Nice try. The feigned interest without any intent to actually learn, as if it’s my job to unilaterally lay out how societies should organize themselves.

As if any critique is disallowed unless I have a little red book under my arm to lay before you my exacting plans. I mean, there seems to be a lot of love in here for societies in which dissent is immediately punished by state violence, so I suppose it tracks.

You’re using an old trap of the far-right, never offered in good faith, unironically repurposed by supposed leftists. Trap me in an endless circle of rhetoric where I’m always on the defensive.

I’ve foolishly trodden that road too many times with neo-cons. Not interested any more. No good faith, no discussion. I truly wish you well on your intellectual journey and I also hope it trends toward your own freedom.

The “angle” that no government anywhere should have absolute control over the flow of information. Not in DC, not in Dubai, not anywhere. I abhor it all. China doesn’t get a pass.

A fed? That’s cute. Welcome to Qanon. I’ve lived and worked outside my home country for over 20 years, actually seeing the corners of the world you claim to adore, actually meeting the people and asking the questions because that’s exactly what I do.

Anyway, I’m sure Putin and Xi appreciate your help. I’m all for overthrowing Western hegemony, but surely we can be more creative than using China and Russia as models. Surely.

Yeah, I’ve been all over China, urban and rural. Constitutional right, hilarious. There is a shit ton of poverty, countless people living in shacks. One time I was also there as an alley was literally being bulldozed to ‘cleanse’ it of homeless people for the upcoming Olympics.

I’ve been to Moscow, but I didn’t go all Tucker Carlson over it. It’s a large city that’s mostly bleak, like many other cities I’ve seen across former Soviet states, and I’ve seen plenty of them. In one regard it stood out to me, and that is in how miserable the people seem to be. Dour and without exuberance. If I could think of an opposite-world to Latin American culture, Moscow would be it, and it’s by far the most prosperous region in the vast Russian Empire.

As for speaking to the locals, yeah, I’ve tried to have conversations eliciting their opinions about their lives, not only in Russia and China, but also in Cuba, and many hundreds of times in the Gulf Arab states because I spent so much time there, and I know that look on a human face oh-so-well when they want to say something out loud but they know how dangerous it would be, so they shoo it away and you’re left only with a sad and demure smile. I’ve definitely had those conversations in your paradises countless times.

Stop with your immature romanticizing. There is no utopia, not in the West, not in China, not on Earth. Stop dreaming of heaven like some religious automaton. We’re nothing more than bipedal apes and we’ve just got to make our own communities as good as we can make them. Kill your heroes already.

That is not a subtle deflection. The so-called great firewall is indefensible, as it would also be anywhere else it was implemented.

In other news….

Since the Two-State Solution post got deleted yesterday, I was unable to reply to your comment directed at me when I pressed Send, so I’ll paste it to you below. Ciao.

I’m under no illusions about Western imperialism in its various forms, nor about the slippage of rights Western societies have undergone over the decades, nor about the oligarchic tendencies baked into capitalism, because I have 20 years experience studying and writing about exactly those issues.

However, I live in a world of comparatives, not absolutes, and compared to those in the cities and especially countrysides of Russia and China, I’m incredibly free. Compared to Western billionaires, CEOs, and the politicians that they own, I’m not. When I say death to all tyrants, it’s a broad brush that knows no borders since the bastards can be found anywhere we look, including DC and China, among many others.

I protect no authoritarian regime no matter whether they pretend to espouse the myths of the free market or those of a worker’s paradise. They’re both excuses for a concentration of power, and having lived in various dictatorships as well as purported democracies, I know evil when I see it, and I see it all over.

And now comes the .ml ban. :)

Realizes they have a bullshit job and has a copy of David Graeber’s book on their desk.

Now THAT is some interesting stuff. Have never thought to apply postmodernism to fascism. Insightful.

Is American football not merely a vehicle through which advertising can be pumped? You’d think the entire sport had been designed from the ground up for such a purpose.

Four seconds of action, six minutes of commercials….3.6 seconds of action, 47 replays, five minutes of commercials.

P.S. Smart TVs can eat shit and die.

I haven’t seen much if any support for Trump on .ml, but I don’t claim to be on Lemmy more than a couple times a week.

It’s more about being in love with the hierarchy-destroying bastions of freedom that are Russia and China. You know, those places where workers have real power. Ahem….

Mullvad is amazing. Never tried Posteo.

I’ve been with them since the beginning, and they’ve been doing donations like this for years as part of their annual raffles.

He’s probably heard the same sorry bullshit that by this point he just stomps it.

That being said, I’m also impressed at how well he massages the people he’s speaking with. I mean, he must think that Fridman, Trump, and Musk are asshats, yet he still manages not to flip the table during this interview.

Fridman is a clown like Orban and Fico. “I have a dream of peace,” look at me, all I want is for everyone to hug. Nonsense. His one and only goal is to whitewash Russian aggression and atrocities.

Not once is it discussed that the war could end today if Russia simply withdrew?

Nah, I ain’t buying Fridman’s centrist posturing because it’s simply a lie.

Nicely done. That’s considerate as hell. I appreciate it.

Fucking right. Perfectly stated. Fico is a shit, and clearly so were his predecessors that they thought they could luxuriate in cheap Russian gas forever. What garbage policy-making is this?

I still don’t why there are so many Patriot systems collecting dust all over Europe and the US when they’re needed NOW in Ukraine to actually do the work of saving lives.

Removed by mod

I’m actually kinda surprised the number isn’t higher by this point. I suppose late stage capitalism feels even later stage in my mind. Fucking hell.

Interesting option. Need to figure out if backups can be done without allowing access to iCloud.

Sounds great to me. Nation states have had well over a century to move us forward, and it’s been a miserable failure. ‘Great’ leaders won’t save us. Kill your heroes. Corporations won’t save us because they’re too busy eating our lunch. Everyone needs to realize that institutions don’t work for us, and never did.

The planet burns, yet people all over the world are fiercely debating which one is superior: chocolate or vanilla Soylent Green.