One could argue they have…for Russia at least. They’ve been a great impetus at pioneering industries independent of the dollar. A lot need time to reach maturity still, but that may never have happened if the dollar wasn’t being weaponized.
Marxist-Leninist. Tankie. Based in the imperial vassal state of Japan.
One could argue they have…for Russia at least. They’ve been a great impetus at pioneering industries independent of the dollar. A lot need time to reach maturity still, but that may never have happened if the dollar wasn’t being weaponized.
Dang, the Russian disinformation has corrupted the World Bank now too! They must be using their mind-scramble lasers.
I could be mistaken, I am not an expert on Estonia by any stretch so please correct me if I am wrong, but my understanding was that they were already one of the more fascist leaning EU countries. Which is a…questionably impressive feat.
Very curious how the only Ukrainians we hear say they want to fight are the ones…not fighting. Admittedly, those in the trenches are probably not giving many interviews, but if they were so eager to fight surely the rest should be clamoring to enlist.
Agree, good on the crew for not trying to push through and turning it around. But these planes seriously should not be flying.
Can I get that with the puppet dictator bundle?
Puts on lib hat
Well you see, this shows that the war is basically already won and that Zelensky is getting back to governing affaris because they don’t need to pay attention to those (sorry which slur are we using right now? The hordes one again? Got it) asiatic hordes anymore.
Throws off hat in disgust
Seems to be real, he took a plea and left the UK already. He had to admit guilt to sharing state secrets. Plea was about as good as he was going to get, and given existing health issues makes total sense for him to take it.
I am honestly still floored he got that much, but I am pretty stoked about it.
You’re not wrong, there is a LOT of political apathy from folks. Especially younger working age people who are just determined to get a job and keep their head down. If you join politically active groups that is obviously not the case, but those can be smaller.
Do you mind if the resources are in Japanese, or is English preferable? I have more of the former, but some of the latter.
However, there is a really encouraging silver lining here. While the older generations almost uniformly hate China, the younger generations increasingly say they have a positive view/affinity for China. I think a recent survey had something like 10% of the older generations had a positive view of China, while 40% of younger generations did. Especially among anyone that has traveled there. It’s a trend I hope continues.
The Red Purges were so effective that there really isn’t much socialist ideology at a national level right now, even in the socialist and communist parties.
We exist! With the disclaimer that while I am not natively from Japan, I’ve lived here virtually my entire adult life, over 20 years now, and am naturalized. I am involved with local marxist groups.
Interestingly, Marxism had and continues to have immense influence on intellectual traditions here. It really first came to Japan through universities, and a lot of that continues today. At least at the university and graduate level. A lot of the MEGA project work was done out of Japan, surprisingly enough. If the puppet government and the US hadn’t come down hard on post-war communists in Japan (see: Red Purge), I think it is very likely we would be a socialist state today.
There is definitely a lot of resistance towards US influence that has grown in recent years, I won’t say it all comes from socialists as much as it comse from people who have just been disenfranchised with the US. This is especially true, unsurprisingly, in regions that are directly hosting military bases, particularly in Okinawa/Ryukyu. Which is basically double occupied by Japan and the US. Theft, sexual assaults, drunk incidents are all pretty common side effects. A helicopter actually lost pieces of the helicopter while flying over an elementary school not that long ago. These are all things that have a lot of people really fed up. All the hot dog and hamburger “Friendship Days” they host can’t really make up for these things.
A big issue recently is the relocating of a US base closer to residential areas in Okinawa. Okinawa governor Tamaki refused, so Tokyo courts mandated that he had to approve the permits. The deadline came and went and the governor has refused to do so. While the permits did get rammed through eventually (the governor never caved, Tokyo just went over his head) he delayed everything about four years and significantly eroded public trust in Tokyo.
I don’t necessarily think this is a sign of a full decoupling from the US, but it is definitely an element that has significantly impacted the public perception. I think the average person here would still consider the US an ally, but wants to be less reliant on the US economically and militarily.
It’s possible, but our current leadership couldn’t be anymore a US lapdog so it’s hard under them. That same leadership has basically controlled Japan since ww2 by the way, outside of one very short period. That party is increasingly dropping in popularity though. We have a large “communist” party, but after the red purges they’ve become basically socdems at the national level (I am involved in some local activities with them though and there’s good folks there).
There’s definitely areas/leaders that are pushing back more and more against that, especially any area that has to deal with the US military bases and all the problems they cause. The governor of Okinawa in particular.
With some radical shifts of leadership and maybe a couple more doohickeys, it’s possible. Maybe I am optimistic though.
I was listening to a podcast, and the host was talking about how his son (early middle school age) apparently came home from school singing ad jingles just because of how much they were exposed to it. It’s basically the plot of a dystopian novel.
I feel an urge to scream it into the world every single day just how much i despise ads and whoever invented them.
If you are like me and just like reading history for fun, even the history of things like advertising, there is some actual interesting history there. Advertising goods for sale basically goes back as far as recorded history does. We have examples of adverts from the Song dynasty. These tended to be fairly innocous though. Basically just signs advertising a product sold at a shop.
Modern advertising, the more invasive kind that we hate, unsurprisingly got its start in the US. All the advertising execs that basically set out with the goal of exploiting human psychology to sell product are from the early 1900s in the US/UK for the most part. Nielsen and the dedicated advertising agency came a bit later. Thomas Barratt (UK) was one of the worst, he famously bought the rights to a painting and then added a product he was selling to the painting. The artist hated it but couldn’t do anything about it.
Is this a regular event? Does another mod always reinstate you or something? Or do they just realise they lose half their content when you aren’t supplying them with actual news?
Just read the books. If you prefer watching something, there is already the Tencent adaptation that is pretty good. I prefer the books still though.
There is no [good] reason for that Netflix adaptation.
Dear Mr. Blinken, remind me what the law is in the US should a USian ever be charged in the ICC? I am sure full compliance with all the respect due to international law. You absolutely wouldn’t have a law on the books justifying an invasion of the Netherlands whenever you want, right?
It’s a whole lot of nothing. Technically it is supposed to check for torture, kidnappings, and murder of non-combatants. You know, all things we have evidence of Azov doing. They also passed “Israel” on the vetting.
Supposedly it prevents the US from providing aid to specific units of countries with oppressive regimes, which is the US’s favourite pasttime. It doesn’t even do that though, because the Secretary of Defense can just bypass it for “special circumstances” (read: anything he wants).
Even if it worked exactly like it was supposed to, it only prevents aid to specific brigades. Which means if the US gives aid to a different brigade and then it was passed to Azov, there are no violations.
They have a very different definition of “particularly effective” than I do. I usually reserve it for military brigades that have successful operations, but maybe that’s just me.
That part killed me. Even if she were in the right in the situation (obviously she isn’t) if you are planning on getting into a shouting match with protestors, maybe have your [presumably] husband take the pram while you go have your shout. It is totally not okay to bring that poor child into the middle of that, and he just looked absolutely bewildered.
I am impressed at the patience of some of the protestors trying to explain to her why they held the position they did though.
It’s a good thing the capital flight laws were in place already. Seeing millionaires (and up) fleeing a country is probably one of the most overt signs that China is obviously doing something right.
I mean, there are dozens of other metrics that show that too, but it’s nice to have another one.