SubstantialNothingness [comrade/them]

The US is escalating its attempts to buy itself time and slow China’s ascent.

TSMC to suspend production of advanced AI chips for China from Monday, FT reports

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I did a deep dive several months back and I get the impression that many US bureaucrats/analysts see countering China on Taiwan as not feasible let alone beneficial for the US. [edit: I think some made the point that the US needs China for solar, steel, and other goods to have any meaningful green transition.]

I got the impression that they encourage de-escalation and a timeline of 10-20 years for a handover to occur. It seems to me like it’s the elected politicians who are using war-mongering to whip up votes among propagandized voters, using heated rhetoric and driving the resurgence of jingoism. 20 years gives them plenty of time to redirect their propaganda toward another, weaker nation.

Of course there is a very real fear of the propagandists drinking their own koolaid, or the crumbling empire lashing out. But every day the US’ edge is diminished more.

I don’t know what is best for China to do but I know that they shouldn’t wait forever to do it - however they are keen on playing the long game and good at it, and if they can afford to do so without hurting themselves, I think you’re “best possible outcome” is pretty likely.

I don’t think 20 years is going to be an acceptable timeline but I also don’t think it’s going to take 20 years for US force projection to collapse.

I agree that a lot is going to depend on who gets put into positions of power around Trump. Some outcomes seem more reliable than others but personally I don’t feel I can predict much with any reliability until there is a clearer picture of what the administration is going to look like.

(And if the admin sees turnover similar to the last one, then it’s going to be even harder to make reliable long-term predictions.)

With that said, I also share your cautious optimism. (e: Speaking in terms of the international political picture - I’m less optimistic about the immediate effects that many of our comrades around the world could experience.)

If I was Putin there’s no way I would settle for something like this immediately out of the gate.

I would at least try to wait for materiel to dry up and take easy territory gains requiring minimal cost in terms of money, resources, personnel.

Why settle for your demands of the old status quo when the new one benefits you even more?

Sometimes it takes awhile for people to recognize their own beliefs being spoken to them through another’s words.

At least the ones throwing their hands up and saying electoralism is out of their control are correct. Maybe they’ll even take the next step and commit to dual power, although I won’t hold my breath and wait on them.

Apparently the FBI foiled a right-winger looking to take out a power station in Tennessee.

https://archive.ph/YcmoA

Sometimes some of us get hyper-critical about ourselves. I don’t know why it happens - maybe it’s a symptom of some condition, or the effect of being neurodivergent in a neurotypical world.

When you get to feeling that way, I encourage you to tell yourself that it doesn’t matter how the symptoms manifest, the simple fact that you are struggling is what legitimizes your condition.

The categorization of conditions is useful to calibrate treatment and support but many people’s conditions do not manifest as all of the textbook symptoms, and neither do their responses to treatment. The professionals should understand this because they work with it day in and day out. The improved descriptions of conditions has allowed advancements in treatment but remember that the ultimate goal of is not to perfectly understand arbitrarily delineated conditions (and invalidate care for those who don’t match them perfectly). The ultimate goal is to reduce actual suffering experienced by individuals. So what matters in terms of “deserving” treatment and support is not the specifics of your condition, but simply whether or not you are struggling (e: whether or not you realize it! if you’re questioning it at all then you probably are!). If you are struggling it doesn’t really matter why you are struggling, all that matters is that you get the help that you need.

I hope this perspective helps next time these thoughts pop up. You deserve to live the best life that is available to you.

Whatever gets one through the day!

Oof. That’s rough. Take care. I hope you get to enjoy the sun again soon.

I would start by attempting to ask them a lot of questions. What I would do next would depend on the answers to those questions.

Read that as “CBD” first, which, you know, would still be valid

That helps too, but not as much as the THC that comes along with it

But yes CBT is fairly effective imo as long as it isn’t being approached like “The Secret” or used to mask negative external stimuli instead of actually dealing with them. I failed to appreciate many beautiful moments in my life because I wasn’t ready to embrace them for what they were - it helps with stuff like that.

Turns out Lenin’s daily affirmations were only enough to net him a big country, and then his discipline slipped and that’s how he had a stroke

What a fucking poser!

I hate this sort of thing due to my experiences with depression:

Visualizing your dreams and maintaining positive thinking can really help a suffering individual, but all you hear about is this “The Wish” sort of zealotry and you think “Obviously I cannot achieve literally anything and everything in life” which makes it all feel hopeless - like the only kind of people who benefit from positive thinking are those who already don’t have any problems.

For people like me it takes massive amounts of CBT plus lowering my expectations and dreams to things that are realistic in my situation (which sounds awful but has made my life much better), and it causes a lot of dissonance when people act like it should be as easy for me as it is for them.

I don’t know what your relationship with your dad is like, but if I was in your shoes and comfortable doing so, I would consider telling him that you appreciate his good intentions and that you will do your best to keep your head up and make your dreams come true, but that there will be failures and setbacks in life and it is not helpful not productive to pretend that anything is possible. That puts the onus for any and all failures entirely on your shoulders which is extremely unfair as well as a self-destructive perspective. And moreover it’s not the way the world works - or else some of those would-be world rulers would have actually been successful by this point in time.

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There are traditional libertarians (i.e. anarchists, anarcho-communists, etc.) and there are Rothbardian libertarians (liberal market reformists primarily in the Anglosphere). These two groups tend to be diametrically opposed to each other.

The latter is never serious (except as a grift). It considers freedom to be a pathological form of positive liberty, where socioeconomic status grants the right to oppress lower classes (which is of course very appealing to conservatives). The US Libertarian party belongs to this version. It was named after traditional libertarianism but it is not actually a descendant ideology (as demonstrated by conflicting stances on fundamental principles).

The former doesn’t believe in the “magic of the free market,” and focuses instead on eliminating the financial systems that create hierarchy out of inequal access to resources (because the chains of capital impede negative liberty / the right to not be oppressed). As such, it is incompatible with Rothbard’s version. This type may organize with socialists or communists, or may seek an immediate anarchist revolution, depending on the variety and individual. I’ll let you judge this type of libertarianism for yourself. A common criticism is that it is too “Pie in the Sky.”

On a final note, I will argue that the Wikipedia entry is incorrect in stating that Libertarian socialism is unique in rejecting private property. In general, all traditional forms of libertarianism reject private property because it is a vehicle for inequality that propagates hierarchy and oppression. See anarchist communism for another libertarian ideology that opposes private property.

e: I should add I’m mostly talking about the radical, unadulterated versions of these ideologies. Individuals can be more or less radical, serious, committed, aware, informed, etc. If you were to say almost no libertarians see it this way and that in practice they are nearly all silly, I wouldn’t really feel compelled to argue lol. That’s been my overwhelming experience too, although with a few notable exceptions IRL.

Updates on floods in West and Central Africa this year, and a discussion of climatic trends in these regions (not good):

[Phys.org] Climate change-worsened floods wreak havoc in Africa

Look at that, the climate change subs captured by climate change deniers are on the list.

I would bet that almost every sub on their list is already full of astroturfers talking to themselves lol

not willingly, no

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