You, a loser tankie: The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living.
Me, a reasonable centrist: I erase my brain like Harry Dubois once a month. It’s smooth as a whistle and very excited to vote for Kamala!
Also the Taiping Rebellion happening alongside and between the opium wars is probably one of the most important historic events of the 19th century with ramifications to the modern day. The European powers put their finger (heavily) on the scale for the Qing (for Opium reasons) instead of the historically progressive and also kind of weird Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
I can’t even imagine the way China (and the world) would look if the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and their leader who they thought was Jesus’ younger brother won. There’d probably not be a People’s republic of China, but also probably no century of humiliation. It’s hard to picture. Would it stay a kingdom, become a republic earlier or later? Would the wildly divergent Taiping Christianity sweep Asia? IDK