Apparition of Jack

True, although just to be clear I still think Russia is more of a rogue actor than Western powers are on the world stage. UK and France have (mostly) followed the international rules, for instance. And America, despite its disastrous invasion of Iraq, is still technically a democracy (the largest anti-war protests in history occurred before the Iraq War, for instance, something that never could’ve happened in Russia) and the Democrats are generally more responsible and sensible when it comes to foreign policy than the Republicans (see: Obama pulling out of Iraq, 2015 Iran nuclear deal, etc.) But yes, ultimately there are no major countries free of hypocrisy, and we need to demand better of our leaders than to just wage war recklessly despite the consequences of those wars. The world isn’t our play thing to mess around with as we wish.

The crazy thing is, this is what empires and superpowers used to do to countries they conquered. Rome might’ve waged war on Gaul, but when the fighting was over they built roads, cities, aqueducts etc. Britain invaded India but they left behind railways, ports, bureaucracies, etc. These days we just send in a few thousand troops, carpet bomb the countryside, leave the nation in ruins, before fucking off back home and patting ourselves the back for on a job well done. And we wonder why no one trusts us anymore, lol

Yeah, agreed. I think the West - and especially America - have yet to fully atone for what they did to Iraq for basically no reason. It’s weird how it was one of the most destructive wars in modern history and yet we’ve barely talked about it since it ended barely over a decade ago. What’s done is done, but the West needs to take a good hard look at itself if it thinks it can just ruin other nations and pretend the destruction we’ caused never happened. We need to be WAY more careful with wielding the power we posses. EDIT: To add to this, look at how we treated the Afghans who helped us in our war over there as soon we turned tail and ran - people who put their homes, livelihoods and even lives at risk, only to literally be abandoned on the airport tarmac as the people who want them dead took over the country. The modern West (by which I mean mostly America) has basically zero concept of geopolitical responsibility.

Both the war in Iraq and Ukraine are massive geopolitical fuckups that have caused untold levels of unnecessary human misery and will continue to have negative repercussions for decades to come. Iraq was the most egregious example of a nation unable to keep its revenge-boner in its pants and unilaterally (and illegally) destroying another nation and hundreds of thousands of lives in modern history. Ukraine was the most egregious breach of national sovereignty, the rules-based world order and basic diplomatic decency since the Second World War, all on the whims of a deluded septuagenarian who will be either dead or deposed within a few years anyway. Both never should’ve happened. War is goddamn awful, especially for flimsy nationalist dick-waving reasons. We should just stop killing each other.

It’s so clear JP isn’t actually a believing Christian though. He’s more like some weird post-modern pseudo-Christian atheist. His video only Jubilee proves that. His daughter, I don’t know though. She’s probably sincere.

In many ways you’re probably living a more holistic life than high earners in the West, since you have an immediate connection to nature / growth / the cycles of life that people in big cities are alienated from. Not saying your life is perfect but at least on a physical / energetic level you’re probably better off than a lot of other people.

You have to also consider that there’s a lot of low consciousness people out there who gravitate towards these celebrities precisely because they let them indulge in these sick fantasies (vicariously or not.) It’s why I’ve always had a problem with weird celebrity obsession and putting obviously bad people on a pedestal. Think about how many people still defense Kanye despite being an unhinged Nazi. Or shit, think about how TRUMP was a successful reality TV star despite widely being known as a sex pest before then. There’s a lot of really dumb, impulsive and sick individuals out there. Humanity isn’t yet at a level of full maturity collectively imo.

I don’t know if this has been posted elsewhere but Trump’s “spiritual advisor” has just been imprisoned for sexually abusing a 12 year old girl. These people are sick.

- Factory farming - No public healthcare (in the US) - No internet integration with democracy / governing / policy making - Rampant greed and materialism Those are all I’ve got for now.

Whities proving once again they aren’t yet ready for “responsible government” and it falls upon the Black man’s burden to uplift the lesser races. Obama, lead us out of this chaos!

Yeah, 60,000. That’s a drop in the bucket compared to the 6,000,000 the Nazis ended up exterminating. Yes the Nazis had a few half-assed ideas to deport Jews before WW2 broke out, but ultimately their end goal was always the extermination of the Jews. Otherwise the Final Solution wouldn’t have been implemented. I sometimes I feel like I’m going crazy in my defence of the utter depravity and evil of the Holocaust. You don’t even have to be a huge simp for Judaism to realise such an event shouldn’t befall anybody, let alone millions upon millions of defenceless European peasants. Other cultures have suffered trauma in the past, for sure, but the Holocaust was uniquely evil in its scale, speed and pure dehumanising terror used to enact it. If you, today, knew that within living memory a nation tried to wipe out literally your entire race and everyone in it (and damn nearly succeed too), you’d be pretty fucked up too.

Idk where the conversation is but I’ll add this: Palestine was always Arab land. Arabs had been in Palestine longer than Turks have been in Turkey or Hungarians and Hungary, for instance. The idea that because some vague ethnic polity called “Judea” existed in the region 3000 years ago doesn’t make the modern, 21st century land rightfully Jewish. With that being said, the creation of Israel was a response to the Holocaust and the world’s failures to protect Jews. Is it fair that Arabs had to have their land taken, their culture suppressed and their people killed for the world to atone for this mistake? No. But it’s also not fair to Jews - Israeli, or British, or Canadian, or Mexican - that antisemitism, even violent antisemitism - is still as common as being a sports fan or blaming everything on the government. I can’t think of a single other ethnic group whose targeted hatred is as normalised as Jews. If I went around saying “I hate Mongolians!” or “I hate Swedes!” most people would do a double take and ask why. But if I go around saying “I hate Jews!” it’s possible even a majority of people will agree with me and even try to elect me president. The world really fucking hates Jews. It’s sickening. 🤮 But also fuck Netanyahu.

Once Trump is gone and the evil spell MAGA has over America is gone, changing the electoral system is going to be one of our first priorities (alongside ending Citizen’s United, passing universal healthcare, etc.)

So what do we do to prevent this? You seem to big on pointing out the problems we face, Leo, but not so big on providing solutions…

So I have criticised the government’s response to immigration in the past, and frankly I do still think like ICE raids, detention centres are highly unconstitutional as well as just needlessly cruel, but I’m also prepared to accept that the reality of migration and demographics change can’t just be hand-waived away and that something needs to be done to build a cohesive sense of community. With that being said, would making English (or whatever local language of the country you’re migrating too) a requirement for migration be an acceptable solution? The great post-War multicultural experiment states that someone can become a part of nation regardless of their race, religion, sexuality etc, but this also presents the problem of people feeling disconnected and like there’s no unifying sense of community / belonging. If a Sunni Indonesian and an agnostic Anglo-Saxon are both equally “American”, for instance, then what can being American actually be about? You could argue it’s a shared sense of civic values, which I do see the argument for, but then how can this be upheld if these two people can’t even communicate properly in the same language? Having language and the promotion of said language be the basis of American (or Canadian, or French, or whatever) identity could be a reasonable middle-ground between the two positions. Language isn’t just the superficial tool of communication we use every day, it’s also a deeper expression of a culture’s basic ideas, identity, etc. Like, just take the word “nothingburger.” That’s a specific English word that resonates with a specific English idea based in culture, history etc, that probably wouldn’t translate well into other languages. If language became the default basis for common mixed-heritage communities, could a lot of the tensions and anxieties about changing demographics be abated? Just musing here.

Have you tried turning your government off and on again?

This might not be a popular opinion for Americans but I take the opposite approach - I think the US should expand federal power, possibly even break up the states, and ensure a minimum standard of living / safety / regulations etc that can’t be compromised by whatever regional legislature decides they’re “politically incorrect” or whatever. I feel like if every region in America had access to decent health, infrastructure, education etc a lot of the animosity between regions would disappear. No more red states making fun of blue states for being full of junkies on the streets, or blue states making fun of red states for being full of illiterate hicks. Again, I say this as an outsider, but are the people of say, Arkansas, best served by having a few geriatric arch-conservatives govern them who’s only concern is making sure 14 year old r*pe victims give birth? And not dealing with the crumbling infrastructure, education crisis, etc? I understand how important regional identity is to Americans, it even seems like a way of life, but America’s problems are just too big and need too much coordination for a bunch of perennially-competing legislatures to adequately address, imo. At the very least, moving towards some sort of “megaregions” in the US would far better reflect the actual demographic and political realities of the country today, rather than a bunch of arbitrary borders drawn up by rich settlers in the 1800s.

In my personal opinion, I don’t think it would be. Without getting too much into it, it always seemed absurd as an outsider how little Americans cared for each other. Don’t get me wrong, other countries have their problems too, but America seems unique in its ability to treat its own citizens as either obstacles to be overcome to enemies to be disposed of. Like, we have political divisions here in Australia, but there’s still this underlying sense that if you get sick, if you have an emergency, if you need rescue, etc we’ll look out for you. It doesn’t seem to be that way in the US. Everything feels so much more conditional. I can sorta understand why so many Americans distrust their government, because to them government feels like more of a tool of control / oppression than of genuine public uplift, which it can absolutely be.

Without wanting to defend this man too much, I’ve also read that he had a special needs child whose care was taking a financial toll on the family. I don’t want to say that was the only reason he snapped, but it absolutely contributed. This is why foreign countries look at the American healthcare system with disgust. Enough goes wrong with it and eventually your regular citizen snaps and shoots a bunch of people. Human health isn’t a commodity to be sold.

The fact that this sex-trafficking rapist isn’t permanently behind bars is mind-boggling. If the world is to heal reckless scumbags like him need to be served justice.

Yes, exactly. Had Kamala known she was going to be the nominee even just six months earlier it’s possible she could’ve put together a more winning campaign strategy, rather than rushing to tie up whatever ramshackle campaign with only duct tape and dreams she could’ve in only 107 days. 2024 is all on the Dems IMO. The moment they didnt imprison Trump for leading a deadly coup attempt against the Capitol is the moment they proved they were unserious about stopping Trump’s brand of authoritarianism get back into office. Biden was an effective president but he was getting far too old (and had fucking cancer to boot.) The Dems should’ve KNOWN the risk Trump posed and done everything in their power to prevent it (have Biden commit to only one term, have a solid primary voting process to select his successor AT LEAST one year before the election, more likely two, etc.) but they didn’t. They thought they could win the election through good vibes and Hope™️ alone, completely ignorant of the dangerous political landscape they inhabited. Oh well. Fuck them. The geriatric old guard seem to be on the way out (Schumer, Biden etc) and a new, more virile breed is taking their place (AOC, Mamdani, etc.) I just hope it’s enough in time for 2026/28.

Kamala was in way over her head. She never should’ve been the nominee. I don’t think she’s a bad politician per se, just that she was forced into a position she couldn’t manage because of Biden’s (and the Dem’s as a whole) hubris. I think she was a poor leader but I also feel kinda bad for her.

This situation is getting worse by the minute. Really not sure what to make of all this. We’re watching an uprising occur in real time. I’m trepidatious about how this will all play out. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0m4vjwrdwgo

Marxism / communism is a fascinating subject. You could spend a lifetime studying it and only scratch the surface. I’m sympathetic to Marxism in many ways, at the very least as a political counterweight to the bullshit oligarchic capitalist realism we live in these days. I’m not a huge fan of revolutionary violence or metaphysical materialism but I think Marxism holds a lot of fascinating insights to human nature that capitalist ideology sorely lacks.

Why do you guys even listen to Trump? He never says anything he hasn’t already said a million times before. Unless he’s like, IDK, actively declaring war on Uruguay or something, you’re really better off doing anything else.