Your clarification about rail is exactly the difference between our viewpoints: I am talking about the current reality of US rail and you are talking about the unrealized potential it has (or the choice not to develop it). Let's sum it up: * real high speed rail has existed in Europe and Japan since the 60s and even China has it for over 20 years now (interestingly, all regions of the world that were lifted from very low points by considerable US treasury and/or American blood) * US passenger rail is a joke in comparison and all its future potential is and has been mostly vapourware for decades * intercity travel via high-speed rail (mostly electrified) is vastly superior to any other mode of travel from a comfort, safety and environmental POV, although air travel safety is comparable with high-speed rail.
I will concede that having high-speed rail does seem like an unimportant thing to hark on in the greater scheme of things (especially for those that don't have it), but in my opinion it is a litmus test that separates the best of human civilization from the retarded insular declining anglosphere civilizations that make do with short-term corporate-driven billionaire-shaped profit-centric choices, and that is only the tip of the iceberg that hides other ugly things under the waterline: mind-numbing inward-pointed internalized jingoistic propaganda, and a crumbling infrastructure and social net (e.g. healthcare, pensions, education, mass media) that has created a growing underclass that keeps marshalling the best interests of its vampiric overlords for the price of some cheap stale bread and the pro sports or fast cars going in circles circus.
That is not to say that the same dynamics don't exist outside the anglosphere, but they pale in comparison when one looks at the speed with which the greatest democratic experiment in the world (that saved the world democracy more than once) is transforming itself into an autocracy (and the expected domino effect of the delayed copycat downfall of its anglo siblings).
LE: I must admit that seeing the US on the receiving end of a Marshall Plan in a decade or so, will be some fine historical irony and long overdue karma as well.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2025-05-21 02:36 am (UTC)* real high speed rail has existed in Europe and Japan since the 60s and even China has it for over 20 years now (interestingly, all regions of the world that were lifted from very low points by considerable US treasury and/or American blood)
* US passenger rail is a joke in comparison and all its future potential is and has been mostly vapourware for decades
* intercity travel via high-speed rail (mostly electrified) is vastly superior to any other mode of travel from a comfort, safety and environmental POV, although air travel safety is comparable with high-speed rail.
I will concede that having high-speed rail does seem like an unimportant thing to hark on in the greater scheme of things (especially for those that don't have it), but in my opinion it is a litmus test that separates the best of human civilization from the retarded insular declining anglosphere civilizations that make do with short-term corporate-driven billionaire-shaped profit-centric choices, and that is only the tip of the iceberg that hides other ugly things under the waterline: mind-numbing inward-pointed internalized jingoistic propaganda, and a crumbling infrastructure and social net (e.g. healthcare, pensions, education, mass media) that has created a growing underclass that keeps marshalling the best interests of its vampiric overlords for the price of some cheap stale bread and the pro sports or fast cars going in circles circus.
That is not to say that the same dynamics don't exist outside the anglosphere, but they pale in comparison when one looks at the speed with which the greatest democratic experiment in the world (that saved the world democracy more than once) is transforming itself into an autocracy (and the expected domino effect of the delayed copycat downfall of its anglo siblings).
LE: I must admit that seeing the US on the receiving end of a Marshall Plan in a decade or so, will be some fine historical irony and long overdue karma as well.