John Hayward Profile picture
26 Jan, 13 tweets, 3 min read
Xi Jinping's speech at Davos boiled down to: The world has no choice but to do business with China, and if you want to do business with China, you need to stop criticizing our tyranny and questioning our lies about the coronavirus.

breitbart.com/national-secur…
Xi's address to the World Economic Forum will serve as well as any other moment for historians to mark the beginning of the Authoritarian Era. He said nothing new, but he restated the narratives and demands of Chinese fascism from a post-pandemic position of aggressive strength.
For the first time, Xi spoke to a world that is beginning to accept the tenets of authoritarianism, thanks to the incredible political and economic damage from China's coronavirus. China's ideals have become as viral as Covid-19.
Thanks to the pandemic, the political elites of the world now universally see their citizens as dangerous mobs that must be tightly controlled for their own good. Most of them always thought that way, but now they can say it openly and act aggressively on their prejudices.
Xi clearly stated that China will not be contained, censured, or judged for its actions. He denounced Western ideals of human rights as "arrogance" and imperialism. After Covid and Biden's inauguration, he sees no nation with the strength or will to thwart China's ambitions.
But the more sinister undercurrent of Xi's speech was that Western nations are foolish to cling to their antiquated notions of human rights, including capitalism and political freedom. Chinese fascism is the logical alternative. The pandemic "proved" it.
Xi was asserting - not unreasonably - that fascism is the key to aggressively promoting national interests while thriving in the age of so-called "globalism." Only a fascist government can get away with spouting globalist cant while acting as ruthless nationalists.
In one passage of his speech, Xi - the absolute dictator-for-life of the world's most dangerous and aggressive power - denounced "bullying"... and then he filled the airspace around Taiwan with nuclear-capable bombers. It's breathtakingly shameless.
The point Xi made is that he, a fascist dictator, can burble garbage about climate change to globalist elites at their "world economic forum" while littering the Third World with dirty coal plants. He can threaten to attack his neighbors while cooing about "multilateralism."
But "free" nations can't do those things. Their governments get torn to shreds by domestic political opponents, activists, and politicized media both at home and abroad if they try - in other words, the obstacles authoritarian leaders don't have to worry about.
Xi's Davos address was a victory lap for authoritarianism as the heavyweight champion ideology of the globalist era, and he was speaking to an appreciative audience. After Covid, authoritarianism is THE hot product on the social, political, and economic marketplaces.
And now that he speaks from a position of unchallenged strength, Xi wants to force the world to compromise its principles by accepting Chinese oppression. There may be a few theatrical grumbles, but no more tariffs or sanctions. No more disagreements in PRINCIPLE.
What remaining nation or leader has both the strength and confidence to argue with the principles of Chinese fascism? If you're banning free speech, nationalizing your economy, and criminalizing political dissent, you're already walking Xi's path. He's just further ahead. /end

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More from @Doc_0

25 Jan
For most of my lifetime, people on the Left focused on the perils of Big Business while ignoring, or actively embracing, the menace of Big Government. A great deal of the Right did the reverse. Both Bigs are perilous, especially when they fuse into a combined threat to liberty.
The growth of both government and corporate titans was inevitable, especially after a century of industrial and technological revolutions. Technology makes it possible to have larger endeavors, both public and private. Economies of scale bring enormous benefits.
Industrial advancements meant government had to get bigger to handle even its most basic responsibilities, like national defense. The World Wars erased the model of a tiny central government handling a few key elements of defense. Every war became a clash of industrial titans.
Read 14 tweets
20 Jan
The worldwide movement toward "limited authoritarianism," already well under way but dramatically accelerated by the coronavirus, is driven by the elite consensus that ordinary people cannot be trusted with so much freedom.
"Limited authoritarianism" is the best phrase for what the elite have in mind. They have decided that a growing list of topics are simply off the table. Consensus has been reached, and no further input from voters will be permitted on those topics.
This is a natural consequence of the progressive ideology, which is inherently authoritarian, although it peddles itself in the early stage with lots of jibber-jabber freedom and liberty. Progressives by definition believe that the growth of the State can never be reversed.
Read 21 tweets
19 Jan
Why, of COURSE you have freedom of speech! You're just not allowed to say anything the Ministry of Truth has determined to be false.

By the way, the Ministry of Truth has determined that claiming your freedom of speech has been violated is a dangerous falsehood.
Well, of COURSE you're allowed to vote. We love democracy! Anything that makes it harder to vote is a crime against democracy!

You're just not allowed to vote on things the Ministry of Science has determined are too complex for you to understand. The list grows steadily longer.
Of COURSE we want you to prosper! We want to raise the minimum wage. We're brimming with smart pro-business policies!

Be advised that the Ministry of Virtue will decide when your ambitions have curdled into greed and you must be punished with confiscatory taxation.
Read 6 tweets
18 Jan
These details are often cited by those who challenge the election results - how could the cellar-dwelling candidate nobody gave a damn about possibly collect the most votes in history? But I warned all through the election not to underestimate the size of the Weary Biden vote.
All through the campaign, Trump supporters predicted a huge "Shy Trump" vote would turn out on Election Day and confound the pollsters. And they did! But as I feared, it turned into a heavyweight bout between the Shy Trump and Weary Biden votes.
Leaving aside the ongoing debates about ballot irregularities in some states, there was clearly a large pool of Biden voters who didn't care much about him, or even about politics overall. They were just tired of Trump drama, exhausted and demoralized from the pandemic.
Read 11 tweets
15 Jan
Time once again to emphasize the differences between totalitarianism, authoritarianism, and fascism. They're often used as synonyms but they are different, although they do tend to lead to each other. Order one, and the other two are usually delivered soon enough.
Totalitarianism is best understood as the politicization of everything. Every facet of life is infused with political meaning... and subjected to political control. There is little room for privacy or individualism. Every word and deed is seen as a political action.
Totalitarianism does *not* require authoritarian government, although it usually leads to such. You can be totalitarian without having any real government power at all, enforcing your political will through mob actions and corporate power. Examples from recent history abound.
Read 21 tweets
15 Jan
The coming year will see Biden Democrats walking slowly through a vast field of small businesses exhausted by the battle with the coronavirus, shooting any who can still move. Big Tech will hold a pillow over the faces of those who cry out too loudly.
The destruction of the independent American middle class is one of the highest policy goals of the hard Left. It is finally at hand, thanks to the coronavirus and its political aftershocks. A year ago, they could not have dreamed they would get such a perfect kill shot.
A true middle class has economic interests that run counter to command economics, confiscatory taxation, centralized power, and other features of socialism. It also has the numbers to protect those interests at the ballot box. Of COURSE the Left hates it and wants to subdue it.
Read 15 tweets

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