No, it gets money; it evidently does not get votes.

the political machine we’re building to combat the Trump administration will flatten the DNC old guard pretty handily.

Except no such thing exists. MAGA hasn’t created any meaningful surge in independent progressive (let alone genuine leftwing) politics; it’s only compelled the center left to close ranks with the center against the rising tide of the far right. There’s zero momentum for “flattening the old guard;” if you want to do that you’ll have to actually try.

And anyone who didn’t vote for Harris over Palestine has now not only doomed the Palestinians,

I keep seeing liberals saying this, but it’s just not true. There’s no metric by which Trump is worse on Palestine than Biden (and by extension Harris, who has was virtually indistinguishable from him on the issue). As for everyone else, what, did you think Harris was going to do anything for poor Americans and minorities? Jk she wouldn’t have done (or been able to do) shit because centrists kill down ballot elections. More fundamentally, though, fascism was inevitable under the political status quo; the choice was between fascism now and fascism later. If meaningful change doesn’t come from the left, people will look for it on the right; thinking 2025 was fluke is nothing short of delusional.

ICE don’t care about the law, as evidenced by everything they’ve done ever.

I mean, there’s a reason out of all third world countries only China managed to do it; industrialization is actually incredibly hard, especially if there are foreign powers invested in preventing it. I mean hell, even now China already has the best manufacturing in the world and the gap is only getting bigger; it’s impossible to compete with that using services or resource extraction. Now the West theoretically has the capital to catch up before it’s too late, but by the time neoliberals let go of power it will be too late.

I guess we’re moving towards an era where “the developed world” just means China.

Somaliland only has like 6 million people. It’d almost definitely intensify the civil war, especially because Palestinians would 100% partner with the Houthis.

The country of Tiananmen Square?

True but irrelevant.

The country whose people practically develop an ever-changing coded language to avoid big brother coming down hard on any sort of criticism?

Yes. I never said that China tolerates criticism, but that doesn’t mean Chinese people live in fear of their government. An incompetent government will have criticism coming from every which way, necessitating draconian measures and exaggerated crackdowns, which does lead to fear (ask me how I know). This isn’t the case for China because, despite their faults and the evil shit they get up to, Chinese people are generally satisfied with their governance. Fear isn’t an automatic result of authoritarianism; it appears when there’s too little carrot and too much stick.

The country that runs “reeducation” camps for many who do get caught?

True but irrelevant.

The country that has Uyghurs and Tibetans to blame “within,” and Japan without? Or the US?

Source? Not for their oppression of Uighurs and Tibetans, or rivalry with the US and Japan, I know about these, but that they’re using any of these as scapegoats for their own troubles. Oppression can be motivated by things other than scapegoating, and it’s not like China is lacking in real reasons to oppose the US and Japan. Without something that corroborates your claim this is just a non-sequitur.

Where senior cadres of the party magically grow richer?

This is just a non sequitur. Senior CCP officials are rich, but the other half of your claim “everyone else pretty much won’t” goes against everything we know about Chinese economic growth.

If this happens I hope this is the straw that broke the camel’s back

Absolutely not, this camel can take a lot more of these.

Think of the list of political rights you take for granted. The right to voting, free speech, association, peaceful assembly, etc. Those don’t exist or are severely curtailed, meaning that political activity and discourse that anger the ruling class can and will be punished. How much is tolerated and what kind of punishments are doled out varies depending on the strength and heavy handedness of the ruling regime.

People live in fear and try to adapt, self-censor. Authoritarian leaders need a bogie man, somebody they can blame for all their failures. So an ethnic group, minority, or another country will constantly be blamed for everything from the economy to ingrown toe nails. The elite will get richer, everybody else pretty much won’t.

Not necessarily. Authoritarians are usually corrupt/incompetent, which tends to lead to these things, but competent dictators with legitimate public support exist, China being the best-known example.

*Basic political rights. You can have a perfectly liberal democracy where the average person is one missed paycheck away from starving to death. Education for example has nothing to do with authoritarianism, except that authoritarians tend to benefit from lack of education.

Counterpoint: All of 20th and 21st American history outside of WWI and WWII. The US never declared war on Iraq or Afghanistan.

Hell, they gave it to Henry fucking Kissinger.

And my point is that your point doesn’t make sense. People can, in fact, disagree with you (and be assholes about it) without being Russian/Chinese/whatever trolls. The sentiment they’re expressing is common enough that it’s not at all grounds for accusing them of being a paid troll.

Yeah God forbid people write six comments a day. It’s not like politics internet arguments drag on forever, no it has to be them evil Russians.

The generation of Gazan children that lived through the war will likely be the most traumatized, both physically and mentally, in the world. I don’t want to even think about the generational trauma that will result from this.

I hereby award America honorary West Bank status.

Solidarity among evil people, never fails to make me want to puke.

Oh the supreme court is rotten no argument there, but he’s not being tried by the supreme court, at least not yet. The regime would have to appeal decisions at multiple levels before getting there, and by that point it won’t matter anymore.