After the US election, California, a state with high tech density, may become independent

The American people have been trying to digest the election results these days, but for the Chinese, it seems that the time to just sit there and watch the show has long passed, and anything I say now is a bit outdated. But I had to wait until today to say what I think, because I just watched the replays of the special programs on the day of the election by major American media yesterday - on the one hand, I felt a little gloating, and on the other hand, I tried my best to be objective.

First, stick to the middle path

After the outcome was decided, I thought I could finally say that I support Trump. But it doesn’t matter even if I had said it a long time ago - I have always stood on the side of the working people. I have written about the class struggle in Silicon Valley, the dream of rising to fame behind California’s independence, and I have also made it clear that I refuse to use Airbnb’s services because of its excessive political correctness.

However, some members of the Zhihu Politburo were indeed very greedy after winning, and would rather kill all the losing liberals. This made me blush, just like seeing real racism and extreme thoughts resurrected and blossoming in the United States, which made me feel uncomfortable.

I think the only thing I have in common with these people is that we both support Trump. "Extreme" racism and "extreme" Islamism share the same "extreme". I hope those who are trying to tear society apart and wish for chaos can remember this.

At this time, I began to consciously like the following answers on Zhihu to collect real samples of American society: 1. Eyewitnesses recording the self-recovery of blue states; 2. Refutations and reflections from liberals; 3. Self-criticisms from conservatives.

Liberals are doing great in the face of defeat

Previously, I also thought Hillary had a good chance of winning, so I was most rebellious on the day of the election. At the same time, I saw that the worried liberals also abandoned their usual elegance and clearly called on everyone to vote. Using the opposing side's comments is "ugly."

This also made me realize that there are a lot of liberals "lurking" around me, and they are very sad. So I became cautious and needed to choose my words before speaking. However, after I explained my basic views on the election results, a friend I had known for a long time did not reply to me again. - But he did not delete the friend. If I encounter the same situation, I probably will not block him.

Different people see different sides of the election. What I see is that this is a moment to test the etiquette of dealing with success and failure. Not everyone can be proud of victory and not discouraged by defeat. Overall, liberals have demonstrated their elegance and principles with their actions, and it is indeed touching.

Let's imagine that if the same failure of the ruling party happened in another land, the punishment we would face would definitely not be as simple as attending a national funeral and having a few Molotov cocktails thrown on the street. This land has just passed a new law stipulating that the Internet can be cut off in an emergency, and I can have these feelings now because of all the information I can still see online, including fresh feedback from mainstream media and different individuals. If my information is cut off, then I will only have "We Have Nothing to Envy".

I know this. So why am I against Hillary and the status quo she represents?

The essence behind issues such as race and sexual orientation is class issues

The more educated a person is, the better he or she can control his or her temper. The anti-Trump demonstrations were both peaceful and violent. The media used terms such as "generally peaceful" and "turn ugly." The media has been focusing on Trump's new tweet these past two days: "A small group of people led by the media took to the streets... This is unfair!" (Trump's Twitter account was probably taken over by someone afterwards. He is simply the American version of Luo Yonghao. He later said that he welcomed "a small group of people expressing their opinions peacefully.")

I think what the media said is not contradictory. Generally speaking, the ones who are peaceful are the teachers and students with a higher level of education, and the ugly ones should not be them. As for whether they are guided by the media or not, it has already been "internalized in the heart and externalized in the behavior", so the difference is not that big.

In fact, I have a very simple deduction to figure out who is peaceful and who is ugly: the higher the economic level and education level, the more information one gets, and the more peaceful the discussion of issues. The education level depends on the economic level and the overall situation of the family, not on personal struggle. As for information, relying on book knowledge instead of relying entirely on social media will help cultivate independent thinking ability. People with professional education will read social media critically even if they read it. Reading is an interest and hobby that can only be cultivated by the absolutely wealthy and leisurely class.

In general, the amount of economic, educational, and information resources is positively correlated with the level of education; and Hillary and the status quo she represents are in line with the interests of the highly educated people, so the support also overlaps. These multiple overlaps have led to the fact that liberals are indeed more moderate overall, but as long as these three factors reach a certain level, they can support a peaceful discussion. Therefore, of course, there are "sandwich layers" like me, as well as "turncoats" like some Chinese in the United States who support anti-establishment forces.

When a person cannot even get enough food to eat, if you talk to him about equality and fraternity, he will definitely think you are sick. This is a slightly extreme explanation in terms of literal meaning, but it is a fact that Hillary did not rely on gender factors to win over white women with less than a college degree.

However, the lower classes are not only pursuing bread

Now looking back at the conversation that ended my friendship with my liberal friend, I feel a little ashamed because I was in a hurry to answer and spoke without thinking. I inevitably used the term "white male" to refer to the group of people I was talking about. In fact, the essence of the problem is a class issue anyway. Just like when Trump himself was asked by the media what he thought about the counterattack of extreme forces, he said that this was not a problem. The root cause was that the lower class had no jobs.

Note that the word "employment" is mentioned here. If this is what Trump really thinks, I think he has seen the essence of the problem. This may be the intuition of a businessman. He said that medium-level skilled workers can build walls and invest in infrastructure just like Roosevelt's New Deal in the 1930s. This also grasps the essence of the problem.

Employment brings more than just wages - it also brings in the free time and labor that is used up, as well as the sense of accomplishment that comes from the exchange. Simply giving money to people cannot achieve these.

Liberals hope to represent the advanced productivity and culture of mankind, and the vast majority of people at the bottom do not contribute much to productivity and are a drag on their feet. I have discussed this many times. Then, some liberals hope to be independent and completely get rid of the influence of the bottom, just like #calexit (California Independence Movement): Another part is more tolerant and hopes that everyone will contribute some money to support this group of people who get something for nothing - because their labor is meaningless. They know etiquette on the basis of having enough food and clothing, and understand the principle of "leaving a way out for others so that we can meet again in the future."

However, it is America's past that inspires these abandoned people today to have the "American Dream", and this dream is not only about improving living standards, but also about self-realization based on this - if I am a screw, I will contribute to this country, and someone will benefit from my efforts.

After automation replaces low-end repetitive labor, if humans are doing meaningless work specially designed for their retirement, it will also lead to a collapse of will. "After eating, there is nothing to do", so people can only "point fingers". You said creative work and personal experience, you said travel? This involves "competing with talent", okay. You determine an ideal ambition, such as you want to be an artist, and then work hard for half a lifetime to find that your ancestors did it better than you a hundred years ago, and the result is still in vain.

Once the dream of "California" comes true

Therefore, the compassionate part of the liberals may not be able to give the lower classes bread and give them a meaning of life at the same time. This is too difficult. Class division is inevitable. This is to say that the brewing #calexit may really become a test field: the United States, the United States we used to say, is the land most desired by the world's elites, but this is not the whole truth. Only #calexit will give birth to a true enclave like this, a Pyongyang in the free world that only the highest level of human beings are qualified to enter.

How can this place feed itself without farmland? Without manufacturing, what can it wear and use? I believe that the fewer people there are and the higher the density of technology, the easier it will be to handle. Even at the current level of technology, China, which is free of ideological constraints, can be used for imports, and even if the rest of the world has complaints, it relies on the technology products and Hollywood movies produced by California elites, which can also help. It is not impossible for the remaining half of the redneck America to decide to never have any contact with each other after the split.

Once they are sure that people with different values ​​from them have no power to check and balance them, the existing compromises will gradually converge. For example, now, because small states have "dragged behind" twice since the new century, the electoral college system is being widely questioned. The weight of small states is to prevent them from seeking independence. So, once there are other ways to eliminate the negative impact, such as the overwhelming comparison of armed forces between the two sides, this insurance measure can indeed be abandoned.

Even if war is to be fought, it has reached an unprecedented turning point. Is there strength in numbers? Have robots evolved to the point where they can carry out massacres without the need for humans? After all the high-tech talents in America have withdrawn, what else do the remaining militias have besides guns, bombs and artillery?

Let's add the weight of nuclear weapons. If California cannot guarantee to take away all the nuclear weapons in the country when it becomes independent, will they or the poor dare not continue to think about nuclear weapons, and can we ensure that a war of independence will be staged without nuclear weapons? ...

Humans with less competitiveness will be "physically eliminated" in the future

Although what I said is not precise, the general meaning remains the same - the dispossessed people created by globalization and modernization will be eliminated both mentally and physically. "How to eliminate them physically?" It means forcing or inducing them to become extinct naturally, and the next generation will be created by people who have mastered new knowledge and new culture. This is reflected in the fact that Hillary won the votes of the majority of young people regardless of race or wealth this year. It is certain that if there is no intergenerational inheritance of poverty, then the political positions of hopeful children and conservative fathers will definitely be different.

In some ways, this is a preview of the future for other countries. Other countries have the same situation: the smartest, richest, and most capable people have left themselves a way out overseas. Once the change happens, this group of people who can't escape will become similar to the United States after #calexit: a large number of people, but only a handful of strength, and technological progress is locked up, like being crushed like an ant and unable to fight back.

I think I am also part of the deprived of globalization, but I am also undoubtedly a beneficiary of globalization. This is not contradictory: if globalization regresses, it may affect my job - but if globalization continues to advance, it will also affect my job more. I can be in my current position, and what I most hope for is naturally to maintain what I think is the status quo.

But no one wants us to stay here. Hillary represents moving forward, while Trump represents retreat. A world under Trump will be terrible, but in a country that is still moving forward overall, this means that the checks and balances between the establishment and the anti-establishment are still effective, even though this is achieved by hurting each other, but there is no better way.

Therefore, making sure that the people at the top can't escape is our last effort to ensure our survival. People from all over the country who are not eligible to immigrate to the United States, and Chinese people who are bullied by other minorities in the United States, are all "us". Those who are not rich enough to reach the top of the pyramid are all "us" - those who think they are not at the top of the pyramid but refuse my argument can also first look at their position among all people in the world and among all Americans/Chinese.

There are two paths now. One is that a few people escape from the earth, the majority of people exile themselves, and the highest level of human evolution continues to rise; the other is that everyone dies together, the highest level of human evolution stagnates or even declines, but the overall level is more average. Given my position, I have to choose the second path. But if I - or even my children - have the opportunity to climb to the top, I will betray the current class without hesitation and follow the route of the large group to ascend in broad daylight.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.