"lying flat culture" in the PRC is significant not because it threatens the Party but simply because first-tier urban youth experiencing the same depressive hedonia as youth in developed economies is a good indication that China is out of the fun part of capitalism now
it *is* a threat to the Party in the sense that it isn't what they want and is incomprehensible to them. but I haven't seen young people feeling there's no future, it's all fucked, get your little pleasures where you can etc. take down any other government in my lifetime
in this sense Xi's "patriotic education" is fascinating. there *is* something in the history of struggle in China, Marx etc, that appeals to young people and is emotionally resonant...buried beneath the self defeating need to tie it into incredibly tedious managerial capitalism
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