NikkiB

I feel you're being extremely uncharitable to this person who has likely suffered enormous and lasting consequences for her actions or is about to. At the very least, she has stepped away from her likely substantial and reliable income and has no chance of being employed in a similar capacity. That is no small thing. Think about the effect this could have on the uninformed or undecided.

I call cap. Humanoid robots? For what?

I'm pulling hard for nominative determinism.

who?

"He also urged Ukrainians not to base their decisions to join the military on whether the United States continues to support them."

That mf really just said "please die."

I suspect that China is not truly so controversial outside of the western "left." It may help to understand that there are more CPC members then there are people in Germany. Marxism-Leninism is the dominant ideological strain of leftist thought, globally speaking. "Maoists," Hoxhaists, Anarchists, etc. are extremely marginal and don't even have the power and influence proportional to their minuscule population of adherents. They have no states, irrelevant parties, zero organization, and consequently no capacity for struggle, armed or otherwise. I cannot emphasize enough that these so-called socialists and communists can be safely ignored. They can not help or even meaningfully hinder their own political "projects," much less those of typical Marxist-Leninists.

As for why they exist, it boils down to an unscientific, anti-dialectical and idealist worldview. They don't conceive of political and economic systems as containing contradictory elements, but as pure, static forces that only change due to external influence. Notice how the libertarian types will insist that the presence of any public industry, welfare state, or regulatory agency in a capitalist country indicates it has "fallen to socialism/communism" and "isn't real capitalism" anymore. Likewise, ultras and leftcoms will take the existence of a stock market in China as evidence that the CPC has "abandoned Marxism/communism" and "isn't real socialism" anymore. Both of these groups will go on to insist that their pure, unadulterated version of their ideal system has "never been tried." One has to wonder why.

In capitalist/liberal economies, private profit is the guiding principle of all economic and political activity. The presence of "socialist" elements in these systems always serves that purpose, albeit sometimes indirectly. In socialist economies, the guiding principle is social necessity, and likewise, seemingly liberal elements of their systems serve the worker-led state. This is the difference between a Dictatorship of the Proletariat vs a Dictatorship of the Bourgeoisie. The composition of these systems will be similar, but will serve different functions. This understanding is essential not just to being a good ML, but for making sense of the world in general and avoiding the purist mindset.

"The ads have also used video footage of the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, overlaid with a headline about Mangi. They demanded that Mangi share his personal views on the 9/11 attack."

This literally happens in The Campaign. Will Ferrell's character puts out an ad that accuses Zach Galafianakis's character of having ties to terrorism on account of his beard and demands to know where he was on 9/11.

"Biden warns CCP robocars steal your data and send it overseas."

CIA/NSA out here like "You can't harvest Americans' personal data! We already called dibs!"

Inspired article. "German tabloid Blid says Russia will invade Europe (where in Europe? All of it?) in the winter of 24-25."

You're not supposed to call it a tabloid when you reference it as an authoritative source, Andy. It has a few other gems but that is my favorite.

"We stand with the children who deserve to be children."

Utterly incomprehensible. A lie repeated often enough becomes truth.

🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻

Are they allowed to catch other fish there?