Con heo dien

This is a major one: https://www.erowid.org/experiences/

Good summary. The accumulation of 40 years of unchecked neoliberalism. It will be interesting to see if Trump will make things worse (through tax cuts for the rich) or better for them (through raising import tariffs). I tent to think it will be the first and that not much will change or that things will get worse for most Trump voters.

I have lived in and travelled through India for about 2 years and I have mostly positive personal experiences. I think it has an incredibly interesting culture, beautiful landscapes and on the whole friendly people. India never stops to fascinate me. But... I am a guy. The majority of women that have travelled India alone, that I have spoken to while living there had negative to very negative experiences. They were constantly nagged, bothered, followed, harassed. With the possibility of worse (although admittedly that chance seems to be not very high). I actually ran a hostel with a large mixed dorm in Southern India and there was no end to the creepy shit that was going on in there. I can write a book about it. So in short, if you're a guy go for it, if you're a girl, preferably bring a guy with you (then the problems will disappear like snow in the sun). Or at the very minimum take some Krav Maga lessons (this is not a joke). Disclaimer: I know, India is a vast country, with a vaste range of people. Some places are much safer than others. Some women travelling alone had a great time. But this is my experience on the whole.

@Treewatcher Singapore and Hong Kong come mind

(Hyper)capitalism is a problem, but it goes deeper. I can think of countries that are more capitalistic but less polarized than the USA. Capitalism in combination with meritocracy seems to be the culprit. In short: the American dream. Those who fail, the have-nots, have only themselves to blame for their failures, and are thus left without self-respect. As few people consider to point the finger at themselves, or question the system, this almost automatically results in a massive resentment against the haves (in many cases handily grouped together as the elites). The haves in turn, look down upon the have-nots, because they assume they have personally earned their high position.

Actually I based my comment on newspaper articles and IT monitors. I am not looking for an IT job myself. I am not sure if I can help you, but I will send you a PM.

I'd say the market for developers is currently very good. In Western Europe alone there are literaly tens of thousands of IT-related employment vacancies that cannot be filled. The future is unsure though. AI currently assists developers with all the boring coding stuff, which is nice. It's likely though, that AI will make big steps in the fields of advanced coding, design, analysis etc. Which will result in growing amounts of (laid off) developers competing for a decreasing amount of jobs. There will still be jobs and there will be massive new opportunities, but it's questionable if that is the case for a beginning programmer.

Go to Kerala. It's cleaner, people are educated, laidback, friendly. Caste system is still in place, but it seems less strong as in some other states. Of course it's very traditional, so don't expect general equal rights. Food is super spicy, especially in the villages, spicier than in the North, Rahul 2paradox is wrong on this, but you can find non-spicy food. I would avoid the Megapolises, they are hell on earth in my opinion, even the rich parts, with some very rare exceptions.

Indeed, but in the long run it was nearly inevitble that China and Russia would team up for confrontation with the West. China and Russia are fundamentally aligned. This war has perhaps only sped up things a bit.

There are 2 seperate discussions here I think. One is the geopolicial playfield in which the West, Russia and China are taking care of their own interests. This one seems pretty obvious, the West wanting to add Ukraine to the list of allies and Russia resisting that. They both manipulate the hell out of each other and Ukraine. But there is also the discussion of the direction Ukraine wants to move into. My understanding is that you deny or downplay that there is a fear in Ukraine for Russia and that it is fabricated and manipulated by the West. Ok, the West indeed offers capitalism, neo liberalism, hyper individualism, democracy and that is exactly what the majority in Ukraine wants. What has Russia to offer to Ukraine?

That's what super powers do - protect their own interest at the expense of the less powerful. But stating that USA has pushed Ukraine into wanting to become a NATO member is too simplistic. It's a love relationship from both sides. The Eastern European NATO members are very happy to be part of the alliance. Finland and Sweden are joining too. No doubt USA plays a role in all this, but the root cause cannot be manipulated. That root cause is a fear for Russia.

I dont get why Maersheimer calls the West and more specifically USA stupid. From a geopolitical point of view, USA is clearly the winner in this conflict (so far). Russia has lost 100.000's of people, having no options to play a military role elsewhere, their economy is vulnerable, the ruble has plunged and they are facing a war which will go on for years. Their future looks indeed very bleak. At the same time USA is only using a fraction of it's BNP to keep this war going and suffering zero (or near zero) casualties. Plus giving a warning to China.

I think culture plays a minor role. Ukrainians are not overly positive about Western culture, even in the part that has traditionally been more pro-Western. On the contrary - I'd say that Ukraine is culturally closer to Russia. Two more important factors that have made them look Westwards are 1) the deep fear for Russia that exists in Eastern Europe - resulting in the majority of Ukrainians wanting to join NATO + 2) the wish to strengthen the economy / reduce corruption (with the Baltics and especially Poland as shining examples) - resulting in the majority of Ukrainians wanting to join EU. But yes, the result is the same: Ukraine aligning with the West and Putin not accepting that.

Perhaps, but personally I do not consider such scenarios. A nuclear war will mean either direct death or, probably depending on one's location, continue to live on an unlivable planet. What's the point of considering scenarios? Especially in a thread about possible economic decline

This is quite the jump

I doubt this is true, but it also doesn't matter, MAD is still relevant There is no win-win here. Even in case of peace Ukraine will be in a terrible position. Also years of mistrust and rearmament will be our faith.

According to this paper a German ban would likely cause a 3% GDP decline. Goldman Sachs comes to an almost identical conclusion. So that's less of a decline than the Covid crisis caused in Germany (4.5%). https://www.econtribute.de/RePEc/ajk/ajkpbs/ECONtribute_PB_028_2022.pdf

It's quite a big town. According to international law Putin is indeed a war criminal, but the Western media is too quick to blame the Russian army for this. Serious investigation is needed first.