Absolutely beyond parody.

Link

    • came_apart_at_Kmart [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      35
      ·
      10 months ago

      kinda reminds me of the latest season of CIA Jim from The Office / Jerk Ryan. one of the common tropes in the Jack Ryan Extended Universe is taking all of America’s enemies and, for the purposes of the story conflict, joining them together in a shadowy cabal, whose very existence confounds the typical intelligence analyst that can’t see the forest for the trees. enter Jerk Ryan: massive brain haver.

      so Season 3 has the CIA Good Guy worried about “convergence”, which is this in-universe theoretical big brain NatSec concept to describe when corrupt intelligence community members lend themselves to The Global Terrorist Network (political violence/extremism) and the Major Drug Trafficking Organization (unlimited cash money) to challenge the Good Countries (Burgerland and Friends). however, what makes this concept in the show distinct from how this actually happens repeatedly in history to further the goals of US interests until it blows back on US civilians, in the show it’s as though all of these groups never had anything to do with each other, were not networked together in their development and have only very recently independently found each other. and that they were always bad guys and weren’t created by america.

      it makes it much simpler when the imperial project can conflate every moment and place of resistance as part of the same distinctly un-american Big Bad.

  • zifnab25 [he/him, any]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    33
    ·
    10 months ago

    Terrorists, exalting their murderous deeds, raged against the infidel in the open air. The movement had standout villains, most notably Osama Bin Laden, a Saudi millionaire who seemed pathologically obsessed with Whitney Houston and yet so despised American consumerism that he refused to use a fridge.

    jesse-wtf

    In recent decades it has bought into strategic infrastructure in industry and energy, from Heathrow Airport to Hinkley Point. Beijing has also effectively co-opted large parts of British academia, much of which is now financially reliant on Chinese donations and students. And there are suspicions that it has extended its tentacles into the heart of our democracy, with alleged spies in Parliament.

    Can’t believe we outsourced and sold off our country and now other people own it. Now let me just turn off this James Bond Marathon running on the BBC and express shock at another country spying.

    What started out as a naivety about the price of Chinese money has ossified into a maniacal defiance; the attitude at the top of the Government seems to be that Britain is in too deep to row back. The Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly, recently visited Beijing, and has boasted about securing £600 million of licences to launch fund management companies there. At the same time, he lectures the British media that disengaging with China is not “credible”.

    Lolz. Lmao, even.

    From the country which strived to be America’s most loyal partner in the War on Terror, such defeatism is quite something.

    You can’t make this shit up.

    As China proved at the beginning of the Covid pandemic, authoritarian states can formidably crush certain threats. But, ultimately, humanity has not survived and progressed over hundreds of thousands of years because of its ability to anticipate every risk around the corner. We are not prey animals with eyes on the sides of our heads; we are large-brained, autonomous languaging beings who thrive in collaborative, creative communities that can tolerate a level of novelty and heretical thinking.

    jesse-wtf

    What our elites, who are so lacking in both imaginative range and intellectual depth, have failed to comprehend is that a Beijing-dominated world, defined by a yearning for certainty rather than a striving for freedom, will be a dead end for human progress. It would be a world both claustrophobic and stagnant.

    Oi! Its shit. Its supposed to be shit. An’ if you don like it dere’s da door.

    Whether our confidence and the self-knowledge required to prevent such a future lies buried somewhere, or has been traded away in one too many grubby business deals, is up for debate. What is clear is that we are running out of time to remember what we stand for.

    loser

    • ThisMachineKillsFascists [they/them]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      27
      ·
      10 months ago

      But, ultimately, humanity has not survived and progressed over hundreds of thousands of years because of its ability to anticipate every risk around the corner.

      Literally, that’s how we survived and progressed. By building a house to keep the wolves out lmao.

      Whether our confidence and the self-knowledge required to prevent such a future lies buried somewhere, or has been traded away in one too many grubby business deals, is up for debate. What is clear is that we are running out of time to remember what we stand for.

      What you stand for is a sysem of free trade that allows grubby business deals.

  • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    30
    ·
    10 months ago

    political elites

    As compared to the rugged plucky scrappy outsiders known as MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX CORPORATIONS THAT HUNGER FOR WAR MONEY. hypersus

    • RyanGosling [none/use name]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      29
      ·
      edit-2
      10 months ago

      I’ll teach you basic economics for free, tankie, since you people want everything for free

      Free market 101:

      1. Demand communist enemy become more capitalist
      2. Communist enemy becomes more capitalist
      3. Export your domestic labor to communist enemy
      4. Enjoy cheap manufactured goods
      5. Citizens become angry because they lose their jobs
      6. Blame the communist enemy for being devious, asiatic, and scrupulous to flame nationalism
      7. Die
      8. Failsons take over and become genuinely confused as to why China dominates manufacturing
      9. Failsons start a nuclear war
    • Tankiedesantski [he/him]@hexbear.netOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      20
      ·
      10 months ago

      It’s not faaaaaair! They know that if they give us what we want a low price we’ll become lazy and indolent as a society. They can’t just use that against us!

  • FlakesBongler [they/them]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    26
    ·
    10 months ago

    we are large-brained, autonomous languaging beings who thrive in collaborative, creative communities that can tolerate a level of novelty and heretical thinking.

    doubt

    pronouns frothingfash maybe-later-kiddo

  • Deadend [he/him]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    24
    ·
    10 months ago

    If you think about it in a very certain way, China was a landlord to the British with the renting of Hong Kong therefore you need to side with the British as renters.

    A very very very very certain way that ignores everything else but that single “fact”