Growth isn’t a problem when it’s sustainable. However, there are natural limits to how far and how fast technological development and resource extraction will allow us to grow the economy.

Additionally, competition within capitalism forces the wealthy to seek out any and all means of growth. If they do not they actually risk all of their wealth becoming devalued. This drives innovation but it also is the driver of imperialism, exploitation, environmental degradation, all of which grow the economy.

When growth because less attainable due to various natural constrains, the wealthy start to cannibalize the systems that keep society stable. Again, they can’t help themselves. If they don’t their class position is threatened as some other capital owner beats them to the limited profits that come from privatization and austerity.

This usually results in mass unrest across all the various classes in society. That includes some of the middle classes who also rely on exploitation to maintain their standard of living. In response to threat of social unrest, the wealthy usually align themselves with right wing authoritarians that claim to be able to bring order to the chaos and renew growth through imperial expansion. This kind of politics is often supported by some of the downwardly mobile middle classes. That’s how we get fascism.

This person has swallowed so much red scare nonsense it’s impossible to actually engage with them on this topic.

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.

Thank you! I totally forgot that easily verifiable facts are actually just propaganda when Adm_Drummer says so. I’ll be more careful next time.

The US supported Saudi Arabia in their bombing campaign and also participated in the blockade of Yemen.

Some of the governments of various regional powers may not care. However the Palestinian cause has massive popular support.

In Yemen I think it’s both. The Yemeni people were starved and bombed by the Saudis with lots of US support. It shouldn’t be surprising to anyone that they feel a deep sympathy for what Palestinians are going through.

The thing is, you can’t really separate the Chinese people from the CCP. Something like 7% of the population are members and the party has very high approval ratings. That’s not just because the CCP are good propagandists either. Rather the living conditions for the average Chinese person have improved dramatically over the course of only a few decades thanks to policy decisions made by the CCP. As such, opposing the CCP and wanting the Chinese people to thrive may be seen as a highly contradictory perspective to people living in mainland China.

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.

Agreed, nothing is more natural and human than the squeak of shopping cart wheels and the touch of cool air from the refrigerated section as you hunt for the best prices on plastic wrapped slabs of meat.

The intention and systematic oppression and discrimination of Palestinians amounts to the internationally recognized crime of apartheid.

Palestinians have no say in what happens to them. Israel restricts their freedom of movement in Gaza and the West Bank. Israel intentionally limits their access to clean drinking water, food, and other resources. Palestinians were forced from their homes en masse in 1948. To this day Palestinians continue to be kicked out of their homes and segregated from encroaching Israeli settlements. The Israeli state enforces this system of oppression through criminal and illegal violence. I could go on but you get the point.

This isn’t just my opinion. It’s the international consensus and the opinion of Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and experts at the UN.

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.