NoneOfUrBusiness

No, they’re just posturing while they can. I’m 100% both are thrilled with everything going on.

One of the few good things about this mess is that the US no longer commands respect.

First off, there’s no need to be that combative. Second,

Here’s a hint, look at the first 3 letters of the word “oxidation.”

There’s plenty of oxygen dissolved in water.

But then again there’s only a few countries that do and none of them are superpowers.

Really? Which ones?

True, but you also do run into a “when you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail” problem, especially as investing in the military inevitably empowers people who absolutely would like a war to break out. Doubly so for countries with long histories of imperialism (cough cough France cough). It’s also not like Russia is a conventional military threat; if their performance in Ukraine is any indication present European militaries should be more than enough to wipe the floor with them. He’s also 100% true about military spending taking away funding from worthier causes, and while this isn’t caused by a lack of funds per se (if European countries wanted to they could always tax their ultra-rich) with rising austerity you do get a situation where money is being taken away from social welfare and put into the pockets of the defense industry. It’s not nearly that simple on either side, but there are plenty of valid reasons to oppose militarization. If European countries want to defend themselves they should give more money and weapons to Ukraine, or invest in renewables to cut down on Russian gas, or do any of the hundreds of things they could be doing before selling their souls to the military-industrial complex devil.

Of course; it’s the art of the deal.

Maybe Trump just has our best interests at heart.

Love to see it!

I mean yeah, but they’d usually not pay even a small fine (or pay for legal proceedings), so it’s a lot more efficient to use conveniently placed loopholes.

Then they might get in trouble for false advertising.

Him coming to power is part of the crumbling of the empire; it’s the inevitable result of the elites distracting from their misrule to stay in power. I mean it didn’t technically have to be Trump, but if not him it’d have been someone else.

In general the worst enemy of a crumbling empire is itself.

Um… hell no? There’s no way more than 3-4/14 are true unless you’re working with some kind of alternate universe China. Nothing about China is traditionalist, anti-modernist or anti-intellectualist, for one; they’re probably the most technocratic nation on Earth.

Fascism is more complicated than that, and while China is nationalistic it’s not running on the kind of ultranationalism that, say, Nazi Germany had. Modern China doesn’t meet any credible definition of fascism.

Again, you have no idea if that’s the case with these specific people. You have no idea if they’re the Russian equivalent of MAGA.

A lot of Russians support the war.

But you have no idea if these particular Russians support the war.

How is this leopards eating faces? I doubt the oligarchs running the show faced any consequences.

Okay, I’m trying to be as nice as I can about this, but most of the world legitimately doesn’t give a shit about anything you just said. Why would someone from Africa or South Asia or South America care what America or China allow to happen in their own borders? Do you seriously think the “freedoms” afforded to Americans but American law mean anything to an Iraqi whose life was and remains defined by the fallout from American imperialism? That’s not how modern empires work; neither China nor America are going to treat a third party anything like they treat their own citizens, and in a comparison of how they treat others’ citizens China has nothing that can top this. Your appeals to tiny steps and corruption aren’t just meaningless; they’re outright insulting to the hundreds of millions of lives that were ruined by America around the world.

So, Iran can now get their narrative out to all the other countries nearby, and the US has no way of correcting / countering the Iranian propaganda.

Fortunately in this case, since Iranian propaganda is more or less just the truth in this case. Can’t get much more fucked up than bombing a girls’ school on day one.

I’d love it if Europe stepped into the vacuum left by the US. They’re doing a lot of good things when it comes to environmental laws, privacy, anti-monopoly, etc. If it’s China that steps forward, I’m less confident it will be an improvement on the US.

Europe is part of the same imperialist apparatus as America, and fortunately for everyone involved it won’t be able to replace the US. Pretty much every US imperialist action gets European support, even if it comes with denial or condemnation. For example Europe was deeply involved in turning Iran into a pariah state, making the current war possible. And that’s before we get into Europe’s own neocolonialism (see: France). China has plenty of skeletons in its own closet, but they don’t have a habit of overthrowing regimes they don’t like halfway across the world.

GJ Iran!