• The Quuuuuill@slrpnk.net
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        9 days ago

        you have to find balance. the holocaust survivors who taught me how to resist an authoritarian taught me you absolutely must rest, take time to take care of yourself and your family, and mourn your losses. but that period of rest must never be forever. you can’t survive if you simply choose to wait it out. but you also can’t survive if you break yourself fighting back early in the fight

          • The Quuuuuill@slrpnk.net
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            9 days ago

            everyone everymorning everywhere, tbh. even if your world does not feel authoritarian today, it can tomorrow with just one charismatic power hungry sicko. they export their allies when their form of fascism dies off in a place. the nazis survived via operation paperclip. the neoliberal fascists that defined the last era of the century in our country were sent to Ukraine to “help” them. when the era of MAGA ends, their mid ranking terrorists will go to some other humanitarian disaster inflicted by one of the imperial powers that exists as their neighbor. always the host country welcomes them gladly because they’re on the brink of total devastation, but always these exports are snakes waiting to bite.

            when we the people are finally free, it will be because our inheritors figured out what we could not: there is no useful nazi. war is how they survive. they convince you you must give them some amount of power to thwart their allies at your gates. the only true cure for nazism comes from rejecting them from society entirely and never allowing them to form their own elsewhere.

            nazism is too dangerous to let survive.

            • can@sh.itjust.works
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              9 days ago

              You’re right. Scarily. I can’t forget that despite a recent (relative) win I can’t stay complacent even as Canadian.

            • macaw_dean_settle@lemmy.world
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              9 days ago

              Letters at the beginning of a sentence get capitalized and this makes it easier to read. You must have missed that day in school; it is like the fucking plague with you.

          • Montagge@lemmy.zip
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            9 days ago

            Nah, the problem with the residents of the US is most think they can rest forever and someone else will do thework.

        • Endymion_Mallorn@kbin.melroy.org
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          9 days ago

          That’s his exact plan. At some point you have to tune out and focus on your own life, and he’ll still be there, just less visible and thus more dangerous.

          • Boomer Humor Doomergod@lemmy.world
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            9 days ago

            As if there’s any way to escape his stupid ass. The least political things in the world are talking about him. He’s unavoidable and he likes it that way.

            It’s more like the earpieces in Harrison Bergeron that keep you from having a complete thought.

    • Obinice@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      Okay, now that you’re past the initial outrage stage and able to think with a clear, focused head about this emergency, what action are you going to take?

      (Unless you’re not from the USA in which case my apologies)

  • protist@mander.xyz
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    9 days ago

    This post reeks of Israeli propaganda. Ahmed al-Sharaa renounced al-Qaeda many years ago and has a lengthy, demonstrated record as a moderate, inclusive leader who fought both the Assad regime and ISIS at the same time. A moderate Arab leader who protects ethnic minorities is a threat to the Israeli narrative about their neighbors.

    • Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de
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      9 days ago

      It’s still corruption tho. Whether or not they misrepresent that dude I know nothing about doesn’t take away from the fact that Trump is as easily bribed as a toddler.

    • Agent641@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      If we are denouncing Guerilla/insurgent/rebel leaders offhand for basically fighting against imperialists and dictators, even if their methods aren’t bloodless or ethical, then we would also need to denounce José Mujica, former president of Uruguay who died today, one of the most progressive and honest leftist leaders the world has known.

      • BussyCat@lemmy.world
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        9 days ago

        Are you really going to compare the fight to restore democracy from a military coup as the same as trying to install a theocratic dictatorship

        • Yeather@lemmy.ca
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          8 days ago

          Congratulations! You have earned the “Fell for Israeli Propaganda Award!”

    • psycocan@lemmy.ml
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      You totally read my mind. The campaigners against Trump for aligning a little bit with some Arab countries (through bribes of course) totally normalize the infiltration of the Israelis into the western governments. AIPAC literally bribes politicians and boasts about it continuously and of course the politicians return the favor by funneling more taxpayer money to Israel.

      Also, remember how Israel rigged theatrical disputes with Biden administration, only for us to discover later there was zero pressure from the Biden administration on the Israelis whatsoever. The Biden administration literally was in on the genocide as much as the Israelis. The Israelis like to play along and pretend they lack enough support so they can suck even more western resources.

    • Akasazh@feddit.nl
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      9 days ago

      Tbf the fact that the Israelis are putting out propaganda in this issue is, in my opinion, a tiny bit of a good thing. If a wedge is driven between Trump and Bibi over this it is a good thing.

      It is terrible in every way, shape or form, but if this turns out to make Trump shift policy in the middle east, whatever the reason, might have a sliver of good in it.

    • polyploy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      9 days ago

      Syrians deserve peace and stability, but that is not at all what is being offered here. Sanctions are cruel, and it’s worth celebrating that they’ve been lifted, but the cost looks like it’s going to be an international effort to pillage and exploit Syria.

      These puppets did nothing while israel systematically bombed most of Assad’s leftover military infrastructure, stockpiles, and vehicles. Literally hundreds of airstrikes without any meaningful response. They’re barely disputing occupied territories, even as they expand. Instead they’ve gotten into border skirmishes with Lebanon, attacked the Syrian Druze, and killed thousands of Alawites.

      The testimonies of coastal massacre escapees are harrowing. There are more widely publicized stories of door to door executions, but there’s another pattern I heard described several times by people that lived in smaller villages.

      Security forces would show up in uniform during the day, ask around about locals and their backgrounds, and disarm the population while assuring them that they would be protected. Then at night, there would be a brutal attack, and what I heard again and again is that the groups doing this are one and the same.

      CW: descriptions of horrific NSFL videos:

      I’ve seen them laughing as they took turns beating an old man to death. I watched one execute a teenage boy mid-conversation. I’ve seen mass graves full of children, women, elders. I’ve seen dozens of civilians of all ages and identities in lines along roadsides, against walls, some with bound wrists, some clearly mutilated. I’ve seen military vehicles spray entire apartment buildings with machine gun fire.

      It’s ludicrous to describe this demon as protecting ethnic minorities while his forces have systematically killed thousands in an ethnic cleansing campaign. There were a few scattered clashes with Assad loyalist forces, but Alawite civilians were then described as such in order to justify liquidating entire villages.

      Just because this monster puts on a suit, gets some official uniforms for his dogs to wear for the public, it does not change who he is and what he does. Don’t be fooled by the hollow condemnation of what he dismisses as the actions of extremist elements. This entire regime change operation has been undertaken not by Syrians seeking liberation, but by foreign powers conspiring to strip the country and its people for parts.

      Thousands of Syrians trusted this new regime, believed it could be a step in the right direction, and were instead brutalized and exterminated. al-Jolani is an implant and a foreign instrument, and he’s given himself 4-5 years in power. Syrians did not choose him, other states did.

      • Afaik there’s no evidence that al-Sharaa ordered those attacks on Alawites.

        One thing to understand is that Syria is in an extremely unstable situation at the moment. Al-Sharaa is leader of an already fragile group of militants/terrorists that’s barely held together. He can’t afford war with Israel, because the resulting counter-attack might shatter his government. He’s not fully in control either, leading to these horrible attacks on minorities by certain wings of the armed forces. Militants he has less control over still seek revenge against the Alawites for their support of Assad.

        He basically needs to stabilize the country, centralize control and demonstrate that Syria will rapidly improve under his rule. That is no easy task, and it’s imo not surprising that the civil war is not over yet in certain parts of the country.

        IIRC the EU put as precondition of sanction relief that he gets the militants under control and stops the attacks on minorities. I don’t know for certain that he will or even wants to (he might be a moderate amongst militant Islamists but that’s still fairly extreme), but I also don’t have conclusive evidence that he won’t.

  • IninewCrow@lemmy.ca
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    9 days ago

    … and no one should put all the blame on one man … he isn’t that powerful or persuasive

    It’s a complicit government that had decided to allow this orange menace to do as he pleases because it benefits some wealthy owners.

    It’s a lot easier to blame one man because it would remove the complicity of a large organization of people that are driving all this.

    • ILoveUnions@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      It’s easy to just blame the government. When the reality is there is an entire complicit class of voters voting them in

      • BlackSheep@lemmy.ca
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        9 days ago

        Agreed. But when critical thinking is systematically being removed from the education system, well, you see what happens.

        • Guns0rWeD13@lemmy.world
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          we do nothing to stop it. we are a cooperative society. if we allow this to happen, then the blame is on all of us.

          • Resonosity@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            What about those that have only recently learning about the anti-education trajectory from the Right? Or those that are oblivious but would oppose such trajectory if aware?

            Am I complicit if I don’t know it’s happening?

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              if you don’t know it’s happening, you’ve had your head in the sand or spent too much time watching tik tok. there are no excuses.

    • Fredselfish@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      So they just SAY they will build this tower, not they are building it. What’s the chances they aren’t building shit but told our dumb fuck president this to get this done? I think pretty high. They can strimg him along, because they know he will be gone in four years either by end of presidency or death.

      • jagermo@feddit.org
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        9 days ago

        And that is what I don’t get. He is so easily wooed by stuff. The UK trade agreement is not great, but he flounts the high tariffs that the importers will have to pay. Someone dangles a picture of something shiny and he jumps. This is so weird

        • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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          9 days ago

          The UK trade deal is great because over here it was basically just reported as “the status quo has been maintained”, and then they just moved on to other news items. No one really cares about it.

          Trump was going on and on about how America “has the best beef”, and how it’s unfair that we won’t take it, and this trade deal essentially means that farms will have to follow UK food standards in order to send beef (or whatever) to the UK. Since none of them will, essentially nothing has changed.

          • jagermo@feddit.org
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            8 days ago

            Right? Nothing has changed except the tariffs that are still in place and will cost the americans money. I feel like I’m taking crazy pills.

        • meowMix2525@lemm.ee
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          8 days ago

          I mean. Empty promises for things to be paid for by somebody else are kind of his Thing. Walls, Tariffs. It makes perfect sense.

    • Oniononon@sopuli.xyz
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      8 days ago

      Blame lies on the judicial branch for not putting him on the chair for his coup attempt and instead telling before elections he can do whatever he wants, legally.

      • Guns0rWeD13@lemmy.world
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        8 days ago

        the blame lies on every one of us. we know exactly what is going on, that the government is broken, and yet we do nothing. we are the last guardrails of this democracy. if we don’t do something, this is the people’s fault.

    • Guns0rWeD13@lemmy.world
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      we americans are pathetic. it seems like we fall into one of these categories:

      • christo fascists who voted for him
      • suburban sociopaths who voted for him
      • clueless libertarians who either voted for him or absolve themselves of any responsibility
      • NPR liberals who are basically useless pacifists
      • millennial/gen Z cowards who can’t even drive a manual trans, much less start a revolution

      it’s fucking hopeless and we deserve this. i’m building a bunker. fuck every one of you.-

      • meowMix2525@lemm.ee
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        8 days ago

        If you had all the levers of wealth and power in the world, or if you as an individual had access to just one of them, wouldn’t you do your part to build this kind of passive society too? Otherwise you might have to worry about your access to these levers and therefore your power being usurped. There are many ways to manipulate a person to work against their own interests, which are almost entirely concentrated into the hands of the wealthy owning class.

        This is a problem of class antagonism, not the complicity and/or ignorance of the individually powerless. As a class we have to rise beyond these antagonisms; their manipulation of us into a class that passively allows them to profit from our labor and pays no mind to their corruption; by teaching class consciousness to the other members of our class. That is just as much on you and I as it is on anyone else.

      • LePoisson@lemmy.world
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        8 days ago

        Hey, I’m driving a manual trans don’t be putting that on my whole generation.

        The problem is: nobody wants to die, we all are fed and fat, our education system has been being weakened for 40 years now, did I mention the whole not dying part?

        I’m hopeful that our institutions are strong enough to hold until the midterm elections, Dems will take Congress with a strong majority and we can avoid mass bloodshed and actually impeach the guy and get him convicted. No doubt that may be a long shot and people will suffer but I’m not violent revolution is anywhere in the cards anytime soon.

        Edit: just to be clear, I do wish we were and kind of could do more. This is just my realist take

        • Guns0rWeD13@lemmy.world
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          I’m hopeful that our institutions are strong enough to hold until the midterm elections

          lol. ok.

  • anarchiddy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    I find in endlessly funny that we’ve been screaming at the democrats to leverage Israel more to end hostilities in the ME without any real movement from them, but suddenly Trump is willing to say ‘fuck it’ just because the right people happen to be bribing him.

    If the right people keep trump’s palms greased for long enough we might actually end up on the right side of history by accident, and if that’s not comedy I don’t know what is.

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      Someone posted a good picture of the locking mechanism called the “ratchet effect” that democrats/neo-liberals provide for the ruling class.

      Essentially, Republicans get to do whatever they want to enrich our rulers, and democrats are there to stop the workers from reversing any of the gains.

      • anarchiddy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        8 days ago

        Tell me you don’t know who Ahmed al-Sharaa is without telling me you don’t know who Ahmed al-Sharaa is.

        • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
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          Ahmed al-Sharaa is the guy whose dogs are massacring Alawites right now, mostly done with that.

          Can I have my A for this answer?

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                I agree, which is why I find it significant that he split ties from al-Qaeda despite the significant internal pressures not to.

                I guess we’d have to wait longer than a month to see if he makes good on seeking justice for acts of brutality against Alawites, but I don’t think you can say al-Sharaa isn’t a massive step in the right direction and deserving of positive diplomatic response to his reforms.

                Edit: as long as we’re condemning associations with al-Qeada, here’s an interesting related report

  • p3n@lemmy.world
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    I am not arguing with the obvious corruption, but to provide a counterpoint to the second part of the argument: if we aren’t allowed to make peace with former terrorists, then we can never stop fighting each other, and if we keep fighting each other, then we will keep creating the next generation of terrorists.

  • Suavevillain@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    The crowd that went on about a laptop for 5 years suddenly don’t care about The President getting a whole ass jet and tower as a gift. But they aren’t a cult. Only decorum and the law matters when Dems are in power.

  • OBJECTION!@lemmy.mlBanned from community
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    9 days ago

    Huh?

    Not that long ago CNN was writing puff pieces about how he’d “moved on” from his radical past. Around the same time, Biden removed a bounty the US had had on him. He’s capitulated a bunch to Israel and done just about everything he can to appease the US.

    Some of us flag burning commies are critical of him because we blindly hate anyone on America’s side for capitulating to Israel and privatizing the economy, and have been skeptical about the mainstream narrative of him moving past his past. We were also skeptical about this whole project of arming “moderate rebels” like him in Syria, fearing that it would destabilize the region. But even I would say, now that he’s in, that trying to replace him would probably just destabilize the region even further.

    Idk who this Ed Krassenstein is but his name is red in Shinigami Eyes and his bio describes himself as an “AI and Crypto futurist” so he’s not one of ours. So, uh, is this based on a coherent, informed position on Syria, or is this just a knee-jerk reaction to a headline?

    If the US shouldn’t accept Jolani as the leader of Syria, then what should they do? Find some more moderate rebels to support against the previous moderate rebels it supported? Have Israel and Turkey annex the entire country? Keep sanctioning them forever for no reason no matter how much they capitulate and cooperate? What exactly would that be aiming to accomplish?

    • spooky2092@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      I almost thought that was Klippenstein instead of Krassenstein, and I was going to say he’s a legit journalist.

      Yeah, the Krassenstein brothers are hack journalists, so you’re not missing much by ignoring him.

  • ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works
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    9 days ago

    Lifting sanctions on Syria is not wrong just because Trump does it. Biden/Harris would probably have done it too, and rightly so because this guy as the ruler of Syria is the best the US can get.

    • Gorgritch_Umie_Killa@aussie.zone
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      Yeah, to add a different perspective, but largely agreeing.

      The Americans have unnecessarily squeezed this new regime in Syria for months more than they needed to, international aid agencies that could provide some stability in the country haven’t been able to enter due to these sanctions, Rest is Politics UK spoke in better detail about this a few months back.

      Biden had a smallish wondow of a chance to give this regime a go, Trump has had ample time. In this case, it seems America’s corruption may have circumvented their stubborn prejudice and evangelism.

      Bad action; good result? On balance at least?

  • 5714@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    9 days ago

    If the American public doesn’t know what corruption is and does, I’m starting to wonder which countries do know.

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    I hate corruption in all forms, but I love the fact that Israel (edit: Israeli government) is freaking the fuck out right now because the Middle East just realized all they have to do is bribe Trump.

    Israeli government is pissed right now, and that’s awesome….

    But also, stop pretending like just about every politician in Washington doesn’t also take legalized bribes

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      This is bad. And these same people the Republicans where trying to find anything on Biden about bribery. But are silent on this stuff that Trump is doing in the open.

    • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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      I hate corruption in all forms, but I love the fact that Israel is freaking the fuck out right now because the Middle East just realized all they have to do is bribe Trump.

      Hey, maybe netanyahu being upset will cause democrats to actually oppose something trump is doing.

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        I don’t have much faith in that he does seem hellbent on being the most bad ass terrorist in the world though?

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    I really hope for once Congress does its job and MAGA actually fights him on this, since some have already been saying this is too much even for them, starting with the plane.

    Let it be on the record yet again that Trump does not have a luxury plane retrofitted with millions in taxpayer money - not because he refused the bribe, but because he was barred from accepting it. Refusing a bribe =/= Having a bribe forcibly taken from your hands.

    Let him not gain anything from it or this, but still have that ethic shitstain smeared all across his face as he tries to gaslight the world with his lies. Not that he wouldn’t try to claim that since he doesn’t have the plane, it means he “refused” it, or “it was a joke all along”.

    • OBJECTION!@lemmy.mlBanned from community
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      9 days ago

      Qatar offered him a plane. This post is about Syria.

      • Hikuro-93@lemmy.world
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        9 days ago

        Ok? What does it have to do with the fact that “Trump has opened the Presidency up for business/loves his bribes”? Feel free to narrow context outside of the point of my statement, as if either bribe is completely disconnected from the other, but the plane is still a really important catalyst for the rest - it’s what signals “Qatar quid pro quo, then Syria quid pro quo, then somewhere else quid pro quo”. I won’t even say “quid pro quo with anyone”, because that line is already being crossed right here with a terrorist, so that would be moot.

        Way more effective to cut the whole evil right at its root, where its most blatant, in order to stop the rest from spreading.

        • OBJECTION!@lemmy.mlBanned from community
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          Because it demonstrates that you’re not qualified to speak about foreign policy issues if you can’t even keep two very different countries straight. Much moreso when you don’t apologize and own up to it when it’s pointed out, but instead double down and say, “So what?” because anyone can make an error, but it only becomes a mistake when you refuse to correct it.

          This whole thread is full of people who were fully on board with funding Julani to fight Assad because the news told them Assad needed to go, only, they forgot they support him and saw a random tweet calling him a terrorist and only a handful of people were actually aware enough to remember who they support and push back on it. But you really took the cake, you really went above and beyond, by not even getting the country right.

          If this is the state of the American public’s awareness of countries like Syria (and it is), then pro-US leaders like Jolani obviously can’t rely on them, who will turn on them at the drop of a hat because they saw a random tweet calling them a terrorist. But I guess they’re in luck since the public has so little influence over policy. So naturally what they do is appease the ruling class, through lucrative deals and bribes.

          But who cares? So what if the post calls the US friendly leader of a precarious country a terrorist? So what if you mix up Qatar and Syria? So what if you talk nonsense grounded in willful ignorance because you can’t be assed to learn basic facts about countries the US has been fucking with, yet still expect people to listen to you? The important thing is, for a wonderful moment, you got to make fun of Trump.

          Liberals are approximately 10% less anti-intellectual than conservatives, which means they’re still extremely anti-intellectual, but don’t realize it because of how low the bar is.

          • Hikuro-93@lemmy.world
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            9 days ago

            First of all, not american, and me “mixing” them up is entirely another assumption of yours - which you are free to make, as I can’t control what you decide to think or how you interpret things, and that’s a-ok with me. I’m in fact considerably closer to Syria and Qatar.

            Secondly, this rather seems a personal and touchy subject to you, as your willingness to insult, dismiss and assume (ironically) indicates. This is further reinforced by your posting history, which clearly tells me you’re a very combative person who loves to disagree for the pleasure of it, and doesn’t mind spending a lot of time trying to one-up others disagreeing with you in any way, I assume with ego as a driving force. So with that in mind, no real point in arguing with you, right? Even though it would seem we’re mostly aligned when it comes to the bigger picture.

            So I hope whatever is going on gets better, but this is where I stop engaging in toxic rants, regardless of what you may think of me.

            • BlackSheep@lemmy.ca
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              9 days ago

              What nationality are you? Will you deny that: Qatar human rights are a significant concern, particularly regarding the treatment of migrant workers, who face exploitation, wage theft, and unsafe working conditions. Additionally, there are restrictions on freedom of expression, discrimination against women, and laws that criminalize homosexuality, which contribute to a challenging human rights environment. Is it any wonder Trump is accepting a gift from Qatar?

              • Hikuro-93@lemmy.world
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                9 days ago

                What? Where do I even hint that I would deny “Qatar’s human rights are of significant concern”? Or that I am surprised that Trump is accepting bribes?

                My statements on this matter have pretty much been: Trump openly takes bribes -> Trump should be held accountable -> Regardless of where the bribe takes place or from who it comes. And one commenter starts derailing it because “Hurr durr Qatar and Syria are not the same place”, while another goes “why are you denying Qatar has a human rights problem”, both of which don’t even come near the point I was making. Can’t we just agree what Trump is doing is wrong and not look elsewhere for excuses to nitpick and create chaos? Are the internet points for having “good obvious opinions” really that important?

                Literally nothing to do with defending wrongdoing from anywhere or trying to justify it- which is just twisting words to make them seem like something else and go from there to create needless drama - which in turn is why I ignored the other commenter in the first place.

                • OBJECTION!@lemmy.mlBanned from community
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                  8 days ago

                  Your downvotes mean nothing to me because I’ve seen what you upvote.

                  Like seriously, the fuck makes you think I care if you think I’m an asshole? 800+ upvoted this post, all of those 800+ people were pretty objectively wrong to do so and demonstrated that they’re completely unqualified to speak about foreign policy, so I’m not at all surprised to get ratio’d in the comments or get called an asshole for pointing out that they’re wrong. Genuinely, could not care less what any of those 800+ people think of me, this community has clearly demonstrated its ignorance and I’m not going to pretend otherwise and pull punches just to farm upvotes.

                  Like, y’all call al-Jolani “a known terrorist” and then think your insults still carry weight when you call me an asshole?

          • Doorbook@lemmy.world
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            9 days ago

            It’s insane the amount of comments about him accepting and making these bribes while the entire government for the last 50 years has been bought and sold with lobbyists and business owners. It is like he is the only one and not the entire Congress is behind this behaviour…

            • Hikuro-93@lemmy.world
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              9 days ago

              You are right. But here’s the key difference:

              while the entire government for the last 50 years has been bought and sold with lobbyists and business owners

              A President enriching others who support him (as opposed to “doing what’s best for the nation” generally speaking), while still wrong, is not the same as personally enriching himself and this blatantly. The US has always been like this and many would have loved to do what Trump is doing, but didn’t dare go this far and so recklessly. Trump is merely a product of his country, and it kind of surprises me it took this long for someone like him to get his paws directly on this kind of power.

              Instead of being a businessman currying favor with the President, he skips the middle man entirely and becomes President himself, to his own personal benefit.

              • Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                9 days ago

                But hasn’t it been the case in many things that Trump just does more and more boastfully what others were doing before more quietly and slickly?

                I mean, look at the Israeli Genocide, were Biden was actively supporting Israel with guns and ammo (including sending 2000lb bombs which even the US Military won’t use “because they have a too large collateral”) but decorating it all with a bit of Theatre (“we’re talking to Israel about a cease fire”), or how students were already being violently suppressed by the police under Biden when they demonstrated against the Genocide, or the immigrant thing were Biden was already imprisoning and deporting the most immigrants ever (even than Trump’s first term) including separating children from their parents but it was all done much more quietly, or, as others pointed out, the Democrats having been on the take as much as the Republicans (who can forget Hilary Clinton getting paid half a million dollars for a couple of hours work to go give a speech to some Goldman Sachs’ traders just before the election, something which probably contributed to her loss), or the giant civil society surveillance apparatus as revealed by Snowden built-up and supported by both Republican and Democrat presidents.

                In these kinds of things Trump pumped up the volume and tore down the curtains hiding what’s going on in the backstage, whilst not really changing the nature of what is being done significantly, just doing more of it and being loudly about it rather than using some florid language to claim to be doing the opposite as the previous ones did.

                America had already been moving towards full-blown Fascism before Trump (personally I saw the giant civil society surveillance apparatus as a massive red flag, as that’s the kind of thing that Authoritarian regimes have, not Democracies),

          • StupidBrotherInLaw@lemmy.world
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            9 days ago

            But they did keep them straight, you’re just misunderstanding their comment. It’s a little complex but it’s not unintelligible.

      • woodsie@ani.social
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        9 days ago

        What are you on about? Are you just reading a word or two in these comments and arguing with the first thing you come up with? Because I don’t see how else you could miss their intended point so hard.

        • socsa@piefed.social
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          8 days ago

          It’s a pro Trump .ml troll who goes into every thread and rants about liberals and Democrats.

  • HighFructoseLowStand@lemm.ee
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    8 days ago

    The really ugly thing here is, al-Sharaa is the best thing to happen to Syria in decades. Most people have been urging recognition of his government and the relaxation of sanctions because he’s about as good we can expect a leader of Syria to be.

    And he is still bribing Trump.

    This isn’t merely corruption. This is the *normalization * of corruption. Even countries that abide by democratic norms and international law are going to need to grease palms to conduct regular diplomatic relations. The EU and UK and Canada might be able to weather his bullshit until he folds like he always does, but developing nations will be stuck trying to bid for American favor.

    Welcome to the Chinese century.

    • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      al-Sharaa is the best thing to happen to Syria in decades

      Could we please stop? He’s a jihadist saying pleasant things to Europeans and Americans with nobody caring whether they are true.

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        8 days ago

        The louder the west screams about him being a Jihadist, the more I trust him to do the right thing in Syria

        • sudo@programming.dev
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          7 days ago

          Good instincts and all but he always been a hard core salafist. Leftists were calling him that all last year. Its just now that Trump’s in power liberals can pretend that they were always against him.

        • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
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          8 days ago

          The west doesn’t scream. The west condemned Alawites for not liking to be massacred.

          And this is stupid. Inverted signal is the same signal, just inverted. It’s not independence of thought.

          • anarchiddy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            8 days ago

            The west condemned Alawites for not liking to be massacred

            Hmmm, are you sure about that? I feel like there was a notable party using that event as justification for crossing over the Syrian boarder but maybe that was a fever dream

            • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
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              8 days ago

              I feel like your last paragraph ignores my last paragraph.

              One of the reasons Israel is so fucking hated by all ME smaller groups is because it casually pretends to maybe this time possibly protect them, and usually does nothing of the sort, causing more ruin.

              • anarchiddy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                7 days ago

                I feel like your last paragraph ignores my last paragraph.

                Your last paragraph was kind of meaningless

                One of the reasons Israel is so fucking hated by all ME smaller groups is because it casually pretends to maybe this time possibly protect them, and usually does nothing of the sort, causing more ruin.

                … I mean kinda? Israel has been a belligerent anti-arab neighbor since 1948 and has caused nothing but ruin. There’s a hell of a lot more reason for their distrust of Israel than their choices of proxy militant groups.

      • HighFructoseLowStand@lemm.ee
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        8 days ago

        He’s at least trying to put on a facade of meaning them, which is about as good as Syria has had it in my life time.

        • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
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          8 days ago

          No, he isn’t. He’s worse than Assad, the reason nobody says Assad was better is because Assad directly caused this by killing opponents, disarming strong parties (which could have resisted jihadists) and in general destroying the country. So he’s worse than Assad, but a direct consequence of Assad.

          I’m certain he’s more consistent than Assad and eventually this leads to a more stable and economically viable Syria. Note how I’m not saying anything about human rights and civilization.

          • HighFructoseLowStand@lemm.ee
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            7 days ago

            It’s pretty hard to be worse than the guy whose used nerve has on his own people and turned his country into a major producer for the international drug trade.

            • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
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              7 days ago

              You just have to be the guy who turned a half-Sunni, half-Alawi city on the coast into half-Sunni, half-dead. Then after calls for stopping the murders and loads of videos with dead men, women and children he … forbid filming that.

      • jj4211@lemmy.world
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        8 days ago

        I don’t know if that’s blame, or just acknowledging that USA’s general direction leads to China becoming ‘the’ world power by USA forfeitting their soft power around the world.

      • HighFructoseLowStand@lemm.ee
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        8 days ago

        I’m not. I’m saying this will lead to China becoming the premier world power instead of us.

        Imagine having reading comprehension skills. jfc

      • Wrrzag@lemmy.ml
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        8 days ago

        I believe they meant that China will become the dominant power after the US finishes torpedoing itself.

      • RamblingPanda@lemmynsfw.com
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        8 days ago

        I’m not sure if this is blaming it on China, but acknowledging that China might be picking up after the downfall of the USA.

  • Geodad@lemm.ee
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    9 days ago

    This could have been avoided if one dude had better aim.