No part of what you said addresses my point, so I’ll repeat myself: Resistance movements have to worry about being coopted from the inside almost as much as they do about being crushed from the outside. Introspection and self-awareness are crucial if this movement is going to survive. Internal conflict is often rightly cited as a danger to any movement, but it’s also a survival mechanism that shouldn’t be shut down out of hand.

Thanks Biden!

If you don’t address the inaction, you won’t beat the system. “We can address all the systemic issues in our movement after our movement succeeds” has borne out in history approximately 0 times. More often either the movement fails entirely or it’s coopted by its most conservative elements who turn it into something completely different.

My impression is that they’ve been purging people from past administrations, not their own appointees. If that’s off the mark I’ll have to rethink my position, but so far the purges can be explained by how they likely want high-ranking bureaucrats and military officers to be solidly in their camp.

I disagree on the MAGA part. MAGA is currently preparing for a coup, so they need ideologically compliant sycophants at the top levels of power. That’s not paranoia; it’s a pragmatic and effective strategy.

Relevant.

You can guess how much love I have for US allies.

I love the smell of leopards eating faces in the morning.

But Israel insists it’s been built without the necessary permits.

No mention of how it’s almost impossible to get the necessary permits. This article doesn’t even have a pro-Israel slant so it’s just weird how this piece of information isn’t included.

I’m gonna go against the grain and say no, it would in fact be bad for everyone involved if someone killed Trump. Trump is evil, sure, but he’s also stupid and there are plenty of non-stupid evil people who would want to take his place. Or, now that I think about it, it might good for Iran, but it’d definitely be terrible for everyone else.

Um… it might surprise you but there are, in fact, things that are more important than the Epstein files. Nothing is going to come out of the Epstein files; everyone who cares about the truth already knows Trump is a pedophile.

ICE don’t care about the law, as evidenced by everything they’ve done ever.

This generally includes anything referencing whatever bullshit Trump is up to, but also includes the megacorps. Essentially if the comic is about how the world today sucks, it doesn’t belong here.

From their sidebar. Doesn’t sound rightwing to me.

I mean, there’s a reason out of all third world countries only China managed to do it; industrialization is actually incredibly hard, especially if there are foreign powers invested in preventing it. I mean hell, even now China already has the best manufacturing in the world and the gap is only getting bigger; it’s impossible to compete with that using services or resource extraction. Now the West theoretically has the capital to catch up before it’s too late, but by the time neoliberals let go of power it will be too late.

I guess we’re moving towards an era where “the developed world” just means China.

Somaliland only has like 6 million people. It’d almost definitely intensify the civil war, especially because Palestinians would 100% partner with the Houthis.

The country of Tiananmen Square?

True but irrelevant.

The country whose people practically develop an ever-changing coded language to avoid big brother coming down hard on any sort of criticism?

Yes. I never said that China tolerates criticism, but that doesn’t mean Chinese people live in fear of their government. An incompetent government will have criticism coming from every which way, necessitating draconian measures and exaggerated crackdowns, which does lead to fear (ask me how I know). This isn’t the case for China because, despite their faults and the evil shit they get up to, Chinese people are generally satisfied with their governance. Fear isn’t an automatic result of authoritarianism; it appears when there’s too little carrot and too much stick.

The country that runs “reeducation” camps for many who do get caught?

True but irrelevant.

The country that has Uyghurs and Tibetans to blame “within,” and Japan without? Or the US?

Source? Not for their oppression of Uighurs and Tibetans, or rivalry with the US and Japan, I know about these, but that they’re using any of these as scapegoats for their own troubles. Oppression can be motivated by things other than scapegoating, and it’s not like China is lacking in real reasons to oppose the US and Japan. Without something that corroborates your claim this is just a non-sequitur.

Where senior cadres of the party magically grow richer?

This is just a non sequitur. Senior CCP officials are rich, but the other half of your claim “everyone else pretty much won’t” goes against everything we know about Chinese economic growth.

If this happens I hope this is the straw that broke the camel’s back

Absolutely not, this camel can take a lot more of these.

Think of the list of political rights you take for granted. The right to voting, free speech, association, peaceful assembly, etc. Those don’t exist or are severely curtailed, meaning that political activity and discourse that anger the ruling class can and will be punished. How much is tolerated and what kind of punishments are doled out varies depending on the strength and heavy handedness of the ruling regime.

People live in fear and try to adapt, self-censor. Authoritarian leaders need a bogie man, somebody they can blame for all their failures. So an ethnic group, minority, or another country will constantly be blamed for everything from the economy to ingrown toe nails. The elite will get richer, everybody else pretty much won’t.

Not necessarily. Authoritarians are usually corrupt/incompetent, which tends to lead to these things, but competent dictators with legitimate public support exist, China being the best-known example.

*Basic political rights. You can have a perfectly liberal democracy where the average person is one missed paycheck away from starving to death. Education for example has nothing to do with authoritarianism, except that authoritarians tend to benefit from lack of education.