controversial hot take: I really feel that the ability of even highly educated Chinese to understand the United States has decreased significantly in the past few years
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for example a friend of mine, very prominent Chinese VC, lost a bet that Republicans would be able to somehow override the election results this week, he really seemed quite surprised that he lost
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My sense is that it's because it's easier to understand something from afar if it fits a simple message.
People saw Trump and protests and cancel culture and pattern matched them too strongly, too quickly forgetting everything that wasn't those.
I think this tricked some Americans too!
People saw the loudest pieces of the country (which matter!) and decided the democracy was dead.
In fact, democracy was slightly wounded.
Europe may have seen it best--they're way more used to this sort of messy situation.
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Dont overestimate Europe, much of history is forgotten - whats left though are laws in many places governing "hate speech" and instigating violence - a very useful leftover though.
Democracy is ofc not dead, but will have a rough time in the coming years - not just in the US
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Patterns with the most exposure create belief systems. Centralized archetypal patterns cut out the noise of the decentralized ones. As you say it is easier to process the simple vs the complex.
I think Trump's 2016 win gave people a false belief that an outsider can halt institutional inertia in the US.