Outside of a government imposing tyranny-tier control over everyone’s wealth, wealth inequality happens naturally, and inevitably, and the gap widens similarly.

Hmm, this tyranny idea sounds pretty interesting then.

No, but I do remember when Brian Thompson was killed and UnitedHealthcare started granting a bunch of claims to the point that shareholders sued them over it, at least until the heat died down. In that time, countless lives were saved.

The same people who rage against authority and advocate prison abolition seem to love becoming “dungeon masters.”

The “resource curse” is just people trying to pretend imperialism isn’t responsible. Norway has plenty of oil and they have a high quality of life, because nobody invaded them.

Plenty of these countries had leaders who wanted to use their resources to help the people, but the powers that be, most often the US, didn’t want that. And so for example Mohammed Mossadegh of Iran, a peaceful, democratically elected progressive, was overthrown by the CIA, and he was replaced by a monarch who could be easily bribed and would use the oil to enrich himself. And when that monarch caved to domestic pressure and participated in an oil embargo, US support was withdrawn and he was overthrown and the current government came to power.

There’s no “mystery” or “curse.” It’s just imperialism. The story generally goes that these resources were stolen by force during colonialism and remained in foreign hands after independence and the country still functions as a neocolony, leading to poverty and exploitation, or war and instability if they challenge it.

Trying to fund the entire military complex through tariff revenues would mean cutting 3/4ths of military spending, or 5/6th of Trump’s proposed spending.

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First there’s the base level of competence. He wasn’t actively making everyone worse, every day.

Yes he absolutely was.

So ban everyone but anarcho-pacifists from political discourse? Or does systemic violence not count?

The number of Chinese Marxist-Leninists alone vastly outnumbers us Western tankies. The vast majority of “tankies” live in various countries outside of the imperial core.

Even in the US, the most prominent and successful “tankie” organization was the Black Panther Party.

Who is this they you are talking about?

Your fucking government, dumbass. The EU. The people implementing the policy in question. I know y’all act like any criticism of the Israeli government is antisemitic, but does that protection now extend to any criticism of the EU?

I think not having ties with Russian state propaganda for living normally is a risk I’m willing to take, as its no effort for me.

Nothing to hide so you have nothing to fear, eh? Yeah, millions of Americans were fine with our government using extralegal punishments and detentions because they thought it would be limited to terrorists. Now we’re being dragged away to secret torture dungeons in El Salvador.

But fortunately, I’m sure that nothing bad will come of European governments having the tools to punish people without charge or trial. I mean, honestly, what do you even need rights for? Just trust the people in charge to sort out the good guys and the bad guys.

Say, unrelated, but how’s the AFD doing these days? And, purely hypothetically, if they got into government, how would you feel about them having a precedent that would allow them to apply these punishments to anyone they consider to have engaged in wrongthink?

All these other speculations you’re pointing to you would have to prove to me first.

What speculations would I have to prove? That domestic polls are unreliable?

I’ve seen a lot of people dismiss domestic polls in China that show overwhelming support for the government as unreliable. I’ve never seen one of them feel the need to prove it, or present a shred of evidence. In fact, when outside polls have confirmed those results, they just say that they’re all “brainwashed” or “propagandized.”

Not quite as fun when it’s your people’s perspective that’s being written off, is it?

while I don’t approve of the method

Is it safe for you to say this?

If you say something they don’t like, they could do the same to you, no charge, no trial. And criticizing that practice might be something they don’t like, even if not today, then maybe tomorrow.

You’re probably fine for now because you justified the actions by attacking the victim, but this might be as critical as you’re allowed to be.

I think we need to start getting some reliable, neutral outside polls on Europe to see how they really feel about their governments. Maybe we can bring in some Chinese pollsters. Obviously anyone voicing approval in domestic polls is just afraid of the repercussions of voicing a negative opinion.

Yes, I would. Or if he was to be removed, that should be up to the Libyans, without foreign interference.

Gaddafi was removed not because of any humanitarian reason but because he stood in the way of foreign interests. Gaddafi asserted Libyan control over Libyan oil and redirected at least some of that money towards the Libyan people (the per capita income in Libya under Gaddafi was 5th highest in Africa), and that was fundamentally unacceptable to the US and its allies, just as it has been in for nearly every country in the region. What they want are states like Saudi Arabia, where the ruling class can be bought off on a personal level to keep the oil flowing while repressing the people.

US/NATO led regime change never produces good outcomes for anyone but oil companies and war profiteers, and that’s by design. If they can’t control it, they can at least deny the resources to others and set an example for any other country that attempts to assert control over their own resources. NATO opened a pandora’s box of chaos and there’s no telling if or when it will end, just as US-led forces did in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

I’d say that you refuse to learn from history and seem dead-set on repeating the mistakes of the past, but again, they were never mistakes. The people making the decisions got exactly what they wanted, it’s only a mistake from the absolutely delusional perspective that intervention in places like Libya, Afghanistan, now Iran (yet again), were ever driven by any thought of helping ordinary people. The purpose of a system is what it does.

I don’t recall the UN resolution telling them to assassinate Gaddafi and destabilize the country.

Was Libya also populated by Chinese bots?

But you’re telling him he doesn’t understand basic economics

Timeless

If there are flaws with that system, and FPTP is very flawed, the election is not the place to change it.

Then what is the place to change it?

Presuming you have elections that aren’t rigged or ignored, anyways.

And what if they are?

You’re just as wrong either way. If you’re talking about the general public, then your demanding the people change their views to line up with those of a politician, rather than the other way around. Not only is that antithetical the the very idea of democracy, it’s also just impractical. Isn’t it much easier to get one person to change their views instead of millions? Why are you focusing on the millions then?

It’s because you’re looking at things from entirely the wrong framework - one that has internalized the supposed “superiority” of the ruling class and asks nothing from them, instead trying to discipline the public to serve the elites unquestioningly and unconditionally. Your worldview is completely upside down.

How are those two statements different?

Because one of those is a public figure who’s supposed to be representing the will of the people and the other is just some random person.

We already have perfectly fine meat substitutes. Have you actually tried them? They’ve come a long way.

I don’t know that lab grown meat will ever be able to replace meat if people keep eating it at the same rate. Besides, there’s nothing I, as an individual, can do to advance the progress lab grown meat. I can help advance the progress of meat substitutes by… buying them instead of meat.

Cutting meat out of my life saves the lives of countless animals. That is a lot more practical than wishing upon a star that lab grown meat was more developed or economically viable.