[abhigupta]

"If you want to know who rules over you look at who you are not allowed to criticize"

[magicsmoke]

You can criticize China, but then you lose their dollars.

So in the end, the thing that rules over you is actually money.

[maxharris]

There's a difference between a who and a what.

Also consider: you can ask a PRC official what they think, and you'll get a response. Try to do the same thing to a pile of money? Crickets.

[ytch]

Same as China and USA. China can criticize USA, but they will lose money.

[mieses]

China's economic tactic is to convert their manipulated currency into dollars. China is desperate for dollars. No one trades in or trusts RMB.

[i_am_nomad]

Just as a heads up, this statement is often used as an anti-Semitic canard. You obviously didn’t mean it in that context, but you may want to use that quotation with caution.

[cannadhopefu]

Can you explain a little context behind this? I am not Jewish so I am just purely curious as to why it would be anti-Semitic.

[xlc0212]

You are free to do anything you want. You just have be responsible for the result. It is just how everything works.

[smt88]

This can only become partly true if you're using a definition of "free" that's so broad, it becomes meaningless. Even then, we all live in societies that preclude us from choosing to do certain things. In the US, I can't buy anything from North Korea, for example.

[mieses]

The quote is a truism but what is the source? Google brings up a very limited, maybe filtered, list of results. Orwell, Voltaire, a white supremacist? I don't really care which. Just curious about the historical origin.