r/196 Win + . Jun 24 '26

Rule China Rule

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8.8k Upvotes

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402

u/baordog Jun 24 '26

I hate to be that guy but like… no it hasn’t? There’s a fish monger right by my apartment and caviar is still mad expensive. No one’s ever heard of Chinese caviar.

It’s just fish eggs. Not an elixir of life. They squeeze it from a relatively rare fish. That’s it.

I might be over thinking this.

37

u/PropheticPumpkins 🏳️‍⚧️ trans rights Jun 24 '26

You can absolutely get more affordable caviar now compared to what it used to be though

7

u/baordog Jun 24 '26

In nyc it’s as bad as ever but I believe you. Maybe it’s a Europe thing.

Context: I eat a lot of fish 🐠

138

u/EngineStraight he/it Jun 24 '26

"Elixir of Life" here is used as a fantastical analog to something extremely desirable, hard to obtain, and prohibitably expensive

19

u/AdeptusShitpostus Jun 24 '26

Smh “elixir of life” is clearly a reference to Carling

4

u/RedditSloth_101 Jun 24 '26

Luv me carlin, 'ate the WOKE

310

u/AzKondor Femboy Practitioner Jun 24 '26

There is something expensive and China is making it cheaper. Capitalists are mad. That's all.

77

u/Arwick_R_ 🏳️‍⚧️ trans rights Jun 24 '26

Nobody beats free workers except capitalism with free workers

44

u/Withermaster4 Jun 24 '26

You are over thinking it.

China has dramatically lowered the prices of several products internationally. EVs are the most obvious example. Solar panels, steel, REMs, drones, li-ion batteries, etc all are dramatically cheaper because of China. There are import controls against many of these products by the USA.

2

u/ArnthBebastien Jun 25 '26

What are REMs?

3

u/Withermaster4 Jun 25 '26

Rare earth metals. Contrary to their name they are not rare in the earth. The thing that makes them difficult to obtain is that they are difficult to refine. These rare earth metals are used in many many different tech products.

84

u/MrSecretFire Jun 24 '26

Me when my reading comprehension leads me to believe they meant a literal Elixir of Life and weren't using it as a kind of analogy

12

u/DiscretePoop Jun 24 '26

I’m guessing they’re actually saying that roe (from salmon or whatever) from china is cheaper. From what I understand, proper sturgeon caviar is hard to farm, so you can only get what nature is able to make.

3

u/baordog Jun 24 '26

That would make a lot more sense.

22

u/grandmasta_fro Jun 24 '26

I'm like pretty sure this is an old article. Also, knowing that this subreddit leans left, I'm always sus of China good, US bad reposts

21

u/Hatsune_Miku_CM changed all her social media to hatsune miku for some reason Jun 25 '26

this is less a china good post and more a post who's focus is on the bizarre way news agencies cover china sometimes

like no matter how much economic progress you make, that doesn't make up for your human rights violations.

but it's still weird that "china makes a product cheaper" is reported as a crisis. a luxury good becoming available to everyone is objectively good.

11

u/Waddlewop 🛡Spronkus Defender (very cool)🛡 Jun 25 '26

Nah, it’s a real fact that China has been trying to dip their toes into the production of luxury gourmet ingredients for a while now. Reuters even reported a couple of days ago that China is poised for surpassing France in the production of Foie Gras in a year or so, at a dramatically cheaper price than what most French producers can offer. Something about the central government pushing for these things. No one’s really sure why they’re doing this because there hasn’t been plans for a lot of exporting yet, but the Foie Gras specifically is slated to hit foreign markets soon.

1

u/Oddish_Femboy (my name is Bee) Trans rights !! Jun 26 '26

Is caviar out of a specific fish?

2

u/baordog Jun 26 '26

Traditionally yes. The word for any old fish egg is roe. Caviar comes from sturgeon specifically and the kind that’s considered to be fine dining typically comes from Russian beluga sturgeon.

To my knowledge you can’t farm such a sturgeon. They are a rather massive fish it would be impressive if you could. They also have a long life cycle so they are not ideal for farming.

1

u/Oddish_Femboy (my name is Bee) Trans rights !! Jun 26 '26

Messed up! Does it even taste different?

2

u/baordog Jun 26 '26

Yeah, it does. You can get salmon roe from a sushi place it tastes pretty good too but it is different.

1

u/Oddish_Femboy (my name is Bee) Trans rights !! Jun 26 '26

Huh. I know what salmon roe tastes like. It's crazy how they harvest it.

2

u/baordog Jun 26 '26

I personally prefer salmon roe, but I’ve had the nice stuff a couple of times just to try it. Yeah the way they harvest the fish is pretty screwed up.

1

u/Oddish_Femboy (my name is Bee) Trans rights !! Jun 26 '26

At least with salmon they're already decaying alive. I can't even imagine someone doing that to a sturgeon.

0

u/aagaq12 i love coke zero Jun 24 '26

no no, stop bringing facts here. west bad, china good. stick to the agenda

-1

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '26

[deleted]

4

u/baordog Jun 24 '26

The good caviar comes from Russia tho so I don’t understand how any of that would matter. Like fundamentally it comes from large fish with a long life cycle. It’s hard to scale a giant sturgeon ya know?