He likely asked Xi to do something relating to Iran and this was one of the conditions.

My only gripe with this is that the state in its current form cannot be trusted to be an impartial judge of what constitutes hate speech. We see today that many states around the world are using anti hate speech laws to suppress criticism of the state of Israel. Giving the state broad powers to crack down on speech that it deems hateful will inevitably result in the state deciding that all criticism of its actions or the actions of its allies constitutes hate speech.

As an alternative, I prefer that hate speech be met with social consequences rather than criminal ones.

I’m responding to the meme which presents learning and critique as separate and mutually exclusive. In order to learn from something you have to critique it, and if you believe that China is not perfect then you know this and should agree with me.

There’s also another thing you’re doing that I see MLs do all the time, which is posit that Chinese socialism is uniquely suited to China and that it must be implemented differently in other places. While I do agree that this is the case, I often see MLs use this argument to excuse flaws in the implementation of socialism in China as necessary alterations required due to the particular conditions and historical circumstances in which it was created.

IMO there were many wrong turns and mistakes that China made in its socialist transition that have had lasting negative consequences, and though they can often be explained by China’s particular conditions and historical circumstances, that doesn’t excuse them.

This is reminding me a lot of the Prairieland case in the US, and that really doesn’t bode well for the defense.

Surely you know precisely what I’m referring to.

I didn’t want to assume that you were unashamedly calling for war crimes, but thank you for spelling it out and removing all doubt. What you are hoping for is morally reprehensible.

What does “going all out” mean in this context?

Learning and critique are the same thing. If you look at China and go “this is perfect in every way and we should copy it,” then you aren’t actually learning anything at all. In my experience MLs don’t get angry with anarchists and others critical of China because they don’t learn from Chinese socialism, but because they don’t like the conclusions they’ve made.

The warehouse fire thing is just a case of Apophenia. The one toilet paper warehouse arson caused people to go looking for local news reports of warehouse fires and - because they happen all the time - they found them. That doesn’t mean they’re connected or that there’s a wave of arsons vis à vis resistance against corporations. There has been no actual uptick in warehouse fires.

The problem people had with his reddit account was that he was a raging communist lol. I believe that he was naive enough during his deployment to get a Nazi tattoo without knowing, I’m personally more concerned by the fact that after his 4th deployment he returned to the middle east as a Blackrock mercenary guarding Abu Ghraib prison, the one infamous for torture.

In spite of this though, it’s better that he wins than Janet Mills or Susan Collins.

They’re in the wrong program then, that skill is more useful for business majors.

The person asking the McDonald’s AI how to reverse a linked list in Python is almost certainly an undergrad in a programming 101 course, so this was definitely quicker for them (although they didn’t learn anything).

Alcohol has also just been more prevalent in human cultures dating back to prehistory. Some of the earliest evidence we have of permanent human settlements were breweries, theorized to have been built by people who still lived semi-nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyles. That would mean that humans first started making permanent settlements and doing large-scale agriculture only to produce alcohol, and still mainly relied on hunting and gathering for their caloric needs. Other drugs / intoxicants have been used by humans for at least as long, but none have been so central to the development of civilization and culture than alcohol.

If you want to explore classical Marxist ideas in an entertaining way, check out Michael Burns on YouTube. He used to run the channel Wisecrack and makes videos about philosophy, and he is a classical Marxist who talks a lot about Marx and Engels. That being said, these days you’re not going to find much discussion of Marx that doesn’t cover Marxism-Leninism in some way.

Ranked choice helped Mamdani get elected. It doesn’t have to favor moderate candidates if like-minded candidates form coalitions and campaign together, like Mamdani and Lander did.

The banana republic dictators were installed by the US and acted in line with US interests. It was only a matter of time that the repression tactics used there would find their way back home. Fascism is imperialism turned inward.

Nah, the DINOs are the good Democrats. They’re the party outsiders trying to realign the party. The real Democrats are these AIPAC shills. This is the true nature of the DNC as it stands and has stood for a long time.

The US killed Iran’s leadership and strengthened their resolve. Now a bunch of younger, more creative, and more passionate people have taken leadership positions. Iranian propaganda has proven more effective and internet savvy, and their military decision-making has likely improved due to destagnation. Trump literally threatening to wipe the entire civilization off the face of the earth likely pushes Iranians who are against the regime to reconsider (even if only temporarily while they deal with the bigger threat), and I couldn’t say I wouldn’t make the same judgment if I were in their position. What a colossal failure, but hey, at least the defense contractors are making money, right? I can’t wait for the blowback from this to inspire the next round of interventions, if we’re even still around by then.

Iran is right not to recognize the legitimacy of the Israeli state, because it was recently created via a violent settler-colonial occupation culminating in a genocide. It’s not black and white, but it isn’t completely fucking gray either, and there are some parts of this that are black and white.

From the American Declaration of Independence:

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness—-That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Israel de facto governs the Palestinian people without their consent, depriving them of all rights and treating them as disposable. In this case where Israel has refused all attempts of the Palestinians to alter this arrangement the only path that remains to them is to abolish the Israeli state, as is their right. Israel does not have a right to exist and no other state does either. The existence of any state is a privilege derived from the consent of the governed.

There are photos of the rescued pilot out there. They’re not real of course (AI generated), but they are being circulated by high-profile politicians presenting them as real.

I wouldn’t dare speculate lest I end up as crazy as Professor Jiang.