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I've mentioned several times here, I've been reading Gibbon's Fall and Decline of the Roman Empire. By Volume 3 and 4 (where I currently am), the citizens of the Western Roman Empire, crushed by taxes and "illiberal edicts" whatever that means to Gibbon or the Romans, were in some proportion somewhere between indifferent and cautiously optimistic for Gothic, Vandal or Frankish rule. Of the Gothic rule in Italy in particular, in some ways and for some time Theodoric was perceived as protecting the glory and the ways of the Italians.
From an intellectual perspective, you read the sequence of events, and it makes a certain neocon "We'll be welcomed as liberators" sort of sense. But as often as that hasn't played out in our age, we know it's not that simple. It's profoundly rare for a peoples to willingly accept a foreign tyranny over a native tyranny. There are usually at least some vague feelings of tribal unity lying around in mothballs to man the lines against the invaders. They won't make slaves out of us! We're already slaves of one of our own god damnit! How completely detached from your ruling class, how utterly neglected is their noblesse oblige before the peoples are willing to trade one slave master for another?
Now I can only speak for myself, but this is the kind of shit that makes me go "Oh, I get it now." The relentless naked blood libel from my "betters" directed towards me is insufferable. If any other country attacked the US with intentions to conquer it, I'd at least be willing to hear them out.
Yeah, I get what you mean. We've had some posters talk about how they wish China would take over the country, and on the one hand that's an obviously bad idea. The Chinese government really is a repressive, authoritarian government with a culture very foreign to ours. It would be rather miserable to have them rule us. But on the other hand, I get why people say it. There's only so much naked hatred and contempt you can see your countrymen show for your values and your way of life before you go "fuck it, maybe at least those other guys would consider letting me live the way I want. I know this group never will".
Does China even want to rule us directly? Like Russia straightforwardly would, yeah, but does China want more than trade and foreign policy concessions?
No idea. It's just something I've seen kicked around on the motte in the past; I'm way too ignorant of Chinese goals to say if that's something they'd want even if offered it.
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