Europe needs working industry to produce ammo, and steel mills are certainly important for producing all kinds of weapons and parts for the military. Steel mills aren’t the only thing shutting down. It’s a systemic problem https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-04/german-energy-reprieve-too-little-too-late-to-save-factory-jobs

They’re already high enough for things like steel mills to start shutting down, and once the pipeline reserves Europe filled up from Russia during the summer run down, then it’s LNG prices from there on out https://oilprice.com/Metals/Commodities/European-Stainless-Steel-Mills-Are-Closing-Due-To-Energy-Crisis.html

not with the energy prices they have now

I’ll wager that the pretext of the war will now be used to dismantle the social safety net in Europe and create mass austerity to feed the war industry. European capitalists will be thrilled because social safety net is what sets the standard for the quality of working conditions. As we see in US, when you create horrific conditions for the unemployed then people will be willing to accept slightly less horrific conditions at work.

clown world

Even a neocon think tank admits this was almost certainly a weather balloon https://www.csis.org/analysis/chinese-spy-balloons-skys-limit

US certainly gave China a good precedent on how to react if any US aircraft happens to make its way into their airspace in the future.

An interesting point to consider is that US shooting the balloon down sets the precedent that China can use to shoot down any US aircraft in their airspace under the same pretext.

Notably, Taiwan is part of Chinese airspace as well. This is the position held by the UN, and it’s the fundamental basis for having diplomatic relations between US and China per Potsdam Proclamation that was signed 77 years ago between China, the US & the UK. US state department website makes this crystal clear as well:

The United States approach to Taiwan has remained consistent across decades and administrations. The United States has a longstanding one China policy, which is guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, the three U.S.-China Joint Communiques, and the Six Assurances. We oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-Strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.

Sure, but people in US are kicking and screaming for lots of things already. Healthcare, livable wage, and police violence are just a few examples. The regime clearly doesn’t care what the people want though.

Of course, I’m strictly referring to the ruling class and their propaganda machine here.

The whole US infrastructure is designed around car use. Many places in US don’t even have functioning public transit, and certainly not at scale that could support mass use. Meanwhile, due to lack of any sane city planning, all the necessities are scattered so that they’re not in a walking distance. People have to drive to get to work, they have to drive to get to stores, and to do pretty much anything.

Higher gasoline prices aren’t going to change the amount of driving people do in a significant way because driving in US is a necessity. The way you reduce pollution and fuel burn is by building public transit infrastructure and doing city planning. US has shown itself to be utterly incapable of doing either.

The point here is that the west has no place vilifying Russia. People in the west would do far better holding their own regimes to account rather than spending their time pointing fingers.

He’s been consistently excellent I find.

https://github.com/fauxpilot/fauxpilot

And even if you want to pretend that the US is just as bad as Russia… The west villifies the US all the time, we’re widely regarded to suck pretty hard. Why should we pretend Putin is a saint?

There is no comparison between Russia and the US. Nothing Russia has ever done even begins to come close to the atrocities US is committing around the globe. War on terror alone massacred over 6 million people. US is currently facilitating a literal genocide in Yemen, and starving Afghanistan after going on a murder spree there for two decades. Comparing Russia to this is frankly laughable.

I don’t really see the point. There are already tried and tested methods for overthrowing capitalist regimes that don’t rely on libertarians.

Cryptobros is just not the demographic I’d go after for radicalizing to be honest.

A government represents the interests of the class that holds power. In western countries, capitalists are in charge and the government is formed by this class to serve the interests of this class. So, the problem isn’t with the concept of a government but with whose interests the government represents. Working class needs to seize power and form a government that represents the interests of working people.

I’m talking about liberals here, I find libertarians are closest to anarchists ideologically.

I find liberals are the hardest demographic to move left in practice. Liberals strongly believe in individualism above all else, and this precludes having a systemic view of the problems we face. In a liberal world view, it’s always the individual that’s the problem as opposed to the system. Traditionally, when push comes to shove liberals inevitably embrace fascism instead of moving left. I thought this was an excellent analysis of the ideology.