Most people have fallen for neolib propaganda… of “we don’t have enough money for free universal healthcare”, “if you want free university we’ll need to raise taxes” etc etc.

They think the government is a household.

As I said, the initial inflation was caused by supply chains shock. Many countries had lockdowns. Like China, who produces the majority of everything anyone purchases around the world. Then when the lockdowns ended there was a shortage of shipping containers.

Inflation is caused when money is printed and sits in financialized investment. If it’s used to increase productivity it causes the opposite.

China has been running massive deficits (printing money like crazy) for over a decade and they have very consistent and low inflation.

It’s just that this argument, based on things that are not facts since the 70s, is used to cut social programs, investment in education, infrastructure etc.

When it makes no sense. The gvmt is not gonna go broke from paying its programs. It prints its own money, and all its debt is denominated in dollars.

We SHOULD cut military spending, subsidies to harmful industries, to private prisons, police forces etc. The way the money is spent SHOULD reflect the will of the people more.

But this argument about “revenue” and “public debt” are literally from the mouths of establishment neoliberal ghouls who have no objective other than enriching their friends. It’s not reality and is only used for harm.

That was only true when money had any relation to a physical good like gold.

Fiat money dominates, and it’s not bound by anything.

Like I’m not saying any crazy conspiracy theory. It’s just how the world has worked since Nixon…

How is it wrong if it’s factually what happens now? People have a “common sense” understanding of how the government works, and THAT is wrong.

Ever since fiat became the norm, all governments all over the world that print their own money and have debts denominated in their own currency simply print money to spend, for their budget. That is a FACT.

Only countries that have the majority of their debt denominated in another currency (the dollar mainly) that face inflation when printing money.

The US and Europe printed trillions during covid, and that barely caused a blip in inflation. Inflation only came after supply chains shock and the war.

Like do some basic research, if I’m so obviously wrong it will be very easy to see…:

Why do people think the federal budget comes from taxes?

The government prints money, pays for its budget, and THEN it taxes. It can’t wait for tax dollars to pay for the budget. Taxing is to make the dollar necessary and force its flow back to the government.

They mostly “burn” all your tax dollars…

Like the gvmt is not a company. It doesn’t have “obligations” and “revenue”. It fucking PRINTS the money. If any company could print money, they would stop giving a fuck about revenue instantly.

It’s racism plain and simple. “Brown” people are slow and ‘can’t work good’ or some shit.

If you don’t love fashion, don’t try to “keep up with trends”.

Think of it this way. Fashion can be a hobby. You can spend hours every week researching, studying, searching for clothes. You can participate in message boards or discord groups for it. You can travel just for it.

Like photography. Like working out. Like gardening.

You can still like to take some pictures, and want them to be nice, without making photography your hobby. Same with going to the gym, or keeping some plants in your apartment.

So if fashion is not the hobby for you, don’t worry about it too much. Just learn what is good for you. Don’t care about the trends.

You can dress in any style nowadays tbh.

Just be mindful of getting a good fit on your clothes. Make sure the length of the pants is right, they fit well around the waist etc.

Maybe find a couple of ppl on social media you like the way they dress, and just passively absorb their content while scrolling.

Then go shopping from time to time, when you feel the need for a piece of clothing. Like maybe you need new pants, maybe you need new shoes.

You’ll have an idea of what kind of stuff you like, how you’d like to have your clothes fit etc.

But yeah, you don’t have to make fashion a hobby if you don’t want to. Trends are for kids and fashion autists.

I think they mean a real person, the player, would need a minimum of “12 charisma” to even think of saying something like that to the DM.

And the meme says “me with 8 real life charisma” y’know, so less than 12.

Yeah? The executives are firing people, to lower costs, make the numbers look better…? Which makes the owners of the business money?

Why wouldn’t the executives get bonuses or golden parachutes if let go? They are doing exactly what they are supposed to do.

Executives don’t make products, provide services, or add any productive value. They are just the face of the owners, and will do the “hard” things for them.

Like lie, commit crimes, do mass-layoffs etc etc.

Dang I can’t find anything on that that’s not NED propaganda /: seems like it’s fake surprise surprise

That’s not a thing 😄

What “Han Chinese policy”…?

You know the one-child policy only applied to Han Chinese in major cities right? Ethnic minorities were exempt.

And ethnic minorities have autonomy, meaning they rule themselves and have their own laws/governments. Like the Tai people in Guangxi, or Inner Mongolia where they still have signs in the Mongolian script. While in Mongolia they use the Cyrillic alphabet 😄

The Chinese government sponsors local cultural events and practices, builds temples to local religions (like the largest Buddhist temple in the world in southwest China), incentivizes learning local languages (by having bilingual schools) etc etc.

What has any western country done in that respect? In guarding and preserving minority cultures? Like how are Canada or Australia doing? I won’t even mention the US 😄

Lmao vuvuzela ok gotcha

Can it become a global superpower without becoming “democratic”?

Because that means a liberal western style democracy right? Where policies enacted by representatives only benefit 1% of the people? Like scientific research has shown that like 10% of laws passed actually represent the will of the vast majority of people. And 50% represent the will of the 1%.

While in China people are constantly polled (like monthly or weekly sometimes) about their opinions, situations, desires, and then laws are formed from that. They participate in local government in councils, and directly decide how their immediate community lives.

What even is democracy? To me it’s to have the will of the people represented in our states.

This doesn’t happen anywhere in the west. When was the last time a government in any major western country was POPULAR. And did what people actually wanted?

How is THAT democracy?

China is not easy to immigrate to, true. But saying they are monocultures or xenophobic is CRAZY.

China has way more peoples and cultures than most countries. It has waaaay more languages officially spoken and taught in school than the US. It’s more comparable to the EU, if it had formed like a thousand years earlier.

Just search a couple of random Chinese provinces or autonomous regions (places where minorities self-govern 😲) in like the north and the south, or the west and the east, and read on the culture and ethnicities there.

Seriously Americans insist they have such vast cultural differences within the US, because “here we say pop and there they say soda; most people here are anabaptist, but there they are Methodists”.

Bro in China they speak languages that are not even related. They follow religions that are separated by thousands of years. They have cultural practices that are unique to their region that developed for thousands and thousands of years.

China is infinitely more diverse than 90% of countries in the world.

Hummm the “liberal world order” is 100% “countries” using arms to push their will. Countries being “the west”.

And YOU having “human rights” is not really dependent on the “liberal world order”. Most of your rights were won by blood and tears during the late 1800s and early 1900s, through popular movements mostly ideologically aligned first with anarchism then with communism.

Also, the vast majority of the world not having human rights and being colonized and exploited IS your “liberal world order”.

So not really sure how you specifically benefit from western imperialism, unless you are a billionaire ofc. Which I highly doubt.

I liked it because it didn’t feel like nostalgia slop. It felt like trying to take things in a new direction, while still rooted in the universe. Like the best of legends stuff tbh, in intentions and execution. Without being bound to actual legends stuff, making it just nostalgia slop (rise of Skywalker…).

I liked it was just a good movie as well. Great acting, great editing, great cinematography.

I grew up loving Star Wars, but I was never the attached type in general. I will always have the original trilogy, the clone wars tv show, the prequels to watch. Nothing changed about them with what happens in the Last Jedi. I don’t feel offended by a new thing being different.

Idk, it just felt so much better than Force Awakens, which felt like pure nostalgia slop. I actually had hope Star Wars would “get good again”.

I’d say I liked it for similar reasons I like Andor. But I actually do love Andor, and only like Last Jedi.

Maybe it also helped that I watched it in a cool movie theater while traveling and was pretty high…

And the whole “subverting expectations” thing… I don’t think Rian was trying to be edgy or be like “haa fuck you and your ‘expectations’”. J.J. just set up a terrible and fucking boring story with his first movie.

And Rian setting up Rey to be a nobody, and that it doesn’t matter if you have holy royal blood or some bullshit, was GREAT. That anyone can be the hero, not just the “destined one”. Like it was perfectly set up for the first new Jedi to be completely different, led by Rey guided by a changed and “grey” Luke, and the first pupils being the slaves and slum children. Idk… isn’t that much better than whatever the fuck was happening in the first and last movies…?

I mean give capitalism long enough we might be left with just one guy standing. I do mean guy. An immortal white shriveled dude, alone in a utopia of bots serving him.

And I just meant this whole “ah we’re not an oligarchy! We’re a plutocracy” thing is just dumb. What is even the difference in these peoples heads? It’s practically the same thing. And it IS the same thing under capitalism. The few who rule are the wealthy.

That’s the whole point of the system… capitalISM? The owners of CAPITAL rule?

Plutocracy = rule by the wealthy.

Oligarchy = rule by the few.

The wealthy are the few. And with increasing wealth disparity, they are comparatively even fewer than ever before.

Not really any meaningful difference.