Miscellaneous News

_killuminati_ · Mar 6, 2024

TK3600 said:
I agree with your overall point. Just on the media influence thing, Israel should be one of strongest despite nobody watch their media. That is because western media are all owned by Jewish people sympathetic to Israel. No need for Israel itself to own it. They can even put Mossad asset into mainstream media like the other day.

Nobody watches Israeli media, not even the Israelis themselves because Israel doesn't have a solid national culture. It's people are from different parts of the world with very different cultures. It's music is mostly copied Arab-style.

The only underlying similarity among the Israelis is that they are Jewish (by religion), but it isn't cohesive since there are major religious divides on how to implement and practice; Mizrahi, Ashkenazi, Sephardi, and Ethiopian all have their own distinct interpretations (Ashkenazi' is adopted by the government). Also, most Israeli Jews are irreligious (the irony!!). And a major chunk of Israelis are Muslim.

_______________________

Israeli flag, among other things, is also stolen from Turkic Muslims. The 6-pointed star adopted by Jews living in Islamic lands which they call as the Star of David was originally used by Muslims with more than a thousand years of history whom called it the Seal of Solomon.

The Karamanids (1250 - 1487)

House of Candar (1291 - 1461)

Hayreddin Barbarossa (1478 - 1546)

Randomuser · Mar 7, 2024

Hard power is a basic foundation. Soft power is what you do after that foundation to get additional benefits.

Without a good foundation, the rest of it collapsed.

I would argue the Song dynasty had some of the highest soft power of all dynasties with incredible innovation. Yet it was a bitch to guys like Liao, Jin and the Mongols. That's what happens without enough hard power. Guys like that have boring nomadic like culture that gets old fast but you have to listen to them in the end coz they won.

Losing a war which is a fight of hard power is more humiliating than any soft power would let you recover from.

In4ser · Mar 7, 2024

Soft power can be used to win I mean the Chinese did sinacized the Mongols and Manchus over time. It's just often overlooked because hard power is strong, simple, and direct while soft power is slow, complicated, and indirect. They are like the strong and masculine Yang and the seductive and feminine Yin, in which both are important but having the Golden Mean is ideal. As David Axelrod's Game Theory competitions have proven playing nice and being likeable are winning strategies, so long as you aren't a pushover and retaliate against aggression.

I don't know Soft power can be pretty terrifying as a weapon. Look at what Korean and Japanese pop culture has done (intentionally or unintentionally) in spreading their Weeb/Hentai/Idol worship into the West. It has rotted away an entire generation of youth with men growing feminine and obsessed with 2d fantasies while women have their self-esteem destroyed with anxiety and depression from unrealistic expectations of beauty in Asian societies. It can often be a slow poison that's sinking them deeper and deeper into spiraling degeneracy as even the Romans complained about how the Greek's soft power made them soft.

MortyandRick · Mar 7, 2024

tamsen_ikard said:
US most certainly has access to Tiktok source code. But that doesn't mean they sold the technology to a US entity. That's a different issue completely. Chinese govt has banned any kind of sale of Tiktok technology, but not US government access to see if there are any backdoors.

Creating a seperate version for windows is no different from Douyin creating a seperate version called tiktok.

But Microsoft, or any US company would never move their headquarter to appease China or even say they are no longer American companies just to appease China.

They will never deny that US government has jurisdiction over them or they will not follow US law.

Tiktok is now being attacked just cause they are Chinese. No matter how much they say that tiktok is a completely US version of the product. So, now they are trying to survive by saying they are not even Chinese anymore. Yes, nobody believes them, but they are still trying. That is being sneaky and not being proud of your own heritage just to survive.

Anyways, I understand why they are doing it. Its just pure survival. But I don't respect them. I don't like this culture in China where companies keep moving HQ out of China or keep trying to IPO in US stock market just to make themselves less Chinese and thus more acceptable in the west.

Why China lacks soft power. This is why. Mihoyo tries to portray its product as almost like a Japanese product. Go to a Miniso store, and you would not find a single sign that its a Chinese company. They try to appear Japanese.

Even when China creates global phenomenons, they try to hide their chineseness. That is not good in my view.

No. This is not lack of soft power. It's lack of hard power.

If china had a gpd as large as the west, controlled all the current technology platforms, with the yuan being the reserve currency, had a mature financial sector with its stock markets being the highest valuation, had the most expensive military and had "colonies" around the world (the US calls them allies), you be your ass other "western" companies would also move their HQ to appease the Chinese government.

This is not a lack of soft power. This is an acute example of the need for more hard power.

FairAndUnbiased · Mar 7, 2024

In4ser said:
Soft power can be used to win I mean the Chinese did sinacized the Mongols and Manchus over time. It's just often overlooked because hard power is strong, simple, and direct while soft power is slow, complicated, and indirect. They are like the strong and masculine Yang and the seductive and feminine Yin, in which both are important but having the Golden Mean is ideal. As David Axelrod's Game Theory competitions have proven playing nice and being likeable are winning strategies, so long as you aren't a pushover and retaliate against aggression.

China did not sinicize the Mongols with soft power though.

China sinicized the Mongols by

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then

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so they had no choice but to be vassals. When the khans were sitting on the throne they imposed a caste system on Chinese and didn't change much at all, they didn't even want to learn Chinese more than necessary and

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MortyandRick · Mar 7, 2024

Petrolicious88 said:
Plenty of countries have a lot less hard power than China or America, but able to punch above their weight with soft power. How about the Vatican - that ability to influence a billion people - is that all hard power.

The Vatican? That's the example you come up with? Where do I even start? Let's see

1. It's barely considered a nation and many argue it doesn't meet the definition of nation under international law. It's a central administration for the Catholic church. It's not even a member state at the UN. The whole city is like a large admin building.

2. It's soft power is literally propped up by other nations who practice that religion, mainly Western nations so it's soft power is not really their own but rather given by other nations.

3. Even with western support, the sexual abuse scandal destroyed trust in the Catholic church and their so called soft power took a huge hit.

4. The Vatican has no hard power whatsoever. So of course they are gonna punch above their weight with soft power, that's all they have. Anything is higher than zero.

Petrolicious88 said:
Right. But I never discounted hard power.

Ahhh I see now. So when the US has a lack of soft power for its support of Israel, even within its own borders and among it's own citizens, your point of view is that they have hard power and no one can do anything about it, and that's real power!

But when china has a lack of soft power, you suddenly change your tone and smugly start asking the forum to explain why China sucks at soft power.

Why the double standards?

Chevalier · Mar 7, 2024

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why does the Anglo want war on China? Because Chinese debt outcompetes US debt. Why would any third party want to invest in US debt when Chinese debt is more attractive?

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bit by bit, China chips away at the credibility of the Anglo American world order. If the americans cannot guarantee they will allow free trade, why bother opening up your markets to them?

Oh and as for the Americans demanding the sale of TikTok? I hope an enterprising nation now demands the sale of Facebook, WhatsApp etc to local tech companies and it doesn’t have to be China, Vietnam and Indonesia could do it as well.

manqiangrexue · Mar 7, 2024

Petrolicious88 said:
The USA, the British, the Japanese...

So examples of one country that uses its hard power to create soft power followed by 2 countries that bend the knee to the one with the greatest hard power to be allowed to cultivate their soft power.

Petrolicious88 said:
Perhaps the better question is how can china better cultivate its soft power. The answer I seem to be hearing is nothing.

No, the answer I gave you is that China can only cultivate its soft power by becoming the dominant global hard power... the other way would be to roll over like Japan the the UK but that's not relevent to China.

Petrolicious88 said:
Precisely because it's over using its hard power

Perhaps it's because it's China's main rival with irreconcilable goals to both be the world's dominant power.

GZDRefugee said:
That's my point. Chinese soft power is at a stalemate even within its own borders. That is objectively terrible.

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This study conducted in 2023 states that public support has declined to 80%. Not to mention, the Chinese government and Chinese business are not one and the same, despite what the Americans claim.

If you calculate it that way, then American governments with their 38% approval rating have the weakest soft power of all within thier own borders.

In4ser said:
Soft power can be used to win I mean the Chinese did sinacized the Mongols and Manchus over time.

Population is hard power; they were absorbed and assimilated by the much larger Han population.

In4ser said:
It's just often overlooked because hard power is strong, simple, and direct while soft power is slow, complicated, and indirect.

Not to mention that it's completely dependent on hard power and cannot operate in a hostile environment in which supporting/friendly hard power does not control.

In4ser said:
They are like the strong and masculine Yang and the seductive and feminine Yin, in which both are important but having the Golden Mean is ideal.

That's what? Being a tranny? LOL

In4ser said:
As David Axelrod's Game Theory competitions have proven playing nice and being likeable are winning strategies, so long as you aren't a pushover and retaliate against aggression.

As a person, it may work, but nations don't do "likable." They do interests and benefits.

In4ser said:
I don't know Soft power can be pretty terrifying as a weapon. Look at what Korean and Japanese pop culture has done (intentionally or unintentionally) in spreading their Weeb/Hentai/Idol worship into the West. It has rotted away an entire generation of youth with men growing feminine and obsessed with 2d fantasies while women have their self-esteem destroyed with anxiety and depression from unrealistic expectations of beauty in Asian societies. It can often be a slow poison that's sinking them deeper and deeper into spiraling degeneracy as even the Romans complained about how the Greek's soft power made them soft.

They have to hit themselves first and the hardest before others may feel some side-effects. Kinda like nuking your own country hoping that some of the radiation poisoning will drift over to have some effect on your neighbors. That kind of weapon is only terrifying to yourself.

pmc · Mar 7, 2024

kentchang said:
The Arabs have been super rich for decades now but what soft influence do they have on the world stage other than gold-plated everything?

lol Arabs dont have soft influence?. Arabs Soft influence have played decisive role in ending Soviet Communism. Its Arab soft power that enable Israel and India to punch above there weight. Arabs have enormous Soft Power on this Ukraine conflict.
Russians have built a city that look like living in Gulf emirates and they are going to built more. Soft Power is not something that is always visible.

GZDRefugee · Mar 7, 2024

Bellum_Romanum said:
Serious question, dude, are you in your teens? What are you babbling about? Can any country survive the level of all spectrum attack with a budget of $500 MILLION U.S.D. tacked against you and come out looking rosy? Geez..I am sorry to say, but I interpret your crying as begging for WESTERN ACCEPTANCE AND TO SHOW THAT CHINESE ARE JUST AS COOL AS THEM SUICIDAL KOREANS AND JAPANESE.

Somehow you got the complete opposite message. I am disappointed that Mihoyo cast away its identity as a Chinese company to try and shed associated stigma. It makes them look like sellouts who would do anything for a buck.

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