Seeing everything through the prism of American elections is one of those subtle (well, perhaps not so subtle) tells that informs everybody that you're just a deeply unserious person. The mental image of trying to talk to an Arabic person or a Muslim in general about goddamn Trump vs Biden, or Starmer vs Sunak, when they start talking about what's been happening in Gaza actually makes me feel nauseous. Can you even imagine being that out of touch.
Believing that those levers that you're pulling are doing literally anything is more than just delusional, it's actually insulting at this point. Every politician is laughing in your face about how there's no more alternatives to the major positions and your response isn't even dignified defeat, it's "Sir, yes sir! Initiating bootlicking procedure alpha-brave-foxtrot! I will be voting for Biden because I have to, sir!" The modern liberal and especially American state is a gigantic social experiment to see how much learned helplessness you can inflict upon people, from the socdems saying how we have to vote Biden to save minorities (which are already suffering so much under Biden), to the fash who think that the chaos emeralds are hidden inside Pelosi's podium and if they just rush the Capitol Building, they can magically make Trump god-emperor. they call me 007: 0 political understanding, 0 reasons to make people want to vote, 7 genocides
me, after waking up from a 7 month coma: boy I sure do love my tiny wedge in a field near Robotyne that we paid tens of thousands of lives to create and hold, I sure hope it's still there
The story of the alleged land bridge originates with a failing Israeli tech company called Trucknet, which provides a digital platform to optimize shipments — in other words, a data company, not a shipping company. On December 5, 2023, the company issued a press release reporting an agreement in principle for cooperation with a UAE-based company called Puretrans, allegedly working in cooperation with Dubai Ports and specializing in logistics, freight, and transportation brokerage. As part of the agreement, both companies have ostensibly “agreed” to cooperate so that cargo shippers and transport service providers can use the Trucknet platform to optimize transportation between the ports of Dubai and Haifa. This will include the automation of cargo transportation and provide real-time tracking of trucks, CO2 emissions, and the status of shipments. But the company’s claims don’t add up.
Several details emerge upon investigating Trucknet’s original Hebrew press release and the circumstances surrounding Puretrans, Trucknet’s alleged UAE partner, which show that these companies are not engaged in any shipping. What’s more, no commercial activities exist for a UAE company under the name of Puretrans. In addition, it seems that Trucknet is involved in the financial manipulation of its stock, which appears to be a motivator for making the claim. A day before the announcement, the company’s stock price was 127 NIS. By December 18, the price had doubled, reaching 256 NIS. The price has since returned to the pre-announcement price range, at 159 NIS. If the company is generating additional revenues due to increased business activity as a result of the land bridge, the price of the stock would not have plummeted so severely. Instead, the price would have increased to reflect the new financial gains.
In other words, it appears that the claims about the company’s activities are fictitious. But despite the lack of firm evidence of the existence of a land bridge, the story has been widely shared by pro-Palestine activists as evidence of UAE complicity in the war by offering Israel a lifeline as it struggles to use the Red Sea to import necessary items from Asia. The UAE made no comments in response to these allegations. Jordanian public officials have denied the existence of such a land bridge, yet did not deny the existence of some trade between Jordan and Israel, as per prior economic and political agreements. Despite the slim evidence, the wide reaction to the inaccurate news has captured the attention of Israeli public officials.
nobody was ever going to convince me that Israel was meaningfully replacing shipping with goddamn road freight without every road from the UAE to Tel Aviv being in a constant traffic jam anyway, so finding out that they're just making shit up about their epic land bridge of freedom is really just the icing on the cake
as @nat_turner_overdrive@hexbear.net said earlier, all these sanctions are just to give Western government employees work to do in the same way that digging a hole and then filling it in again is work
I oppose Hamas's imperialist and neocolonialist attempts to overpower Israel and settle the Palestinian population on land that used to belong to the Isr... ah, fuck it, there's no point in even trying satire like this, there have probably been Israelis talking like this since October 7th
To you and all lurkers: I had a similar anxiety at the beginning, because it feels kinda like you're letting complete strangers evaluate your self-worth through the prism of a single comment. So, in my case, I was basically like "If I can't post anything worthwhile then I might as well not post at all," and in that situation, forums turn into like... university Blackboard forums, I guess, where you have to be like "Great comment, X! I particularly enjoyed your comment about how the protagonist of the book symbolizes the ennui inherent to the human experience! If I might add further..." And it feels stilted, and I felt like I had to read a shitload just to bring in knowledge to add to a post or comment or they might yell at me for being wrong and/or stupid and/or not well-read.
But I think this forum strikes a nice middle ground between very intellectual discussions and very casual ones. You can be reading a post about Soviet economics in the immediate post-war period and then the very next post, you're looking at a cat meme. So I would either stick to the more casual discussions (the general megathread is good for this) before you feel ready and not as intimidated by all these people who know all these facts and have read so many books on a subject, or if you want to feel more "productive" online, I would go and read literature and articles etc beforehand, especially stuff that's outside the usual basic reading lists, and then you can become the effortpost Blackboard person (and perhaps from there, move to more casual discussions as you get more comfortable with just shooting the shit).
nowadays I have almost no anxiety on here. There are still definitely comments or posts that I make where I'm like "Oh god, this one's a little controversial, I'm gonna go do something else for a few hours and dread reading the responses," and hell, sometimes I leave comments with no intention to ever read the responses (mostly when the odd lib finds their way in), but nowadays I'd feel totally fine with leaving a shitty joke or uninformed opinion on more casual posts, and you too can get to this point.
Brace Belden truly is the modern Machiavelli
I feel like people like to defend the atomic bombings of Japan because it makes them seem like Very Grown Up and Adult Geopolitics Understanders Who Can Make Tough Decisions (and varying degrees of racism against Japanese people depending on their position on the liberal-conservative axis; ask if we should have nuked white Germans and I imagine at least a few of them would think differently) but in actuality, it really demonstrates a) their lack of historical understanding of the situation, and therefore b) the complete hollowness and evil of the Adult In The Room stance that they so love to pretend that they are
The Country of the Week is Indonesia!
As mentioned in the preamble, feel free to post or recommend any material related to Indonesia, whether from a thousand years ago or yesterday. You can post it anywhere in the thread, but you can also reply to this comment if you wish.
If you're feeling particularly ambitious and want homework, you could take on any or all of these questions (no reward, but I'll be very proud of you):
- Who are the main political actors? Are they compradors, nationalists, international socialists, something else?
- What are the most salient domestic political issues; those issues that repeatedly shape elections over the last 10, 20 years. Every country has its quirks that complicate analysis - for example, Brexit in the UK.
- What is the country's history? You don't have to go back a thousand years if that's not relevant, and I'm counting "history" as basically anything that has happened over a year ago.
- What factions exist, historically and currently? If there is an electoral system, what are the major parties and their demographic bases? Are there any minor parties with large amounts of influence? Independence movements? Religious groups?
- How socially progressive or conservative are they? Is there equality for different ethnic groups, or are some persecuted? Do they have LGBTQIA+ rights? Have they improved over time, or gotten worse?
- What role do foreign powers play in the country’s politics and economy? Is there a particular country nearby or far away that is nearly inseparable from them, for good or bad reasons? Is their trade dominated by exports/imports to one place? Are they exploited, exploiters, or something in between?
- If applicable, what is the influence of former colonial relationships on the modern economy and politics?
- Is the country generally stable? Do you think there will be a coup at some point in the future, and if so, what faction might replace them?
The previous country was Brazil.
The Geopolitical Reading List is still evolving...
If anybody wants a good source to follow what's going on in Sudan, then I've been using the Sudan War Monitor substack.
Also, I want to briefly re-state my incandescent hatred for journalists. The audacity of journalists - the people who are, hypothetically, meant to keep the population informed of what's going on - calling what's going on in Sudan the "forgotten war"... my brothers in christ, it wouldn't be forgotten if you fucking talked about it.
From that FT article:
"Which threatens to become another Somalia?" I am going to go insane.
A great comment from @Frank@hexbear.net a few months ago:
Also, Biden re-sent hundreds of troops to Somalia when Trump withdrew them.