• CoolerOpposide [none/use name]
      ·
      2 years ago

      During the cold war, the anticommunist ideological framework could transform any data about existing communist societies into hostile evidence. If the Soviets refused to negotiate a point, they were intransigent and belligerent; if they appeared willing to make concessions, this was but a skillful ploy to put us off our guard. By opposing arms limitations, they would have demonstrated their aggressive intent; but when in fact they supported most armament treaties, it was because they were mendacious and manipulative. If the churches in the USSR were empty, this demonstrated that religion was suppressed; but if the churches were full, this meant the people were rejecting the regime’s atheistic ideology. If the workers went on strike (as happened on infrequent occasions), this was evidence of their alienation from the collectivist system; if they didn’t go on strike, this was because they were intimidated and lacked freedom. A scarcity of consumer goods demonstrated the failure of the economic system; an improvement in consumer supplies meant only that the leaders were attempting to placate a restive population and so maintain a firmer hold over them. If communists in the United States played an important role struggling for the rights of workers, the poor, African-Americans, women, and others, this was only their guileful way of gathering support among disfranchised groups and gaining power for themselves. How one gained power by fighting for the rights of powerless groups was never explained. What we are dealing with is a nonfalsifiable orthodoxy, so assiduously marketed by the ruling interests that it affected people across the entire political spectrum.

      :parenti::parenti: :parenti::parenti::parenti:

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      2 years ago

      As you know our enemy is both strong, and weak. Cunning, and imbecilic. An imminent threat, but also laughable pushovers.

  • RonaldMcReagan [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    The suspension of climate change talks would usually suck,

    however, I'd say it's a foregone conclusion that the US under :biden-fall: :good-morning: :trump-anguish: etc., was unlikely to commit to anything substantial anyway.

    • anoncpc [comrade/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Yea, it's basically charade at this point. We have all the data on which country invest in green energy the most.

      • TheCaconym [any]
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        Yes, several (and in fact the most important ones) through the United Nations most notably. Obviously many of their researchers contribute to the IPCC as well. Also some European efforts IIRC.

    • Mindfury [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      yeah, I can only hope that the "End climate change talks" point will soon be followed by "Sanction US corporations who do not meet Chinese climate change requirements" and then followed by "Sanction nations who do not meet international climate change requirements"

    • commenter [none/use name]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Things would collapse so fast. It would likely trigger a civil war, and most people would not even understand why.

  • W_Hexa_W
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    deleted by creator

    • Frogmanfromlake [none/use name]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Reddit's been extremely anti-China since the beginning. They'd be doing the exact same if it were India or Iran.

      • GrouchyGrouse [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        What the fuck did India do to earn that hostility? I mean beyond racism.

        • Frogmanfromlake [none/use name]
          ·
          2 years ago

          It's just racism. Give them a reason to hate India and they'd be all over it talking about how barbaric and rapey they are. Throw in jokes about shitting on the street and posturing about the caste system.

          • GrouchyGrouse [he/him]
            ·
            2 years ago

            I hate how shithead westerners can always cherry pick facts about India. It's 1.38 billion people on paper. If a half of a percent of people are doing wiggy shit that's 690,000 people. 99.5% can be totally cool but yes with numbers like that you're still gonna see weird or bad things in snippets. Ignorant asses. Imagine judging all of Europe as a bloc because of Italians being a bunch of pizza tossers. Ooh suddenly its uncool?

            • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
              ·
              2 years ago

              Imagine judging all of Europe as a bloc because of Italians being a bunch of pizza tossers. Ooh suddenly its uncool?

              Redditors don't even like it when you judge one white guy on the things that he factually did.

              I'd provide examples but there's a character limit on posts.

            • sooper_dooper_roofer [none/use name]
              ·
              edit-2
              2 years ago

              Imagine judging all of Europe as a bloc

              I do this though

              You should regularly refer to random euros as "hans" or "luigi" or just pick a totally random name that doesn't match their ethnicity.

            • Teekeeus
              ·
              edit-2
              1 month ago

              deleted by creator

        • Chapo_is_Red [he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          In some corners of reddit, it's that they cause "so much pollution" even though their per capita ghg emissions are a small faction of US per capita emissions

          • GrouchyGrouse [he/him]
            ·
            2 years ago

            Pot meet kettle. Great. USA is a stupid, stupid place. Trust me I live here and the older I get the more I see that confirms it.

            The average family here has a carbon footprint the size of a T-Rex's

          • sooper_dooper_roofer [none/use name]
            ·
            2 years ago

            Why eco-cide 1 billion Indians when you can eco-genocide the equivalent of 100 billion Indians?

            unlimited genocide on the first world

        • Quaxamilliom [comrade/them]
          ·
          2 years ago

          given that reddit is mainly white tech-bros, theyre pissed that Indians are better at their jobs than they are.

          • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
            ·
            2 years ago

            But Americans seem to think the US is perfect just because our discrimination isn’t as explicit most of the time.

            Idk, I feel like unarmed black people getting gunned down on the streets by cops is pretty fucking explicit. I think the idea that American racism is in anyway covert or implicit needs to be reexamined in light of what's been happening.

            • GreenTeaRedFlag [any]
              ·
              2 years ago

              I think it's just the way our politicians say they hate balck people is such cultural background noise you need to be a strong anti racist to actually see it.

              • invalidusernamelol [he/him]
                ·
                2 years ago

                If you don't live it, you almost never hear about it. The language is intentionally vague and confusing if anything is reported at all and politicians will introduce the "legalize murder of uppity blacks" bills as "the MLK junior reparations package"

                • GreenTeaRedFlag [any]
                  ·
                  2 years ago

                  That's true, but also there's things that are definitely racist but unquestionable to thr average American. "Yeah we need more policing of poor neighborhoods, there's a culture of crime there." Stop and ask what any of this means and it falls apart, but you've heard it from birth, so it sounds correct.

          • Frank [he/him, he/him]
            hexagon
            ·
            2 years ago

            India is quite conservative.

            Hinduvata are fash ultra-trads from what I understand.

        • Teekeeus
          ·
          edit-2
          1 month ago

          deleted by creator

          • jackmarxist [any]
            ·
            2 years ago

            As much as I hate modi. Atleast he told America to fuck off.

  • theother2020 [comrade/them, she/her]
    ·
    2 years ago

    The US is such a coward too. They don’t even recognize Taiwan as a country ffs. I mentioned this recently in another thread, but that seems like something Trump would do - which is scary actually but then we are talking :lets-fucking-go: time

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      2 years ago

      It's funny how US Libs don't understand and refuse to understand that no one, including Taiwan, considers Taiwan to be a country. Just absolute lead-lined refusal to engage with history or reality.

      • BilboBaggins [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        I'm imaging a scenario where the US insists on recognizing Taiwan as a country and they're like "no no please don't, we're really not".

        • TerminalEncounter [she/her]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Every year the US sends money to Cuba as payment for its continued "lease" of Guantanomo Bay. And ever since even Batista the Cuban government has turned down this payment and says it doesn't recognize the US as a legal leasee but as an illegal occupier. But nothing has changed for the last 60 years and the US still sends a check and Cuba still refuses to cash it.

  • Awoo [she/her]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Kind of a big deal that they're no longer doing phonecalls between their militaries. There is now no way to judge intentions of the two sides through mutual trust between generals that genuinely don't want to start a war talking to one another on the phone with respectful heads-up messages.

    This can lead to mistakes.

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      2 years ago

      Apparently during the last Taiwan Strait Crisis a Chinese military officer called Taiwan to give them a heads up "Hey we're not actually targeting the missiles at you this is just for show" and they executed him for treason.

      • Awoo [she/her]
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        Huh that's weird. I read quite recently that they have pretty cordial relations and are regularly making such phonecalls with US generals regarding south china sea stuff. I read that they have a pretty respectful relationship. That was a US general saying it though not Taiwan.

        EDIT: Oh here's an article about some https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3150486/top-us-military-official-defends-phone-calls-chinese-counterpart-during

        There's some more recent ones here: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/7/7/top-us-general-mark-milley-speaks-with-chinese-counterpart

        Seems like Gen Milley is pretty friendly with them.

        • Frank [he/him, he/him]
          hexagon
          ·
          2 years ago

          Seems like Gen Milley is pretty friendly with them.

          That's good, at least. And there's hopefully still plenty of back-channel stuff they can do.

          • Awoo [she/her]
            ·
            edit-2
            2 years ago

            Every time I've seen Milley speak he's seemed like a man that deeply deeply does not want any wars to happen. So yeah it definitely seems like a good thing. I like and trust him a lot more than the rest of the establishment that he has to work for/around.

            • Frank [he/him, he/him]
              hexagon
              ·
              2 years ago

              I do like it when generals are strongly invested in having a long boring career.

            • reddit [any,they/them]
              ·
              2 years ago

              I'm interested to see what becomes of Milley, not because I think he's particularly great or anything but because every time I've seen him speak it's like I can see some future timeline where he's got a much larger political role. I can't put my finger on why but it's like I am briefly getting visions of DNC ghouls maneuvering him into some position as some kind of moderate compromise candidate for... Something.

              • Awoo [she/her]
                ·
                edit-2
                2 years ago

                Oh I definitely see that too. Let's say you have some massive internal power struggle in the country and then you coup the country and you need a figure that everyone agrees is a principled neutral moderate who just genuinely seems to care about doing right and projects the image of "good" to his audience. That seems to be Milley. Genuinely doesn't want to get thousands of people killed and seems to recognise the gravity of the responsibility his role holds.

                Also that authenticity he projects is something people like fucking Biden or Pelosi would kill to have because they're fake pieces of shit.

                Also I can't see anyone wanting to assassinate Milley even under some terrible internal divisive thing. He's got it all going on swirling around him. The only thing that might push him out is not being a hawk but even hawks will see having him around if they need to project all these things is useful.

            • Frank [he/him, he/him]
              hexagon
              ·
              2 years ago

              Probably the most dangerous kind of person in the world. Someone who read the theory, understood it, and made a decision to use it as a weapon in service of capitalism.

        • Frank [he/him, he/him]
          hexagon
          ·
          2 years ago

          Yeah I thought it was pretty harsh. And it was from a wiki article so who knows if that's even what actually happened.

          • TrashCompact [none/use name]
            ·
            2 years ago

            I was going to say, knowing western reporting, isn't there like a 51% chance that the dude was just reassigned and, because it's not a visible position, western journos decided he was killed? They do that shit with the DPRK multiple times a year.

  • Elon_Musk [none/use name]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago
    1. Anti-Drug cooperation

    A second coming of crazy research chemicals incoming! But mostly just fentanyl

    • mazdak
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      deleted by creator

      • Ligma_Male [comrade/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        know I’ll get called a chauvinist but i wish China would take a more progressive domestic stance on drugs.

        it's understandable why china's drug policy the way it is because of history. it's fine to wish they and the US and everyone else had the drug policy we wish everyone had as long as you acknowledge the first part and that boomers are going to boomer.

          • Ligma_Male [comrade/them]
            ·
            2 years ago

            Honestly not sure the Opium War is that influential on China’s modern drug policy; they’ve got identical policies to pretty much everywhere else in the world, especially prior to recent liberalisation around cannabis in some places.

            america did a lot to export their racist demonization of weed. I don't know specific citations of "here's why we did it" talking about colonial opium but it would be weirder if that wasn't informing attitudes 70 years ago.

      • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        I know I’ll get called a chauvinist but i wish China would take a more progressive domestic stance on drugs

        I don't see the benefit to legalization of drugs in China. For various historical and cultural reasons, addiction and demand for drugs are already quite low relative to Western countries. As long as addicts can get help for their addiction, I don't see that legalization would do anything except stimulate demand where it doesn't currently exist.

        To me, calling on China to legalize drugs is like calling on Islamic countries in the middle east to legalize alcohol. It benefits a very fringe group at best and at worst is going to introduce more problems for more people than it helps.

        I don't think the idea is chauvinistic per se, but it's important to ask whether progressive policies fit local conditions.

  • shiteyes2 [any]
    ·
    2 years ago

    It would have saved a lot of trouble if we just put Nancy Pelosi in jail before this happened, but now that it happened, can we please just put her in jail

  • Commander_Data [she/her]
    ·
    2 years ago

    So if China isn't going to repatriate illegals living there to the US, does that mean I can just move to China?

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      2 years ago

      I have no idea what it means in a legal sense, but I have a suspicion it's going to suck for undocumented Chinese who get caught in the US. If the Chinese Embassy won't help them do they just get stuck in US Detention Hell forever?

      • TrashCompact [none/use name]
        ·
        2 years ago

        My guess is that if it's a defector they don't care to help the US but, if it's a PRC citizen who just happened to overstay their work visa or something, they'll accept that person back. I don't see why they would take this out so directly on their own loyal citizens.

        • Frank [he/him, he/him]
          hexagon
          ·
          2 years ago

          idk Bureaucracies do all kinds of awful shit for no other reason than that they're bureaucracies. I guess we'll have to wait and see what it means in practice, though.