Geez I was literally just answering your question. You don’t have to get so bent out of shape because I told you something specific that people actually want.

You’re not wrong. The CPC see Taiwanese independence as a threat because the US prevented them from taking it during the Chinese civil war. The US knows this and clearly intends to use Taiwan as a pressure point to gain diplomatic leverage against China. That makes it a high stakes game with the Taiwanese people caught in the middle and no resolution in sight.

Given that context, it’s not surprising most people in Taiwan want to maintain the status quo and prevent any escalation. However, as tensions rise between the US and China the political tensions in Taiwan rise with them.

I don’t think the article is actually all that critical. It might have been worth providing more context for why China is using that much concrete. However, even without that I think it’s fine.

The real problem I think is the headline. It frames China’s concrete use as an irrational mental illness which is just absurd. I’m betting that was the work of one of the BBC’s editors and not the actual author.

Okay and as far as the Taiwanese people are concerned they apparently see that choice as a lose lose situation. Why then does it matter if they prefer the ambiguity of the status quo? Why is it so urgent that they make a choice they clearly don’t want to make?

While I would agree that many in the US have strong feelings about their party affiliation, I don’t think it’s quite the same.

For one thing, by joining the CCP you are actually required to participate. I don’t know the numbers off hand, but I imagine far fewer people in the US actually participate in their local Democratic or Republican party clubs. Additionally, the approval ratings of democrats or republicans is lower than the CCP’s even if you only poll their respective party members.

It doesn’t require federal legislation actually. Biden could simply order the AG to deschedule marijuana which would effectively legalize it nationally.

Let’s be fair, the ROC under the KMT and Chiang Kai-shek was far from democratic despite their claim to Sun Yat-sen’s legacy.

I think what people don’t fully understand is that Marxism is meant to be scientific. That means that there will likely be many imperfect and failed attempts at building a socialist society before one comes along that is stable enough to outlast outside interference from capitalist states.

As such, most people I know who like the USSR are also it’s biggest critiques. Unfortunately, there is so much misinformation about the USSR that most discussions about it online are just about delineating truth from propaganda.

I mean the Taliban literally offered up Bin Laden but Bush rejected the offer and instead chose to invade. 20 years later and hundreds of thousands there’s nothing to show for it. It’s not like there weren’t people critical of the invasion at the time.

Yes you can blame people for being skeptical. Have you seen the pictures of the scale of destruction in Gaza? I’m frankly surprised the number isn’t higher.

The Palestinian health authority has also consistently put out reliable numbers. The UN seems to think so and even the Biden administration seems to try on them internally. I imagine they’re trying to cast doubt on the figures because war crimes like this are frankly a PR nightmare. Biden’s already lost a significant degree of support amongst democrats.

As for the hospital, there’s been no conclusive evidence that it was a failed rocket. You’re showing your bias if you think that we’ll know what happened without an independent investigation. That said, why is it surprising to you that people would jump to conclusions about it being an Israeli air strike? The IDF is dropping an absurd amount of bombs on Gaza. They told people to leave that hospital, implying they were going to bomb it. They had already bombed it once. Even wilder, Israeli officials admitted to bombing the hospital before retracting their claims. It’s wild of you to imply that thinking the IDF bombed that hospital is a ludicrous accusation.

I’m pretty sure they don’t actually want to escalate tensions with one of their biggest customers. It just doesn’t make sense for them. The US however is in a catch 22. US companies save tons of money by manufacturing in China but Chinese economic growth threatens the geopolitical dominance the US has enjoyed since WW2.

Do they really love him though? My sense was mainly that this was an “enemy of my enemy is my friend” type of situation. Russia’s breakaway from western economies is an opportunity for countries in the global south. As such it makes sense that the left in those countries would aim to foster positive relations with Putin and the Russian government. That’s regardless of what they privately think about the guy.