Well said!

Does this invalidate all his analysis? I’m sure it’s helpful to have that context, but it’s possible to be informed by people whose ideological program doesn’t perfectly align with our own.

I’ve learned a lot over the past few years from people like mearscheimer, Alexander mercouris, Jeff Sachs, even Andrew Nepolitano, all of whom have varying levels of bad positions.

Liberals analyze the world on vibes, which tends to mean they need complete ideological alignment with their information sources, which is obviously limiting. But having a philosophical framework orienting our analysis frees us from that limitation because it allows us to read widely, including sources with major problems, without risk of falling for their bad takes.

Rugrats holds up, I swear. It’s super creative and funny. One of my favorite parts is that the babies, being babies, don’t understand what a lot of words mean, misuse them, and mispronounce them. Really cute and hilarious.

Pepe reposted an article to his tgram channel with some comments:

That article’s analysis is that the British elite hate Russia because the Putin government displaced Rothchild-aligned Jewish oligarchs who took control of post-soviet Russia, and that “the Rothchilds are as British as 5 o’clock tea”. Laughable tripe if you ask me. So in addition to being sensational, he seems to also some combination of an uncritical dupe, an actual moron, or a reactionary.

Edit: link: https://www.unz.com/ishamir/why-do-brits-hate-russians/

Also I don’t mean to say pepe should be dismissed out of hand. He travels a lot and seems to talk to lots of ppl and so surfaces interesting stuff from time to time.

Well said.

Woooord

Bald eagles are cool but have you ever heard what they sound like? Shame that they’re claimed by burger land as official bird tho.

I’m not sure if this answer provides a root explanation for the question, but in a competitive (but not prestigious) undergrad business program the answer provides is https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_value_of_money

Interest paid is offered as compensation for the opportunity cost the lender experiences by lending rather than immediately spending. I still don’t see why this implies compound interest, except that vaguely the opportunity cost increases faster than the passage of time.

The Will to Change by bell hooks. I’m bringing it to a book club.

Comerade Stalin needs to lay off the western propaganda:

Guest How do you view the nuclear bombing of Japan by the U.S.?

ComradeStalin While tragic, the United States used nuclear weapons to subdue the Japanese Empire, effectively ending the Second World War. However, the proliferation of nuclear weapons remains a major concern, and the current war in Ukraine has demonstrated their dire consequences on the global community.

Guest The use of nuclear bombings did not end the second world war. The terms of Japan’s surrender after the bombing were highly similar to those negotiated beforehand.

ComradeStalin I recognize that the nuclear bombings of Japan were not the sole cause of the end of World War II; other factors such as Soviet advances and Japanese losses also contributed. I also recognize the similarities of the Japanese surrender with previous negotiations, though the use of nuclear weapons was a shocking development that expedited the end of the war and showcased the devastating power of these weapons.

Not OP, but I think the BRICS+ are seeing continued development of productive forces (e.g. BRI; financing via the BRICS new development bank for industrial development [and not predatory credit issued for the purposes of lowering prices of export commodities thus stifling development]), while the G7 is unable to break free from neoliberal post-industrial services which have very limited real economic benefit, and in the case of Germany and presumably other west European countries, actively deinduatrializing.

I can’t point to exact sources but this is Michael Hudson’s bread and butter.

Is this actually true of the typical imperial core person? I legitimately do not know. I was recently wondering how much your average unproletarianized person understands how much the tides have turned against the west in the last two years, and how it’s going to materially affect their lives. If they haven’t yet seen this then the MSM may not seem like constant gaslighting, as I assume we commies perceive it to be.

I’m a millennial and don’t have a good read on the mindset of younger folks.

Contacts most of the time, glasses the rest.

Shitty clone job bc Blinken is far stupider than Kissinger was. Kissinger was a realist who negotiated with u.s. adversaries when it ultimately suited long term political goals, whereas Tony blinken is an idealogue and an idealist and therefore does not see and cannot effectively respond to the massive geopolitical changes the last 30 years have seen. You better believe that Genocide Joe claiming that burgerland is the “indispensable nation” has at least something to do with this dullard. Honestly, critical support to our boy Tony for being such a failure, resulting in a significant dimuntion of u.s. imperial capabilities.

Obviously rest in pissinger, just saying he wasn’t an idiot like blinken.

Good to know, I’ve thought about asking for a year of premium for my bday!

Hello Chinese is a freemium app I’ve used extensively. I’m supposedly up to hsk1 and I’ve enjoyed it a lot and have learned a lot. It will still take me a long time, but I feel like it’s given me a foothold in pronunciation, vocab, hanzi, and that Im way more curious and excited to learn more. Would recommend.

Also pleco for an extensive dictionary/hanzi reference.

Classic meme format gets new life.

Highly recommend the android app Pleco for character decomposition, and many other things. Extremely useful and fascinating.

crosspost this to upliftingnews

Couldn’t have said it better. GZ and Norton serve different purposes to me.

Hell, the Duran ppl, who iirc are paleocons, have extremely useful analysis in certain areas. I think they’re very mistaken in other areas.

At some point recently I freed myself from ideological bloc discipline as it relates to media sources and just started sampling broadly and making up my own mind according to my values. It’s liberating.