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I think this is worth pointing out, the paradoxical differences between an Americans' correct view of American government and some other government like China's.
In the US, government in theory, and largely in practice, is supposed to be 'of, by, and for the people', though that's been less and less in modern times. But still. Americans' political issues with our government are largely a war with the wealthy that has nearly only the wealthy fighting, for the government to do all kinds of things to benefit the American people and keep the wealthy from taking everything and leaving the country and our people poor.
In other words, when our democracy is working, our government is serving the people, and our political fight is with the 'right' that promotes everything from plutocracy to authoritarianism to many other harms to the public good, over issues like pollution, labor interests, safety, science in the public interest, healthcare, law enforcement and much more.
On the other hand, 'government' means something almost completely different in a place like China. So an Americans' view of 'government' should be about the opposite for that. It is not 'by, of, or for the people'.
If you take the WORST issues with government in US political discussion, the problems the most rabid Republicans attack government about that are dangers, they don't describe China's; they don't come close. If you take our ideas about the Soviets in the cold war, you're probably still not there. They are so bad, Americans have a hard time understanding it, and so are largely oblivious. They know it's 'bad', but have little idea.
So on the one hand, the American should DEFEND 'good government', democratic government, serving the public interest against the plutocrats in the US; but on the other, they should be against government like China's as utter tyranny, organized crime, corruption like we can't imagine, a monstrous institution. That's a lot of whiplash for one word, "government", that means very different things.
In the US, government in theory, and largely in practice, is supposed to be 'of, by, and for the people', though that's been less and less in modern times. But still. Americans' political issues with our government are largely a war with the wealthy that has nearly only the wealthy fighting, for the government to do all kinds of things to benefit the American people and keep the wealthy from taking everything and leaving the country and our people poor.
In other words, when our democracy is working, our government is serving the people, and our political fight is with the 'right' that promotes everything from plutocracy to authoritarianism to many other harms to the public good, over issues like pollution, labor interests, safety, science in the public interest, healthcare, law enforcement and much more.
On the other hand, 'government' means something almost completely different in a place like China. So an Americans' view of 'government' should be about the opposite for that. It is not 'by, of, or for the people'.
If you take the WORST issues with government in US political discussion, the problems the most rabid Republicans attack government about that are dangers, they don't describe China's; they don't come close. If you take our ideas about the Soviets in the cold war, you're probably still not there. They are so bad, Americans have a hard time understanding it, and so are largely oblivious. They know it's 'bad', but have little idea.
So on the one hand, the American should DEFEND 'good government', democratic government, serving the public interest against the plutocrats in the US; but on the other, they should be against government like China's as utter tyranny, organized crime, corruption like we can't imagine, a monstrous institution. That's a lot of whiplash for one word, "government", that means very different things.