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Listen to a genius, kids.
(lemmy.world)
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this post was submitted on 27 May 2024
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Imagine if the World stopped fighting at the end of WWII and the U.S. stopped making any other atomic weapons. Imagine a global "Peace Treaty".
Imagine if each country spent their military $$ on water, food, housing, and free medical care for their citizens.
Fuck them all!!
The World could've been an amazing village of humans living together as friends and have the freedom to roam the globe without the need for a passport.
One World!
Fuck every military leader and/or political leader that has screwed over the people of the World.
Yeah but... That is kind of the problem.
Imagine that the US goes full hippie and dismantles its entire military, sending all the money to schools and hospitals and infrastructure and its economy. Fixes poverty, free healthcare, yay!
Pardon my French, but China and Russia would ass duck it into oblivion within a week. THAT is why we can't have nice things. As long as there are dictators out there, we will continue to need armies, unfortunately.
Russia has shown that depending on each other with economies doesn't work to keep the peace, all you need is a greedy bastard who is happy to throw hundreds of thousands of innocent lives into the meat grinder, happy to ruin his countries economy, all so he can play the next tzar.
So like it or no, we NEED armies and given the choice of being ruled by the US or China or Russia, I'll choose the US a hundred times over, as idnlike to stay out of punishment camps for the rest of my life.
Funny how China and Russia combined spend a tiny fraction of what the US does on the military if the US only has it for defense.
You either know that these dumb over simplifications are disingenuous at Nestor you should really go to school.
Yes, yes, yeah yeah, military industrial complex is a thing, but you should.also count your blessings that the US does spend what it does. As bad as the US is, as fucked up the shit is that it regularly pulls with its armies, it's all child's play with what, say, China or Russia would do.
Before you start with how loving and caring Russia and China are, maybe you should ask the Uyghurs and Ukrainians about that.
I have no interest in your bloodthirsty jingoism.
Great way of missing or ignoring the point
The point that I should lick the boots of the murderous monsters who killed hundreds of thousands of innocents in Iraq and Afghanistan and are actively arming an ongoing genocide, all so they can protect their precious quarterly profits and buy off more senators? That point?
I hope you someday find yourself on the receiving end of what you support, imperialist warmongerer.
No, the point is that you apparently like licking boots? So you prefer China's rule or Russia's?
Understanding reality is not licking boots
I wonder how well you'd fare under chinas or Russia's rule. But that is the point you're missing. I never claimed that the US plays nice, a lot of US politicians belong in jail for life.
However.
If China was in power (or Russia for that matter) you wouldn't even be able to vent your frustrations, lest you are far away from high windows you can fall out off. Or maybe you just need to spend 20 years in a Chinese rededication camp?
As bad as the US is (and yeah it's bad, nobody denies that) the alternatives are way WAY worse
I don't give a shit, bootlicker.
Okay then.
I understand perfectly well that you want to murder more foreigners for profit you probably won't even see. It's just that I hate you and everyone like you.
All of it your words, not mine, so I'll assume that's what you want?
Your words. The victims' blood is on your hands.
Yeaaahhh...
Again you're cherry picking like crazy here. Stop doing that.
Answer the question: do you prefer being rules by Russia and or China or the US?
I'm not "cherry-picking" shit. With those words, you told me that you're a bloodthirsty imperialist and the only thing you love more than the taste of boot is seeing the dead bodies of brown children. I've simply been responding to that in a proportionate manner.
I'd prefer you choke on that boot.
I don't give a rat's ass about protecting US geopolitical interests. You may have their boot so far down your throat that you can't tell where your interests end and theirs begin, but I don't. None of that shit has anything to do with me. It's entirely about their own profits.
Russia and China are not going to invade the US. That's completely delusional. I don't have to choose.
My only loyalty is to my class. The ruling class is my enemy, so naturally, the ruling class's geopolitical enemies and I share a common interest. That doesn't mean I want them ruling over me, it just means that I hate you more than them. And that's natural, seeing as your side is the most aggressive, militaristic, imperialist, and bloodthirsty of any of them.
Bootlicking psychopath.
I'm trying to have a normal reasoned conversation with you but that is really hard with all the hate you're spewing. All the buzz words aren't helping either.
Stop thinking about class war fare for a second, calm down, and relax. No-one is out to get you, least of all me.
Dude, if buy you a beer to relax a little if I could.
This entire "the ruling class is my enemy" is more slogan than reality. You're fully right that there are abusers and abuse and that needs to change, but with your attitude you're not going to change anything. Calm down.
I'm not.
Oh, I'm sorry, am I being too hateful towards mass murder? Stop hiding behind this veneer of politeness and face who you actually are.
I know you're not out to get me. You're out to get Aghans and Iraqis and Palestinians and all the rest. That's why I hate you.
If you think alcohol would cause me to yell at bloodthirsty imperialists less, I have some bad news for you.
Wow, am I? I never knew. I bet the Afghan I had up in my ass last week didn't know that either and I'm not even kidding.
Calm. down.
You aren't helping yourself nor your cause. I'd love to see Afghans have a better life but so far their tribal nature isn't helping, they themselves continue to support warlords who in turn supports the Talibs who murder the fuck out of anyone who steps out of line. I'm very unsure how you get me into that equation, but I assure you that I have nothing but well wishes for them. I just wonder though, why aren't you bitching about the Russians who first got Afghanistan into the mess that it continues to be today? You keep bitching about Americans, and me, but dude, Russia really fucked it over.
Iraq's... Well there was Saddam Hussein who really was the asshole dictator who systematically murdered and oppressed Iraqis and Kurds, very nasty guy who murdered in the tens of thousands at least. I'm honestly unsure of life for Iraqis is better or worse now that he's been executed, as that created a power vaccuum that is still being fought over.
Again has nothing to do with me I wish them well but now even the US isn't involved I bthe mess that's going on.
You seem to forget that a lotmof locals too are just in there to get to the top so they can be the next suppressor..
Palestinians, next up. Beyond tragic what's happening there and they've been stepped on for decades now. Israel literally had been funding hamas to be able to continue to oppress Palestinians, fucked up to say the least. Again, nothing to do with me, but whatever.
I'm not out for their blood. What I am is realistic enough to know that a) it's not all the US 's fault, and b) that Russia and China also have big hands in there, they're just quieter about it.
All I'm saying is that if the US was gone tomorrow that Russia would put a boot so fat on Palestine, they'd kill them all, that is the Russian way. Fuck them all, men, wonen and children. I'm simply trying to say that shit could be much, much worse, and you make that into "you want brown people blooooooodd!"
You really ought to calm down. You should try to have a normal reasoned conversation, because this behaviour won't get you anywhere, it's counter productive
The US is directly responsible for slaughtering countless numbers of each and you support it doing so. That's what the US military does.
I know your kind. You fancy yourself peace-loving because you're polite about the slaughter, and conveniently the killing happens far away to people you've never met which makes it easy to ignore. You can't possibly be racist or violent because you only support murdering people abroad, who don't even register as people to you. The kinder, gentler machine gun hand. You hide your cruelty behind politeness and civility like a fucking vampire.
Wtf are you talking about? An invasion by a country that doesn't even exist any more vs a 20 year long occupation that left hundreds of thousands dead for absolutely no benefit, and you expect me to care more about the former? Your jingoism is showing again.
But hey, as long as we're talking history, I have a little question on your next point:
Why did Saddam Hussein have so much power in the first place? Could it have anything to do with the fact that your buddies were covertly supplying him with arms in the 80's? While he was in the process of gassing civilians with chemical weapons, I might add.
Again, in both cases, the US had decades to fix the damage it caused by arming Hussein and bin Laden. Instead they massacred and tortured innocent civilians, plundered the countries for all they were worth, and left them worse off than they'd been before (which is saying something considering how badly the US has fucked them over before).
Absolutely delusional. The US could stop everything that's happening there with a phone call. Israel is nothing without the massive amounts of military support and funding from the US. I can't tell whether you're just saying something you know to be false for rhetorical purposes, or if you've really managed to reach that level of self-delusion.
Either way, stop bothering me. I believe I've made my feelings towards you and everything you stand for abundantly clear.
Stop the rage, buddy. You think you know everything and you keep showing you know nothing yet
All you care about is tone. It's easy for you to be calm because you don't care. Because you believe all the comforting lies the media tells you without ever digging into the truth, or trying to see things from the perspective of the oppressed.
I've opened both my mind and my heart to understanding reality, and made an active effort to learn about these things and understand other perspectives. As a result, I have more historical knowledge than you. And I scream at you because I understand some small part of the pain and anger felt by people on the receiving end of your imperialism. On both counts, it's because I understand the world better than you.
It's funny that criticizing my tone is your only response to my comment. That comment was the first one I made to you that actually engaged with your arguments beyond just calling you out for what you are.
You liberals never want to have any kind of substantiative discussion. When I was just screaming at you for being the bloodthirsty imperialist you are, you made actual arguments. When I refuted all those arguments, you retreated behind tone. Maybe I should go back to just screaming if I want you to formulate an actual response, or I should engage more substantively if I want to drive you off.
Nothing funny about it. USA has a lot more money to spend, and spends a lot of money on overseas defence - basically bases across NATO and beyond - along with maintaining a huge technological advantage against any of its adversaries.
If you look at Russia, it spends a much higher percentage of its GDP on its military than the US - it just happens to be a relatively poorer country (so probably should focus on economic growth than aggressive foreign policy...) - since its invasion of its sovereign neighbour it has only gone on to spend an even higher share of its budget on war machines, further stunting its economic growth and long term prospects. Things the US doesn't need to worry about as much.
China's spending per GDP is difficult to know given their self reported figures are largely regarded as under-reported. Some estimates put their spending at a higher % of GDP than the US as well.
Don't be fooled into thinking Russia and China wouldn't be just as bad, if not worse, than the US if they were able to achieve military dominance. Make no mistake that Russia would have invaded many more of its neighbours by now, and China would have at least invaded Taiwan and likely subjugated many of its other neighbours along with taking control of a huge swathe of international and foreign territorial waters by force.
Personally I am better off with the US having the dominion it does, and I worry for those who will start to fall into the dominion of those other fascist and totalitarian states. But I can also see the evils that the US has perpetrated in order to gain and maintain and dominion.
None of the players have clean hands - don't think for a second any of them wouldn't do the same shit if it could.
Yes, that is what I'm criticizing, thanks for spelling it out.
Comparing military spending by GDP is such a funny metric. It makes literally no sense whatsoever. Do you think countries should just keep spending more and more on their militaries as they develop, even if there is no practical strategic reason to? Do you think that countries with powerful rivals, whose continued survival depends on meeting certain level of military strength, should ignore genuine threats to security if it would mean spending a higher percentage of GDP than other countries? Complete insanity.
The only reason to compare military spending as percentage of GDP instead of absolute numbers is because the numbers are more convenient to your argument. The country with the biggest military is the most militaristic and the biggest threat to the world. Anything else is nonsense.
Really? Because US infrastructure is falling apart. Medical debt and student loans are soaring out of control. Rents are skyrocketing. I could go on, if you like. There's a lot of really important domestic priorities that are getting ignored so that the US can maintain hegemony in every corner of the globe.