I mean, that’s the entire point, right? Media doesn’t exist to show the truth, it exists to manufacture consent for some policy direction. If media was supposed to be factual, it wouldn’t be funded by biased actors and it wouldn’t have an incentive structure that rewards profits more than factual reporting.

Capitalism 🤷‍♀️

That’s why the Saudi’s aren’t going to piss off the US, China, Russia, or India. Their strategy only works in peacetime.

They’re ditching the USD’s role as the global reserve currency. Any reduction in reliance on the USD directly impacts the USD’s role as a reserve currency.

You don’t have to go “I’m never touching the USD again” to ditch it in it’s key use case.

That’s because the AIIB is actually making progress pulling people out of poverty instead of instituting austerity measures like the IMF is keen to do.

All the articles about foreign meddling coming out of the big tech giants are written by “independent think tanks” that are conspicuously made up mostly of ex-US intelligence. That should tell you enough.

I would actually love to see Saudi Arabia take the lead on food engineering. They might lack fresh water, but they have immense amounts of land and sun to play with.

The only alternative I can see is a mass reforestation project.

Russia’s military budget in 2019 was $65 billion. It’s a waste of money that’s only practical because the US is literally swimming in taxpayer money (mostly because the US doesn’t invest in itself, but that’s another issue).

Same thing is happening to India before our eyes.

Thing is, the Western view that media is free inherently makes people more susceptible to propaganda. To be more precise, Western media has achieved a few things: (1) The illusion of media freedom makes people less likely to question the media they consume. (2) The profit-driven motive of media companies makes it more likely for facts to be “reinterpreted” to better fit the target reader’s worldview. (3) The extent that government agencies are involved in media has been completely hidden from the public.

I mean, it’s not like Chinese people are stupid. We know what’s wrong with society in mainland China, but we also see all the benefits that it’s brought. The fact that it isn’t talked about doesn’t mean that everyone’s bought into government propaganda, it just means that people are on average happy enough to not bother with it.

Flipping the firewall is easy. Going to Taiwan or Hong Kong is easy. Emigrating is easy.

Just because someone isn’t white doesn’t mean that they’re stupid ffs

They can’t, but it looks good without Britain having to toss more money at the dumpster fire.

Everyone does this with store bought drones (mostly sourced from China, FWIW). It’s so incredibly affordable it’s crazy.

Mexico should know better. This is just how the US treats allies that aren’t geopolitically significant like Canada and Mexico.

Honestly? Good. The NEC is the only thing Amtrak seems to know how to do, so might as well have Amtrak learn how to do it well

Driving down a road in the countryside is really quite underrated… But it also wouldn’t be affected by changing urban planning to include less cars.

More respectful driving culture tbh

California drivers are asleep at the wheel, Massachusetts drivers hate each other, Texas drivers hate everyone… By contrast, British Columbia drivers are at least somewhat sane and respectful.

Nobody was prepared for this evolution of warfare. You can now build an explosive-carrying device the size and radar profile of a large bird.

But, for what it’s worth, Russian state media is saying that it was saboteurs… which is probably more likely given the distance from the frontline than an Ukrainian-operated drone.

There is no duo more iconic than Germans and Nazism.

The Ukrainian economy needs it tbh

Moving white people to Russia is racist? Huh.

This is the same transition that the West had on China a few years ago. When it becomes clear that you won’t become another puppet of the West and want to carve out your own interests, the West immediately flips on you.