Learn to check sources if you do not wish to be dismissed as a conspiracy theorist. You linked a Wikipedia page. Did you even bother to check the references? The first five include conspiracy nutter Adrian Zenz, the rag that spread the Palestinians raped Israelis and killed children conspiracy, and some group based in Taiwan. That’s two worthless sources, and one sus source, out of five.

I’m sure they originate in economic pressures. But it’s like letting a genie out of a lamp - you can easily whip up religious / racist hatred, but once out, it takes a life of its own and can turn even on its own creators.

This implies the existance of ethical gooners.

I do think your wording is causing some confusion. Of course, the aim of most imperialists is economic exploitation, but there historically there have been other drivers of conquest such as religion and racism.

Sir this is a-lemmy. We all hate Microslop, rich people and cars here.

In any society, some sections would be having ‘good times’, and wouldn’t want the status quo to change. Other sections wouldn’t be having a great time, and would be asking for change.

Centrists then might be people who want some changes, although people who don’t want any change often also call themselves centrists since (1) different sections would be asking for different directions of change, so staying put might seem the middle ground, and (2) it’s more respectable than admitting the current system benefits them and they don’t want it to change.

Also centralists are different. Centralisation / decentralisation is the debate over how much power national governments should have versus local governments.

China isn’t Israel.

Centrism is okay during good times

Good times for whom?

Cowbee means economic imperialism - using the resources / wealth of another country for yourself. So invading another country would not, by itself, be imperialism.

I think this definition is a bit reductionist, but it’s a good starting point to ask ‘is this war for profit or some other reason?’.

So, because the US is regrettably inching toward authoritarianism, the fully authoritarian state was the better one all along?

In which of these countries do the police shoot / choke random people in broad daylight? In which of them is slavery still legal?

China is far from perfect but why would you compare it to like the second worst country in the world?

Just read first-hand accounts from the many people that have escaped the country.

It’s important to note that most North Koreans escape to South Korea, where it is illegal to say anything positive about North Korea, and from where they cannot leave for some number of years. So I would completely trust such accounts.

Also reports about North Korea often contradict other reports about North Korea. It’s a mess of truth, exaggeration, rumours, stuff somebody made up, and in one case a satirical news article from Japan or China that Western media took at face value.

yet

Yes. A group of US companies have bought Tiktok US. Tiktok elsewhere is still owned by the Singaporean / Chinese company.

True, but it would only work in the US, no? Tiktok itself is still Singaporean, and they don’t care about Israel’s crimes being revealed.

The country with the most scientists and engineers in the world, and a decades-long policy of investimg in education and public infrastructure, is outcompeting everyone else at manufacturing? I’m shocked!

Eswar Prassad, a former head of the China division at the International Monetary Fund

Maybe your advise to poor countries to cut all public services and sell everything to Western companies was wrong, IMF shill? Maybe countries should instead invest in their people and their infrastructure? Radical, I know. Heresy, even.

Do they send in the tanks?

You don’t use tanks in a city. You use machine guns.

Do they kill 1,000,000 people?

If they can, probably

Would republican civilians see empathy for the dead americans who were democrats?

Ask yourself how many people in the US showed empathy for the Gazans.

Or would it unite the nation like 9/11 did, except this time against the government?

Lol no, the US is a terminally propagandised country. Iraq has WMDs, Venezuela has drugs, free healthcare is bad somehow, Israel is not genociding the Palestinians, etc. etc.

How does the sale of Tiktok’s US operation to a US consortium affect a Palestinian?

… an account that appeared to have the same username was still visible on TikTok in Australia – but not in the Middle East, when Al Jazeera checked in different geographies.

Either she got banned on the real Tiktok - and this has nothing to do with the sale of Tiktok US - or she and Al Jazeera are using US Tiktok in the Middle East (but why?).

I’m a huge fan of Xiaomi’s phones (for the hardware and pricing) but let’s be honest their software isn’t exactly their strength. To be fair, it has improved in recent years.

Yeah I find GPL to be ironically non-free because it removes the right for anybody to use the code as they see fit, basically adding a restriction on the developer.

Sometimes, in order to protect everyone’s freedom, you have to put some restrictions on freedom. Like ‘you should not stab people’, or ‘don’t drive on the wrong side of the road’. I guess this is similar.

But also check who legally ‘owns’ your work. It could be the government, your university, or whoever funds your work. They might have rules on licencing.

It depends. By default, it uses a weaker encryption than WhatsApp. You can turn on e2e encryption, but not in group chats.

On the other hand, it has multiple FOSS clients, will work on pretty much any platform, and has a great UI.

If you want a fairly secure chat app that your grandparents can use, then Telegram is perfect. If you’re sending highly confidential stuff, then no.

It’s also suitable for project groups, because of the better tools (and moderation bots) available to the mods.