• @PolandIsAStateOfMind
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    181 year ago

    As long as they won’t nuke the shit out of us from spite, yes please, by all means.

    Unfortunately, i can totally predict nuclear blackmail by the decaying US regime.

    • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆OP
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      151 year ago

      I think it’s likely a race between US imploding internally and starting a nuclear holocaust.

  • @ComradeSalad
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    181 year ago

    It will most likely implode like the Russian Empire did. It will be up to us to put the pieces back together to form a new, unified, socialist state. The only terrifying lose variable is the existence of the US’s nuclear weapons reserves. We don’t know if the dying empire will try to take everyone with them, or what some ragtag fascist group might do if they get their hands on even one warhead.

    • @CITRUS
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      71 year ago

      Something which makes me not stress about the Nuclear weapons reserve is this: If the country is at that point of collapse then it would be safe enough for international intervention to swoop in.

      • @ComradeSalad
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        91 year ago

        That would be an operation of insane magnitude, especially as US reserves are spread out thin across the US, and world itself, as the strategic bomber force and nuclear submarine fleets also control a large amount of warheads.

        Along with the fact that the location of many launch sites and the true location of warheads is secret. Not to mention the fact that the entire point of SSBN submarines is that they can operate in secrecy and without resupply for an extremely long time while lying in wait or changing positions.

        • @CITRUS
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          31 year ago

          Good point, but I assume the militaries who would intervene know more about the locations than we would as laymen. Also no operation is too big if it means preventing nuclear annihilation.

          And if it’s inevitable that we would die in a nuclear holocaust then what’s the point in worrying about it if our years are numbered?

        • @CITRUS
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          21 year ago

          well safer i guess lol

  • @carpe_modo
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    181 year ago

    I am both terrified and optimistic because yes it is.

  • @TeezyZeezy
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    1 year ago

    Absolutely they are. I’m living through it, and it’s beautifully tragic (only tragic in the sense that I will probably not make it out alive being a peasant citizen lmao)

  • @xxcvzvcxx
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    131 year ago

    Yes, and they will destroy the earth while they do it.

    • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆OP
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      131 year ago

      That’s the real worry. US regime is already inching closer and closer to a direct war with Russia.

    • @redtea
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      81 year ago

      Speaking of lettuces, one of those marvelous vegetables(?) was all it took to topple Liz Truss. It’s a powerful legume(?).

      (PS Wtf is a lettuce? Only thing I’m sure of is that it’s not a meat.)

      • Water Bowl Slime
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        81 year ago

        Lettuce is apparently related to daisies and sunflowers. Here’s what the plant looks like after “bolting” aka growing past the point of being tasty.

        • @redtea
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          21 year ago

          How strange. This (as in me) is what happens when food is something to buy at the supermarket.

      • @ComradeSalad
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        51 year ago

        The internet has broken me, I can’t tell if this is satire.

        • @redtea
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          11 year ago

          It was 50:50, ComradeSalad.

  • @cfgaussian
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    1 year ago

    Sadly Counterpunch has been a bit hit and miss lately, they’ve had some cringe takes on the Ukraine conflict.

    • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆OP
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      101 year ago

      Oh yeah, vast majority of western media is taking the official line on Ukraine.

      • @cfgaussian
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        1 year ago

        Oh you know the usual… “Russia bad, illegal invasion, Ukraine has the right to defend its sovereignty, blah, blah, blah, and yeah maybe NATO shouldn’t have expanded but Russia still shouldn’t have done what it did…” that kind of stuff. They’re trying to have their cake and eat it too, trying to pretend to still be anti-imperialist by criticizing how the West is using Ukraine to wage a proxy war against Russia while still fundamentally taking Ukraine’s side and parroting pro-Ukrainian talking points.

        Not a single word about the eight year long genocide in Donbass or the imminent threat that the fascist Kiev regime armed to the teeth by NATO and delusional enough to think they can retake Crimea by force posed to Russia.

        This article: https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/12/15/the-left-and-ukraine/ is the worst i’ve read so far from them, full of the kind of two faced bullshit fake anti-imperialism i just mentioned. I had hoped this was a one off and they made a mistake letting some liberal hack write an article for them but this is a trend apparently:

        In this one: https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/11/21/war-in-the-ukraine-is-not-a-fight-between-good-and-evil-just-bad-vs-bad/ they claim the invasion was “motivated by a desire for empire and is imperialist in nature”

        In this one: https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/10/21/ukraine-a-classic-proxy-war/ they parrot the usual nonsense about Putin allegedly making nuclear threats and Ukraine having to “fend off a complete Russian conquest of the country”;

        in yet another article they claim Putin is an autocrat and a dictator who is obsessed with controlling information and somehow that’s why Russia is not doing well militarily

        In this one: https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/12/02/267301/ they jerk off over the recapture of Kherson and repeat the propaganda narrative about “uncovered Russian atrocities” in every location the Russians pull out of, without even a mention of the “cleansing operations” that the Ukronazis embark on when they get into a location formerly held by Russia

        In this one: https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/10/31/the-long-indecisive-war-in-ukraine-is-reshaping-the-political-world-map/ they repeat Ukrainian propaganda about Russia being routed on the battlefield and try to claim that somehow these “defeats” and a fear of sanctions has supposedly made China want to distance itself from Russia (the opposite is the case!)

        In this one: https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/12/20/a-blueprint-for-peace-in-ukraine/ they propose completely absurd terms for peace like another Minsk-like ceasefire agreement, new referendums in Donbass and Crimea (no mention of the other regions that have also already held referenda and joined Russia!), and proposing that the Ukrainians investigate and prosecute themselves for their own crimes…just laughable, childish stuff

        All in all it looks like they are trying very hard to “both sides” the conflict, in the Trotskyist cold war tradition of “neither Moscow nor Washington” but ending up actually just parroting and legitimizing with a leftist, pseudo-anti-imperialist veneer all sorts of western propaganda talking points in the process.

        • @Shrike502
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          41 year ago

          Reading these makes me wonder if the group I’m in is trot. Or at least has trot tendencies

          • @cfgaussian
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            1 year ago

            Probably. That’s very common in western countries. Most communist/socialist groups in Europe and North America have at least some Trot tendencies. But hey, it’s probably still better than not being in an org at all. Trots can do good work sometimes in terms of labor struggles and anti-capitalist agitation, they’re just very unreliable when it comes to taking a principled anti-imperialist position.

  • 小莱卡
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    61 year ago

    Its still decades away imo, tho it is clearly on its way.

    • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆OP
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      51 year ago

      It’s hard to predict these things, but the trends do look to be self reinforcing at this point. The worse the economic situation becomes the more political divisions arise leading to a less functional government that’s unable to pass policies needed to address the unravelling economy.

      The thing about a collapse is that it’s hard to see it when it starts to happen. It’s just a bunch of things getting worse every day all at once. This was a really good article on the subject. I very much agree with its thesis. The collapse is already in progress, it’s just not visible yet.

  • @sinovictorchan
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    51 year ago

    The USA and Western European empires depend on the Pax Americana world order and the Bretton Wood institutions like World Bank and International Monetary Fund which are now collapsing. The interesting part is that the people and countries (like Donald Trump, China, and Russia) that receive the most slander from the mainstream news of NATO countries that competes for bribery from the metropolitan elites are the key player for the rising democratization of the new multi-polar world order. Donald Trump represent some conservative elites and he does not work for the metropolitan liberal elites so his rise to power cause friction that allow exploited countries to resist free riding.

  • @Shrike502
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    31 year ago

    Meh, I don’t see it. It’s bourgeoisie vs more bourgeoisie.

    • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆OP
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      111 year ago

      Capitalism is an inherently unstable system, sooner or later the contradictions sharpen to the point when the whole thing unravels. Bourgeoisie rely on a compliant working class to stay in power. Of course, I do think it’s more likely that US would head towards fascism than socialism once the current system collapses. I would expect that it’s no longer going to be a single country at that point though. Something akin to USSR collapse is very likely in the next decade in my opinion, except it’s going to be far more volatile when it happens.

      • @Shrike502
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        61 year ago

        Something akin to USSR collapse

        USSR collapse was a different situation. It was a complete change of the economic basis.

        Otherwise, while I obviously agree about capitalism being inherently unstable, there are ways to stave off the contradictions - since capitalism has arrived to a dead end a century ago. I find it more probable that USA will increase cannibalisation of its vassal territories and increase the provocations for a new large war.

        • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆OP
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          81 year ago

          I completely agree that the mechanics were different with the wave of rapid privatization creating the crisis in post USSR time. The problem US has is that there’s a collapse in the standard of living happening. There have been three major economic crises in the past three decades, and there’s been a wealth transfer to the top during each crisis.

          The result has been that majority of the population is living on increasingly tightening margins. So, there’s less wiggle room as each economic crisis hits. We’re now at the point where 63% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. This indicates that most people simply can’t afford any significant increase in their cost of living. I expect that a lot of people are going to be defaulting on their mortgages and other debts this year, which will propagate through the financial system and create something akin to the 2008 economic crash.

          This time around it’s not possible to just print more money because that’s what caused the current inflation, and the fed intentionally raised the rates to create the recession as a way to combat that. It’s really not clear to me what other levers US has at this point.

          • @Shrike502
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            21 year ago

            It’s really not clear to me what other levers US has at this point

            More plunder, perhaps? I understand that online discourse is heavily propagandised, but from the outside it seems that the public is getting increasingly comfortable with the notion of war being waged for economic benefits and “because we can” (as opposed to any wishy-washy rhetoric of freedom and democracy and liberal values). Whether or not the US ruling class has the wisdom to toss some crumbs to the people and stave off the discontent is another question

            • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆OP
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              31 year ago

              Plunder is how US has originally attained its standard of living, but the rule of empires is that eventually you hit an inflection point where the cost of maintaining the empire outstrips the value you can extract from the colonies. At that point the core starts getting hollowed out in order to keep the colonies in line.

              I think US has entered this stage now, it has to maintain 800 bases around the globe, and it’s involved in conflicts around the world that it’s increasingly losing while US adversaries are becoming more organized and stronger by the day. And this becomes a self reinforcing cycle. The more countries shake US off the harder it becomes to keep the rest in line.

              What’s happening in the Middle East right now is a good example of that. US was forced out of Afghanistan, they failed to break Syria, now Turkey and the Saudis are starting to show signs of independence. Iran is turning into a major player in the region and basically controls Iraq politically now. Iran already supports Syria, and Saudis are starting to talk to them. I expect that soon US will be pushed out of the region.

              We’re seeing a similar pattern in Latin America where the whole pink tide movement resulted in leftist governments forming across the region. All of these are starting to work together and are aligning against US interests. US will be forced to devote dwindling resources to try and counter this trend going forward.

              Ukraine is a huge drain for US right now where billions are spent each month propping up the military and the entire economy of their puppet regime. This has been the main focus for the past year, and what forced US to loosen its grip on the rest of the empire leading to the above outcomes.

              Finally, China is the what US sees at its main competition. China has outplayed US on practically every front at this point, and US doesn’t have any answer to China’s growing economic influence globally. Countries are increasingly choosing to have relations with China over US because China doesn’t dictate to them how to run their internal affairs. This in turn cuts off potential targets for plundering.

              Each of the hegemonic projects US is involved in requires enormous resources, and those have to come at the cost of American people. The sane thing to do would be to abandon global hegemonic ambitions and refocus on reshoring the domestic economy, but I don’t think that’s possible politically. So, I think US will keep hollowing itself out to try and cling on to its global empire while the empire continues to crumble.