China, Empathy and Chamath

Can we be mad at China for our own reasons too?

A VC tycoon has acted like a dick, committing the Kinsley gaffe of revealing widespread elite apathy on China’s abuses. It doesn’t have much to do with the NBA, though con world media is hammering the tycoon’s peripheral connection to the Warriors, but it is a window into the billionaire class. From the typical media perspective, it is permissible to scorn this man for his dismissiveness of China’s sins in China. From the typical media perspective, it is impermissible to scorn China for its sins that made your own life worse.

---

My son caught Covid, so I have Covid. At this point, that sort of revelation is pretty mundane, given the transmissibility of these variants and how often you’ve heard such announcements. The boy’s doing decent after a couple fussy nights (thanks for asking), wife is asymptomatic so far and I have a fever. My main take is that the isolation is boring and it’s mostly boring because you’ve got nothing to anticipate. It’s less the absence of people and more the absence of plans. You’re simultaneously unmoored from life and stagnant. It sucks, but on a much lower level than acute sickness, obviously. The two-week pause just feels like a more potent reduction of the last two years: hermetic, languid, and indefinite. 

I mention it because I’m still wrapping my head around this disrupted time and its connection to a large nation nobody important seems to blame for its likely negligence. I’m fine, I think, and luckier than most, but these past couple years have taken something from nearly everybody. Are we allowed to be angry at the source? By what standard are we not?