Unrealistic to believe the guy at the Linux stall would not come at him like John Constantine pulling out a demonic possession.

Let’s just say we wouldn’t be around to celebrate a 251st American birthday

What is the point of automation and mass production when the prices of certain basic staples keeps going up?

Horizontal Integration Explained

Companies pursue horizontal integration for synergies like economies of scale or cost savings in marketing, R&D, production, and distribution. This can make manufacturing multiple products more cost-effective. Tiers of sale under a single distributor (economy and generic versus luxury or specialty) also afford the corporate entity to scale price to income and maximize revenue per customer.

The “organic” label is a good example of this in practice. Add a 50% mark-up on bananas by telling people the “regular” bananas are unsafe. Anyone who can’t tolerate the professed risk (typically people with more disposable income) end up paying extra to the same distributor for what is functionally the same product sold at a premium price.

Automation and Mass Production are tools of monopolization in the capitalist economic model. The efficiencies of production are used to lock competitors out of the market, not to improve the consumer-experienced efficiency of production, distribution, or sale.

It’s losing priority to Mandarin due to rapid economic expansion and public education teaching Mandarin.

The 1950 invasion was a military annexation by the PLA, not a domestic Marxist uprising.

Tibet wasn’t militarily annexed in 1950, because it was never officially independent. It was annexed in 1720 by the Qing Dynasty and only briefly splintered into an autocratic theocracy during the civil war.

Indonesians chose English for global trade while maintaining their state language. Tibetans face structural coercion

You must be joking.

Which Fortune 500 companies allow you to speak Indonesian exclusively?

Tibetan is dying out as a language because the Tibetan nationalists never bothered to build up educational infrastructure when they were in charge.

it assumes Chinese imperialism was necessary to defeudalize Tibet

It assumes Chinese Maoists aided Tibetan communists in their overthrow of the brutal theocracy that governed the country to date.

Certainly possible this could have happened another way, in the same way you might argue the US could have revolted against England without the help of France.

But the idea that Chinese integration with Tibet constitutes “imperialism” presumes China’s economy is parasitic - leeching resources, robbing land, and press ganging laborers for the benefit of Beijing. None of that is in evidence. Just the contrary. China and Tibet have been engaged in reciprocal mutual aid, to the benefit of both regions.

Most importantly, it doesn’t justify forced sinicization

Capital improvements being reframed as “forced sinicization” is just American agitprop. The Chinese government is extending education as an amenity to a province that lacked it. The Tibetans are learning Mandarin because it benefits them to speak fluently with their wealthy neighbors.

For the same reason Indonesians learn English and Italians learn German, Tibetans are learning Mandarin.

You’ll be disappointed

Quality of life in Tibet improved enormously under Chinese rule. LIfe expectancies rose from 37 to 78. Literacy jumped from the low 30%s to the mid 70%s. Tibetan lay residents owned their own homes for the first time in their nation’s history. The region’s economy expanded rapidly as did the population, thanks to modernizations in transportation, agriculture, and health care.

Meanwhile, with the colonial status of Hong Kong at an end and the city incorporated into the general Chinese economy, neighboring Shenzhen has enjoyed a similar economic boom. Residents can move freely into and out of the SEZ in a way they couldn’t under English occupation, they use a common currency rather than relying on conversions to and from British pounds, and they are free from British home rule. Most importantly, the residents are subject to the same taxation and civil rights afforded to the rest of the country - bringing an end to such labor atrocities as the 996 system, tax avoidance, and ecological crimes like illegal fishing and dumping.

Given the nightmarish wave of fascist policies currently spilling over the UK, I cannot imagine why anyone would envy living on the other side of the planet while being subjected to a Tommy Robinson inspired government.

Epstein holding the camera

Unless you want to advocate voting for Stein

• Trump, an actual Russian asset and known pedophile with deep ties to a fascist tech oligarchs

• Harris, an empty suit who took the nomination sans primary and immediately handed her campaign to the Cheney family

• Jill Stein, a perennial fail candidate with no meaningful ties to anyone who mostly just campaigns on climate change and anti-war issues

I mean, if you want the Harm Reduction Candidate, it’s obviously Stein.

But if you’re heavily invested in partisan politics, you just vote straight ticket

You can, if you’re appealing to the 1% of each side

glances at the DC police news blotter

shuffles feet nervously

If you want to know why lefties lose

Chinese governments like speech that is friendly to China. US governments like speech that is friendly to the US.

We call it censorship when a government censors self-criticism, but a big part of that calculation hinges on how much criticism a government is subjected to at any given moment.

If you’re seeing a lot of Chinese criticism - and a lot of second-order “China is censoring the criticism!” stories - that’s more often the result of a national media push to divorce the US public and economy from China. If you’re seeing a lot of US self-criticism and resulting domestic government backlash, that’s more often the result of a divided US populace that’s lost sight of it’s Overseas Enemy Cold War fixation.

The day Trump leaves office, you’re going to see a tidal wave of “China Bad!” articles slam into your news feed, like the Red Sea after Moses squeezes it shut again. Then we won’t see “US censorship!” hand-wringing until the political scene starts polarizing again.

Technically, this could move in the opposite direction.

It just never does, for some reason.

What could have possibly prompted this?

“Well, the rent is rather high. Perhaps I could look into getting a roommat-”

“ROOMMATES WILL RUIN YOUR LIFE!”

“Okay, I guess it’s back to the basement to goon on Discord, then.”

“Sir, we’ve increased the rent again, as you’ve ordered.”

“Excellent. Now saturate the media broadcast telling them to start having lots of children.”

And they’re a hugely popular genre.

The IT Crowd is a show about two to five people in a room talking to one another. They did this for six episodes a season and the show ran for four seasons. This produced one of the most watched television shows on the BBC Network.