July 25, 2022
New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman said he has wrestled with how soon China will open its information ecosystem to allow a much freer flow of uncensored news. “I confess that I’ve been too optimistic,” he added.
Friedman said he’s not sure whether he’s guilty of:
- premature optimism about something that is necessary and inevitable;
- utter naïveté about something that is highly improbable; or
- wishing for something that is impossible.
He concluded, “I still hope it’s 1. I fear it’s 2. And I despair if it’s 3.”
A Firstpost article said China deployed tanks to prevent people from withdrawing money from crisis-hit banks. And NBC said graphic assault footage from China renewed anger over violence against women “in a country where calls for gender equality are often suppressed by the ruling Communist Party.”
The September 2019 issue of The Socionomist identified a link between negative mood and growing authoritarianism in China. To learn more about how social mood has shaped China’s history, watch our video “China During Chairman Mao: Negative Mood Catastrophe.”
If you look closely, you can see patterns in social mood that help you predict social trends. Learn more with the Socionomics Premier Membership.
The Socionomist enables you to see trend-shaping waves of social mood, as reflected by the stock market — and capitalize on them. The April 2023 issue looks at negative social mood’s influence on the tumultuous history of the Mexican Revolution. Mood Riffs topics include President Joe Biden’s reelection prospects, challenges facing corporate giants, the new workplace trend known as Bare-Minimum Monday, and British Columbia’s effort to relax laws governing hard drugs. Read the April issue when you become a Socionomics Premier Member. 
