ @Undisciplined 14h

I don't know much about how Chinese food has changed since the 50's, other than it being available, but the regional differences are very stark.

Northern and southern cuisines have almost nothing in common, similar to how northern and southern European foods are entirely different.

69 sats \ 0 replies \ @itsrealfake 9h

other than it being available

that, my fellow stackers, is what's known as "dark humor"

feel free to zap your appreciations

69 sats \ 0 replies \ @SimpleStacker OP 15h

My officemate and I lived off that stuff in grad school

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Angie 11s

Alguien escribió una ves, " y no sabes mariposa que sólo eres un gusano con alas" , no recuerdo el resto pero cuando veo personas que se creen superior a otros, me los imagino como gusano algo que una ves se arrastró colgo y para colmo sin cerebro porque lo mismo se posa en una flor que en la caca 😂

0 sats \ 8 replies \ @Solomonsatoshi 8h

USA thought it was inherently superior to China but now USA cannot fight a war of any substance without Chinese supply of Rare Earths.

0 sats \ 7 replies \ @CliffBadger 7h

It's not that the US is superior to China. It's that capitalism is superior to statism. And the PRC didn't prove capitalism wrong.

0 sats \ 6 replies \ @Solomonsatoshi 7h

Your response and its complete lack of reasoned argument and total reliance upon baseless assertion demonstrates very well the arrogance and sense of superiority that has made the USA vulnerable.

If 'free market' capitalism is always superior then how is it that the Chinese government invested in rare earths supply chains and refining capacity resulting in China holding the USA over a barrel with the USA UNABLE to fight any war of any substance for the next decade at least and the USA now desperately investing Billions of dollars to try to subsidize rare earths supply chains to restore some independent supply of this strategically crucial material?

How does that not provide a very strong example of where state planning and strategic investment can be an extremely power method of gaining economic and military advantage?

In fact now the USA is resorting to precisely direct government investment (market intervention) in rare earths supply chains because the free market failed to provide them and will not provide them without government subsidies.

You are ignoring the reality that 'free market' mechanisms FAILED to build and maintain rare earths supply chains and this has given China, as a result of its mixed economy model a huge advantage over the USA.

0 sats \ 5 replies \ @CliffBadger 4h

If your goal is to manufacture as many weapons as possible, then yes, maybe you need a state to harness the level of violence necessary to force your "investments" on an unwilling populace.

But the communists still haven't defeated China so your insistence (and the state's) on the usefulness of rare earth minerals is purely speculative.

0 sats \ 4 replies \ @Solomonsatoshi 4h

Irrational nonsense that does not in any credible way refute what I have said.

It is the USA that has used military force and the threat of it to build and support its exceptional privilege based upon the global dominance of the petrodollar.

Chinas mixed economy today cannot be called Communist in the true sense- it is a mixed economy based upon the combined use of free market competition and state lead strategic development and capital allocation.

So your 'response' is pure garbled unintelligible nonsense that fails to address the facts and issues raised and fails even to understand the nature of the issues raised.

Are you working for the CCP in order to obfuscate and distract from their mercantile plan to gain global hegemony?

'insistence on the usefulness of rare earth minerals is purely speculative.' Nonsense - any cursory study of the matter will reveal that to be absolute and complete bullshit. Nearly all high tech military applications require rare earths to manufacture .

0 sats \ 3 replies \ @CliffBadger 3h

It is the USA that has used military force and the threat of it to build and support its exceptional privilege based upon the global dominance of the petrodollar.

This is a cargo cult mentality. You're looking at the external trappings of wealth. The US did not get rich by having a large military. It got rich first, then it bought a large military. And US dollar dominance is a market choice that is unenforceable by military intervention. No one is forced to buy the dollar or US debt. They might be forced to accept it as a payment method, but actively buying and holding it is a personal decision.

it is a mixed economy based upon the combined use of free market competition and state lead strategic development and capital allocation.

There's no such thing as "mixed." Either the state or the market is in control of capital allocation. It's a win-lose competition. They have completely different interests. You just call it mixed to pay lip service to the idea that the market has some kind of input when it doesn't. The state does not care about the market's preferences, or it wouldn't be meddling in economic decisions in the first place.

Nearly all high tech military applications require rare earths to manufacture

It's your subjective preference to count helicopters instead of bitcoins.

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @Solomonsatoshi 3h

Study the history of the USA- no other nation has in modern times infiltrated, assassinated and other-thrown more governments and killed more people than the USA- all in the name of US wealth, power and hegemony.

There is absolutely such a thing as a mixed economy- study economics and learn. It is for example where China directs capital to the mining and refining of rare earths which are in turn used by multiple Chinese companies to make all manner of modern high tech products from drones to EVs, PVs, electric motors, generators, rockets, robots and many many more military industrial products all giving China real and significant strategic and economic advantage over the 'free market' west where they do not have an assured supply of rare earths and now cannot fight a war of any size for at least ten years.

China won the trade war using the mixed economy model and now looks like gaining global hegemony because the crony capitalist west forgot the huge importance of strategic investment in supply chains, skills and infrastructure- something a mixed economy can do very well.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @CliffBadger 3h

no other nation has in modern times infiltrated, assasinated and other-thrown more governments and killed more people that=n the USA- all in the name of US wealth power and hegemony.

And you think it worked? You think the US got rich by invading Iraq?

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