Miscellaneous News

[luminary]

This comment is so wrong.

White supremacism is NOT common in Europe. Racism in Europe is not defined around color anymore and it is much milder on average compared to the USA. The problem Europe has is Western dominance is not Western dominance. It is US dominance. The US influence spread unchecked in Europe after WW2 and it is currently so entrenched that countries in the continent don't have a movement space. Multiple generations of bureaucrats were raised in the current environment where Europe acts as an offshoot of pax Americana. Even on a cultural level neoliberal narrative around human rights and democracy is so common that you can't even oppose American narratives in most cases as a politician.

Most people here are aware that Europe isn't the center of the world anymore and are comfortable with this fact. Believe me about this. The problem most people fail to see is the excessive US influence

Sorry, I must've misconstrued that metaphor about the garden and jungle. Besides, the slip was from the EU foreign policy chief, so it's not like I can take it too seriously. I must simply accept Europeans have a special way of communicating I cannot understand as a foreigner.





In seriousness though, I can believe that skin color is less of an issue in Europe. But isn't the human rights + liberal democracy ideology its own form of supremacy? I'd argue that although power (or "the center of the world") has passed from the British Empire to the US, the reason the transition was so comparatively seamless was because the US was a direct European descendent. West Europe and North America share cultural DNA which is why Europeans happily live their imperial glory days vicariously through the US. The US, the "strongest nation in the history of the world", carries on the Western torch and is living proof of their exceptionalism. Europe will struggle hard against rise of China and the rest because we are fundamentally different civilization type. If the rest of the world succeeds in overthrowing their ultimate champion, the US, then it directly disproves this Western mythos.

 

[siegecrossbow]

View attachment 109290
Ants Gang losing faith in America, thinks US government betrayed Guo to get on CCP's good side.

I have noticed a lot of those crazies have this belief that "patriots" can rise up and purge US government of all the pro-CCP elements, free Guo and lead them all to glory. I reckon if you say you're a proud boy raising fund for an uprising against the deep state and return Trump to power you can con a lot of money out of them.

Get some slogans going, like: 杀牛羊，备酒浆，开了城门迎川王，川王来了不纳粮。

Are they actually in the US? What they said is pretty much treasonous content. Maybe I can report them to the government for a minor reward.

 

[Lethe]

While there are certainly contexts where it can be useful to do so, conflating all the various nations of Europe with each other and especially with the United States is going to obscure more than it illuminates.

I think those celebrating the difficulties that nations such as Germany are now experiencing are rather short-sighted. The European Union has long had the latent potential to serve as one of the major poles of a multipolar world, distinct from the United States. The political and economic fallout from the invasion of Ukraine has put an end to this. The Americans are back in charge of Europe now, and with the diminution of especially Germany, and the very different priorities of Eastern Europe as distinct from Western Europe, it is difficult to imagine that in the medium-term Europe could return even to even the "unrealised potential" of the recent past. Now, there is no potential. Henceforth Europe will consist of countries that are either (a) irrelevant or (b) American proxies. And in the aggregate those European countries will dance far more readily to America's tune on China going forward than they would've only a few years ago, reflecting those new configurations of power.

On the subject of the United States and the prospect of new configurations of power producing changes in culture, folks should check out Patrick L. Smith's short book (really, extended essay) Time No Longer: Americans After the American Century. It was published in 2013 in the wake of the failure of the War on Terror and reflects upon precisely these issues. Here are some of my favourite excerpts:

We live among the remains of a defeat of historical magnitude. We need to think, quite simply, of who we have been. Recall our nation’s declared destiny before and during its founding. The Spanish-American War and all that followed—in the name of what, these interventions and aggressions? What was it Americans reiterated through all the decades leading to 2001—and, somewhat desperately, beyond that year? It was to remake the world, as Condoleezza Rice so plainly put it. It was to make the world resemble us, such that it would have to change and we would not. This dream, this prospect of a global society whose imagining made us American, is what perished in 2001. To put the point another way, America lost its long war against time.

Look upon 2001 in this way, and we begin to understand what it was that took its toll on the American consciousness. Those present had witnessed the end of a long experiment—a hundred years old if one counts from the Spanish war, two hundred to go back to the revolutionary era. I know of no one who spoke in these terms at the time: It was unspeakable. But now, after a decade’s failed effort to ‘create reality’, we would do best not only to speak of it but to act with the impossibility of our inherited experiment in mind—confident that there is a truer way of being in the world.”

“An inability to change is symptomatic of a people who consider themselves chosen and who cannot surrender their chosenness. When we look at our nation now, do we see the virtuous republic our history has always placed before us as a sacred chalice? [….] Do Americans have a democratic mission? Finally someone has asked. And the only serious answer is, ‘They never did.’”

 

[siegecrossbow]

Aged well

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1636497531050901504

Reminds me of sailors stranded at sea who needed to drink their own piss to survive.

 

[Serb]

While there are certainly contexts where it can be useful to do so, conflating all the various nations of Europe with each other and especially with the United States is going to obscure more than it illuminates.

I think those celebrating the difficulties that nations such as Germany are now experiencing are rather short-sighted. The European Union has long had the latent potential to serve as one of the major poles of a multipolar world, distinct from the United States. The political and economic fallout from the invasion of Ukraine has put an end to this. The Americans are back in charge of Europe now, and with the diminution of especially Germany, and the very different priorities of Eastern Europe as distinct from Western Europe, it is difficult to imagine that in the medium-term Europe could return even to even the "unrealised potential" of the recent past. Now, there is no potential. Henceforth Europe will consist of countries that are either (a) irrelevant or (b) American proxies. And in the aggregate those European countries will dance far more readily to America's tune on China going forward than they would've only a few years ago, reflecting those new configurations of power.

On the subject of the United States and the prospect of new configurations of power producing changes in culture, folks should check out Patrick L. Smith's short book (really, extended essay) Time No Longer: Americans After the American Century. It was published in 2013 in the wake of the failure of the War on Terror and reflects upon precisely these issues. Here are some of my favourite excerpts:

I think that EU would only verbally bark at China. Or give symbolical sanctions on Chinese officials and individual companies like Huawei, or from Xinjiang, not to China as a whole.

They already have it enough from Russia, GDP freezing and 10% inflation, I don't think they want to x10 that with China.

Regarding Ukraine, they could still lie to themelves that its because of their own "safety", they are doing sanctions and surrendering weapons, since Russia is also bordering them, but in the Taiwan scenario, it isn't the case in my opinion.

 

[coolgod]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1636446515471196167

Comrade Trump is at it again.

 

[olalavn]

There is no sign that US *MANUFACTURING* exports will ever go back to pre-trade war trajectory. In 2022, they fell 3%. US exports of semiconductor equipment and chips finally slowed (demand, export controls). Medical supplies too. Aircraft and autos continue to struggle.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1636352294844235776

 

[BoraTas]

Sorry, I must've misconstrued that metaphor about the garden and jungle. Besides, the slip was from the EU foreign policy chief, so it's not like I can take it too seriously. I must simply accept Europeans have a special way of communicating I cannot understand as a foreigner.





In seriousness though, I can believe that skin color is less of an issue in Europe. But isn't the human rights + liberal democracy ideology its own form of supremacy? I'd argue that although power (or "the center of the world") has passed from the British Empire to the US, the reason the transition was so comparatively seamless was because the US was a direct European descendent. West Europe and North America share cultural DNA which is why Europeans happily live their imperial glory days vicariously through the US. The US, the "strongest nation in the history of the world", carries on the Western torch and is living proof of their exceptionalism. Europe will struggle hard against rise of China and the rest because we are fundamentally different civilization type. If the rest of the world succeeds in overthrowing their ultimate champion, the US, then it directly disproves this Western mythos.

Don't get me started on the EU bureaucracy. The current leaders are so utterly incompetent and corrupt that they turned many European Federalist types to anti-EU people. And ironically these people are not elected despite their daily preaches regarding democracy (which is a quasi-religion nowadays with its own mythos and sins). Borrell's garden comment was idiotic.

The power passed seamlessly from the British to the USA because of European rivalries. The British Empire got butthurt about then rising Germany and Russia. To cover its West it had to ally with the USA. Then the French and British spent themselves in their 50 year long rivalry with Germany. Two massive wars erupted in this time frame. By the end of the second of the said wars Europe was wartorn and Russians and Americans were already in every part of Europe. Otherwise the change would not be seamless. Just look at the late 19th century. The French were 100% okay with killing Germans. The political concept of "the West" didn't exist.

If there was no US propaganda most people would be OK with China. Uyghur genocide accusations etc are what made China this unpopular recently. The problem is the same again. Unchecked US influence

 

[coolgod]

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Brazilian President Lula to visit China

At the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will pay a state visit to China from March 26 to 31, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying announced on Friday.

Lula visiting China for almost a week, I'm guessing he will sign lots of agreements, including BRI agreements.

 

[BlackWindMnt]

At about 6:10 they have the gall to talk about how the US can create incentives for Chinese scientists and engineers to stay in the US and not go back home. That's not going to happen because of good ole American racism. Race is a factor on who they trust. Another factor that no one in the West talks about is American ethnocentrism. Why is it not talked about is because most minorities in the West have had their cultures destroyed by their colonial masters meaning also they've imposed their culture on them. What separates Asians from other minorities is most Asians have their cultures intact. Why is it important for the West to have everyone in the world embrace Western values? Because they control what is of value and if everyone embraces Western values, the West controls them because the only way one can get what is valued is by obeying the West without question or challenge.

You know why loyalty is a thing the West has against Asians? Because Asians have their own culture meaning they have their own values the West doesn't control hence why they question the loyalty of Asians. You can say you embrace Western values but they'll never trust you because you have another culture you know of to fallback on. They like their minorities trapped without any culture except the Western values they want to impose because then they know they'll be in control. The trap of dumb Asians that they fall into all the time is they can say they love America and the West and its values but that's not enough. The only way they can trust Asians is when they have no culture of their own to fall back on and know only Western culture. The only way that can be achieved is when multiple generations will have passed only exposed to Western culture meaning the Asians that surrender first will never reap the rewards. They have to die into to stamp out any cultural values that can be passed onto the next generation. And do you think there's the promised land where the West will love you and trust you? Just look at Blacks and Latinos in the US who had their cultures ripped away from them for multiple generations. They only know Western values. And they believe they're the most disenfranchised people in the world... The West is worse than the devil because at least the devil will give you something when you sign your soul away to him.

It's a joke when the West believes rich Chinese would rather live in the West. They would've never been given the chance to start in the West in the first place. The West believes all rich people in China got where they're at through corruption. So why would they want to live in the West where they have laws against corruption and would prevent them from making money from the only way they know how?

The thing is people assume just because money flows to western real estate, that people are fleeing with their money.

But when you hear western real estate has been growing in value with 8~15% a year and it's relative save why not double your money in a couple of years by investing in western real estate. Good luck finding other relative save investment options in the world that grows as fast in value as Western real estate.