MidnightPocket [comrade/them]

US pioneering what I like to call “indirect eugenics” via austerity and denial of basic health/labor protections.

Same result as direct eugenics, just now with plausible deniability.

Looks like Hex-Atlas (Red-Atlas now?) is getting DeepSeek integrations! Very cool, that will flesh out the non-Western content a lot, I imagine.

That said, when I visited last night it felt like it was under maintenance.

Florida style gravel/stone lawns are the only winning move.

It will be the cross in the US/elsewhere. Religion is ripe for harvest during this international resurrection of Fascism. While Fascism 1.0 also leveraged/bastardized religious culture I’m surprised it wasn’t front-and-center in terms of its iconography. Ukraine seems to be doing it the retro way, though.

Regional/material characteristics of stoking fascism…

Collective punishment in my grade school?

It’s more likely than you think!

this is everyone’s final warning to not fedpost

Trump as the anti-nixon is an interesting thought. I know you’re limiting it to Chinese relations opening/closing trade, but now I’m curious if there are other anti-parallels (perpendiculars?).

Libertarians working to undermine the Jones Act seething.

Comprador Unions chuffed.

Musk being the designated fall-man would be so perfect

While they sometimes depress me I do miss their effort posts.

So glad I bought my furniture before he entered office.

The rhetoric of “supporting” companies that are rooted in the pursuit of profit and typically are only a few degrees removed from outright subsidizing right-wing terror across the globe is hilarious

I’ve met liberals like your dad. Arguments can only sway their opinion if/when presented by an institutionally over-credentialed, high-brow, Gramscian traditional intellectual.

Anything less classist than the above and they dismiss it as foreign propaganda.

LMAO

Imagine having all that corporate funding and still cutting costs on…stealing information.

I don’t think anyone for a moment thought that the US ditching some vassals would include Israel.

But, I’m starting to think that a lot of the foreign policy of the second Trump administration is rhetoric/bluster. I think the actual/lasting changes will primarily be domestic.

According to a random guy on Quora several years ago commenting on Syrian troops performing this style of salute:

Why are these Syrians giving a Heil Hitler salute to Bashar al-Assad?

“it has nothing to do with Hitler, they are putting their hands on top of imaginary Quran or Bible and bledge (sic) to protect the country against all Enemies; I watched the video and heard them say in Arabic to bledge (sic) to protect Syria from all enemies.”

I am not Muslim nor am I from a non-western culture; I cannot confirm nor deny this rationale.

If it is true, I’m guessing that the specific angle is used so that they aren’t prodding their comrades in the back when saluting in phalanx formation.

Other commenters suggest that the fascist-style salute is less sensationalized/provocative in global south nations which were further removed from the Nazi atrocities in both geographic proximity and media influence regarding the topic.

At the end of the day, context does matter. This is a very simple salute style that is probably commonly used due to its utility in a mass formation context. Performing this salute outside of a military context, at a publicity event in a nation where there has just been a drastic change in leadership style, after decades of sensational coverage of Nazi mannerisms in media…is categorically different than performing it due to utility in a different historic context.

That said - it is still jarring to see. Feels like “culture shock”. In light of recent events with Elon, having to play the “context” card really does feel like an impotent explanation. It really is starting to feel like this salute style is just ubiquitous, though.

Trump never got the memo that a key tenant to US hegemony over the last several decades has been hiding/laundering their outright dominance from public perception.

Or he did get the memo and he’s ostentatious enough to the point of not being able to suffer it.

And Musk is a legit neo-nazi. Will this finally expose how power is appointed and not elected? Unlikely.

Prices disguise shortages in public perception. Technically the shelves are never empty so long as the prices become high enough to slow sales to the point of production’s ability to replenish the rate of consumption. Diminished productive capacities are synthetically translated into diminished merit of customers.

(Not implying you don’t know this. Just writing it out for the crowd.)