Memes

Gavin Newsom after Xi is impressed with how clean San Francisco is.

Balaji reading Newsom+Xi as a sign of the “mother of all pivots” by US Democrats —> China feels to me as prescient and important as his COVID call in Jan 2020

Balaji reading Newsom+Xi as a sign of the “mother of all pivots” by US Democrats —> China feels to me as prescient and important as his COVID call in Jan 2020

https://x.com/balajis/status/1723496466411655605?s=46&t=jfFbiO6yqIgiuy-BqPaNpg

building /bracket | hosting /greatbooks + /gray | ex-BCG, ex-PHD | poli + phil + econ

I don’t love Newsom but I find it funny how critics of democrats say they are too friendly to China while also precipitating WW3.

But isn't there a lot of design space bt:

"Content Moderation w Chinese Characteristics" (Balaji's theory of where Newsom is tracking)

&

"Hot War w China" (a completely MAAD position)

?

Imo his reasoning here is not based on assumed bad intentions or dishonesty of the parties involved, but based on a highly developed ability to read signals of CCP officials and Chinese media.

(It’s the exact same insight that allowed him to predict Covid when others thought he was “reading too much into it”)

Yes but kinda sounds like he is reading too much into it. His lens for everything lately is that all left politicians and msm journalists are duplicitous, anti progress, anti speech, etc. The reality is much more nuanced.