Welcome again to everybody. Make yourself at home. In the time-honoured tradition of our group, here is the weekly discussion thread.
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rumors from
that iran is considering allowing oil tankers through the strait of hormuz denominated in yuan. can anyone confirm?Soon
the “World” baseball classic has to be the worst pseudo-world tournament. The “Israel” team is 99% american players lmao, just 1 player in the roster was born in Israel. It’s basically a tournament where half the countries are just americans larping as italians, israelis, australians, etc…
This is all major league sports. Most of the players are never from the city they play for.
How demanding would a “Translate this comment” feature would be on lemmy?
I am currently studying sustainable development, and I choose to study China for the topic, Beijing in particular. Unfortunately, the sources I found are parroting “China bad!!” narrative. Are there any good sources that tells the truth instead?
Here’s something interesting that shows just how timely this topic is:
This was just discussed at the latest session of China’s National People’s Congress a few days ago:
China to drive full green transition and build a Beautiful China during 15th Five-Year Plan period
It really seems to be one of the top priorities for the Chinese government at the moment.
Some general articles:
China’s green development: A model for global sustainability
China’s Sustainable Development and Green Economy
Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutrality China’s Plans and Solutions
Evaluating China’s Sustainable Development Policies: A Comprehensive Review
Green is Gold: Clear Waters and Green Mountains are as Good as Mountains of Gold and Silver
Eco-Tech Revolution: China’s 2025 Blueprint for Sustainable Innovation
China, South-South Cooperation and Supporting Green Development
“Greening” China: An analysis of Beijing’s sustainable development strategies
China’s Green Ambition: Forest Expansion, Energy Efficiency, And Bold Carbon Goals
China’s sustainable development evolution and its driving mechanism
China’s Green Development in the New Era
And for Beijing specifically:
Sustainable Development of the Economic Circle around Beijing: A View of Regional Economic Disparity
Sustainable Urbanisation and Community Well-Being in Suburban Neighbourhoods in Beijing, China
The Modernization Logic of Green Development in the Beijing Ecological Conservation Area: A Review
A decade of historic struggle against air pollution in Beijing
Actually there is a ton of scientific literature on this topic especially from Chinese academia. I had to stop myself from going too deep down the rabbit hole because i’d be giving you far too many specialized papers to read otherwise.
I wouldn’t mind tbh. I’m studying Chinese system and how to incorporate into my country—reality check: We can’t as long as those comprador crony capitalists with theocracic characteristics keep occupying the government.
In that case the best advice i can give is to get a good translation software so you can read Chinese academic papers, because the best resources you can find are all written in Chinese. Good English language sources are hard to find, since there is a big anti-China bias in the West even in academia.
Would using Baidu for the search help me?
Probably. Anything but Google honestly, because Google is extremely curated to almost exclusively display pro-Western sources. Yandex is usually my go-to alternative.
But the language you search in also makes a big difference. Even on Baidu if you search in English you will probably get a lot of English language results, and English language sources are going to be dominated by a pro-Western bias.
Yes there are good sources to be found in English too but the numbers are stacked against you with so much garbage out there in the Anglophone media. On politically charged topics i mean.
Whereas when i search in Russian on Yandex for example, i get a set of results with noticeably less of them reflecting the Western narratives. It’s just a matter of overcoming the language barrier, which is fortunately not too difficult nowadays.
And of course you are more likely to get serious scientific articles if you search the actual scientific journals and academic publications rather than some propaganda piece put out by an NGO or a think tank.
Thank you comrade!
What a goldmine, thank you comrade!
“China is moving towards green energy, reducing their pollution and reliance on fossil fuels, but at what cost?..”
Replying because I’m also interested. Hoping to boost this a bit
Literally this. Even my supervisor wasn’t fond of my choice. He told me to choose Tokyo, Seoul or Singapore instead.
Your choice is great. None of those cities have made as much progress as fast as Beijing has made compared to how things used to be there just 20 years ago. Even western media had to admit how drastic the difference in air quality is nowadays and how much of a success story Beijing has been in terms of cleaning up the environment. Even the water is so much cleaner nowadays and there are countless parks and green spaces. You can literally see it: https://english.beijing.gov.cn/specials/livablegreenbeijing/index.html
It’s one of the most liveable cities in the world now. I know a lot of westerners are infatuated with the more flashy, hyper-modern cities in China like Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Chongqing, and so on, but for me the urban planning in Beijing is just on another level.
Not that it needs to be said but I commend Iran for making the US-israel aggression the whole world’s problem by impeding the free flow of fossil fuel. If the world wants to sit by as it happens, at least they will have to actually feel uncomfortable rather than just saying that they feel so.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DL9E40eEfY this is highly interesting not for the video itself but the pro-iran comments, one of which literally says that any attack on american soil will be a false flag. i’m shocked, honestly, this creator is sort of a populist who has no really hardline takes but makes stories on the unappealing aspects of usa that unify his viewers but i never anticipated this outlook from any of them.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
good bot. extends some grass for it to chew
seeing people talk about iran damaging israel is so difficult bc i keep forgetting im supposed to be sad about this in any way
Louis Theroux’s new docu about the manosphere is gold. Just by doing nothing and making these chuds talk, he gets them so uncomfortable lmao.
On a serious note: these knobheads are beyond redemption and should face the wall. But in the docu you see the boys they influence and you can clearly see them being able to piece together that this system is fucked and not working for them, only to be hijacked by these manosphere losers. It is a hard reality of a lack of a strong left wing movement and I feel like we can learn from it.
Link?
I watched it on Netflix so I have no good piracy links or something like that
I made a joke in the work group chat about wanting to punch out the teeth of our prime minister thinking it was the cool colleagues group chat but it was the general group chat lmao
Tying to push the bounds of acceptable discourse? or trying to get fired in your last days of work?
We’re having some action today as there is a general strike! The big protest in Brussels is expected to have tens of thousands of people attending. It’s general strike 7 I think in 1.5 year, but there have been general or regional strikes on a monthly basis now. The unions are at least keeping the pressure on the new government.
been really sad because I am now officially moving out of japan and destroying my permanent residence. spent most of my adult life here
Not sure if this is the right place to ask this - do people think Netanyahu might actually be dead? I didn’t put any credence in it at all at first but the longer time goes on and we don’t see him the more suspicious I get. I’m still in the camp he’s hiding in Europe and doesn’t want to make it obvious, but the chance is growing by the day.
please. please allah i will convert to shia islam
Unless Iran also doesn’t know they got him, I expect them to not shut up about it lol.
seeing mainstream subreddits on pop culture that are socially progressive and otherwise politically illiterate is funny as fuckkk when ur able to suspend ur horror that nothing will ever happen or move within these people. metaphysics and idealism strike once again, you have similar positions but you wont be able to disabuse them of the foundations that got them to some correct conclusions and otherwise facile and impotent or harmful ones
“Yes I support Palestine and landback for Palestine EXCEPT all groups doing violent resistance are stupid.” okay so you dont. you really dont bruv. whatever sentiment u have means nothing if ur gonna couple it with that ill be so real
are Palestinians gonna peacefully protest then? they tried all that shit. only violence is the answer
Yep. They tried peacefully protesting. They tried doing the Great March of Return. All that got them is “Israeli” snipers shooting out the knees of unarmed protesters. They’ve been trying to appeal to the so-called “international community” for over 70 years, and it all fell on deaf ears. The genocide, occupation and ethnic cleansing continued unabated. At some point even the most peaceful person has to realize that when all non-violent options are exhausted you have no choice but to fight. What the West really wants is for them to lay down and die, but they’re not going to do that anymore.
i bring a “im not condemning maduro’s kidnapping or iran war on legal grounds, i condemn it on entirely separate lines” vibe to the function libs refuse to understand. and a “him being a draft dodger that doesn’t respect vets is actually the only based position he has ever held” vibe that they condemn me for since im breaking Left Unity (zohran voters and hillary stans)
I don’t really get the “trump draft dodging is good” thing. He did it for selfish reasons, and then some other poor soul got drafted in his place. He’s another chicken hawk and it shows how protected the wealthy are from the law. Maybe I’m taking it too seriously, but it feels like bad logic to me
i think draft dodging that war whether for totally selfish reasons or not was still ultimately a moral act
i dont care that he got to do it easier cuz he’s wealthy, or that he did it just to avoid getting skewered by a vietnamese guerrilla. ultimately he didn’t go there and kill kids and get that on his hands, nor proudly boast about it years later as a badge as an amerikkkan politician. like, yeah he’s not a moral guy and he didn’t do it on moral grounds but still like the draft dodging for me is at least absolutely not a sin, and at best it’s pretty based in result (one less footsoldier giving his life to spray agent orange and deform generations of children).
is it easy for me to say and maybe a bit hypocritical, yes, and i guess i can give the draftees some scarce leeway because there was some more plausible deniability in that period but like, i don’t hate him for draft dodging. other than that he has blood on his hands from all sorts of things and this is a rare exception methinks. willing to take back this position i guess but honestly, i still wouldn’t say draft dodging vietnam war in any case was morally Wrong (or, better for this explanation, Worse) compared to alternative of going there and complying with all of your orders
I just feel like it exemplifies a lot of our problems with the whole system. The rich declare the wars but don’t fight them themselves. I’m not saying it wouldve been right if they did (see: Rome, medieval Europe), just that it is a good example of everything wrong with the system.
Although I’m coming to realize I don’t particularly care for “morality.” I’m not a vulgar materialist or ultra-leftist, i just feel like it’s like arguing about whether it would be better for unstable atoms to do B+ or B- decay. You can’t just say it ought to decay in one way or another, but that it’d be better if it did, and for it to do so you need to put it in certain circumstances. If that makes sense
