did i say anything about the ccp?

The PRC, which is run exclusively by the CCP, is kind of the topic of discussion here. Is that too complex for you to grasp?

in any case the country has seen the unprecedented growth in the econony and quality of life since its inception.

It's hilarious that tankies throw fits over capitalist countries using the same measure to judge their successes, but immediately resort to it when their favorite fascist state is questioned.

My payment is me and people I care about not being rounded up, tortured, expelled, or executed at some point during a second Trump administration. It's very valuable to me.

I don't give a fuck that the DNC is filled with listless, lazy, complacent, corrupt shitheads, because 'punishing' them for that by putting a metaphorical gun to my head and blowing my brains out just doesn't seem like a good calculus, especially since fascist regimes always have a place for listless, lazy, complacent, corrupt shitheads anyway, so it wouldn't be much of a punishment for the worst amongst them.

There was a quaint little tourist attraction back in the days when 'customer safety' was just a suggestion.

It's a good thing that all that time and resources and blood was spent making the CCP the only instrument of significant political power in China so they could [check notes] as a much-poorer country, have about the same number of billionaires as the poster country for capitalism!

Power to the people('s billionaires)!

Lemmy world and being politically illiterate. Name a better duo.

True political literacy is understanding that the PEOPLE'S billionaires are what the REAL path to socialism looks like!

A guy can’t repost a factoid he read once and accepted non-critically without getting implicitly called a tankie around here.

lol

I've heard it used, as an American myself. Sex-pest is someone who is bothersome towards others, typically in a harassing way with some thin layer of plausible deniability, in the expectation or hope of getting reluctant sex out of someone else.

I was actually just joking but forgot my /s.

Poe's law. A lot of people on here genuinely think there aren't any tankies, despite the fact that a toe dip in most of these threads will show people with such delightful takes as "Authoritarian is a word made up to discredit communists" and "Soviet Secret Police were just a necessary defense against reactionaries!"

Oh, certainly. But an active and involved population can help steer the ship back on course by democratic means when any given foreign policy bureaucrat fucks up.

It's the FSB now.

Uh.

You have fun projecting your fantasies onto others, I suppose.

Sorry for being uncomfortable with atrocity denialism. Guess that's weird to you.

Barely anyone protest voted lol.

It was the highest 3rd party vote in, what, 20 years?

She got more votes from Bernie voters than Trump got from Gary Johnson voters. She lost because she didn’t appeal to specific voters in specific states, and the US has a shit democracy that she didn’t correctly strategize for.

Those things are also correct.

My point is not "HILLARY COULD HAVE WON" it was "Pretty clearly, despite widespread discontent on the left and the resulting action of witholding votes to either not vote, write-in, or give to the Green/Libertarian Parties, the DNC did not take losing to a right-wing candidate as proof that they needed to move left in any appreciable way".

Even in the Cold War, it was horrifically uneven. We were cozy with Yugoslavia and intermittently cooperative with the Arab socialist states (and Israel, which was dominated by the at-the-time-actually-left Labour coalitions), but couped the democratic governments of Mossadegh in Iran (who wasn't even a socialist) and Allende in Chile for seeming a little too 'red'.

Diving into Cold War history, you realize how much of the lines sold about realpolitik, liberal internationalism, and material conditions are all less important than their defenders present them as.

No one has a plan. There's no rationality or structure to it. Personal quirks of low-ranking bureaucrats and cultural perceptions of political decorum are often as important as national-scale economic concerns.

It's why democratic participation and awareness of foreign affairs is so goddamn important. Because otherwise, Mr. Empty Suit in a sinecure position during an unforeseen crisis who had a fucking cold the day a meeting was supposed to happen determines the fate of hundreds of thousands.

Shit's almost never inevitable.

I dunno, I mean, anyone who listens to the gossip 'round a medium-sized town has crazy stories to tell. Florida is obviously not in great straits mental-health-services wise, but Florida Man is exceptionally visible above all, rather than exceptionally crazy.

Also, gators are a fun and unusual addition to any news item.

The real reason Florida Man became a thing:

The most important reason Florida residents land in the headlines has to do with the state’s Sunshine Law, which makes official records related to state governing agencies accessible to the public. Florida’s position is that the government is a public business, and its leaders have stuck to that belief with this law.

Established in 1995, the Sunshine Law ensures everyday citizens can easily access public records. This includes any document related to official government agency business, like photos, emails, maps —and of course, arrest reports and mugshots. Of course, some information is redacted or kept private, like victims’ names and residential addresses.

In Florida, access to these documents and photos is fast — arrest reports are available almost immediately after they are filed, local station WCTV reported in 2019. In other states, reporters often file a request for an arrest record and wait days for its arrival. In Florida, this process is streamlined — journalists have access to daily booking records, so they can get started building their stories almost immediately.

No, but it's a convenient drum to beat for the right-wing.

How can a country that is imperial not be effected(prodded) by imperialism?

So you're including self-prodding by imperialism. In that case, the fuck was your point about the Soviet Secret Police being necessary and justified because of imperialism? Are you just throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks at this point?

All that you list apart from François Spain were imperial countries… I’m going to assume your trolling.

Wait, so now you're changing the criteria from "Countries which turned authoritarian without prodding from imperialism" to "Countries that were authoritarian without being imperialist"? How the fuck is that at all relevant, then, to the very imperialist Soviet Union?

"Disband the CIA but popular discontent in dictatorships is generally not a CIA plot" is where I'm coming from.

The Han Dynasty. The Russian Empire. Nazi Germany. The "Estado Novo" of Portugal. Francoist Spain.