Summary

China condemned JD Vance on Tuesday for calling Chinese people “peasants” in a Fox News interview, where he said, “To make it a little more crystal clear, we borrow money from Chinese peasants to buy the things those Chinese peasants manufacture.”

The Chinese Foreign Ministry labeled the remarks “ignorant and disrespectful.”

The backlash exploded on Chinese social media, garnering 140 million Weibo views.

Critics mocked Vance’s own “hillbilly” background and pointed to China’s advanced tech and infrastructure, highlighting rising tensions amid Trump’s trade war.

  • @[email protected]
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    11 days ago

    They are so laughably bad at this stong man act. They talk politics like either a particularly stupid playground bully or a guffawing British colonial moron from the time of the empire.

    Also, I suppose it would help if your opponents found you even the least bit intimidating

            • @[email protected]
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              2211 days ago

              Thank fuck i would say. It literally their fucking job isn’t it? I have to card in every morning at 9am till 5. Their equivalent of card in is to oppose this shit, and to be perfectly honest, if I put as much effort as they did so far, my manager would have fired my ass for being a slacker

                • Eugene V. Debs' Ghost
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                  710 days ago

                  Not voted Yes on anything Republicans want, for starters.

                  No cabinet picks. No poison pills. No sneaking in expansions of power in yearly budgets. No tax cuts for the rich.

                  It costs as much energy to vote no as it does yes. But it doesn’t look good for the lobbyists’ bank accounts when they pay for Trump’s demands, so why even bother fighting for what’s right?

            • Eugene V. Debs' Ghost
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              510 days ago

              Like they were elected to do. I sure hope they’re doing more than the people trying to balance rent and food as they worry about if their senator is going to vote yes on Trump’s wants.

            • Eugene V. Debs' Ghost
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              10 days ago

              The right wing spin of “Please stop doing what Trump wants you to do”?

              Or the right wing spin of “Stand up for the people who voted you in to stop Trump”?

        • @[email protected]
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          1311 days ago

          They’re not blameless. They’re not entirely to blame, but they could’ve regulated social media to dampen disinformation when they had the chance.

          • @[email protected]
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            310 days ago

            holy shit these fucking libs

            “They should have cracked down on how we’re allowed to communicate with each other”

            and not

            “They shouldn’t have committed a genocide” or “They shouldn’t have taken tens of millions of people off medicaid and doubled child poverty”

          • Sculptus Poe
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            111 days ago

            The answer is never censorship. Look at who would be in charge of your ‘regulated’ social media now… It would be all of it instead of just the now hyper-regulated X.

            • @[email protected]
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              11 days ago

              I didn’t say censorship. They could’ve regulated social media as actual Media outlets, which puts them on the hook for libel lawsuits if blatantly fake disinformation is advertised on their platforms. In other words, they have to follow the same rules as traditional media outlets.

              • Sculptus Poe
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                11 days ago

                Social media isn’t a news source. Perhaps forcing them to remove all the ‘algorithms’ might be the answer. Keep the echo chamber effect to a minimum. Excluding people from being able to speak based on the current administration’s definition of blatantly fake disinformation is a bad idea. Once again, look who is now in charge of what is ‘blatantly fake’… They’d be suing the crap out of Lemmy under that law… Europe is all in on censorship, so we can only hope the Nazis don’t take over there again or we’ll be boxed in from every direction.

              • @[email protected]
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                111 days ago

                I was aware of the dangers and am now aware of the cited committee to establish regulations that somehow counter foreign and domestic disinformation without infringing on the First Amendment; I was moreso asking for your personal idea of a regulation that you would put in place if dictator for a day.

        • Eugene V. Debs' Ghost
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          510 days ago

          “Please stop capitulating to Trump and signing off of his bills, they’re fascists and you’re enabling them.”

          “Whats with the blame for Democrats? You must hate them for no reason.”

          • @[email protected]
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            -310 days ago

            The budget bill? Things were going to be worse if there was a shutdown that hands more power to the executive.

            • Eugene V. Debs' Ghost
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              9 days ago

              If they wanted a shutdown, Republicans would have voted no and shut it down.

              Instead they voted yes along with 11 Democrats.

  • @[email protected]
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    15111 days ago

    Poor man’s idea of a rich man,

    Stupid man’s idea of a smart man,

    Weak man’s idea of a strong man,

    Coward’s idea of a brave man,

    And a moronic voter’s idea of a President (or Vice-president in this case).

  • @[email protected]
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    11611 days ago

    Does he have to be an asshole to everybody? Even the way he speaks is like he talks down to people, it’s just so cringe.

      • @[email protected]
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        2511 days ago

        Hard to look at the policy when you are always whipped into a frenzy about those trans mexican chinese peasants

        • @[email protected]
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          811 days ago

          Criminals. Don’t forget they are all criminals. Half the world is in La Tren de Aragua, or whatever they made up last

    • Redex
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      410 days ago

      I honestly despise Vance so much, even more so than Trump. He’s such a vile, spineless, cunt of a man that makes me want to punch him whenever he opens his mouth.

    • Geetnerd
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      -111 days ago

      Do you think Fox should yoink him, and yeet him to the street. That would be based, but Fox’s stans would be sus.

  • @[email protected]
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    9611 days ago

    There goes the already remotely slim chance of any tariff negotiations. There is now a negative chance of China giving in.

    • @[email protected]
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      7111 days ago

      Yep. China is not gonna lose face by negotiating. They’re gonna go all in to fuck the US over now.

    • @[email protected]
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      6111 days ago

      China wins this war in a landslide.
      USA needs China: walk into any American home, and it’ll be minimum 50% China-related goods.
      The reverse situation, American goods in Chinese homes, would have a tough time approaching 10%.

      • @[email protected]
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        11 days ago

        You know that isn’t good for China either, right? It’s the same twisted trade deficit logic that Trump is using. China’s economy depends on selling those goods.

        • @[email protected]
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          11 days ago

          While trade war isn’t good for anyone US is clear looser here since China’s export to US (as of 2023 stats) is only 15% from its overall export. They can sell more other countries to smoothen impact. Meanwhile who gonna buy US stuff? “Best friend“ Russia with total GPD of less than California?

          • @[email protected]
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            911 days ago

            “only 15%”? That’s a huge percentage when you look at global trade. In 2023, their next biggest export partner is Hong Kong at 8%, which is now part of China. After that it’s Japan at 5%, followed by South Korea at 4.5%.

            https://tradingeconomics.com/china/exports-by-country

            The point is, China doesn’t want this trade war at all, and neither do we. Trump and Co. are complete morons that are fucking up the global economy for nonsensical reasons. Yes, other countries can eventually establish new trade deals without the US, and they likely will, but let’s not pretend they all can just bounce back within a few months if these idiotic shenanigans continue.

            • @[email protected]
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              11 days ago

              I wanted EU but the closest breakdown was Europe at 22%. Russia is 3.4% and assuming that’s included in Europe puts it closer to 18.6%.

            • @[email protected]
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              10 days ago

              That use of “only” before “15%” is a serious underestimation in absolute terms, but wholly appropriate when those 15% are relative to the US’s self-inflicted trade damage: it’s still immensely better when 15% of your trade goes to a trading partner which has picked a fight with you than when 100% of your trade goes to trade partners you have picked fights with.

              Further, in the last 2 decades or so China has both been growing its internal market (so that its Economy is less dependent on exports) and diversifying the countries they export to, likely in preparation for the death throes of empire as the US falls from its top position, which were entirely expected for decades, as was that they would include some form of trade pressure on its closest adversary.

              Absolutely, this is going to hurt China in the short-term (and possibly mid-term, depending on how easy or not is to redirect those exports to other destinations), but the Trump trade war with the World is going to totally fuck up the US and it’s the kind of harm that gets worse the longer these measures remain in place because it will be further eating away at the US brand (so even after the tariffs are removed many customers won’t be coming back) and accelerate the demise of the Reserve Currency status of the USD (which will in turn be reflected in massive inflation as those dollars flood back in and way bigger deficit related problems because the costs of debt servicing will go up when there is little demand for US Dollars abroad).

          • @[email protected]
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            111 days ago

            Certainly, but we’re the biggest consumer economy by a long shot. Trying to replace roughly $600 billion in exports isn’t an easy ask, especially since the next biggest economic bloc after the US and China, the EU, has been trying to move away from over reliance on China for years.

            • @[email protected]
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              1511 days ago

              They may be trying to move away from China, but they’re going to be moving back fast with these tariffs in place. Everyone loses in a trade war, but China is very much going to be the winner. No matter what happens after today, the US has lost it’s bargaining position and value as a trading partner and ally.

              Putin has won his war against the US, it’s just a matter of how we fall at this point.

              • @[email protected]
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                11 days ago

                I don’t disagree, I’m just pointing out that no one wants this and China isn’t going to just magically replace their biggest trading partner overnight, which is why they were legitimately trying to work out a new deal originally.

                Trust me, I fully agree the US will be the biggest loser from all of this.

            • @[email protected]
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              311 days ago

              Not to mention many of those Chinese products are designed by and built for American companies or nonamerican companies that sell in the US, which complicates things even further. This is much more complicated and much messier than simply looking at how many US goods there are in a typical Chinese household. Everybody loses thanks to Trump’s idiocy.

        • @[email protected]
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          10 days ago

          The US is just one country out of ~190 with a population of 300m out of 7b. Losing some exports to the US will sting a bit, but in the grand scheme it’s nothing.

          The US needs to get its head out of its ass and realize its not as important as it thinks.

    • thedruid
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      4111 days ago

      In over 50 years, I have never seen a worst accounting of ourselves.

      Our leaders, elected officials, are absolutely corrupt, inept, and eaten up with greed . They are diseased in their souls.

      They need to be jailed , now.

      • @[email protected]
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        311 days ago

        It’s an excellent accounting by the person running the country. It’s going better than planned.

    • @[email protected]
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      611 days ago

      I think this is the plan. They want to be able to blame China for the massively increased cost of consumer goods.

    • @[email protected]
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      10 days ago

      These days they can update it with “don’t waste your eggs, there are kids in America whose family can’t even afford them”

    • @[email protected]
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      11 days ago

      Not just American citizens. The people he grew up with. His own community. He even wrote a book to exploit it. The guy is all sleaze.

    • Geetnerd
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      1911 days ago

      And tries to separate himself from his peasant heritage?

        • @[email protected]
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          911 days ago

          well, .zip user… in this context I would go with one living under neo-feudal oppression. but please, do elucidate if you care to.

          • @[email protected]
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            210 days ago

            I was going with someone tied to the land, unable to move or better their situation.

            Which would make sense in the context of Appalachia but doesn’t really make sense in the context of American citizens at large.

  • @[email protected]
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    7611 days ago

    Those “peasants” are going to weather a tariff war far better than the “peasants” in the United States who are not used to the hardship and scarcity that will result.

    • @[email protected]
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      -611 days ago

      far better than the “peasants” in the United States who are not used to the hardship and scarcity that will result

      I’m not sure of this, Chinese system has quirks, like subway stations in the middle of nowhere or, say, USSR-like shortages in some places as opposed to abundance in others. In case of all-out mercantilism boogaloo we might see people’s well-being drop harder than expected in many places, and such a quirk might hit worse than “not being used to hardship and scarcity”.

      After all, having enough to eat is not just matter of habit.

      • @[email protected]
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        810 days ago

        Those subway stations in the middle of nowhere that were being touted a while back now are surrounded by bustling cities. Planned infrastructure takes time to fill, but it works much better than suburban sprawl

        • Lit
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          810 days ago

          It is also safer to do subway tunneling works without worrying about the buildings around you.

        • @[email protected]
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          -310 days ago

          Examples please. Specific ones.

          but it works much better than suburban sprawl

          “Better” is always tied to a specific criterion, there’s nothing absolutely better than something else.

          • @[email protected]
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            29 days ago

            Sure, give me an example since you are the one who claimed it, and I’ll do the legwork for you on what it is today.

        • @[email protected]
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          -111 days ago

          We have been sanctioning Russia for decades

          This is not true. There have been plenty of surface, symbolic sanctions, some on those with no power to overcome them and some on those with power, but not enough for them to notice - even if they lose atrocious amounts of money, they have a country and feel themselves kinds.

          That wasn’t a blockade or a siege, and if it were, then again those to suffer would not be anyone with decision-making power.

          • @[email protected]
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            210 days ago

            We cut them out of the SWIFT payment system. All our economists were saying they wouldn’t last more than a few months. That was four years ago.

            • @[email protected]
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              110 days ago

              SWIFT is not the only way to exchange money. The actual power doesn’t suffer from it being cut off. I do. And also from problems with card payments in the interwebs where MC or Visa is expected.

              Also I don’t think you realize how much money the Russian gang had in the open and hidden, one can basically say their credit is infinite. Other than trading national resources, they can, unlike American governments, cut local businesses and entities like lifestock to get more. They can do drugs trade, with their size it doesn’t bear any consequences at all, Russian (and Azeri, and Israeli, and which not) embassies have been caught with smuggling industrial amounts of heroine all over the world, nothing followed after those cases. They can just catch people on the streets and sell them for organs and they do. They can extort. They can confiscate. They can enslave.

              They are inefficient, for gangsters they are cowards, for mafia they are dishonorable, for cutthroats they are weak, for fanatics they are dirty, for thieves they are tainted. Nobody respects them. But that doesn’t matter when you have such a shitload of resources.

              They’ve spent hundreds of thousands of people in the last few years just for fun, to come to the same idea of war that has been found in Syria and in Latin America and in African conflicts without such a process. No way they are this stupid, but they wanted to feel this kind of power because there are not many things for them to want anymore. And also to kill brave people.

      • @[email protected]
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        711 days ago

        Chima has sociaIism. Their people will be fine. The murican people will be left to fend for themselves/starve or become sIaves in the newly expanded guantanarno bay prison.

        • @[email protected]
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          -110 days ago

          sociaIism

          This word doesn’t mean anything. It was what they call “meme” today in the late XIX century, and then a political-religious term.

          China has a bureaucratic, one can say imperial, system with laissez-faire economy, except for the moments when the empire has a project.

          USA has an economy less free in fact due to oligopolies, monopolies and use of lobbying instead of competition, but a freer political system.

        • ERROR: Earth.exe has crashed
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          -210 days ago

          Not quite. China is far from being a socialist society.

          Norway is more socialist than China

          The governments of both the USA and China can fuck themselves.

      • @[email protected]
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        411 days ago

        subway stations in the middle of nowhere

        “Inefficiencies of central planning”. It’s wasteful and kind of amusing but at least they got something done and may even have a city coming next

        • Lit
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          10 days ago

          For new development, It is easier to build subway first and then build around it or build concurrently at the same time but the trains/busses and road need to work before people will occupy the buildings there. It is common practice for new development.

          In some countries like Singapore that is how it is done for new development because most people don’t drive in Singapore, they don’t even own cars. Public transport like buses and subway/mrt need to start operating in those new areas before people move in. People need to be able to get to their home and offices by bus or train, if not no one will move in to their new homes except for the few with cars. Other countries with high car ownership they just need roads to be operational so they might not understand this.

        • @[email protected]
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          11 days ago

          It’s wasteful and kind of amusing but at least they got something done and may even have a city coming next

          If something can be unintentionally wasteful, there are fewer steps to make it intentionally wasteful, and it’s not just theft and loss of efficiency, but way to build up power to do more of the same. Which eventually corrupts a society fully. Which is what has happened to the USSR.

          Well, this is happening to all of the world now, so nothing specific for planned economies.

          Maybe USSR actually did the heroic sacrifice of detecting the minefield ahead.

          Like with writing programs, some people prefer exceptions somehow handled with try-catch, and some prefer logically complete processes. If a language supports exceptions, you’ll use them if you want to work with other people, but there are benefits to being strict to yourself too. Same with the USSR - it failed encountering a problem, but that other big powers didn’t fail right then doesn’t mean they didn’t encounter the same problem or did process it correctly.

  • @[email protected]
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    6611 days ago

    One of the most frustrating things about the current US administration, is I keep having to side with China. wtf is going on when we can no longer even get together to hate on an external trading partner? When the enemies are not at the gate but in the keep? When I have to agree with actions to punish my own country as well earned and expected?

    • Avid Amoeba
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      11 days ago

      Maybe the enemies aren’t the ones we’ve been made to believe. Our homegrown capitalists export jobs to the “peasants” then they turn around and say to the jobless - look, the peasants took your job!

      • Pelicanen
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        2211 days ago

        The enemies have never been the Chinese proletariat who toil and slave for scraps to feed the demands of a capitalist, consumerist society and always the greedy, totalitarian faux-socialists with a love for concentration camps that form the ruling party.

        • @[email protected]
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          10 days ago

          Same as it ever was, governments sucking ass while the people are just… People… Even EU governments suck ass, just maybe ever so slightly less in recent history and even that I’m not sure of (not counting the current slide to the far right obviously).

        • @[email protected]
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          510 days ago

          As someone who is trying to live in a democracy it’s still insane to accept a dictatorship IMO

          The kings and dictators are gonna be a fundamental wedge between east/west for a long time.

      • @[email protected]
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        10 days ago

        I do feel like every 4 years… there’s a new enemy in the world. Kim > Putin > Bibi =/= Donald > who’s next?

    • @[email protected]
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      810 days ago

      Anyone else becoming consciously aware of things they just can’t say because China is now going to be the next superpower?

      …at least their list of banned statements are coherent and predictable…I guess. With the Trump admin, you could say “I like Gouda cheese” and a few years later find yourself in El Salvador because Trump, or some other moron, got upset that The Netherlands wouldn’t willingly be annexed.

      • @[email protected]
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        110 days ago

        That’s what I’m talking about the oppressive dictatorship with poor human rights is the voice of reason, if sanity, the “good one”? How did that happen?

    • ERROR: Earth.exe has crashed
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      410 days ago

      You shouldn’t be siding with any country. All states are evil. The future of humanity is a stateless, classless, egalitarian society with worldwide co-operation, and the existence of states are a threat to world peace.

  • Geetnerd
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    6211 days ago

    “Hey, China, call Vance “White Trash.” He really likes that.”

    • Lit
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      610 days ago

      Hopefully china will sanction JD Vancer.

  • Lemminary
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    6110 days ago

    Rising tensions with China? I was told that’s what the Democrats were going to do if they won. 🤷‍♂️

  • @[email protected]
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    4511 days ago

    Beyond him being an idiot and a racist and evil, who the fuck talks like this?

    He called the UK and France “random countries” when dismissing their importance to mutual security agreements.

    He talks like a 4chan dipshit. Which he probably was. Even if he is completely blocked from power for the next four years, just having this moron one heartbeat away from the Presidency has done truly horrific damage to the respect and prestige of the Office.

    If by some miracle Trump steps back from the tariffs and the concentration camps and the blatant authoritarianism and the wholesale destruction of the federal government, the damage to America as an idea is something that none of us will live to see undone.

    • @[email protected]
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      911 days ago

      Nobody ever thought highly of American culture, and I know racist fuckwads like these don’t represent all Americans, but to outsiders they do. America’s economy output was the only thing people liked about this country and the reason people immigrated here, you fuck with the money like this, then what’s left of the country?

    • @[email protected]
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      611 days ago

      America would have to have a good reputation prior to trump for your point to stand. Think about why your life was so easy before. How many people had their lives made harder so you could have your easy life? America itself is an overvalued stock.

      • @[email protected]
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        111 days ago

        The amount of damage Trump is doing by destroying our international relationships demonstrates that America is central to the post-war order.

  • @[email protected]
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    10 days ago

    …I hate laughing at the downfall of my own country, but we definitely had it coming. I guess Chinese is the new lingua franca. Anyway, can someone help me understand why “Ma” in Mandarin means both weed and mom? How do I buy weed in Beijing?

    • @[email protected]
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      2010 days ago

      Mandarin has 4 (technically 5) tones so “ma” could be any one of those 4 different pronunciations. Furthermore, there are many completely different words that have the same tone/pronunciation. You just learn through context (same way as you do with English homophones)

      Mom in mandarin is 媽 (mā) whereas weed is 麻 (má). Colloquially you can also say 大麻 (dàmá) for weed.

      • @[email protected]
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        310 days ago

        Also, even before you go into the nitty gritty, there are homonyms in English too, so I don’t get why OP needs an explanation.

        • @[email protected]
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          10 days ago

          take this as you will, it is copy pasted from a site. most other sources i saw up to reading this said the same shit, so it is probably fairly accurate

          The Punishment for Marijuana in China

          Possession & Use: Individuals caught with marijuana or using marijuana will face administrative detention between 10 to 15 days, as well as fines of up to 2,000 yuan ($280 USD).
          
          Trafficking and Distribution: Selling or distributing marijuana is a crime. Punishment for those found guilty of handling over 50 grams includes a minimum three-year prison sentence, with life incarceration or death being possible penalties for larger weights (or in special cases).
          
          Marijuana Cultivation: Growing cannabis is another criminal offense, no matter how many plants. People arrested for growing marijuana could spend five years in jail and pay a hefty fine. For larger amounts, the punishment is even steeper.
          
          • @[email protected]
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            110 days ago

            Thanks!

            Possession is much lighter than I was expecting.

            There is probably a lot of pressure to give up the supplier.

            • @[email protected]
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              110 days ago

              yeah, i have no idea, on the granular level like that i would image it is quite a complicated thing, as it is anywhere

  • @[email protected]
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    4011 days ago

    What the fuck is wrong with the GOP that this is who we have as VP? We have had guys who owned slaves in that gig who knew not to refer to other nation’s people as “peasants”.