[-] Tinidril@midwest.social 2 points 1 day ago

But Harris did support genocide. It's kinda hard to convince people that you are the one to save democracy when you refuse to stand up against something so obviously evil, especially when we never got a real primary.

Not voting Harris was a bad move, but 2/3 of the American electorate did it. Of those, the ones pissed about a genocide were the most justified. Why single them out?

[-] Tinidril@midwest.social 4 points 1 day ago

It sounds directly contradictory from the inside too. Biden didn't "give up" he just didn't take the most radical approach that many on the left wanted him to take (including me). When the courts shut down his original program, he started to forgive a bunch of more specific but smaller groups of loans. It never totalled close to his original attempt, but it was significant. He could have tried to do the original by a different legal justification, but he never tried it, probably because it would have opened the door to even more loan forgiveness.

[-] Tinidril@midwest.social 17 points 3 days ago

I think that one pretty much covers all four.

[-] Tinidril@midwest.social 4 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

I see you have your cut and paste propaganda all ready to go there.

The people in Crimea and the Donbas wanted to join Russia, to protect them from Ukraine,

Sounds an awful lot like claiming Iraqis wanted the US to overthrow Sadam and would welcome it with open arms. It worked out about the same too, except for the Russian military embarrassing themselves. Even taken at face value, all you are doing is justifying the imperialism, not showing it doesn't exist.

China is the biggest debt holder nation in the world. Zambia just had to default on loans for infrastructure that largely served Chinese needs, and Kenya and Ethiopia are not far behind. Meanwhile, the DRC is falling into debt paying for infrastructure to ship Copper and Cobalt to Chinese. China has not been as abusive as the west was, but they aren't that much better either. It's still the same tactics.

New Labor Forum: Chinese Investments in Africa: Twenty-First Century Colonialism?

[-] Tinidril@midwest.social 6 points 5 days ago

I'd rather blame every party that did their best to put Trump in power, whether intentionally or not.

But you didn't. You blamed one tiny segment of voters.

The Republican and Democratic establishments are both to blame, but they are largely the same group. The Republican establishment just lost control of their populists while the Democratic establishment lost the loyalty of theirs.

Trump himself has never been the real problem. He's just a symptom of the rot in both establishments. He is doing very little that wasn't already where we were headed. At worst he sped up the process a bit.

[-] Tinidril@midwest.social 8 points 5 days ago

Russia isn't imperialist, it has no colonies nor neocolonies

Yeah, tell that to Crimea, the Donbas, or even Siberia or the puppet states like Belarus, Georgia and Moldova. Russian neo-colonialism is all over Africa.

China isn't imperialist either, it's a socialist country wituout any financial domination of the state or economy.

China is a kinder imperialist, but they are using largely the same playbook that the west used in Africa, including debt-trap diplomacy, undermining local sovereignty and regulation, and undermining labor movements.

They also have a mix of socialism and capitalism, sometimes getting the best of both, and sometimes the worst. They definitely dominate the state economy through control of banking and the use of capital controls to direct funding to national priorities. The current real estate crisis and "ghost cities" are a pretty obvious example.

[-] Tinidril@midwest.social 12 points 5 days ago

Tell us what a non-authoritarian leader of Venezuela would look like

Presumably they would look not-authoritarian, a description that doesn't fit Maduro at all.

It could well be that, in the face of US policy regarding Venezuela, only an Authoritarian could hold onto the country. That still doesn't make Maduro not an Authoritarian.

it seems to me that leftist leaders are always denounced as authoritarian by North American and European based NGOs and governments.

That's a fair observation but, again, that doesn't mean they are wrong when they say it about Maduro. Maduro is referred to as dictator by Human Rights Watch, the Organization of American States, and other human rights organizations, including some inside Venezuela.

Maduro is a dictator. It's largely the fault of the US that Venezuela has a dictator. If the US succeeds in ousting Maduro, it will almost certainly replace him with an even worse Dictator. All of that can be true with no contradictions.

[-] Tinidril@midwest.social 6 points 5 days ago

1/3 of eligible voters went for Trump. Another 1/3 stayed home or made protest votes. Of those who didn't vote for either party, the vast majority were (de)motivated by straight up apathy. Those trying to teach the Democrats (or Republicans) a lesson were probably the least significant bloc of all, yet some people seem stuck on blaming them for the outcome.

The fault lies with the Democratic establishment that pissed away every opportunity to win what should have been an easy victory. They really had to work to loose that election. If you really want to blame the voters, then start with Trump voters and the Democratic voters who nominated Biden in 2020.

[-] Tinidril@midwest.social 3 points 5 days ago

Americans already overwhelmingly oppose an invasion of Venezuela. It will be interesting to see if that's enough to prevent it.

[-] Tinidril@midwest.social 2 points 5 days ago

Every planet is a star which wasn't big enough. Some are just more challenged than others.

[-] Tinidril@midwest.social 11 points 6 days ago

From a legal perspective, there was no trial and therefore no conviction so we must presume innocence.

From a rational perspective, none of these boats are remotely capable of reaching America across open ocean. They would have to refuel multiple times to do so, and still probably couldn't make it. That's just one of many reasons why the accusation is ridiculous.

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Tinidril

joined 2 years ago