Snowygerry
Deity
They're always a bit "unhinged" over there 
Just saw the other thread, will post there if anything of note happens...
Just saw the other thread, will post there if anything of note happens...
Iran, the Red Sea, and the West (tm).
- Thread starter Estebonrober
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r16
not deity
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they can see the project is going badly , they know delusions is a word that has been used to refer to their stuff . Now it will be delusions of losers and Antizionists . No , they really do not know how much unhinged Israelis can be . No , they will not be hunted down in a physical sense .
Akka
Moody old mage.
Yep, let's recap :
1 - A number of people are trying to paint how USA treat dissent (which is admitedly not perfect) on a comparable footing with how China treat dissent (which is by far even less perfect).
2 - I point at how putting both on a comparable level is a sign of ideological blindness.
3 - You then barge in and throw a lot of barbs about reading comprehension and assigning to people opinions they haven't held.
4 - You get pointed that if you fail to see such positions despite them being just written in the posts above, you're the one with reading comprehension problem.
5 - You double down on personal attacks where you accuse me of what you're doing right now.
So yeah, stop projecting and giving lessons you should be the first to apply.
No they're not
Everyone vaguely left-leaning here recognises the flaws in various regimes that you pretend we're blind to. The argument isn't "the US isn't as bad as China". It never was (well, maybe except for Crezth but that's a single poster, and by definition not "posters"). It's that the US is worse than people like to defend it as being, and that there are no winners when applying "well actually worse places exist" to the geopolitical arena. It's the kind of argument that only satisfies people being pedantic with no stake in the argument beyond picking fights with people they like picking fights with online
"well China is more authoritarian, gotcha Marxist" is kinda irrelevant when university students are being arrested for being non-violent protestors and their professors are in some cases literally being assaulted by police.
Somewhere else being more bad doesn't mean the US isn't bad. Your argument seems to be that China is much worse, which is a nonsense attempt at misdirection when you could, or even should, be joining in in admonishing the US' shocking behaviour in support of its own foreign policy. Which includes how it's approaching Iran, the situation in the Middle East, and it's domestic handling of civilian pushback to these military gigs.
Please do recall that the start of this tangent was you barging in and throwing barbs at people based on opinions they don't hold and you still haven't quoted (if you even can).
Also, please do learn how personal attacks work. Classic projection from you here. But hey, it got me to reply.
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E.man
Prince
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Their major backers are the US and I doubt this was even noticed by most ppl there. It certainly didn't show up here in Oz.
That's what the internet is for - decisions by local media no longer cut (double meaning) it.
You’ve read a lot of Chinese history - written in English, though, right?
Really the most pathetic thing about the “governments are all about vibes” mentality is how obviously lacking in any mental rigor it is. Dude literally cannot give even a single argument why China is authoritarian except make vague suggestions that people become uncomfortable sometimes or that it’s “obvious.” The best system in the world except all the others that have been tried relied on slave labor in the hundreds of millions, but as we know westerners are cool with slaves working for them as long as freedom lmao.
Narz
keeping it real
I speak English so yes, your point?
If I read German Jews accounts of the holocaust but translated to English does that mean it didn't happen?
Narz
keeping it real
They got a president for life, usually a telltale sign...
Are you here to argue they're not authoritarian?
That'd be kinda fun to watch assuming you're getting paid (like those videos of people who engage with email scammers), if you actually believe it it'd be more sad than funny (he really is a Nigerian Prince).
Perhaps.
It means you’ve got a secondhand historical resource and the onus is on you to determine who translated it and for what purpose. Or in this case, the onus is on you to understand that the histories of China you’ve read were written by western men. If that’s not true, then by all means share with us your taste in historical literature.
Ah like Angela Merkel, or the Japanese LDP.
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Damn, that's crazy. How many years of Tory rule has the UK gotten to now? 14 I think.
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I could believe that China is the perfect, ideal implementation of Socialism (I don't) and it wouldn't change my argument. Narz's assertion that "At least you have the freedom to moan all day about your government without being taken away." is just demonstrably false. Look at all the students who have gotten arrested on the most flimsy charges. Look at all the BLM protest leaders who have died or disappeared under suspicious circumstances. The level of delusion and disconnect to not acknowledge that things aren't as peachy in the Land of the Free as some would wish to imply...
Narz
keeping it real
I hope you never have to be in a situation that will show you just how inane that comparison is
This is all kinda pointless, because you believe the comparison is meant to put them on the same level, instead of exposing how comfortable our politicians have gotten with being "better".
When a party attempts to subvert democratic elections, is that not authoritarian? When a party re-elects its own leader and this doesn't trigger an election, is that democratic?
The US qualifies for at least one of those, and the UK qualifies for at least another of those (repeatedly, in the case of re-electing leaders not triggering an election - it's how the Tories have kept themselves in power for so long). Now, we can say "oh that's just how they work, them's the Rules™", but that has nothing to do with whether or not these rules are a good thing or not.
"oh I accept the UK has flaws but it's nothing like China"
The point is to be equally-critical about the same problems. China may be worse overall, but if we keep saying "we're okay because we're not as bad as them" things are going to continue to get worse until hey, one day, we are. I'd love for someone to call this a slippery slope but that's the problem with eroding democratic principles. It is a slope. When the UK moves to outlaw peaceful protest, that increases the incline. When the UK restricts voting by introducing voter ID (over a non-problem there's no statistically-relevant evidence to support tackling), that increases the incline.
All these little things add up, and they keep on adding up. The problem is you either don't see these problems, or think that because things are okay now, the worrying is overblown. It's just "white suburban kids" you know? Legal experts, political activists, charities - tons of people have spoken up about these kinds of things. But all we get from geniuses online is "yeah but at least we're not China".
At this point, who cares? Does something have to affect you personally to give a hoot about it? To even see it as a problem?
I mean, you'd assume not, because China is bad, and Iran is bad, and you can bravely say those things with confidence. Nothing either of those countries do affects you. So why the blindness to the creeping badness of Western nations? Just because somewhere else is worse? Give me a break.
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Narz
keeping it real
From what I've read the BLM organizers got pretty rich of the movement, gotta love free enterprise
Narz
keeping it real
Quote me saying "we're ok".
It affects me. No country is an island.
Never said I was brave.
Give yourself a break, it must get tiring arguing with phantoms.
amadeus
burning out his fuse out here alone
Can you read Chinese? This is not a tu quoque.
I’ve never tried to learn it, though I think I’d benefit from learning Japanese since I’m familiar with Chinese characters—even if they don’t translate directly, I’m more comfortable with them and I’ve heard that grammar is much simpler to a native-English speaking person compared to Japanese.
On the topic itself, I think probably a broad history that is fairly balanced could probably be found in the English language. If it were Danish or Slovak, etc. you’d probably be more limited in selection. That said, some more esoteric things aren’t covered I think not because of political bias but just general lack of interest, having translated a few curious things from Japanese that would not really justify the expense of putting them in a book.
Farm Boy
run boy run
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It's a brutal history even by our brutal standards. Such is what you get when one can compare the "vibes(right?)" of sky-daddy administering eternal justice after death and a taboo on talking or thinking about it at all because it's sort of disharmonious.
Maybe global population percentage dips only happen because that's where the people were to be killed in conflicts. Takes a lot of work to make human effort work on the death scale of a plague. Created famines help.
Maybe global population percentage dips only happen because that's where the people were to be killed in conflicts. Takes a lot of work to make human effort work on the death scale of a plague. Created famines help.
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