US Intel

Note that all our issues with china would be solved if we stopped pretending like they're our enemy.

China wants to be number one and they have a good chance of doing it. Every nation’s leaders and people want that. It affords luxury and influence. The US understandably doesn’t want to lose their spot. It also helps making this an issue to give it a sense of urgency so things can get done — be it policy or innovation. There’s some game theory in there — e.g Prisoners Dilemma. Treating them as the enemy won’t lead to the optimal result, but if the US doesn’t and they do, it will lead to the worst result for the US. History is not filled with nations singing Kumbaya. I wish it was.

Yes, this is the attitude I'm referring to. The people who run this country (emphatically including people who frequent this forum) are far more my enemy than anyone in china could even pretend to be.

I also don't think Americans realize how quickly we will slide from relevance once our grip on the world slacks. We could have built this world into something amazing but instead we just got fat.