/lit/ - Literature

>>19057670
If the American lifestyle is unsustainable, then it seems like it's time to adjust to a different way of life. You could try to maintain the empire with more expansion and looting, but you might just end up getting your teeth kicked in. I think we'll probably have to get used to less frenetic consumption, either way. I think that's probably already happening with the pandemic when people suddenly realized they didn't need (or really want) as much stuff as they thought they did. One of my friends converted to Buddhism and it seems to be working out pretty well for him, and that makes me feel good.

>>19058763
Pretty much. I've seen some Chinese stuff talking about both "excessive criticism" and "immoderate praise" from the west. They exist in a unity of opposites. One says that China is just absolutely terrible and is gonna collapse in two weeks for sure this time. While the other side overly (or "immoderately") praises China and really boosts it up. China is gonna take over the world! Hooray! But uhh... that's probably not gonna happen. And even if the Chinese tried, they'd probably fail at it.

There are also some Chinese nationalists who are like this. And nationalism has been a global phenomenon lately. But I think the government prefers to "ride the bull" of this nationalist wave rather than "be the bull" because that's a bad idea. So the government is kinda slyly telling the nationalists to not fall for the "immoderate praise" because... it's actually a trap (wink wink) by the West and by America to get us to make mistakes! To overextend ourselves! And if we fall for this devious American trap, then China won't be great! Nationalists are pretty stupid if you think about it and this apparently seems to work well enough at getting them to obey.

https://youtu.be/WZ8xntJHPw0

enjoying a nice glass of warm milk rn.
books for this feel?