the richest man in the world (240 bn net worth) is acting like he’s a lone crusader against corporate tyranny and his reactionary simps are lining up to lick his boots.

Also that lib was full of shit. Steam has never actually banned racists, no matter how many times they’re reported.

Give people their freedom and they will fight tooth and nail to prevent themselves losing it again

“freedom” is the most meaningless word in politics. People use it to mean both “freedom from” oppression and “freedom to” oppress. Socialists, Communists, and anarchists want freedom from oppression but don’t always agree on how to get there. The bourgeoisie want the freedom to oppress the proletariat.

However put just yet another red boss on top

this is such a tired trope. you’re worried about the supposed “red boss” while is still in power. “We can’t do revolution because meet the new boss same as the old boss!” Give it a rest.

you will need that conscription and all the authoritarianism that will come after and will crush any advance towards socialism.

Authoritarianism is the second most meaningless word in politics. The ruling class always cries about authoritarianism as they are being overthrown by the very same people who they have been exercising authority over. A social class will dictate the conditions of production. Is it going to be the proletariat, or the bourgeoisie? Is it going to be the impoverished majority, or the opulent minority?

most historically-literate liberal

reposting based takes

Extremely secure government confident in its legitimacy

Xi Jinping was reached for comment: “These burgers think I need a balloon? Motherfucker I can go on google maps and see your damn swimming pool in HD!”

maybe they patched it or something idk

YOU’RE WELCOME

when you learn geopolitics by playing paradox games

“America can trade with whoever they want”

IT LITERALLY STOPS COUNTRIES THAT TRADED WITH CUBA FROM TRADING WITH THE USA. IF YOU DOCK A SHIP IN CUBA, THAT SHIP CAN’T BE DOCKED IN THE USA FOR ANOTHER 13 (?) MONTHS, SINCE AMERICA IS THE ECONOMIC CENTER OF GRAVITY OF THE ENTIRE WESTERN HEMISPHERE, THIS EFFECTIVELY BLOCKS CUBA FROM GETTING THINGS IT NEEDS LIKE MEDICAL EQUIPMENTS, WHILE BASICALLY THREATENING TO SABOTAGE THE ECONOMY OF ANYONE WHO TRADES WITH CUBA!!! IT’S NOT JUST AMERICA “NOT WANTING TO TRADE WITH CUBA” AS A “PROTEST” TO CUBA’S “AUTHORITARIANISM”. THE EMBARGO HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR 60 YEARS AND WAS BASICALLY AMERICA TAKING REVENGE ON CUBA FOR NATIONALIZING ITS SUGAR INDUSTRIES AND REFUSING TO BE A CASINO FOR THE AMERICAN MAFIA. WHERE ARE THESE “LEGALIST” ARGUMENTS WHEN IT COMES TO THE AMERICAN TORTURE DUNGEONS IN GUANTANAMO BAY, WHICH IS CUBAN SOVEREIGN TERRITORY AND WHICH CUBA HAS REJECTED OUTRIGHT FOR DECADES???

THE UN HAS VOTED TO END THE EMBARGO FOR 30 YEARS STRAIGHT BUT AMERICA DOESN’T CARE:

THE ONLY COUNTRY THAT SIDES WITH AMERIKKKA ON THIS IS ISNTRAEL AND (KINDA SORTA) UKKKRAINE

those two options aren’t mutually exclusive, and also a “wikipedia op” isn’t a thing in and of itself, there’s usually some kind of political motivation behind it. And the PRC is governed by a Communist party just like USSR (CCCP) was. So I don’t really see the need to “link” the two when they’re already linked by Communism.

it happened with all 3 characters. it also happened with regular pedestrians and not cops. They made the AI (in general, not just cops) really nonsensical and hostile versus previous iterations. People would just drop their coffees on the ground if you stood near them too long. Also the physics got worse between 4 and 5. Probably to accommodate the bigger map? I don’t know why. I wish it was them depicting racism, but that might be giving them too much credit. Especially since GTA V for the most part has a sort nihilistic philosophy that isn’t social-justice oriented at all.

Nazis are in Ukraine, and Nazis are bad people that should be stopped

Yes.

Russia is using this as an excuse for a shameless land grab.

It’s much more complex than this. One must understand the civil war, NATO expansion, as well as the cultural difference between Lviv, and Donbass/Luhask. With Kyiv kind of caught in the middle politically between them. Most importantly one must understand All of the things NATO could have done to prevent this.

Lviv was part of Poland. It became part of Ukraine when Germany/USSR both invaded Poland in 1939. It was historically Polish. Today Lviv is actually a hotbed of nazi apologia. Most of the monuments to nazi collaborators like Bandera and Stetsko are in Lviv. Many of the right wing militias are active in Lviv. Donbass Luhask was historically part of Russia, not part of Ukraine. During the early soviet period Lenin incorporated Donbass/Luhask into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (rather than making it part of the Russian part of the USSR). During the soviet period this was fine, but after the Soviet union collapsed, and Ukraine SSR became Ukraine, the white supremacists and nazis (Groups like C14, Right Sektor, Azov Battalion, and their predecessors like the Social-National Party of Ukraine) began to push for policies against Roma, Jews, and ethnic Russians. This meant a lot of ethnic tensions with Donbass/Luhask which has a lot of people who speak Russian, as well as Roma and Jews. This led to separatist movements in Donbass/Luhask/Crimea. People in those regions who speak Russian and identify as Russian, and before Lenin, were part of the Russia rather than Ukraine, felt like they would be safer with their own Republics, or in Russia, than they would be in Ukraine. Crimea held a referendum to become part of Russia in 2014. This received over 90% support. NATO/Ukraine media said it was a rigged vote. Russian media said it wasn’t. Russia then occupied Crimea to nominally enforce the referendum. This was called a land grab by NATO, it was called democratic support of a referendum by Russia. This kicked off separatist movements in Donbass/Luhask. The Ukrainian government then started a civil war against Donbass/Luhask to keep these territories as part of Ukraine. Donbass declared their own republic and so did Luhask. The Ukrainian Armed Forces committed a massacre in a trade union hall in Odessa 2014, burning a lot of separatists alive. They also began shelling separatist regions. There were a lot of civilian deaths, and Ukrainian right began to further radicalize, while receiving money/weapons/training through the NED (a CIA front) The civil war went on for 8 years.

In 2014, you also had what many believed to be a US-backed coup that put Petro Poroshenko into power. Petro Poroshenko rehabilitated a lot of the nazi collaborators from WW2, granting them hero status, and allowing more monuments to be built to them. He also cozied up with the radical right wing militias and incorporated them into the regular armed forces. He also advocated Ukraine joining NATO. Ukraine joining NATO was always Russia’s “red line” since Ukraine shares a border close to Moscow, and NATO membership means the USA can build military bases in your country, train your troops, put nuclear weapons in your country, etc. Russia doesn’t want American nukes right on the doorestep of its capital, and so finally, after 30 years of eastward NATO expansion, resolved to intervene in the Ukrainian civil war, to make weaken Ukraine, and make it more of a burden for NATO. This is why NATO hasn’t allowed Ukraine to become a member.

There’s also the matter of NATO expansion in general. Informal promises were made to Gorbachev in 1991 (which were declassified by the British much later) that NATO wouldn’t expand eastward if he dissolved the USSR and the Warsaw pact. He did so. But NATO kept expanding anyway. Russia tried to join NATO in 2002 but were rejected, which could have prevented the perception, on the part of the Russian government, that Moscow is being encircled by NATO. Since they aren’t allowed to be part of the collective security apparatus of the North Atlantic alliance, but the North Atlantic alliance keeps expanding to surround their borders, it was only a matter of time before they started to see this as a war-worthy provocation. Also the USSR tried to join NATO back in 1954, at the beginning of the Khrushchev thaw, but were also rejected, leading to the formation of the Warsaw pact in 1955, which was the Soviet answer to NATO. So there were a lot of changes to prevent this flare up of regional tensions. But I believe the USA never wanted to prevent tensions from flaring up. I believe the USA saw this as another war they could profit from by selling weapons, since it takes place far from their borders.

I blame Capitalism first, NATO/USA second, Russia third, Ukraine last. The nazi problem in Ukraine is (mostly) a byproduct of CIA-backed radicalization efforts in my opinion. Every country has right wing psychos, but only some of them come to power by getting money, weapons, and training clandestinely from the USA. I also view this as a European repeat of operation cyclone, which is where the USA gave money/training/weapons to Jihadists in Afghanistan to destroy the soviet-allied government there and bait the soviets into a costly occupation. I also view this as an extension of the cold war into the 21st century, except it’s now an economic conflict between the imperial core and the rising 2nd world (China/Russia) rather than a conflict between Capitalism and Communism. USA was also motivated to get rid of Nordstream 2. America wants to sell its liquid natural gas to europe at exorbitant prices, but europe is getting it for much cheaper through the Russians. Even with the sanctions, Europe is still buying Russian gas through the backdoor of India.

invade Mexico and slurp up some new land.

lol wait until you find out how Texas became a US state

A lot of the young people fighting/dying in Ukraine right now were radicalized through NED-funded child summer camps that were covered in the international press before 2022. Even the Guardian has a video on youtube about this still.

Pedantic point, but I think there’s an important anthropological difference between homeless people living in tents because they’ve been dispossessed in a capitalist society, and people living in tents because it’s their traditional mode of living, like indigenous American teepees or Mongolian yurts, which you can still see on the outskirts of Ulanbataar to this day. Capitalism destroys the latter, but forces the former.

it’s even worse with the descendants of euro-immigrants. I know a polish guy, gay, super liberal, who is absolutely convinced of the most bloodthirsty and reactionary narratives about the USSR because he’s from a polish family, and his polish grandma would never lie. If I’m talking about any kind of effort to improve society somewhat he will go full and say “socialism is a good idea in theory, but never in practice, I should know, I’m polish, and both hitler and stalin genocided my people.” He’s generally a kind and friendly person who has been helpful on numerous occasions in the decade I’ve known him, but the second we start talking politics the gloves come off. He has a STEM background and gets paid fairly good, so I especially don’t care for the way he talks about working class people like they’re all ignorant trumpers who just need to learn to code.

all country/state/city subs are pretty much

I like this meme.

Christianity, until the protestant reformation, was pretty consistently against usury, which is what the moneylenders were, usurers