Like tankie never really meant anything before

I mean, its historically described Soviet policy in Eastern Europe and Chinese domestic policing (Khrushchev putting down the Hungarian fascist revolt with armored infantry and Deng sending tanks into Tienanmen Square).

Now it just means whatever the opposite of neoconservative policy is, updated daily.

Being against tanks makes you a tankie at this point.

Everyone knows that if you’re against US tanks, you must be in favor of non-US tanks. You’re either with US or you’re with the Tankie-rists

Liberals will go on and on about how any defense of the Venezuelan government marks you out as a “Tankie”, then clap like seals as US tanks and helicopters obliterate homes, massacre civilians, and snatch people up as political extortion.

These are the same tactics used time and again by ICE Agents within the US’s own borders. They’re the tactics used abroad, to quell dissidents in The Philippines and Haiti and Gaza and Yemen. These are the actions of a fascist government for the purposes of genocide of native peoples, seizure of lands, and generating capitalist profits.

Anyone who endorses it has picked a side. Just a shame they can’t have these decisions carved into their foreheads for all the world to remember.

How is targeting dissidents a revenue source?

States with large pools of disposable income and businesses with big PR budgets will pay top dollar to squelch activists and opponents.

Not in most countries surely?

How much is Palantir getting paid? How much is Black Cube getting paid? There’s always a pricetag on this work and plenty of organizations - especially fascist governments - are happy to outsource the work to friendly contractors.

First Amendment was always a polite fiction of the regime. Americans get to pretend they have it until they upset someone with actual power.

But you’re always free to run scams, to slander the weak and vulnerable, and to rally bigots into a lynch mob. So the idea of Free Speech remains valuable to demagogues and unscrupulous marketing goons alike.

I mean, the title may be true, but I’d hardly call this a crazy law. Draconian censorship is routine and endemic globally. It’s the Free Speech policy that’s “crazy”.

As more media is heavily monetized, the real appeal of censorship is as a revenue source. Surveillance, draconian administration, and targeting of dissidents all become income streams for the platforms.

Nothing unusual about that, either

Only thing you can do is crack a door and take a peak.

Also, the machine costs $500B/year to operate and generates less than $2B in gross revenue. So John Shareholder is going to need a multi-trillion dollar bailout in a year or two.

The Battle of Algiers

You don’t think they are already using the surveillance state/surveillance capitalism in this process?

A lot of people are being picked up at their immigration hearings, at traffic stops, and at their jobs. This is all information already in the public record. You don’t need surveillance to be marked as a legal immigrant.

People aren’t being “disappeared” for nebulous and secret reasons. They’re being disappeared because they’re brown, they speak a non-English language, or they have some minor criminal citation in the public record.

We’re making up hypotheticals to be afraid of surveillance when the modern state is already snatching people up for very superficial and arbitrary reasons

This is in India, but coming soon to a country near you

It came here first

What starts in Gaza demolishes the world

I assumed the Ghost of Christmas Imperative would just be shouting “CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS!” over and over again, while blowing an air horn that plays carols.

So to ignore class and imperialism in your advocacy for trans rights means to effectively throw the majority of trans people under the bus.

I mean… this is literally what the liberals have said they want to do, re: 2024

Democrats Lost Voters on Transgender Rights. Winning Them Back Won’t Be Easy.

The number of policies liberals seem willing to support shrinks with every election cycle as reactionaries in national media flog them for speaking out. Police Brutality in 2014. Health care in 2016. Climate Change in 2018. Student Debt in 2020. Opposition to Genocide in 2022. It seems 2024 was the year we had to stop caring about LGBTQ.

I wonder what we’ll be asked to give up next in our quest to win that “Moderate” voter.

wasted

Putting on the “They Live” glasses

deliberately paid out to those complicit in the imperial occupation

Oh boy, strap in. Can’t wait to hear how many keyboard commandos think Ukrainians should get shoved into the meat grinder for another year.

Listen, I’m sure there’s a very good reason why we have radically different policies towards Afghani Muslims and Uyghur Muslims, despite the fact they share a border and a litany of cultural practices.

Asking my TikTok nephew for a loan to cover rent this month and I have to listen to him rap at me for ten minutes before handing over the cash in crypto.

15% of russian GDP has already been seized

Do you know what GDP is?