FunkyStuff [he/him]

FunkyStuff [he/him] @hexbear.net 2w ago

I think you're right that it's definitely going towards good things nowadays (I mean, unless you consider the Church as a whole to be bad enough that offsetting any amount of spending for charitable purposes doesn't outweigh the harm from everything else) but it is at least interesting to read into the origins of the cooperation. Originally it was a program called Operación Pedro Pan (Operation Peter Pan) which was aimed at taking children out of Cuba and taking them to Catholic organizations in the US. It was done with the parents' consent, but it still is broadly criticized for having been an op that's 1 degree of separation away from a human trafficking operation (ironically, carried out by 2 institutions that would later be disgraced by the Catholic Church's child sexual abuse scandal as well as the Epstein files for the US government).

2w ago

The 'becoming Chinese' meme shows China's soft power moment is here

FunkyStuff [he/him] @hexbear.net 2w ago

But at what cost?

2mo ago

what the US is doing to Cuba right now is one of the most barbaric crimes in its history.

tldr the kind of repression and state control that @ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de notes in Cuba as disqualifying it from the label of 'socialism' and making it 'communism' instead are actually the precise things that make Cuba a socialist state, as opposed to a communist post-state society.

It's an error to just use the words like 'socialism' = 'cool and good' while 'communism' = 'bad and scary' because that's just 2nd grade tier analysis that doesn't clear anything up at all, and just confuses you further.

2mo ago

what the US is doing to Cuba right now is one of the most barbaric crimes in its history.

One thing that's worth noting is that Israel and the US are the two countries that voted against making food a human right at the UN and both are actively committing genocide via starvation.

These two processes are actually intrinsically connected and are part of a broader strategy I fear is only going to see more examples as climate collapse plays out. There's going to be more groups that the imperialist powers will want to wipe out and ecosystem collapse will cause famines that a blockade can escalate into a mass death event.

2mo ago

what the US is doing to Cuba right now is one of the most barbaric crimes in its history.

There was also a famine in the 30s in Kazakhstan, not just Ukraine. A similar number of people died.

2mo ago

Taliban says it would support Iran if US attacks

Makes sense. If the US succeeds in regime change, the comprador government in Iran would probably assist in a future occupation or interventions in Afghanistan.

3mo ago

Same shit, different day 🥱

Both can be true though, although the whole idea of a "dictator" as a type of political leader can be more of a hindrance of one's analysis than a useful category.

3mo ago

ICE is as American as Apple Pie

The NSDAP also was as American as apple pie in some ways.

3mo ago

Is this true for you?

Yeah, absolutely. Great at academic stuff, completely useless at a lot of stuff that's necessary to be practical and productive in most of the real world.

3mo ago

-1 Fedi Social Credit

Ah, I understand then. Yeah, I can't fault you then. Carry on.

3mo ago

-1 Fedi Social Credit

I can sympathize with what you're saying, but I don't quite understand how Nutomic being wrong about trans people and COVID is completely unacceptable when those are things the vast majority of the world's population are wrong about, but Rimu gets a pass for believing anti-Chinese propaganda that the vast majority of people aren't racist enough to even entertain being true. Maybe transphobia and COVID denial makes you unsafe in a way that sinophobia doesn't, but Lemmy has some of the best established trans and COVID conscious communities on the English internet outside of Reddit, while piefed is actively making it harder to engage with those communities. Is the juice worth the squeeze?

3mo ago

-1 Fedi Social Credit

I'm with you on dunking on Nutomic for the transphobia and COVID denial, but if you think Rimu is to his left (especially if you're citing his refusal to wear a mask as a red line; I admit I don't know if Rimu is a plague rat, but you're asking them to be correct about something very few people are correct about) get ready to be disappointed because there's a high chance every single piece of software you use is written by people who have way worse opinions. And unlike Lemmy, Rimu actually puts their opinions into the code. Unless you know Rimu personally and know that they're correct about everything...

3mo ago

-1 Fedi Social Credit

You're right, I hadn't considered that this was part of a strategy like this. I rescind what I said; piefed delenda est.

3mo ago

-1 Fedi Social Credit

https://whn.global/yes-we-continue-wearing-masks/

People worldwide largely aren't taking COVID precautions and that's exactly the problem. Some people, mostly leftists, have continued to follow the science that says that even if you're the only person masking up and getting your booster shots every year, you're reducing the chance that you catch a disease that can permanently disable you and everyone you infect.

3mo ago

Politics 101

Delcy Rodríguez is PSUV and her whole family are ideologically committed Chavistas. As I said, the oil being privatized was something Maduro was already willing to do (and Exxon already had a deal to extract Venezuelan oil, being the only company that was exempt from the sanctions)

3mo ago

Politics 101

But they're not installing a dictator, that's why I'm saying the operation didn't do anything. Trump kidnapped Maduro and changed nothing because the same government is still in place, and Venezuela retains the same stance.

3mo ago

Politics 101

You're not understanding what I said; Maduro had already made an offer to let US companies do exactly what they're doing right now. Venezuela's oil company doesn't have the capital to fully exploit the country's reserves so they've always been open to working with the US and their oil companies. Maduro also understood that that's what the US was after and was willing to compromise. So yes, it kinda looks like Venezuela is bending the knee, but they're not doing anything now that Maduro wasn't willing to do before.

3mo ago

-1 Fedi Social Credit

I think if you roll one of the instances (like yours) that overrides the basic censorship stuff it ain't so bad. It's a different UI and I can see why some people would prefer that. I wish it wasn't developed by a right winger though.

3mo ago

Politics 101