this post was submitted on 15 Feb 2025
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I'd be careful with overgeneralizing that. Even though Latin American cultures also push for individualism to some extent, we do have tight-nit communities regardless because of the unified cultures that we have.
I’ve been to China plenty of times, I promise the car culture is alive and well.
We had nice things before.
Got a not potato copy? Or context?
Extent of railway development from 1860 through 1870 to 1890
the story of streetcars in the US is similarly depressing; in the 1900s most large cities had trolly systems.
the automobile companies fixed that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_conspiracy
Gah, America as an empire is past its prime. Look what we had!!!
I've been to China as part of a company visit. They took us everywhere by car. Even what I would consider walking distance.
I did not see mass transit once.
Shenzen.
Yeah, I don't doubt it exists and probably is well used by the people living there. Just wanted to address the part of the comment saying "China would never allow for a “car culture” in the firsr place" because there sure was a car culture. It felt like an American city.
I'm also aware that Shenzen is different from the rest of China, and, well, that the rest of China is different from the other rest of China.
"China has good railways because China bad" is one hell of a bad take.
China isn't an autocracy any more than the US is, getting to vote which party gets to erode your rights and enact genocide on your behalf isn't democracy
Xi Jinping's third term is literally autocracy. President Cheeto would kill for that much power.
America as fucked up as we, are can bash our president and resist his power grabs as much as our oligarchy allows.
In China, you can't even post a whinnie the pooh cartoon because making an autocratic dictator look bad can't fly.
China doesn't have rapid shifts in infrastructure because China bad, it's because China has an autocratic dictatorship which allows for massive investment of resources without argument.
The US has massive investment of resources without argument too when it comes to the military industrial complex or to rescuing banks that have committed fraud, or to genocide Palestinians. The fact that it doesn't do so with basic infrastructure is because the oligarchs in the US don't want that, not because of a lack of oligarchs in power. They make it theatrical in congress, but look at the defense budged and the speed with which they approve multi-billion expenses that go into bombing kids in the middle east, suddenly the American democracy works expediently.
People talk about it and complain. there was and is debate on all those topics. You have lost in all the topics you are talking about, but it was fair and square.
A democracy would be voting for a party promising not to erode your rights and getting your rights not eroded. That's not what you get in the ol' US of A, anywhere in the west for that master