One-party autocracy certainly has its drawbacks....

[dead0man]

...But when it is led by a reasonably enlightened group of people, as China is today, it can also have great advantages.  WTF link

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They also understand you need to jail and/or kill anybody that disagrees with you.  They also understand that curbing pollution isn't a necessity. 

Now lets see who comes in to defend this asshat or the PRC.

[Franzl]

And if he had written the same thing in China against their government, he'd be in jail now.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

What enlightened stewards of the environment the Chinese are!  Just don't ask them about carbon emissions standards, okay?

[dead0man]

Yeah but if they cared about such things they could FORCE it upon you...that's what this guy wants.  He wants a group of "smarts" telling the rest of us what to do about the things the "smarts" find important.  I believe this method of govt has been tried before with amazingly disturbing results.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Now lets see who comes in to defend this asshat or the PRC.

You might want to at least wait until someone does do this before you get all self-righteous and accusatory.

[RIP Robert H Bork]

And if he had written the same thing in China against their government, he'd be in jail now.

^^^^

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I wouldn't call any group of people that forbids dissent "enlightened".

[opebo]

Well, the fact that it isn't necessary to forbid dissent in the US is rather telling don't you think?

[Jake]

There are some truths inherent in his argument, but for the Chinese model to actually be more effective than democracy the benefits of power must be divorced from the reins of power and those in power must actually be enlightened. This idea that democracy is the be-all and end-all isn't actually true.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

There are some truths inherent in his argument, but for the Chinese model to actually be more effective than democracy the benefits of power must be divorced from the reins of power and those in power must actually be enlightened. This idea that democracy is the be-all and end-all isn't actually true.

It also requires a placid and controllable population - or at least a strong sense of social conformism. The tea parties, though they represent a minority, show the opposite to be the case.

[Beet]

There are some truths inherent in his argument, but for the Chinese model to actually be more effective than democracy the benefits of power must be divorced from the reins of power and those in power must actually be enlightened. This idea that democracy is the be-all and end-all isn't actually true.

It also requires a placid and controllable population - or at least a strong sense of social conformism. The tea parties, though they represent a minority, show the opposite to be the case.

Or it's the "model" that creates a placid and controllable population, rather than the other way around.

Friedman is confusing the hyper-polarization of contemporary American politics with some inherent flaw in 'one-party democracy'. Certainly not true. Extreme polarization is bad for any society, no matter what its form of government. This is the guy who was proclaiming that 'the world is flat' and apologizing for the Washington consensus a few years ago, so there's no reason to think he's anything other than a weather vane.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

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No; not really - well, maybe by 3rd generation or so in certain circumstances.

[opebo]

The tea parties, though they represent a minority, show the opposite to be the case.

What now?  Empty headed thugs who militantly support the policies implemented by our ruling class are somehow evidence of 'dissent'?

[Torie]

The single thing I love most about the US is its First Amendment, and the courts' robust interpretation of the scope of same. It is what makes us special really.  The day that ends is the day the very heart and soul of what it means to be an American dies with it. May that never happen, ever, for generations yet unborn, much less during my lifetime. It it happens in my lifetime, I may have to be incarcerated because I won't stand for it.

[Ban my account ffs!]

When I went to Asia with the university choir in 2005 we sang in Beijing... the people at Beijing University were concerned that our songs were too religious... so the choir director just told them they were "American folk songs"... and they bought it.

I also made the mistake of asking a Chinese guy about the protests in 1989.  You should've seen the look on his face.  He got kind of close and muttered "Just look around and you'll find what you're looking for"... because we were standing at Tiananmen Square... with the hundreds of pilgrim Chinese waiting to see the tomb of Mao.  It was all kind of sad, really.

[Beet]

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No; not really - well, maybe by 3rd generation or so in certain circumstances.

I'm not sure what you mean. No population in the world can be in a state of revolt for long against the power of military means. This is the first thing every 6 year old learns about 'politics.'

[Tetro Kornbluth]

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No; not really - well, maybe by 3rd generation or so in certain circumstances.

I'm not sure what you mean. No population in the world can be in a state of revolt for long against the power of military means. This is the first thing every 6 year old learns about 'politics.'

Umm.. Crossed wires I think. (Besides it's wrong for all cases - but 99% of the time true for modern societies).

What I was getting at is that people don't necessarily fit into the social model set down upon them by the powers that be even if it is in their own (economic or security) interests to do so - people exist independent of the state or of business. To take an example I know well (but you probably don't) the fact that a tiny miniscule of Irish Catholics converted to Anglicanism in the 18th Century despite that by doing so one gained much greater political, social and economic rights is an example of this. Politics fundamentally has to deal with the culture of its inhabitants - politics changing the inhabitants' culture is much, much harder and imprecise (as Communism shows). In China there is a long tradition of imperial authority after all, something which clearly does not exist in the United States.

[opebo]

The single thing I love most about the US is its First Amendment, and the courts' robust interpretation of the scope of same. It is what makes us special really.  The day that ends is the day the very heart and soul of what it means to be an American dies with it. May that never happen, ever, for generations yet unborn, much less during my lifetime. It it happens in my lifetime, I may have to be incarcerated because I won't stand for it.

Is it not curious though that despite this supposed legal 'freedom', we never hear anything other than a standard center-right to right-wing line on any major media?

The only reason people can 'say what they want' is that it doesn't matter.

[Ban my account ffs!]

The single thing I love most about the US is its First Amendment, and the courts' robust interpretation of the scope of same. It is what makes us special really.  The day that ends is the day the very heart and soul of what it means to be an American dies with it. May that never happen, ever, for generations yet unborn, much less during my lifetime. It it happens in my lifetime, I may have to be incarcerated because I won't stand for it.

Is it not curious though that despite this supposed legal 'freedom', we never hear anything other than a standard center-right to right-wing line on any major media?

The only reason people can 'say what they want' is that it doesn't matter.

Keep in mind you have to look at which parts of the country get their news mostly from major media sources.

Minnesotans watch pretty much the least amount of TV of any state in the country and are more likely to get our news from newspapers, internet, or radio than elsewhere.  (I'll have to see if I can find the study for a cite).

So, you want your news to appeal to your target crowd while still "appearing" to be objective... if your audience is mostly conservatives, even objective will seem liberal.