Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!
morningstaronline.co.uk
In Washington DC ROGER McKENZIE sees signs of the US empire’s decay all around – especially compared with the vibrant and thriving Chinese capital
  • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
    82·
    21 days ago

    So, the thing about the US is that we became cum slaves to the car companies. That’s not the whole picture, there’s, of course, other factors like white flight and other racism-based phenomena, big oil lobbying, etc. etc. but any other industry would gladly murder their mother to have the kind of absolute entrenchment and societal dependency that the car industry has in the US. For seventy years, every urban policy has bent itself around the concerns of cars and the people who own them, including the transfer of wealth from downtowns that pay well more than they consume in taxes to the suburbs who consume far more than they pay in taxes. There’s a reason why US urbans are uniquely terrible, even among NATO and other capitalist countries.

    I’m glad for China, everyone deserves to have good cities. I don’t think that having good urbans again is out of the reach of the US, even without a revolution. It’s just going to take time, a lot of time, and consistent action at the local, state, and federal levels.

  • Reality Suit@lemmy.one
    612·
    21 days ago

    I wonder how the Uyghurs feel about this. Or even Taiwan. This is just CCP propaganda. The people of China are just as much victims to their government as the people of the US. All around the world, countries are being led by inept and out of touch capitalists. It doesn’t matter how they frame their governments. Making money is the number one goal.

    We all could be living in a highly futuristic world with everything provided to us if only those who stole it all would just give back a little.

    • davel [he/him]@lemmy.mlEnglish
      273·
      21 days ago

      This is just CCP propaganda.

      The Morning Star is a British labor press, something the US used to have in abundance before the red scares.

      I wonder how the Uyghurs feel about this.

      The US tried to foment division in China by funding and organizing terrorist cells in Xinjiang, and once those efforts failed, it concocted and promoted a genocide narrative. Antony Blinken is still pushing this slop, just last month.

      .
      The blueprint of regime change operations

      We see here for example the evolution of public opinion in regards to China. In 2019, the ‘Uyghur genocide’ was broken by the media (Buzzfeed, of all outlets). In this story, we saw the machine I described up until now move in real time. Suddenly, newspapers, TV, websites were all flooded with stories about the ‘genocide’, all day, every day. People whom we’d never heard of before were brought in as experts — Adrian Zenz, to name just one; a man who does not even speak a word of Chinese.

      Organizations were suddenly becoming very active and important. The World Uyghur Congress, a very serious-sounding NGO, is actually an NED Front operating out of Germany […]. From their official website, they declare themselves to be the sole legitimate representative of all Uyghurs — presumably not having asked Uyghurs in Xinjiang what they thought about that.

      The WUC also has ties to the Grey Wolves, a fascist paramilitary group in Turkey, through the father of their founder, Isa Yusuf Alptekin.

      Documents came out from NGOs to further legitimize the media reporting. This is how a report from the very professional-sounding China Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) came to exist. They claimed ‘up to 1.3 million’ Uyghurs were imprisoned in camps. What they didn’t say was how they got this number: they interviewed a total of 10 people from rural Xinjiang and asked them to estimate how many people might have been taken away. They then extrapolated the guesstimates they got and arrived at the 1.3 million figure.

      Sanctions were enacted against China — Xinjiang cotton for example had trouble finding buyers after Western companies were pressured into boycotting it. Instead of helping fight against the purported genocide, this act actually made life more difficult for the people of Xinjiang who depend on this trade for their livelihood (as we all do depend on our skills to make a livelihood).

      Any attempt China made to defend itself was met with more suspicion. They invited a UN delegation which was blocked by the US. The delegation eventually made it there, but three years later. The Arab League also visited Xinjiang and actually commended China on their policies — aimed at reducing terrorism through education and social integration, not through bombing like we tend to do in the West.

      Or even Taiwan.

      I don’t really know. I’d have to ask the actual working class of Taiwan, not their government or corporate media.

      Edit to add:

      All around the world, countries are being led by inept and out of touch capitalists. It doesn’t matter how they frame their governments. Making money is the number one goal.

      That’s not what’s currently happening in China. Yes China has capitalists, but they haven’t captured the state, as evidenced by the recent crackdown on property speculation.

      • Reality Suit@lemmy.one
        37·
        21 days ago

        Yeah, any non native government is a fraud. Everything the US does, China and any other “super power” has committed as well.

        I’m not anywhere near an expert on history, but when one regime is held up higher than another regime, we forget that they got there through blood and murder. Yes, I know the article was on infrastructure, but there is a whole intricate world where everything is connected in one way or another. Uyghurs are just one population that have existed on this planet. And yes, I’m sure there are some ethnic Uyghurs who are doing just fine.

        You can easily find a video where a north Korean defector is claiming how much better north Korea is compared to the US.

        • InappropriateEmote [comrade/them, undecided]@hexbear.netEnglish
          9·
          21 days ago

          Yeah, any non native government is a fraud. Everything the US does, China and any other “super power” has committed as well.

          Lifting over 800-million people out of abject poverty and all but eliminating homelessness is fraud?

          I’m not anywhere near an expert on history,

          That is very apparent.

          but when one regime is held up higher than another regime,

          Yes, all governments, no matter whether they’re fuedal monarchies, capitalist “democracies” that funnel all wealth directly to the bourgeosie while millions starve, or socialist revolutionaries employing the mass line consistently proving they are made up of and represent the working class with 95% approval of the population… all of those are “regimes” and everyone knows that “regimes” are equally bad.

          we forget that they got there through blood and murder.

          If a people rises up and kills the landlords brutally holding them in de facto slavery, then the blood and “murder” of those landlords is good actually, and so is the resulting government formed by those people. (And just so we’re clear, that is not sarcasm. My previous sentence about “regimes” was.)

          Yes, I know the article was on infrastructure, but there is a whole intricate world where everything is connected in one way or another.

          It’s almost as if you have to have an understanding of the material circumstances of a given country to have a fucking clue what you’re talking about regarding them!

          Uyghurs are just one population that have existed on this planet.

          You don’t say!

          And yes, I’m sure there are some ethnic Uyghurs who are doing just fine.

          Not just “some.” The Uigher population as a whole is thriving in China.

          You can easily find a video where a north Korean defector is claiming how much better north Korea is compared to the US.

          And they would be right. North Korea is substantially better than the US in almost every way.

    • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.mlOP
      203·
      21 days ago

      It’s amazing how these trolls always come out from the woodwork to regurgitate the same old propaganda that’s been debunked to death. Nobody is buying your bullshit here.

      • Reality Suit@lemmy.one
        78·
        21 days ago

        The article is trying to praise china’s efforts to build infrastructure, but I dare you to criticise the Chinese government. Say something negative on CCP national broadcast about Xi Ping. I’m not defending the US. I’m also not naive to the actions of those in power.

        You, on the other hand, sound like a CCP shill.

            • Egon [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
              8·
              21 days ago

              @InappropriateEmote@hexbear.net took the time to give you a thoughtful response and all you could do was admit that you’re talking out of your ass, do false equivalencies and spout empty nothings like “all countries have shed blood”. You failed to meaningfully engage with the arguments in any way, and that is clear for all to see. Why then do you think other users would respond with anything other than derision?
              “That sums up the propaganda argument” no it sums up someone not taking you seriously, because you show yourself not to be serious. You’re a useful idiot for the us state department thinking you’ve reached some sort of enlightened knowledge whilst you’re failing to investigate the most basic of resources, even when they’re laid at your feet.
              People like you are all the same. You talk shit, someone corrects you and you ignore it, and when others then talk shit back at you, you act incredulous. Fuck you.

      • Reality Suit@lemmy.one
        39·
        21 days ago

        Yes, a propaganda piece. The US sucks, just like any other country where a non native population is in control of the region, but you have to look at how that infrastructure is being built and where. What is being removed or destroyed to make way for that infrastructure.

        I’m calling out the fact that this news piece exists for what purpose? The news needs to report on actual news and not assessments or opinions.