This is a fair point. We are quite far along on the brain drain already. I suppose I should take the fact that you think I'm too knowledgeable to possibly be an American as a compliment. There are, however, still some intellectuals with a basic knowledge of other countries' histories left here, the stereotype that we're all a bunch of backwards hicks and self-centered chauvanists is only mostly correct.

I used the phrase "century of humiliation" intentionally to draw a comparison between the two. If you talk to Chinese people (for example on RedNote) a lot of them will tell you that they care about science and advancement, not just for it's own sake, but because they have the cultural memory of what happened when they didn't. The century of humiliation is a big reason why the Chinese have got that dog in 'em when it comes to science, while Americans love toying around with antivax shit and similar anti-science ideas because we're so used to being on top and none of our actions having consequences.

China had the same kind of backwards traditionalists back in the Qing that we have today, and that traditional approach get steamrolled by guns and battleships. But we never had that experience. So why not fuck around with forcing Creationism into science textbooks? "What's the worst that could happen?"

Just as the Qing dynasty was committed to doing things their way and refusing to adapt to changing conditions or learning from other countries, you see similar tendencies in the US today. As your disbelief attests, people don't look to other countries to understand why they do what they do or to take any lessons from their history. And those who do are regarded as traitors or spies, just like those in the Qing dynasty who advocated for studying and adopting Western science were. Really, there are a lot of parallels between the two, imo.

Why did Cassandra go around talking shit about Troy's defenses? The only possible reasons are that she was secretly a Greek spy, or she was some kind of accelerationist who just wanted Troy to fall for some reason. At least, that's what people would say about her if she were here today. Truly, she was the first tankie.