Picks were Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright, Ghost Wars by Steve Coll. New Henry Kissinger book on China (not out yet). Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War and other writing by Andrew J. Bacevich. Non-book related the DiTan Park Folk Festival in Beijing got a shout out. Jeremy recused himself from suggesting something to spare us the drab and depressing shit he recently read.

Jeremy and team,

Given that the US and China both cast a long shadow over international affairs, it isn't surprising that people disenfranchised from either country might have mixed emotional reactions.

That said, what I find disturbing about China's reaction personally is that Western opposition to the execution is centered is discussions of morality, as with the Archbishop of Canterbury's "no man is an island" stance, or Noam Chomsky's short post reminding us that the Taliban had offered to give Bin Laden up back in 2001. People are questioning both the means and the end.

But I don't hear the same thing from Chinese people at all. And I've *never* once heard a Chinese person invoke abstract morality or a preference for promoting international law in this case. People take realpolitik for granted, and I suspect this is one of the most striking things about the way media controls in China play out: forceful intelligent commentary that challenges the state is quickly purged from public discourse, leaving only the patriotic fenqing rabble it is considered safe to ignore.

I think it might not be so unnatural for non-American observers of 911 to have had brief reactions like Jeremy's.

I'm from the US, and even I can see how airplanes crashing into two huge towers would seem symbolic of the US getting its comeuppance. Even if the world really does need dicks like America to fuck the assholes of the world (as of course posited in the treatise on international relations, Team America), then it’s still kinda funny when the US’s dick burns when it pees or gets an oozing peenogash.

Have you never felt one of those little joy-flutters back in the day when you thought your high school might have caught fire...? A little fuck-the-man, Armageddon's-coming euphoria?

I felt it for a few seconds when I first heard the then-vague news that there were riots in Western China, even though I live in China, and, on the whole, I like the place/country/people. Anyone else feel a surge of a smile coming on that you were just barely able to mask when you first heard the news? "Oh snap, shit hit the fan."

I'll bet there are tons of people who have the same feeling toward the US that I do toward China. I'm not from here, so I'm not tangled up in patriotism on a deep emotional level, but I generally like most things about it. I also, however, have promised myself to burn shit down when I’ve had visa issues or China was being a dick about some issue I cared about.

So, did the abstract idea of riots in the west get my panties wet? Yeah, a little. But was I happy at the thought of actual people dying/getting beaten up? ‘Course not. That said, Jeremy’s probably more of a sicko than me – I can hear it in his voice.

Great podcast as always.

Schadenfreude is a despicable reaction to events like 911, but if you ignore it, you cannot understand reactions to the event by many Chinese people and people from many other countries. -- Jeremy

Hi,

Interesting, I wonder if you could have a policy of putting links to blogs or writers that you mentioned in the podcast. You mentioned a blog - something like chinageek (?) It would be good not to have to go through the recording again just to find out what the blog was called...

Keep up the good work!!!