China isn’t Israel.

Centrism is okay during good times

Good times for whom?

So, because the US is regrettably inching toward authoritarianism, the fully authoritarian state was the better one all along?

In which of these countries do the police shoot / choke random people in broad daylight? In which of them is slavery still legal?

China is far from perfect but why would you compare it to like the second worst country in the world?

Just read first-hand accounts from the many people that have escaped the country.

It’s important to note that most North Koreans escape to South Korea, where it is illegal to say anything positive about North Korea, and from where they cannot leave for some number of years. So I would completely trust such accounts.

Also reports about North Korea often contradict other reports about North Korea. It’s a mess of truth, exaggeration, rumours, stuff somebody made up, and in one case a satirical news article from Japan or China that Western media took at face value.

yet

Yes. A group of US companies have bought Tiktok US. Tiktok elsewhere is still owned by the Singaporean / Chinese company.

Don’t spend $50 on boots that will only last a year. Spend $100 on the boots that will last 5 years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boots_theory

True, but it would only work in the US, no? Tiktok itself is still Singaporean, and they don’t care about Israel’s crimes being revealed.

The country with the most scientists and engineers in the world, and a decades-long policy of investimg in education and public infrastructure, is outcompeting everyone else at manufacturing? I’m shocked!

Eswar Prassad, a former head of the China division at the International Monetary Fund

Maybe your advise to poor countries to cut all public services and sell everything to Western companies was wrong, IMF shill? Maybe countries should instead invest in their people and their infrastructure? Radical, I know. Heresy, even.

Do they send in the tanks?

You don’t use tanks in a city. You use machine guns.

Do they kill 1,000,000 people?

If they can, probably

Would republican civilians see empathy for the dead americans who were democrats?

Ask yourself how many people in the US showed empathy for the Gazans.

Or would it unite the nation like 9/11 did, except this time against the government?

Lol no, the US is a terminally propagandised country. Iraq has WMDs, Venezuela has drugs, free healthcare is bad somehow, Israel is not genociding the Palestinians, etc. etc.

How does the sale of Tiktok’s US operation to a US consortium affect a Palestinian?

… an account that appeared to have the same username was still visible on TikTok in Australia – but not in the Middle East, when Al Jazeera checked in different geographies.

Either she got banned on the real Tiktok - and this has nothing to do with the sale of Tiktok US - or she and Al Jazeera are using US Tiktok in the Middle East (but why?).

Cuba is a threat to the United States?

???

Yeah, this is most likely about oil.

I’m a huge fan of Xiaomi’s phones (for the hardware and pricing) but let’s be honest their software isn’t exactly their strength. To be fair, it has improved in recent years.

they’ve only been there since the 1300s

So? Please finish that thought.

Or the fact that they are not white gives them special privileges.

You know what, YES! It does! Now go cry about it.

human habitation on New Zealand has a history of less than a thousand years

I know. My point is that cats (or the Maori) have a minuscule impact on the environment when compared to settlers.

the word “aborigines” in that part of the world carries a potentially problematic connotation.

I see. What would be a more respectful alternative?

The ruling class will makes sure they are insulated from the consequences of war. It’s always the poor who are sent out to die.

Yes, but I think we need to distinguish between the native population, which has proven capable of co-existing with the local ecosystem, and the settlers, who’ll need to be culled.

Maybe we can be a little animale and let the aborigines adopt the more tame settlers. Find them nice, loving homes, you know? The rest will unfortunately need to be euthanised.

You know, I can think of one species that’s a lot more harmful to the environment. Maybe the cats of NZ should start hunting non-native members of that species.