AU and USA share in a foundation belief that they are “classless societies.” I think this is probably true of many ex-British colonies since class is such a dominant and suffocating aspect of British culture.
Australia, like the USA has severe inequality, and the rich there like to flaunt their wealth. A disproportionate number of the crypto grifters ended up being Aussie. And while Australia does have a better social welfare state than the US it is both 1) under attack and 2) was put together almost entirely by one socialist prime minister in 1975 who was taken out after only a few months by a coup.
And the fact that she was able to operate for years without issue
I used to watch ADVChina, which was a youtube series by an American and a South African who married Chinese women and decided to live in China with their families. For years they rode motorbikes around China, filming “day in the life” type content and occasionally saying something mildly critical.
Eventually the CCP decided they didn’t like them and they had to flee the country. The way they told it they had to lie their way through the border to HK to get out because the government put an exit ban on them. Now they live in California post angry anti-CCP rants.
Point being, the fact that Wu or the ADVChina guys were able to operate in China for a little while isn’t proof that the CCP tolerates independent media. It is proof that the CCP can be slow sometimes to shut down people who grow a foreign audience organically using information channels the CCP doesn’t yet fully understand.
Chinese healthcare makes American healthcare look good by comparison. It is mostly private and you’re expected to bribe the doctors, nurses, orderlies and have a family member stick around the hospital the whole time pestering them or you won’t receive care. Same with Education, which is like the American Ivy system times 1000. Housing in China is… well, just try googling Evergande. Upwards mobility involves either climbing the party hierarchy or “leveling up” from being a rural peasant to being an urban migrant worker with bad hukou.
You got me on transit though, the Chinese have built some amazing trains.
Nobody would deny this. On the other hand, it’s the same argument as “not all Russians support Putin” or even—dare I say—“not all Germans were Nazis.” It’s true that when you live under a despotic regime there’s not much you can do about it, individually. And most people would not willingly be complicit in the regime’s crimes except to the extent that they have no choice.
But it’s true that these regimes do have lots of internal support. They wouldn’t exist without that support. And to the extent that this support is manufactured by internal propaganda, people within that message-space will not be able to resist having their own perceptions shaped by it.
So while it’s undeniably true that the CCP is not the Chinese people, and that the Chinese people are the principle victims of the CCP, they also are complicit in a collective sense.
They don’t think these features are compelling. The purpose of this is to create a new pricing tier so that later they can make it the (not-actually) ad-free tier and make the current (not-actually) ad-free tier have (more) ads.
The right-wing leader appeared on multiple cable news shows to speak on the current state Israel’s monthlong siege on Gaza, which human rights experts have warned amount to ethnic cleansing and war crimes....
Bibi reduced military protection in the south to punish the kibbutz dwellers, and to focus on war-criming the West Bank. Either he figured his trunks full of cash would keep Hamas in line, or he just really didn’t care what happened down there.
He also clearly gives zero shits about the hostages. Hamas wanted to negotiate for their release at the beginning of the conflict, but he decided he would rather war-crime Gaza instead.
According to three sources familiar with the talks, the original deal on the table involved freeing children, women and elderly and sick people in exchange for a five-day ceasefire, but the Israeli government turned this down and demonstrated its rejection with the launch of the ground offensive.
The IDF will likely try to claim that they thought she was a sniper, but if that were true they wouldn’t be standing around in the middle of the street before they shot.
Residents of 12 states are eligible to participate if they meet certain criteria. But the agency’s plans have already met resistance from tax preparation companies.
Arctic Ice harvests ice from the fjords of Greenland, and then ships them to the United Arab Emirates to sell to exclusive bars. Using glacial ice in drinks is a common practice in Greenland, and, over the years, several entrepreneurs have unsuccessfully attempted to export it....
And yet we’ll see which story gets more traction in the US press: this one about some random Hamas “bigwig” rejecting two state, or the one from yesterday about Netanyahu himself rejecting two-state.
The Dutch are about the least afraid-of-sex people there are. It sounds like the mayor is corrupt and developers want the land (which is prime real-estate right near the central train station) for luxury Russian oligarch stolen-loot banking schemes, which is pretty much what the central city of every major European capital is used for these days.
Anti-China Rhetoric Is Off the Charts in Western Media (thediplomat.com)
Spotify spotted prepping a $19.99/mo 'Superpremium' service with lossless audio, AI playlists and more | TechCrunch (techcrunch.com)
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu says Palestinian civilians being killed en masse are simply “collateral damage” (www.huffpost.com)
The right-wing leader appeared on multiple cable news shows to speak on the current state Israel’s monthlong siege on Gaza, which human rights experts have warned amount to ethnic cleansing and war crimes....
Palestinian girl filming Israeli soldiers gets shot at in the West Bank (streamable.com)
So let me refer to my “stop using antisemitic words” chart…...
I.R.S. to Begin Trial of Its Own Free Tax-Filing System (www.nytimes.com)
Residents of 12 states are eligible to participate if they meet certain criteria. But the agency’s plans have already met resistance from tax preparation companies.
Israeli death toll passes 600, another 2,048 injured (www.timesofisrael.com)
Greenland startup begins shipping glacier ice to cocktail bars in the UAE (www.theguardian.com)
Arctic Ice harvests ice from the fjords of Greenland, and then ships them to the United Arab Emirates to sell to exclusive bars. Using glacial ice in drinks is a common practice in Greenland, and, over the years, several entrepreneurs have unsuccessfully attempted to export it....
Pilot Who Tried to Kill Flight’s Engines Told Cops He’d Taken Shrooms, Feds Say (www.thedailybeast.com)
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U.S. President Biden says "Gaza and the West Bank should be reunited under single government" and "extremist violence against Palestinians in the West Bank must stop" (feddit.de)
Cross-posted from: feddit.de/post/5830159...
UK could rent space in foreign jails to ease shortage of cells (www.theguardian.com)
Amsterdam sex workers and residents march together against controversial erotic center (nltimes.nl)
Israel's Netanyahu rejected ceasefire-for-hostages deal in Gaza, sources say (feddit.de)
Cross-posted from: feddit.de/post/5476418...
Prominent settler leader pushes Netanyahu to rebuild Israeli homes in Gaza (www.politico.eu)