All propaganda is not good, but I’d say that Chinese-brand propaganda is fierce. I make an attempt to get news from sources outside the States because our propaganda is pretty lame as well. I should learn more about Taiwan history, though. Can anyone recommend a good book about it?

This is the way.

🤣

Aaaahh, gotcha. Good advice, thanks. 👍

Why are you mad at me? It isn’t my choice. You make some good points/observations, but I won’t respond to each of them because the fact of the matter is that the US will not sit by and watch Taiwan be “reintegrated” (again, not my choice; just a fact).

I would say that suicide is not patriotic to anyone. Why do Chinese supporters always resort to whataboutism, anyway? Shitty behavior is shitty behavior, regardless.

The PRC has never owned Taiwan. Also, it doesn’t matter about the ethnicity of the population because, at the end of the day, they don’t want to be part of China.

What does this even mean? You’re comparing cats and dogs in an attempt to justify PRC’s warrantless claim to an island they’ve never owned in modern history.

Yup, the military industrial complex is so screwed up.

Taiwan presents a tricky and strange situation. All I’m saying is that I really do not think that the US would sit back and watch China invade without doing anything.

Officially. That’s just political framing to keep China from going ape-shit. Unofficially, though… see the Six Assurances.

I see what you’re saying, but it is really easy to drum up support, especially with how effective the media has become at manipulating public opinion. I’ve seen the US go to war over much less in my life.

Suicide isn’t patriotic. And it isn’t a Chinese island; that’s the point. It’s a democratic, independent country that happens to be a US ally.

I used to use my Blackberry to read Digg every morning in college while waiting for classes to start. It was great in its heyday, but maybe that’s just nostalgia or that I’d not experienced anything quite like it prior.

What are they expecting to happen if they attack Taiwan? They’ll start the next world war. There isn’t a reality where the West is going to let them have it, regardless of how effective their “precision strikes” or suicidal their lunatics are.

Journalists should be forbidden from using “blasts” in headlines.

This would be so easily bypassed that the whole concept, while technologically cool, is completely useless. Someone could apply a very subtle smoothing filter and then do whatever they wanted with it after via stable diffusion (or use the myriad of alternative methods to remove the “protection”).

“Twitter… [is] a goddamn blight.”

There might be other ways to control population like, oh, say, sexual education or free contraceptives. It is totally the Chinese, authoritarian way of thinking that lead you to where you’re at now.

I said China is overpopulated (it is). I didn’t allude to anything; you did that in your own head because you like to play the victim.

Time will tell what happens, I guess. I wouldn’t bet on an authoritarian country achieving much, however. History has shown that they tend to not do so well in the long run.

Maybe, just maybe, both places suck.

Having 1.4 billion people isn’t exactly responsible either, though. Call it what you want, China is still responsible for the lion’s share of pollution (not just CO2).