The Democrats are controlled opposition, more at 11.

Taiwan is if the US Confederacy fled to Cuba and displaced most of the people living there after they lost the US Civil War. Cuba had an American aligned dictator in place who got ousted by popular revolutionaries. Taiwan claims to be the real government of China, while Cuba is the government of Cubans who live in Cuba. They are nowhere near comparable.

I swear, erotador makes one small comment about being poly and it turns into a winding ass thread about the ethics of monogamy. I may be poly, but if I was in a relationship with the expectation of monogamy, I’d feel betrayed if they then broke that expectation without telling me. The problem wouldn’t be that they slept with someone, the problem would be that they lied. They would be free to be with whoever they want, but all of my relationships are contingent on open communication. If that communication isn’t there, then the agreement is broken.

It wasn’t before, but the USA is currently a fascist dictatorship and it’s kinda hard to argue it gets more authoritarian than that. The few freedoms we still have are fading remnants that have yet to be snuffed out. Just because they have yet to build the firewall doesn’t mean they won’t.

The major difference between the two going forward is whenever or not the state steers the country, or the self interested oligarchs. It’s very clear that China’s industrial capitalism was more wise for the interests of their empire, while America can’t compete so long as oligarchs steer the ship towards short term profits. This isn’t to say that China is eternally better than the US, as imperial prosperity ebs and flows.

However, China is the safer bet going forward, especially if we see another red scare as Americans begin to realize that their empire lost. If people get distracted fear mongering about communism, they’ll never fix the problems that actually made America fall behind. If I’m right about that, then the US is in for decades of decline.

Iran ain’t agreeing to that. It’ll just be Trump imposing a toll immediately after ships leave the strait.

That’s the key thing about your way of thinking: you need me to support one side. The idea of not giving critical support to one side just doesn’t cross your mind.

I love when people throw out basic facts like they expect nobody to know anything. Only you can enlighten us. Only you see the truth of who the real bad states and good states are.

The bigger irony of this is that a Trump actually doing this would further turn the world away from the US. If it was just Iran imposing the toll, over time the international community would sour on Iran for not moving past the war. This would economically benefit the US more than any direct cashflow from a toll ever would, as it would stabilize devestment from America. Now nobody will ever blame Iran for the toll, solidifying the loss in American soft power forever.

It was never free and we were never brave.

Straps for Jesus 🙏

It’s a joke. Trump’s is just only interested in his personal power and bully mindset, not what actually made the empire powerful.

It’s impressive how much Trump seemingly wants China to gain power and the US to lose it.

The 25% will likely never wake up. It’s the 13% or so who enable the 25% who can actually be “flipped”

If what you want is America tasting its own medicine, that’s unlikely. Even if the empire loses most of its international luster, only civil war could bring war to the homeland. That is at least a decade or more away if it ever happens, and by then the villains responsible for this mess will be dead. A civil war between nuclear armed factions would also be a huge crisis, as could the possibility of those weapons ending up in the hands of new villains.

Shit is fucked no matter how you look at it. Hell getting forced onto others never makes things better, as all of the imperial meddling by the US has proven.

Tbf, Taiwan is in increasing danger as everything the US does seems to make it easier for them to invade successfully. The energy crisis is causing countries that might’ve assisted Taiwan to invest in Chinese green energy. Trump proving again and again that past agreements with America mean little under him would make it much harder for America to rally support for a country that isn’t even accepted in the United Nations. It doesn’t help that China has made huge advancements in their Navy and gotten to test their military technology in a couple real conflicts against their American counterparts. It looks increasingly likely that the US won’t have much of a say in protecting Taiwan, no matter how much they try.

On top of that, if China takes Taiwan they’ll take control of the most advanced chips the west has. The US building their entire economy around speculation into AI has made them vulnerable to an economic collapse if China invades. As China’s own chip manufacturing and dominance over the rare earth market increases, they can deliver a fatal blow to American dominance by simply doing what they’ve promised to do for decades. Most of the world will not be that surprised or outraged by their invasion, especially when the US and their allies have engaged in even less justifiable wars of conquest recently.

China can take Taiwan with minimal international blowback while also securing economic dominance in numerous sectors. The main defender of Taiwan will have a spent military from fighting Iran, fewer allies, and a TACO for a leader. It’s sad, but Taiwan is so fucked that them surrendering might be the best thing they can do.

The only silver lining is that the data a noninvasive headset can collect is limited, and only really useful if you can tie it to whatever stimulus the person is experiencing. It’s still scary af if they do manage to get good data from you.

They probably count people like the Unabomber as left wing.

ok, I see how it is

That’s a bargaining tactic because they know they’ll never get them. They’re asking for more than they’ll realistically get to get as much as they realistically can. They’ll probably demand the US doesn’t bring military vessels through the strait or something similar, limiting their ability to attack in the future.