this post was submitted on 29 Mar 2026
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[–] PennyRoyal@sh.itjust.works 124 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

While the states is busy overtaking Turkmenistan as Worlds Weirdest Dictatorship

[–] username_1@programming.dev 13 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

What is so weird about Turkmenistan? Is it where they have a huge shiny statue of their previous "leader"? Not too weird...

[–] WesternInfidels@feddit.online 21 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net 9 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Wow, thanks so much for sharing this. I value this small glimpse into a part of the world I know next to nothing of. I loved how the low amount of text in these posts enhanced the surreal feeling of the images, e.g. an image captioned by "[place] empty at noon", followed by an image captioned "[place] empty at night"

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[–] mitram@sopuli.xyz 20 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Most countries have that, no? Mount Rushmore comes to mind

[–] tempest@lemmy.ca 15 points 2 weeks ago

That's just America's fascism peeking out to remind you it was always there.

They just ran out of large populations of local brown people to oppress so they go over seas to do it now.

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[–] just_another_person@lemmy.world 80 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

Already done, bruh. 10 years of Republicans tearing down everything led to this. Not a shocker.

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 46 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

It’s been more like 40 years of Republican rule.

[–] tempest@lemmy.ca 19 points 2 weeks ago

It's truely a team effort the Republicans and Democrats are the ratchet effect manifested.

The FPTP system ensures you will only get those two choices so if you want to effect change its probably easiest to do it at the primary level.

People always say 'progressives can't get elected nationally' or whatever forgetting FPTP ensures things will swap back (under the assumption that one side doesn't flip fascist before that happens, big assumption in this climate I know) because eventually people will tire of the person in power and either vote for 'change' or stay home.

[–] Ek-Hou-Van-Braai@piefed.social 18 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

They're banning books, that says a lot.

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[–] PrimeMinisterKeyes@leminal.space 72 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

"Is overtaking?" Sorry buddy, that point lies in the past. China dominates nearly all of the relevant future technologies and is still ramping up its investments. There's no stopping them now.

[–] kinther@lemmy.world 14 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Even in the AI sector they seem to be only a pace or two behind. Their models are as good and require less compute. It really does feel like we are falling behind in everything.

[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 12 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Even in the AI sector

they said relevant future technologies

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[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 11 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

China sent their best and brightest to be educated in American colleges, which American kids can't get without taking on a lifetime of student debt. Most American kids aren't rich enough to deserve to be smart.

It's okay, though, we'll need those bodies for the war. Trump is competing against Putin numbers for sacrifices. 1.2 million so far in Ukraine. Trump has some catching up to do. He wants to be able to brag to his Sociopathic Oligarch buddies at dinner at Maralago about how many soldiers have died for him, and the higher the number the better. That's how much they love him.

American students don't need college, that's for the Chinese who build our stuff. The Draft is coming for American students. They should be willing to die to protect American Freedom.®

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[–] pjwestin@lemmy.world 62 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Who knew that taking funding for scientific research away from government institutes and universities and giving it to ketamine-addicted con men would have negative consequences.

[–] JillSteinsPuckeredAnus@lemmy.world 14 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

it's not negative to the con men. a nation of science-averse suspicious uneducated half wits is exactly what they need to stay in power

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[–] TwinTitans@lemmy.world 52 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

US post WW2 boom is over and they squandered it.

[–] krisevol@lemmus.org 22 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)

We have been running on old money for decades. We used China for our slave labor, and now they make the best stuff and don't need us. That's why the US is 70% service industry now. We are basically two rich trust fund babies jerking ourselves from off surrounded by slave labor, but eventually we run out of money. We are at the running out of money phase

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Yeah but this is round two: science boogaloo. We have a government actively hostile to science and research, throwing away where we still had a leading position.

In particular, we’re reversing the brain drain from China. If they’re becoming slightly less repressive and welcome science while we’re cutting research, cutting legal immigration, driving cuts by racism and judging research by whether the ai classifies it as “woke”, too many researchers who would have come here may no longer feel welcome

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[–] Lushed_Lungfish@lemmy.ca 36 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Yes, that little bump the Americans got after the 1940s because of some, er... "immigrants" has long since run out.

[–] varyingExpertise@feddit.org 10 points 2 weeks ago

Let's call it a prolonged international exchange program.

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[–] Mwa@thelemmy.club 35 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Maybe because China is not exclusively focusing on Improving AI?

[–] SpikesOtherDog@ani.social 63 points 2 weeks ago (17 children)

Also because China is not experiencing a religious movement that rejects science.

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[–] krisevol@lemmus.org 10 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

It's because they make everything and have spare money to spend on research.

The US runs on debt, and we are running out of debt.

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[–] OctopusNemeses@lemmy.world 34 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

The damage is done. Unless there's a sudden reversal of cultural attitudes, the US has given up. The only way I see this happening is if the space race sparks another push for STEM.

Like, actual STEM. It seems like nobody has noticed but all anybody has cared about anymore is watching the stock market go up. It's no longer about the pursuit of science and technology but how that can be used to make money.

They need to land some people on the moon again. Make it a big deal about sci-fi type shit. Orbit space stations around the Earth and the moon. Make it a daily life kind of thing that the population can get engaged with.

It's apparent that people are weary of technology anymore cause all we've had is brain rot designed to extract value from us. People need to see science and technology as something hopeful again.

[–] thatradomguy@lemmy.world 12 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

With the price of tuition now a days, and an already poor education system as it were, I don't think the US is getting back to anything.

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[–] BillCheddar@lemmy.world 23 points 2 weeks ago

Not just in science. In everything.

America is being lapped by a fascist Pooh Bear because 30% of Americans are mouthbreathers with Bible kinks.

[–] DarkFuture@lemmy.world 18 points 2 weeks ago

Intelligent people aren't going to stay in a country that doesn't respect intelligence.

They'll take their knowledge elsewhere. It's in high demand in other first world countries.

[–] mlg@lemmy.world 17 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Sometimes I forget one of Trump's first agendas was nuking research funding and using a keyword filter against grant submissions that had words like "trans" without conntext.

Seems like so long ago compared to an active war with Iran.

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[–] Sims@lemmy.ml 17 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

China already did long time ago, and US were already finished before they put Trump on the spot.

All the insanity from 'Trump', was planned by think tanks years before, so ALL lib/dem presidents just played the big think tank game just like Trump, and he is just showing the real face/intents of the US fascist dictatorship. None of them - no matter 'side' cared about causes or people, and all of them played the pre-set game dictated by the US Oligarchs.

Current US behavior are just 'mask off' that shows who is really in charge in the US "Democracy" and what they think of anything else than keeping their property/power.

[–] kozy138@slrpnk.net 15 points 2 weeks ago

Let's see them try to keep up with incarceration rates per 100k people. USA is truly a world power in that regard.

[–] MrMakabar@slrpnk.net 15 points 2 weeks ago

It is not just cutting research funding, but also making migrating to the US much much harder. The US has amazing pay for the absolute top researchers, which makes it attractive for even migrants from other developed countries. However life in most other countries is better then one of the new migrant concentration camps the US is building with ICE.

Probably the Anglosphere apart from the US and then other rich developed countries will benefit fro this the most. They all have somewhat working migration systems in place to attract talent. China so far lacks that, but they probably set one up soon.

[–] Gates9@sh.itjust.works 11 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

The people who control capital and the levers of power in the west no longer care about the primacy of the United States in any sense. It was only ever just a mechanism they used to consolidate their power by using our economic system and our military for their own ends (see: “War is a Racket”)

Now they’re pulling up the drawbridge, boarding their super yachts, the escape plans drawn up decades ago. America is left a hollow shell with only the sad remnants of broken promises left behind.

[–] AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net 10 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)

This is part of why I am (slowly) learning Mandarin.

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[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 9 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)

The US forfeit that race when they elected drumpf...

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[–] WoodScientist@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)

I mean, in the long run, this should be inevitable. The scientific revolution was a lightning bolt that happened to strike in Europe. And all western countries inherited that head start. But in the long run, we would expect all the world to converge to a similar science, and wealth level. And if China has triple the population of the US, why wouldn't you expect them to dominate the US in raw scientists output? That should be the default condition.

[–] Soup@lemmy.world 14 points 2 weeks ago

Or, to return to reality for a moment, China has invested in new technologies and education for the prupose of having new technologies and an educated population while the US has long engaged in innovation only if it will make money(while actively stifling new things if it means competition) and in dumbing down its own population so that they’re easier to control. The US exists as a machine to enrich, in the short-term, a handful of people and anything that does not work to that end is seen as a waste. No public infrastructure, no investing in science for advancement’s sake, no education poor people, no nothing.

The US has failed because of deliberate effort by itself to shoot its own feet and legs before diving head-first into an intellectual wood-chipper. It is 100% voluntary and you cannot hide behind “it must’ve been inevitable!”.

[–] Doorbook@lemmy.world 11 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

This read as very narrow euro centric view of the world.

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[–] liuther9@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

It is in no way related to population number. I bet there is high correlation with politics

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