Maybe one day they can attain the freedom status of the exceptional USA.

How much is this fearmongering to justify increased military spending and how much is this true? This is the second article I’ve seen in 2 days about “unprecedented” military buildup in Russia and China.

War is fucking stupid. Anyone who wants war is fucking stupid. China and Russia’s autocrats are evil stupid, but are they stupid enough to create another great conflict that we all have to suffer through? Why the sudden change now? Russia tried the quick takeover and that’s failed miserably, drawing them into a prolonged conflict with high casualties.

With all that said, I also recognize the US is a declining world power (from the absolute top to now in competition with others) and stories like this are excellent for drumming up movements to try and maintain that absolute power position.

So how much is this article (and other recent ones) US propaganda?

I think Taiwan doing so well in the semiconductor space is a huge win for the region. I fear China attacking would put East Asians in a tough spot; especially if the foundries get destroyed.

So does the Chinese think it will be a quick war? Recent history has shown that this kind of years never end. The Taiwanese have been preparing for this for years.

Russians thought taking Ukraine would last a few weeks and that war has been ongoing for couple of years. The Saudis are sucked into Yemen for several years. The US got into 2 forever wars at the same time.

The current Chinese state did not exist before WW2, so I think that comparison is a bit odd

Well if nobody in the West is prepared to admit that Taiwan isn’t a bit of China, what are they going to do about it? Probably nothing at this point. It’s far enough away that it’s not really a territorial threat to us, unlike Ukraine.

The real question should be, what are we doing about all that Taiwanese manufacturing we rely on? Because if the answer isn’t “move it all back to Western countries where it can fuel Western economies no matter the cost” then you’re making a hell of a gamble on China staying friendly with us in the future.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

“All indications point to the PLA meeting President Xi Jinping’s directive to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027,” Aquilino wrote in a testimony to the US Armed Services House Committee.

“Furthermore, the PLA’s actions indicate their ability to meet Xi’s preferred timeline to unify Taiwan with mainland China by force if directed,” added the admiral, the outgoing head of the US Indo-Pacific Command.

He and Assistant Defense Secretary for the Indo-Pacific Command Ely Ratner both said the threat of direct conflict between the US and China is “neither immediate nor inevitable,” but that the Pentagon must move fast to reduce the risk of war.

This year, the Indo-Pacific Command flagged in a priority wish list that it hoped for $11 billion more than the funds allocated by the White House, with $430 million requested for the Guam missile defense system, per documents obtained by Politico Pro.

Meanwhile, US leaders have been concerned with Xi’s mandate to make China’s military a “world-class” force by 2027, as the White House fears that Beijing seeks to supplant the US as the dominant power in the Indo-Pacific and eventually the rest of the globe.

The purge and reports of graft materially affecting China’s arsenal triggered questions internationally about the true strength of the People’s Liberation Army, and if Xi’s military goals have been delayed.

The original article contains 646 words, the summary contains 221 words. Saved 66%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

It isn’t intended to stop at smashing Taiwan.

All of Asia’s the target.

Global-domination’s the goal.

“the destruction of the West is the midwife of Chinese dominion” or something like that, from a few decades ago, a general’s words.

I don’t know of ANY government on this planet that is stratically-altruistic, and most are openly machiavellian/sociopathic-psychopathic/nihilist(globally, re ClimatePunctuation).

The more people are investing-in dealing-with making-believing, because that’s more comforting than actuality,

the LESS actuality evolves to match the making-believing, because of useless wasting-of-opportunity.

Objectivity’s the most-effective traction humankind’s got, and making-believing just throws opportunity down the sewer.

Short-term-ism’s going to butcher nearly-all lives on this planet, this century.

It’s setting-up “nicely”, what with

• the ClimatePunctuation still accelerating,
• the food-chains ( both terrestrial & marine ) being butchered as quickly/efficiently as possible, by money’s lack of care,
• the political-tantrum/pogrom,
• the religious-tantrum/pogrom,
• the aggressive sabotage-of-governing of both left & right’s Leninism/Murdochism, with their “proletariat dictatorship”/“populist dictatorship” rule
• the nationalism-religions providing identity-“security”, by displacing reason’s anxiety…

It really is too bad that only “journalism”, … which treats gaslighting as equally-valid to fact, … remains, in the for-profit-“journalism” world…

Actual journalism, which stuck to objectivity, called gaslighters gaslighters ( locally & other governments, both ), etc, wasn’t allowed to live, by money, so it’s gone.

And, when actual-journalism’s gone, then you’re “driving the runaway bus while hallucinating/on-drugs”, and the disconnect keeps getting more & more profound/complete…

“business is booming!” while underemployment & homelessness skyrocket, & businesses keep going bankrupt, because the supply-chain’s disintegrating…

I remember that screencap someone did, early-Covid, which showed 2 headlines in the same image:

• 1 was in the “stock markets climb drastically” vein,

• the other was in the “unemployment & homelessness reach new heights” vein,

& they were both run by the same company as headlines??

Gaslighting’s the only industry dominant in our world, now, it looks like…

Russian dictatorship intends to butcher all of Eastern Europe that it can, because possession is the ONLY part of the law that it feels valid.

China’s committed to doing something similar through all of Asia, & Modi’s Hindutva India’s in China’s sights, just as Tibet was, just as Nepal, Bangladesh, South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, ALL of them are.

Give it another decade, & see what’s left, outside of the 3-ish major empires that will be butchering-all-who-are-in-their-way.

Our nature hasn’t changed in the last 12 millenia, so why would our actual-behavior?

Our unconscious-toddler’s committed to enforcing its “greatness”, and some politicians embody that current, & win on that embodying-our-unconscious-toddler, because much of humankind would rather be identifying-with the ruling-toddler than tolerate others to live, so it’s an identity thing, not rational.

Also, ask yourself this:

IF China can’t possess all of Asia, does it make sense to permit the West to make any use of the un-possessed portions of Asia?

XOR does it make more Chinese Dominion sense to smash/butcher them all, who won’t be the possessed-property of CCP?

Which would gut the West’s dominion more?

When you understand the answer to that question, then you begin understanding what the world’s going to be looking-like, 1 decade+ on…

Welcome to The Great Filter.

_ /\ _

Can’t they make haste please? I wanna see live action fallout irl /s