SeventyTwoTrillion

No

the good (bad?) old days

I remember waking up on February 24th to the very first megathread with hundreds of comments already and having the same jarring feeling of a historical earthquake taking place overnight as I did when I was a mere socdem seeing that Trump was elected when I woke up that day. the steady clockwork universe of capitalist realism getting hit by a wrecking ball.

unironically yes

I read every comment in the megathread even when they aren't replies to me directly

originally I intended the COTW to have more democratic input (and once polling is eventually added to lemmy, that idea could come back, or perhaps we can alter the concept a little now that we've had a good half a year of seeing how might work), but that kind of fell to the wayside as I don't think we all have like, substantially different opinions about what country is relevant this week. nobody needed to tell me to make Palestine the COTW when October 7th kicked off, nor for each major election this year, and so on. and when nothing of major significance is occurring, it would all just be a bunch of conflicting opinions about what country it should be anyway.

so basically if anybody has a strong enough opinion that they're commenting "man, when X country is made COTW I will be able to rant on and on about it" then I will very strongly consider it, so long as the Week-To-Decade Convertinator isn't making a loud buzzing noise somewhere in the world

#Tradle #757 5/6
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https://games.oec.world/en/tradle

I was gonna do an April Fool's bit where I was gonna state my undying love and respect for the media bias chart but I realized that it's not actually very funny when that would just make me indistinguishable from the average Redditor. and the prospect of reading the Washington Post nowadays fills me with both hatred and dread

The Country of the Week is the DPRK!

Feel free to post or recommend any books, essays, studies, articles, and even stories related to the DPRK.

If you know a lot about the country and want to share your knowledge and opinions, here are some questions to get you started if you wish:

• What is the general ideology of the political elite? Do they tend to be protectionist nationalists, or are they more free trade globalists? Are they compradors put there by foreign powers? Are they socialists with wide support by the population?
• What are the most important domestic political issues that make the country different from other places in the region or world? Are there any peculiar problems that have continued existing despite years or decades with different parties?
• Is the country generally stable? Are there large daily protests or are things calm on average? Is the ruling party/coalition generally harmonious or are there frequent arguments or even threats?
• Is there a particular country to which this country has a very impactful relationship over the years, for good or bad reasons? Which one, and why?
• What are the political factions in the country? What are the major parties, and what segments of the country do they attract?
• Are there any smaller parties that nonetheless have had significant influence? Are there notable separatist movements?
• How socially progressive or conservative is the country generally? To what degree is there equality between men and women, as well as different races and ethnic groups? Are LGBTQIA+ rights protected?
• Give a basic overview of the last 50 or 100 years. What's the historical trend of politics, the economy, social issues, etc - rise or decline? Were they always independent or were they once occupied, and how have things been since independence if applicable?
• If you want, go even further back in history. Were there any kingdoms or empires that once governed the area?

Our reading list has these books:

These books focus on the Korean War:

• This Monstrous War by Wilfred G. Burchett (1953).
• The Coldest Winter by David Halberstam (2007).
• Korea's Grievous War by Su-kyoung Hwang (2016).
• Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea's Struggle for Freedom by Stephen Gowans (2018).

These books focus on post-war history and politics:

• Korea's Place in the Sun: A Modern History by Bruce Cumings (1997).
• North Korea: Another Country by Bruce Cumings (2003).
• Understanding North Korea by Stephen Gowans - an article (2007).

For more on the DPRK, including articles and documentaries, visit the DPRK Study Guide. Also useful is Blowback Season 3 and their source list.

Next thread here.

So it'll probably take $1 billion and it will never be completed

it'll be completed but in 2035 after swallowing at least $10 billion in funding, with severe fuckups under both the soon-to-be Republican transportation minister dude, and then the Democrat one right after. but by that time we'll be dealing with the aftermath of the third pandemic of the Disease Decade which kills 20 million Americans and disables 150 million more among whose many catastrophic effects include another 20 bridges collapsing due to the weight of the vehicle and body scanners installed which generate cryptocurrency from the number of genitalia they scan and irradiate per day, so nobody will really give a shit

The question is only really a philosophical problem if you're assuming that China and the US are the only two nations on the planet. Given that other nations, especially nuclear nations, exist, then I think a second strike against America (and perhaps the UK and France and other Western nuclear nations, but not necessarily as they don't have the ability to dominate the world in nearly the same way that America could hypothetically do if America had a competent imperialist strategy unlike today) is the only correct choice. America and China are irradiated hellholes and billions have or will die, but it's a world with one less hegemonic imperialist power, and that's a world that does still have a potentially communist future.

Someone other than me would have to make the call about whether preventing a global fascist future (that might even go spacefaring and propagate colonialism and imperialism throughout the galaxy and universe) is worth the death of absurd numbers of people - all I can do is say that this is the decision Stalin made, and I regard him as a pretty smart and competent person.

#Tradle #753 3/6
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https://games.oec.world/en/tradle

guy who thinks that it's ridiculous that madman communist dictator Putin could possibly accuse Ukraine, the nation which has previously and continues to this very day to proudly state that they commit terrorist attacks against Russia, of doing a terrorist attack against Russia

but also thinks that Medvedev himself or something personally drove the boat into the bridge

you couldn't pay me to look at news subreddits or lib twitter so I'm assuming that most of the people there are exactly that guy right now

#Tradle #750 1/6
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https://games.oec.world/en/tradle