this post was submitted on 06 Oct 2025
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London’s Metropolitan Police arrested another 492 people over the weekend after a protest Saturday in Trafalgar Square, as the Starmer government accelerated its crackdown on opposition to the Gaza genocide.

The entirely peaceful protest was held to oppose the proscription of Palestine Action. It was organised by Defend Our Juries and attended by over 1,000 people. Of the arrests, 488 were for holding up signs declaring, “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action”.

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[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 74 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Folks who get really up in their feelings about the Trump/Harris election seem to forget that Harris was taking campaign advice from this guy. It's so easy to forget how absolutely poisoned so-called "Liberal Democracy" has become with a broad strain of fascist tendency.

On the one hand, you've got a guy who is looking to literally lay siege to cities in the US that didn't vote for him. On the opposite side of the pond, they're doing mass-arrests of anyone with a "Please Stop Killing Brown People" bumper sticker. And in the middle, a sea of smug dipshits posting "You got what you voted for".

[–] BCBoy911@lemmy.ca 49 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Liberals will ALWAYS end up siding with the Fascists to try to suppress the Left. Happened in Germany in the 1930s, and the dumbass liberals eventually ended up lined up against the same walls the communists and socialists were lined up against. If you're a liberal today and defending this fascist suppression against Palestine Action: you're next.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 23 points 1 day ago

Happened in Germany in the 1930s

Happened in the 1910s, even. Hence the old quip about Bernie Sanders killing Rosa Luxemburg.

dumbass liberals eventually ended up lined up against the same walls the communists and socialists were lined up against

Or marched out into the snows of Russia to seize more Lebensraum for the imperial core. Or just bombed to death in Dresden or Berlin when the front lines collapsed.

If you’re a liberal today and defending this fascist suppression against Palestine Action: you’re next.

The hard math of living in a fascist state is standing up and getting shot today or ducking and hiding in hopes you won't get shot tomorrow.

Liberals made their bed back in 2009. We're all just living in the aftermath.

I'd argue that the Liberals are a little farther down the line. This administration isn't finished bullying women, intellectuals, non-Caucasians and the queer community to death, they're just getting started.

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 37 points 1 day ago (2 children)

And then there's the Americans, for whom literally everything has to be about America in some way or another.

[–] TrojanRoomCoffeePot@lemmy.world 17 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Have you seen their fiction? Even in sci-fi, they're the center of the fucking universe. Galactic Space Empire HQ, located in NYC/LA/San Francisco of course.

[–] Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip 21 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I mean... After the USSR fell, the US was the only major player in space for like 25 years, until China finally started to dabble the last few years.

It's not necessarily an ego stroke to extrapolate from that point.

But also, the media is targeted at American viewers. Of course they're going to use familiar cities.

Do you also complain that doctor who, despite being able to travel anywhere in the both the universe AND time, lands in modern day UK so often?

[–] Zorque@lemmy.world 5 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

I do find it offensive that every time the Doctor and companions land in the US, everyone is a gun-toting dumbass.

I mean, it's accurate, but still offensive somehow!

[–] Damage@feddit.it 6 points 21 hours ago

All authors are like that. You write about what you know, that way you save yourself lots of research and mistakes.

[–] BakerBagel@midwest.social 6 points 1 day ago (2 children)

As opposed to British fiction where everything os centered around London? George Orwell thought London would be the center of the Anglo-American axis back in 1948 while the British Empire crumbled around him.

[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 5 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

What? He called it “Airstrip One”.

[–] BakerBagel@midwest.social -1 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) (1 children)

Your point being? Do you think Orwell named the UK after a US air force call sign that wouldn't be coined until after his death? I won't be lectured on literature by someone who has the media comprehension of a middle schooler.

[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 4 points 18 hours ago

Well, according to my middle school media comprehension the implication of the name “Airstrip One” is that the island of Great Britain acts as a bulwark against or potential invasion staging post to Eurasia, as it did in the Second World War. London is far from the Imperial Centre in that story, though there is no clear capital of Oceania and Ingsoc. Orwell’s pessimistic view of the UK’s future is as a province of the American Empire.

[–] TrojanRoomCoffeePot@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Similar issue, yes. It's said that you should write what you know, my point is more that Americans seem incapable of producing fiction where the lower 48 aren't the nexus of the universe, not that the British weren't also doing the same thing centuries earlier.

[–] BakerBagel@midwest.social 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Aliens sure seem to visit London all the god damn time in Dr. Who. People write literature about the places and people they know. Why would an American write a book about aliens visiting Berlin?

Also, how long ago do you think 1948 was? Because it wasn't "centuries" ago. And the most prominent American sci-fi authors do not have their stories revolve around the US. The Foundation, Dune, Star Wars, and the Expanse were all written by American authors and only one of them has any characters from the USA

[–] yucandu@lemmy.world 3 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

What about the other 160 or so democracies? How they doin?

Especially the proportional representation ones. FPTP is just a hint of democracy.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 2 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

What about the other 160 or so democracies?

I'm not sure where you're getting your numbers, but...

In 2024, just 6.6% of the world population lived in “full democracies”, falling from 12.5% a decade ago. Overall, the vast majority of these countries are in Europe, with notable exceptions—such as Japan, Mauritius, and Costa Rica—across other global regions.

I'm counting far less than 160.

FPTP is just a hint of democracy.

Sure. But then IRV still gave us NYC Eric Adams as mayor of New York. There's more to democracy than the shape of your ballot.

[–] BCBoy911@lemmy.ca 10 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago)

Calling Japan a full democracy is a stretch. They've been ruled by one party for over half a century, and definitely not b/c they're good at their jobs.

[–] yucandu@lemmy.world 3 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

In 2024, just 6.6% of the world population lived in “full democracies”,

I'm counting far less than 160.

Sorry I didn't make any claims as to what constitutes a "full" democracy, I was going with these guys who put it at about 167 "democracies".

Sure. But then IRV still gave us

IRV is just FPTP+. Like you say, it isn't an electoral system so much as a ballot system.

We studied it, in Canada, under the name "Alternative Vote". It was the only one we could find that was worse than FPTP:

https://www.ourcommons.ca/content/Committee/421/ERRE/Reports/RP8655791/errerp03/06-RPT-Chap4-e_files/image002.gif

There's a reason why politicians keep suggesting it, and it's not for our benefit.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 3 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

Sorry I didn’t make any claims as to what constitutes a “full” democracy

I'd settle for what defines "democracy" at all. I've seen folks claim El Salvador is a democracy while Nicaragua isn't, entirely because the government of El Salvador is politically aligned with the US and the Nicaraguans are not.

IRV is just FPTP+

I don't really care what flavor of election system you think is the right one. However you square it, you can have shit candidates win popular mandates. There is no system that'll keep people you don't like out of office, shy of a dictatorship that puts you in charge.

There’s a reason why politicians keep suggesting it

Suggesting it? Thirteen states have now banned ranked-choice voting as municipalities decide on whether to adopt it

[–] krooklochurm@lemmy.ca 1 points 9 hours ago

I met an Aussie in Thailand who claimed that ranked ballot elections are undemocratic, that recent Australian protests were not racist, that immigration was a huge problem in Australia, that Australians are not actually racist at all, and that recent Australian protests were about protesting Palestine, and not racist at all.

[–] yucandu@lemmy.world -2 points 19 hours ago

I don't really care what flavor of election system you think is the right one.

You're against logic and reason?

However you square it, you can have shit candidates win popular mandates. There is no system that'll keep people you don't like out of office, shy of a dictatorship that puts you in charge.

I'm not interested in a system that will keep people I don't like out of office. I'm interested in a system that represents the will of the people, rather than the will of a select rich and powerful few.

If you're willing to care, you might find one.

Suggesting it? Thirteen states have now banned ranked-choice voting as municipalities decide on whether to adopt it

I don't see the problem here, like I said, it's worse than FPTP.