OBJECTION!

Not a dude, and the US got along much better with China, until around 2019 when the wars in the Middle East were winding down and the US needed a new justification for defense contracts, and when it needed to shift blame for botching COVID. That’s when all of a sudden everyone started hating China for no other reason than the news said to.

The US chose to saber-rattle with China before the war in Ukraine, which destroyed any possibility of this that might have existed. China was never going to agree to diplomatically isolating Russia when it would so obviously be next.

Atlanta, Denver, somewhere in Virginia, Maryland, or DC, or possibly Ohio or Pennsylvania. There’s places like Austin and some places in Florida that might have cool people, but the state government is trash.

I saw Greenville recommended, and this is anecdotal, but last time I was there visiting friends, we (visibly queer) got followed around by this crazy guy with a metal pipe making all kinds of death threats. I love my friends but that sealed the deal for me on not wanting to live there. There are some neat places there ngl, the sex themed desert restaurant was a fun place for a queerplatonic hangout, but in general it’s not exactly going to be a refuge from Trump supporters.

Wow, this is just like in Severance

Funny you should say that, because if you actually read the article, the event had to be organized in secret to avoid being targeted by far right groups and then dispersed after 30 minutes because those far-right groups showed up to attack anyway.

I don’t think that lab-grown meat will ever replace animal agriculture on a large scale, at least in my lifetime. That being the case, I’d rather leave any ethically produced meat for people who would’ve been eating unethically produced meat instead.

If the situation is basically full on Star Trek replicator, then I wouldn’t have ethical qualms but I might still find it gross and it might not digest well since I’m not used to it. Either way, it’s very distant from the actual situation we’re in now.

The reason I specified is that random people may make random comparisons all the time, so if I just said “where people did not compare it” it wouldn’t really mean anything. Estonia doesn’t tend to have as many wars they need to drum up support for so they don’t do it as often, but it’s still a greatly overused analogy in general. People said it about Korea. They said it about Vietnam. They said it about Iraq. All of those comparisons were ridiculous in hindsight but worked well enough at the time. It’s basically just a go-to thing you can say and people will just knee-jerk get on board with whatever military endeavor you’re doing at a given time, regardless of what it is.

Just out of curiosity, can anyone name one war the US has been involved in since WWII where a high ranking government official did not compare it to WWII to drum up support?

The format on here isn’t really suited to multiple responses, imo, but you should look at a website called Kialo. I haven’t used it in years and I don’t know if it’s active but it’s an interesting concept based very much on that idea, with the aim of making discussions more formal and rigorous.

Clicking on any of those points will let you see the replies.

New comments have to be approved and they have to be meaningfully different from things that have already been posted, and they’re supposed to be limited to a single point.

It’s a pretty different format and vibe compared to what we have here, but even if it’s not something you’re into, I think it’s an interesting little experiment. Imo, you would need something formatted that way for the multiple comment approach to work well and be readable.

The New York Crimes is a garbage propaganda rag. They don’t deserve a red cent from anyone after pushing their transphobic agenda, (and responding to widespread criticism by publishing an article defending JK Rowling) or after they blatantly lied and published a fake news story about Hamas conducting mass rape in an attempt to sway public opinion to be in favor of Israel’s genocide. If you have a NYT subscription, you are paying people to lie to you.

You can go to archive.is and put in the url of a news story you want to read in the second box and it will usually let you bypass the paywall.

Thank you, yes. It’s pure chauvanism and falls apart easily under examination, which seems to be why they always disappear so quickly.

1.4 billion people live in China and I’d venture to say that a large chunk of them consider themselves to be communist and the party to be communist. That is easily the majority view of self-indentifying communists worldwide. But surely, they think, as a Westerner, I’m the authority on what communism is and not these backwards Chinese.

Because I’m trying to understand their perspective. I consider China to be communist in the sense that the people in charge are communists, the same sense that it was communist under Mao. They call themselves communists, they explain their reasons for doing things from the perspective of communist ideology, they teach Marxism in schools, etc.

To say that they are specifically no longer communist, when they claim to be, seems to be weighing in on what communism is and isn’t. Specifically, it seems to be taking the perspective that Mao’s leadership constituted “real” communism while Deng’s leadership constituted “fake” communism. As I am not a Maoist, I disagree with that perspective.

It’s strange to me that you think understanding someone’s stance on China’s economic reforms, the point in history where they allegedly abandoned communism, would be irrelevant to understanding the standard by which they consider China to have abandoned communism. What could be more relevant?

I guess I’m just confused then. When China enacted economic reforms in the 80’s, there were people who opposed them and felt that these reforms entailed a right-wing deviation from communism. Those people were/are known as Maoist hardliners. You can see where I thought you might be one.

If you’re not that, then does that mean you do approve of those economic reforms? Perhaps I misunderstood, when you said China abandoned communism, did you mean it as a good thing, and you support China’s direction from a pro-capitalist standpoint?

If that’s not it, I give up. I’m afraid I’m at a loss what your ideology is or what you think about Chinese history or the country’s economic reforms. If you could explain it to me, I’d be quite grateful, I see a lot of people around here who appear to me to be Maoists, but when I ask if they are, they don’t answer or elaborate. It’s very confusing to me.

Really? Because what I’m seeing is an article from the British Broadcasting Channel and a thread full of people using this story to make sweeping generalizations about China, in English. I suppose it’s possible, but I gotta say I find it a little hard to believe that this thread is full of Chinese nationals, as you’re claiming.

Are you a Maoist, then?

You say “thousands” as if that’s a lot. If some Chinese people want to talk about a park’s water management, I don’t mind. But when Westerners take some random trivial thing like this and use it to fuel a narrative that “China is a country full of lies,” or whatever, that’s an entirely different animal. This is a local issue, not an excuse for chauvanists to be chauvanist.

Xi Jinping reading about this story like

Where did I claim they were? I believe what I said is “Parks do water management.” And beauty and tourism are concerns that they take into account. This is a non-story.

Yes I include China

Are you a Maoist, then?