wheezy

I'm really wondering how the west thinks they'll continue to sell this cold war with China.

China: Please buy our better products that we are selling at lower prices.

The West: China is trying to destroy the western world! We must prepare for war!

Everyone with an Internet connection: Uh, yeah, can we get one of those electric cars that cost half as much and is better in every way?

The funny thing is that the answer to the wests failures is literally just to be more like China. Central planning in vital sectors like infrastructure and transportation. Instead we just have a ruling class that wants to burn oil and start wars with countries that aren't attacking us.

We literally just stole an oil ship because we made up a rule about trade that we don't allow between two completely independent countries that never agreed to that rule. It's comical how awful we are.

Like, for some reason Venezuela can't sell oil to Cuba because we said so. That's it. It's literally just because we said so.

Yeah. But that answers the question you posted about how they will know if you have social media or not. That was my point. Not whether you literally watched it or not.

Did you not see the group of tech billionaires behind Trump when he was sworn in?

Is this 30% down in foreign tourist (like people crossing border with the intention of a tourist visit) or 30% down in tourist industry revenue?

If it's revenue that's huge. Because a lot of tourism is just Americans going to tourist destinations. Though I'm sure some of that drop is coming from Americans also not being able to afford vacations.

If it's 30% down of actual foreign tourist travel that's less than I'd expect too. But still beyond devastating to the tourist industry. Between that and the explosion of online gambling, I know Vegas is hurting so much right now.

I feel like numbers at this point just are pointless. It's like, can we use vocabulary that actually describes the situation instead of updating this every time the decimal point shifts?

Describing it in terms of wealth is kind of dumb. It gives the idea that the systems that caused this (Imperialism, colonialism, capitalism) are the solution. Like, the global South just needs "investment". The numbers are this bad because of a century of western "investment" in its exploitation the global South.

There isn't a number attached to this that somehow fixes the problem when we reach it. This is about what essentially amounts to slavery and subjugation of the majority of this planet. The language of these news articles is so passive. Like it's describing the amount of stars in the galaxy.

And, uh, kill all of the innocent people on board. Sorry, I just feel like that should be said.

I'm a leftist. If capitalism was destroyed I would love to debate and implement different economic and state systems as we work to improve the lives of all people.

But, having said that, we don't live in a world without capitalism yet. So I will support any form of resistance of a people to Imperialist powers and capitalist interest. Unfortunately, we can't put on a red hat and just support the guys with the red hats. It's why I can support certain actions of groups and states ranging from Hamas to DPRK to even parts of the EU (but never never NATO).

This is why when there is "leftist infighting" I will almost always support the ML faction over any DemSocs or anarchist. Why? Because ML methods of resistance have been the only successful methods of resisting imperial occupation and influence that has been sustainable. If an anarchist faction destroys the state and is somehow able to defend itself from imperialist powers I'll support that too. But we have Cuba today; we have the DPRK today. Are they the types of states I want to exist? No. But they do exist.

If another means of imperial resistance proves more effective than I will adjust my opinions and support. If your a leftist and not acknowledging the success of ML factions you're not really a leftist. Especially if you spend all your time fighting with "tankies". And if you're a ML and not willing to adjust to changes in successful resistance (especially as the empire is shaking as it is now) than you're not really a leftist but in a cult.

As someone that grew up with an "unmonitored" internet. I can say that it was significantly more healthy than the profit driven "keep watching" algorithm that is all of social media today.

Yeah. I saw "two girls one cup" and "lemon party". But, did I slowly have my perspective of reality changed by the 30 second videos I swiped on for hours at a time for days on end?

No, most of my time was spent learning about computers, "stealing" music, and chatting with my real life friends.

I don't think a kid today can experience that internet anymore. It's gone. But acting like "unmonitored" internet access is worse is pearl clutching and ignoring the fundamental problems the profit driven internet has created at the expense of societies mental health.

Kids will absolutely find another place to connect online in Australia. But, honestly, I think whatever that is will be healthier than the absolute brain rot that is profit driven social media.

We got to this point because parents think that kids need a monitored internet. Afraid of online predators. So it was passed off to corporations that learned how to systematically institute mental abuse in order to keep their apps open longer.

It's a bandaid. And just like previous attempts like this all this will do is make Australian kids better at circumventing the censorship or using an alternative website. Which, honestly, is probably a positive in and of itself. I'd much rather my kid be visiting some random forum type website (like I grew up with) then the absolute brain rot that is social media algorithms.

Seeing "lemon party" posted before the mods removed it definitely fucked me up less than the slop being fed into the brains of teenagers on social media today.

If all American foreign policy just disappeared the world would be at a net positive overnight - and it's not even close.

3 years of us arming Ukraine, encouraging them to NOT negotiate (when they had much better position to previously than they do now), and then abandoning them once we finished dumping all our weapons. America was proud to fight to the last Ukrainian.

Russia is like the bullie that punches you in the face.

America is like the bullie that spends weeks pretending to be your friend just so they can steal your lunch money, humiliate you in front of your friends, and then push you into the other bullie that'll punch you in the face for bumping into them.

Also, Trump just puts a blunt face to what America has always been. Foreign wars in this country are bipartisan. Ukraine would be just as fucked if Harris was president. She'd just have a better narrative for it to make Americans feel less guilty for the fucked up way we treat our "allies".

Except when it's Israel. Then they keep using "alleged" even after humans right organizations and world courts confirm their crimes. Always gotta add that "We asked Israel and they said everyone is Hamas and Antisemitic" so we kinda have to "show both sides" of course. Journalistic integrity and all.

mkv and mp4 are the container not the codec. It's a bit more complicated than just the file extension. You likely have more luck with mkv because of just more consistency as mkv is used more often when the file is meant to be played locally and not streamed.

So, you're right. But just looking at the container isn't going to ensure compatibility. The codec is significantly more impactful on whether playback is supported. That's the part that's literally taking the compressed video data and decoding it into viewable pixels/frames you see on your screen.

I've never downloaded an mkv that wasn't just standard h264 or h265. So it's still a good bet. But h265 is less universal and much more CPU intensive for playback (because it has significantly better compression).