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The marketing pitch of Western "democracy" has always been that you can criticise your government freely and the government won't jail you or murder you.

Also, consumer goods.

The voting and multiple-branches-checks-and-balances elements are sidelines.

Currently none of those promises are true in the US. The government is murdering and jailing people for whimsical and self-indulgent reasons, the consumer economy is about to crash, and the only checks-and-balances are the checks going straight to the Emperor's private accounts.

To be fair, there's some judicial pushback, and some political friction.

But Senate and Congress are wholly captured, the opposition is flaccid and foreign-funded, media independence is a myth, and the last time The People had any real influence on policy was the 70s. Possibly.

I have no idea if China is "better". From a distance China seems to be doing much better at building useful things and making long term plans.

But ruling cliques always seem to end up being run by psychopaths, so my expectations for humanity from China's rulers aren't any higher than those for the US.

by NoGravitas1 hours ago|

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Despite being formally less democratic, the Chinese government is in practice more responsive to its constituency than the US government. I have to think that class character of the parties is the determining factor. The CPC is, despite everything, still a proletarian party. In the US, the two parties are both directed by the interests of the haute bourgeoisie, with the Republicans pulling votes from the petit bourgeoisie, and the Democrats pulling votes from the professional-managerial class.

by spaceman_20201 hours ago|

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I mean the American people who will cry about humans rights records in China will also watch masked government agents shoot down their own citizens just because they're suspected to be illegal immigrants

It would be hilarious if it wasn't so sad