redline

that’s fair, but I would argue it is shifting into a higher gear as Western dominance fades, and that’s what I feel I am noticing

I wonder sometimes if Western info-warfare strategy is shifting to “flooding the zone”, producing such an avalanche of dubious quality media on China that no accurate picture of successes can be easily accessed by the Western lay audiences

A Western “great firewall” may take on a quite different form to what we have seen in China in the last few decades for example, given the aesthetic concessions required to maintain illusions of liberalism in the popular consciousness

I expect some mixture of legalism, as we observe regarding proscribed organisations in the UK, and systematic covert as well as overt online misinformation

This doesn’t directly address your points on traditional medicine, but I certainly agree that it is a worthwhile topic

can’t stand that guy

you are confusing two different outlets

I appreciate the urgency in this piece, but disagree with the premise that this is somehow exclusively a result of Trump’s bullying.

I think there is a desperate need for more popular materialist analysis on the question of NATO spending increases. I’m also convinced that anti-militarism must (once again) become the beating heart of any wider socialist popular movement, certainly in Europe.

I think Eurafrica is on the agenda too unfortunately, peo hansen is good on this

when was this?

sounds about right

what kind of rhetoric did the liberals politicians who participated use? im curious how about the tactics, because i imagine we’ll see more of it across europe soon

My bet is that the opportunity cost for imposing new and meaningful constraints on China is already too high and this has begun to clarify for US elites - basically the Asia pivot is sunk cost in the form it was conceived of during the Obama admin, as full spectrum dominance is no longer a realistic goal at any price.

Why then cut Europe loose by allowing NATO to fall apart if you can strip them for parts in the medium term using that tried and tested trojan horse?

Therefore, if we suppose China will remain on the board in its present form, the maintenance of a heavy handed material and ideological infrastructure to prevent Europe from economically pivoting to China, particularly once the US ramps up cannibalisation of alliance members, would appear to be a necessity. This is one lesson from the last few months for me.

As an ideological project NATO works amazingly, even Europeans populations are still bought in. It’s like the final American postwar power projection tool that is functioning just as it was intended to in 1949.

welcome to the big show, where debt brakes are judiciously enforced for social spending for 15 years and immediately suspended for lockheed’s big bertha

it’s the perfect plan: you vaporise welfare spending and make some quick cash on the way out via defence stocks, with the potentially outstanding bonus of sending a few million troublemakers head first into a meat grinder next decade and all this in one masterful stroke

I would just be (positively) surprised if the Americans allow NATO to fall apart in the medium term as it would seem strategically foolish in my view given how succesful it’s been in completely subjugating the Europeans (remember Gaullism?), but yes I agree in the long term the economics are against the Western powers and it shouldn’t really matter what they do

europe will lose what’s left of its tattered social security nets to juice american defence stocks for subpar equipment one last time, no question about that either

I hear what you’re saying, but I would argue it’s a ploy to enforce the 5% NATO target knowing the eurocrats always roll over

it would still seem like a bridge too far at the current juncture for the americans to let NATO fail and concede unopposed security hegemony over the EU, a rebalancing to make them carry costs makes much more sense to me and I view it in that light (though I obviously take your point about the balance of military industrial capacities)

also there are rumblings that this US admin is beginning to accept multipolarity; if that is true surely that reframes the strategic outlook and calls a full pivot to asia into question

surely this is a bluff

I don’t mean this in a confrontational way at all and I’m no putin stan, but in what way do you mean?

I’ve been really enjoying Amar’s writing and his new show Cold War 2.0 with Kevork Almassian (amazing name with a beard that fits it perfectly)

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good post

lmaaao

trump says some silly shit; slow pan to xi who is staring into your soul

it really is an incredible own goal on the soft power front, I was genuinely and surprisingly asked recently by a close friend, whether it has always been like this

the answer to questions of this type, which many people here should be able to give, should be: yes and

if i listen intently I can actually still hear jaws hitting the floor in europe – the shock is palpable