It’s ok. Respect to anyone that knows more than one language. I just found your initial comment interesting.

I was trying to make the point that China is a focus of western media because they are a threat to the interest of the wealthy people that rule the US; or at the very least want them to be seen as a threat. So, any chance to talk about past events the western audience views as negative towards China, like Tiananman Square, makes world news.

In contrast to your comment about Romania. I agree. The west would not care. Not because it is not historically interesting or relevant, but because Romania is not a threat to western interests. So they don’t jump on the opportunity to display them in a negative light. They largely ignore anything that happens there. Unless one of our sex offenders like Andrew Tate decides to make his home there. Sorry about that lol.

Not sure if that clarifies it. But I don’t disagree with what you said about the west not caring about Romanian history. Our media decides to cover things that uphold the interest of our ruling wealthy class.

I don’t disagree. But you didn’t really get my point.

Sure. But this is World News. And it’s constantly filled with “remember when China was a shit hole and America was a superpower?!”.

Do you think if new footage of the Romanian revolution was found it would be on the top of a World News sub? No. Because the West isn’t trying to manufacture consent for a war with Romania.

That’s my point. It’s not that the footage isn’t meaningful. It’s WHAT the footage is being used for by it being covered by western media and the response (see the comments here) that it instills.

I more just hitting a breaking point of being tired of cold war agit-prop with China. No one is watching a 6 hour long video or talking about the historical context here. They’re just getting fed “China Bad” so America can justify more wars for oil.

If you see history as a change in “ideas” and not in a change in the material conditions of a people well then, yeah, your incorrect perspective of progress is what you will end up with.

China has surpassed the west in all aspects of material improvement to their citizens. They are leading the world into a green energy revolution. They have built more solar energy production in the last year than the entire rest of world has built in all of history.

Acting like China is “the same” today as it was 30-40 years ago is just absolutely ignoring material reality.

It’s hard to have this conversation with someone that views the world through the “idea” of having freedoms. Instead of looking at things being part of society that actually cause one to have freedom. Things like, healthcare, shelter, affordable food, transportation, education, etc.

If you judge China’s freedom by ones access to basic fundamental parts of a society that actually allow one to BE free. They have significantly more freedom than the average American does today.

Do I agree with their crackdowns on speech? No, especially now that they have solidified their position as a world superpower. I think it’s an unnecessary hold over from a time when they were in danger of outside influence meant to destroy their system of governance.

Having said that, they ARE heading in the right direction when it comes to free speech. The west is currently heading in the wrong direction with speech. America and Britain are especially moving in the wrong direction as they opress anyone that criticizes, not just the countries leaders, but even the leaders of a foreign country like Israel.

You saying China is “the same” as it was 30-40 years ago. Is just cope.

I really wish the people in the west would learn from China’s success. Unite in improving the material conditions of both nations and all nations. But for some reason there is just blind hostility towards a country that has done nothing but trade peacefully with us for most of its history.

Nothing has changed? Jesus Christ I didn’t think someone could be so ignorant.

If you’re seeing anti China stories about literally pre Bush times - asks yourself: why?

This is “World News?”. Wtf? No, this is historical shit that belongs in a fucking museum. (Thank you Indiana).

Why are people commenting on China like the last 30+ years hasn’t happened? Does it make us feel good when they are absolutely dunking on us as our incompetent form of governance sends us spiraling to another financial crisis? Seriously. How the fuck is this world news?!

Like, would we be criticizing Germany today if some new photos of the concentration camps were found?

I’m sorry. The fact that we let this shit get posted in “world news” is just pandering to the right wings “war with China” narrative that is completely unjustifiable. Reddit levels of garbage mods.

So, how WOULD you kill it without pain?

I feel like numbers at this point just are pointless. It’s like, can we use vocabulary that actually describes the situation instead of updating this every time the decimal point shifts?

Describing it in terms of wealth is kind of dumb. It gives the idea that the systems that caused this (Imperialism, colonialism, capitalism) are the solution. Like, the global South just needs “investment”. The numbers are this bad because of a century of western “investment” in its exploitation the global South.

There isn’t a number attached to this that somehow fixes the problem when we reach it. This is about what essentially amounts to slavery and subjugation of the majority of this planet. The language of these news articles is so passive. Like it’s describing the amount of stars in the galaxy.

As someone that grew up with an “unmonitored” internet. I can say that it was significantly more healthy than the profit driven “keep watching” algorithm that is all of social media today.

Yeah. I saw “two girls one cup” and “lemon party”. But, did I slowly have my perspective of reality changed by the 30 second videos I swiped on for hours at a time for days on end?

No, most of my time was spent learning about computers, “stealing” music, and chatting with my real life friends.

I don’t think a kid today can experience that internet anymore. It’s gone. But acting like “unmonitored” internet access is worse is pearl clutching and ignoring the fundamental problems the profit driven internet has created at the expense of societies mental health.

Kids will absolutely find another place to connect online in Australia. But, honestly, I think whatever that is will be healthier than the absolute brain rot that is profit driven social media.

We got to this point because parents think that kids need a monitored internet. Afraid of online predators. So it was passed off to corporations that learned how to systematically institute mental abuse in order to keep their apps open longer.

It’s a bandaid. And just like previous attempts like this all this will do is make Australian kids better at circumventing the censorship or using an alternative website. Which, honestly, is probably a positive in and of itself. I’d much rather my kid be visiting some random forum type website (like I grew up with) then the absolute brain rot that is social media algorithms.

Seeing “lemon party” posted before the mods removed it definitely fucked me up less than the slop being fed into the brains of teenagers on social media today.

If all American foreign policy just disappeared the world would be at a net positive overnight - and it’s not even close.

3 years of us arming Ukraine, encouraging them to NOT negotiate (when they had much better position to previously than they do now), and then abandoning them once we finished dumping all our weapons. America was proud to fight to the last Ukrainian.

Russia is like the bullie that punches you in the face.

America is like the bullie that spends weeks pretending to be your friend just so they can steal your lunch money, humiliate you in front of your friends, and then push you into the other bullie that’ll punch you in the face for bumping into them.

Also, Trump just puts a blunt face to what America has always been. Foreign wars in this country are bipartisan. Ukraine would be just as fucked if Harris was president. She’d just have a better narrative for it to make Americans feel less guilty for the fucked up way we treat our “allies”.

Well, explain in what what way my analogy was bull shit then. Because it’s not perfect, but creating a hypothetical analogy based around America is sometimes the only way to get Westerners to understand something.

But, you, trying to equate the real bay of pigs invasion to an invasion of Taiwan that was dumb. It just showed you don’t know the history of the Chinese civil war (the entire point of my analogy in the first place) or the history of Cuba.

But, go ahead. I’m waiting for you to explain why my hypothetical analogy is bull shit. I explained why yours was.

And you still haven’t answered why you want the US involved with defending Taiwan. That really worked out well for Ukraine. Fighting for years so we could sell them weapons, get their men killed, and then abandon them once we found a new war to start.

Your analogy is completely off. Cuba wasn’t ever historically a part of the US. Did not participate in a civil war within the US.

I think you need to read up on your history before you try to make a “better analogy”. I used the American civil war as an example because Americans seem to be completely ignorant to the fact that Taiwan exists as separate from mainland China because of a civil war.

Cuba literally liberated itself from a US supported dictatorship. The US did invade Cuba during the bay of pigs though. China has literally never even attacked Taiwan though. So, it’s really not at all compareable. Taiwan exist today as separate from China because the losing side of a civil war retreated there.

China in the 1950s absolutely would have every right to invade Taiwan and overthrow the western supported dictatorship that existed there. It would literally be liberating it’s own people.

The issue is that they didn’t; the people there were forced for decades to live under a puppet dictatorship of the west due to US support.

But, again, we are in this situation in the first place because of US global interests. For some reason no one can answer why the best solution is not for the US to stop trying to control and maintain influence over countries half way across the world?

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It’s just so odd to me. Like, the historical parallel here would be if during the US civil War the Confederate army retreated to the Florida Keys and the Union was never able to conquer them due to other international conflicts.

So for 30 years the Confederates rule there with slavery and a dictatorship over the people. All the while they keep calling themselves “The real America”

The “Keys” see progress eventually following a less hostile relationship with the Union and have their dictatorship replaced by a more liberal form. A normalizing could occur and diplomatic relations between the Keys and the rest of America could occur peacefully and under the wishes of the existing people of the Keys.

BUT, for some reason some other country on the other side of the world has been establishing military alliances and bases near the Keys. They are “allies” with the Keys but on paper acknowledge the Union as the “real America”.

Say what you want about China today. But, what the fuck is America even doing here? They don’t reduce tensions with Taiwan or “protect it”. They don’t care about democracy. They literally supported its fascist leaders for decades. America’s hostile invasion of Korea to support fascist over communist is the entire reason that Taiwan was never captured by mainland China during their civil war. They did not want to risk conflict with the Western state that was doing everything to install loyal dictators in Korea and their neighbors.

China can have bad intentions and not give the people of Taiwan their now rightful self determination. I’m not saying that isn’t true. But, holy shit, Americans just eat up the “we have to be a part of ever conflict ever”. Like, can we just let that play out? We’re clearly not interested in Taiwan because we care about “freedom”. Did we learn nothing from the middle east?

That is not why the US cares about it. The US will abandon them (or bomb them) if it’s beneficial to US oligarchs to do so. Can we get some healthcare and stop worrying about what China does in its own backyard?

To be an enemy of the US is dangerous. To be an ally of the US is fatal.

You’re not wrong. But what is missing is all the cult building that he did since them. He built his entire political career on mentioning things other politicians refused to mention and then gaining loyalty for it. While, at the same time, literally doing nothing about any of the popular ideas he mentioned.

Well said. I probably would have taken 5 paragraphs to explain it so well. Imperialist interest align.

Hamas has power because they are resisting an apartheid state. I’m sorry but I absolutely hate this take. You can criticize a state when it gains sovereignty and is enacting unjust laws against its citizens. But when the only resistance to an apartheid state is a right wing faction that right wing faction is still correct for resistance.

Do you think the solution to the unjust Jim Crow laws of the segregation in the US South would be for Canada to start carpet bombing Atlanta? A people can not make progress within their state structures while under the thumb of oppression and apartheid.

The time to criticize the Palestinian state is after there is a sovereign Palestinian state. Hamas on paper might have right wing ideas. But Hamas as a force fighting an apartheid state against the genocide of its people is absolutely fully justified. And that’s who makes up “Hamas”.

The Palestinian people don’t have the luxury of deciding which ideology is fighting to resist their extermination. And not until they have self determination as a people can they begin to actually progress in their civil rights.