420blazeit69 [he/him]

I think you have a little of that, and a little of this showing that the giga-rich didn’t get that way because they are these perfect human multi-specialty geniuses like they all claim.

Sure, maybe they’re pretty bright in one or two areas. Many successful people are. But they also do real stupid, shortsighted shit like this all the time. They got as rich as they did not on merit, but on family wealth, luck, and exploiting the labor of others.

It’s laughable to cry “whataboutism” when discussing international politics. Comparing how countries act in similar situations is one of the foundations of international law.

Which politicians, and what is your source for popular opinions in Hong Kong?

The ur-gooner

Love how you counter concrete, material facts like “guaranteed housing, employment, and childcare” with fact-free scare mongering like “political pressure” and “control over the media.”

There’s never any analysis about what this shit really means. “The fucking stasi” gets thrown out there like “the boogeyman” without even a thought towards how the U.S. security state violently repressed a nationwide movement against police violence in 2020, or how right now that same security state is violently repressing people protesting the genocide we’re supplying. You’re supposed to belive the stasi is the worst thing possible without ever digging into how it functioned, and certainly without asking how it compared to other states.

See also:

A new book by Kristen Ghodsee, an anthropologist at the University of Pennsylvania, argues that women have better sex under socialism.

If that sounds strange to you, consider this: A survey of East and West Germans after reunification in 1990 found that Eastern women (the socialist side of Germany during the Cold War) had twice as many orgasms as Western women.

What in the world accounts for such a wide gap?

According to Ghodsee, it’s about social safety nets. If, she argues, you build a society that supports women and doesn’t punish them for having children or devalue their labor, it turns out they’ll be happier and have better sex.

But it doesn’t matter how many studies or surveys or policy differences you point to – some guy always has an old relative whose story outweighs everything.

You got bodied and took it like a piss baby

grow up, get a job, buy a calculator

“The only people who struggle with housing costs are stupid children”

If all you did was drop a wiki link that’s a pretty worthless comment. Do you think China is the only country where dissidents get in trouble with the government? Do you think the U.S. doesn’t harass (or worse) dissidents?

Who knows, use your words

We’re talking about ports icing over, which will happen less as global temperatures rise. Bringing up other climate change problems (that are far from unique to Russia) does not change that.

artic north sea

When you have a deep understanding of the issue

It freezes, it will continue to freeze

No, the likely scenario is that maximal ice coverage will (continue to) recede noticeably.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-53308-5

As Arctic ice continues to melt, [the Arctic Northern Sea Route] is anticipated to become more accessible to ships, albeit with navigational availability remaining contingent on the ship category and seasonal considerations.

Seems like most countries would cancel this sort of arrangement with a country funding their opponent in a war

warm water ports

A meme that will only look sillier as climate change gets worse

LinedUp

Or they pad it with a ton of absolute garbage

The thing about genocide is that the concept was formalized as a crime, meaning you do actually have a burden of proof, and you do actually have to provide evidence, and requiring, examining, and weighing the evidence is no more offensive than requiring, examining, and weighing the evidence against someone accused of murder.

And you do actually have to do this analysis, because “genocide” is thrown around all over the place as a political tactic, and plenty of accusations are bullshit (or are you a genocide denier if you call bullshit on the accusation of white genocide in South Africa?).

Who?

A mix of:

1. We can’t really know how things will play out, so I’m going to at least try to nudge things in a better direction. If that helps create a better world, good, if it does nothing, at least I can die in the water wars knowing I tried.
2. But things are very likely fucked, so I’m going to enjoy what I can in life while I can.