MayorofOysterville
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User ID: 3800
MayorofOysterville
15d ago
Tofu works terribly as a 1 for 1 meat substitute because it doesn't provide flavor it absorbs flavor.
MayorofOysterville
15d ago
What's wrong with tofu? It's the level of processing as a sausage or yogurt? And very tasty if you realize that while nutritionally it can be a meat substitute culinarily it fits and entirely different niche.
MayorofOysterville
15d ago
Yeah even the depths of rural poverty in China don't have the disfunction they do in America,
MayorofOysterville
15d ago
But if you look at everyday Chinese, their lives may be better than their parents generation but they definitely aren't good. The successful ones work crazy hours and there's a much larger precariat than here without a social safety net. If your father's generation was so much better off, where did the money go? Or did we just globally become less productive?
I'd say the average Chinese has it pretty comparable to the average American in the 50s. Thee average Chinese can afford the medical care that an American had access to in the 50s. Doctors are cheap and not overwhelmed and there is a social safety net but limited. Specialist treatments and complex drugs no but those weren't available in the 50s. Successful Chinese don't need to work crazy hours. Chinese tech companies work crazy hours and people in factories but others less so. The Chinese middle class also live comparatively to urban Americans and there's almost as many of those as the entire US population. The big lag would be a lack of suburbia but middle class suburban houses don't really exist even in extremely rich Asian societies like Singapore.
MayorofOysterville
15d ago
This is such a zero sum way to look at it. America and China are too far apart and too big for one to really have that much power over the other. In the 50s and 60s when America was hugely more powerful versus China we scarcely had power over them much less the ability to run their country. I wouldn't particularly care if China surpassed America in power because I think it would barely effect America. It might effect Taiwan or the South China sea, but America barely if any. And Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia are working just fine as democracies despite being next to China. America is geographically blessed enough that we don't need to DOMINATE! the entire world to be comfy and happy. In fact trying to do that has seemed to hurt America these past three decades.
MayorofOysterville
18d ago
A big thing is density and zoning. Asian cities let hole the in walls and snack carts operate in a way New York doesn't. And a studio apartment is cheaper in almost all of the big Asian cities then New York. A fry cook in Tokyo is living much better than one in New York despite the lower wage.
MayorofOysterville
22d ago
It seems too me that the Israelis are enjoying the schadenfreude of their enemies getting to deal with rowdy Muslims rather than coordinating anything. Morocco routinely does this when they get annoyed with Spain, it's not a new thing so no need to add the Israelis to it because Morocco has been doing this for ages because they claim Ceuta and have a heated rivalry with Algeria. I feel like your heuristics are a broken here in that you barely mention Algeria, even with the edit and have divided the factions here way to uniformly.
Morocco and Algeria are archrivals Morocco is a conservative monarchy and Algeria is a revolutionary socialist state. What's more Algeria backs and hosts the Polisario Liberation front. Separatists who want Western Sahara to be there own independent country. Spain gets most of their natural gas from Algeria and also has bad relations with Morocco because they claim the two Spanish cities on Morocco's coast Ceuta and Melilla. This web of territorial claims alliances and rivalries explain what is going on much more then "the Jews" the Israelis are certainly happy about this but this is a local conflict that doesn't require their coordination.
I expect greater expressions of solidarity between Israel and European nationalist and even nativist movements, with Islam as the targeted common enemy.
This is a very bad heuristic. Israel doesn't care about Islam. They care about Palestinians Israel's enemies are not Islam but Hamas and various Palestinian groups. This is why they can have good relations with Morocco they don't care about >fighting islam as some eternal enemy. The way you do the Jews, which is good for them because this kind of monomania leads to silly things like you referencing Jews betraying Toledo more than a 1000 years ago as if it has some relevance while mostly ignoring the deep seated rivalries actually driving this.
To go with your point the government of Morocco wants these to be literal invaders. They know they're probably just going to get low status jobs on the mainland but they'd be overjoyed if these migrants overthrew the municipal government and joined Morocco. This is much more of an invasion then typical migration because actual conflicting territorial claims are involved.
MayorofOysterville
22d ago
Yeah this is why the right can only, cut taxes for the rich, or bomb the middle east. That's literally all they ever do. They are absolutely horrible at using state power and usually deeply unserious or unsystematic.
MayorofOysterville
23d ago
The archetype of the troubled teen is a 16 year old getting into drugs, falling in with a bad crowd and maybe having sex, the last one especially for girls. Troubled teen is kind of a euphemism to describe this but it's also used when the parents want to imply a situation without saying what it is. Maybe junior is shooting up heroin or maybe he won't go to Mass, troubled teen covers all of it. And all someone needs to send a kid to a "troubled teen camp" is cash.
MayorofOysterville
23d ago
Yes I'm pretty sure this entire post is based off a misunderstanding of what military schools are. @Eetan can you confirm you understand that military schools are not service academies and have nothing to do with the military? They are closer to the troubled teen industry though likely trying to be a bit more respectable. Though there ARE no shortage of camps in Utah that will use corporal punishment on your children if that's what you want.
Though speaking of neoliberalism I can't think of anything more neoliberal then upper middle class parents who have failed trying to outsource the discipline of your children to paid goons doing god knows what. It's just throwing money at the problem to hire "services" for an issue that should be solved by family and community and is likely cause by a lack of character formation and the parents throwing money to "fix" everything is likely what led to their kids being a spoiled brat in the first place.
It's not really though. Because most of these peacekeeping and police actions are to prop up some sort of puppet government which lacks legitimacy and is hopelessly corrupt. The Soviets killed a few million Afghans they didn't have any better results then America. A strong enough local government that can provide stability, economic development and most importantly has base of support is what you need. It's not a problem you can kill your way out of because if the government isn't stable enough it will collapse the moment your soldiers aren't killing the locals.
What is the solution? No more peacekeeping missions, anti terrorist actions and special military operations, but retvrn to great wars ending in glorious victories, accomplishments so shining that every young man with motivation and drive would want to wear uniform and be part of winning team.
This is a horrible solution and the countries that tried it lost even when they won. This is the ethos of 1914 that led to millions of young men to die at the Somme in pursuit of glorious victory. And you also of course assume that you will win. The genie of war is easily unleashed but hard to put back in the bottle. As Germany and Japan found out after a string of victories and conquests that bred fervor but ultimately ended with their cities destroyed and their societies reorderded by their less martial opponents, the record of martial fervor versus boring industrial and logistical bean counters in modern warfare is not very good. And even so do you really think Russian and Ukrainian young men are better off because they get to die "gloriously" in the mud wearing the uniform to try to be part of the winning team. I would say no. and I hazard you whatever you argue here would say no too. Both Russia and Ukraine accept foreign volunteers and you could go join and show your “motivation and drive。” No? I thought so. You might object based on the idea "It's not my fight!" but isn't this whole post just an argument for war for wars sake?
You might object based on the idea of "I'm not a lump!" but the US already tried that in Vietnam. The US kept it's crack troops ready for the Soviets and drafted lumps to send to a jungle sideshow to face an easy opponent that they almost always beat in pitched battles. This based on your theory should have been ideal for the formation of the young men and America, but instead incredibly damaged the fabric of American society and trust in the military. Because war is a genie that effects everything. Vietnam may have started as a sideshow for the military planners but for society it soon became a fulcrum because people are going to demand a reason when you start taking their sons and send them to die in the jungle. And even if the draft mainly targeted "lumps" the fear of the draft and reaction to it irrevocably changed US society by mobilizing middle class youth against it. Because war makes real stakes and you don't know where that will lead.
In World War I this post could have been published in any major powers newspaper. By the end of the War the Austrian, German, Ottoman and Russian Empires had all collapsed and significantly changed their state ideology. Russia despite being on the winning side. You cannot know where war will lead and it is a horror. It should be a last resort and not something done to "toughen up" young men before you feed them into the meat grinder.
But I've put the cart before the horse because I think this entire post is based on two misunderstanding's that first military schools are not military academies and secondly modern armies have always been composed of of "lumps." So first military schools have nothing to do with the military they are places parents send troubled kids or failsons they are closer to fat camp and the troubled teen industry then anything to do with the actual military. Military academies where the branches train their officers are competitive and have no issue attracting talent. And both the academies and boot camp have tough standards.
As for the enlisted well since modern armies have existed I'm using the historical definition of modern here soldiers have a had a bad reputation and been rather low status. Warriors, nobles and gentleman even citizen militia have a rather good standing usually but since modern mass armies or even before see mercenaries reputations. Soldiering is basically seen as one step above banditry. If anything modern armies have higher standards so you at least need to pass and a test and be literate to join.
So that seems to solve your problem the lumps aren't in military academies they can still join but as enlisted and be a cook or something. But even if not starting a war to "fix lumps" would be utterly insane and the 20th century is littered with great powers who were utterly destroyed or seriously wounded by treating war cavalierly.
MayorofOysterville
1mo ago
There's a huge number of marriagable women that meet your standards if you expand your search globally.
MayorofOysterville
1mo ago
I mean, I noted that women left to their own devices have gotten fat, covered in tattoos, and do weird things with their hair.
So have men. This is just a large part of Western culture at this point.
MayorofOysterville
1mo ago
English would get you farther in most of Sub Saharan Africa then it will in Japan.
MayorofOysterville
1mo ago
Father learns Mandarin and we're back to the happy case. The US foreign service estimates 2200 class hours to learn Mandarin. Father doesn't need to speak Mandarin, he only needs to comprehend it, but he's also not taking classes, he's trying to pick it up from "immersion" that happens whenever the family is all together. This is rare. Mandarin is among the hardest languages for native English speakers to learn, so maybe this could work for, say, Spanish, but I doubt that this works in the long run. It's easy enough to pick up ve a bañarte ahora but I doubt that you can work your way up to actually substantive conversations as an adult with such minimal exposure.
If you are not trying to read and write and just speak basic "kitchen Mandarin" you can get that in six months self study. With pretty much any language it's not THAT hard to get to a basic level about household topics.
MayorofOysterville
1mo ago
If your a non Orthodox Christian you have much more freedom to practice your faith under the Western Liberals. Look at the Amish and Hasidic in the US. America lets weird hyper conservative religions exist the Netherlands and France both have small but thriving communities of conservative Christians.
MayorofOysterville
1mo ago
He makes the same cultural noises every European leader does. But he's no more Christian then the liberal Western Europeans. Nor are Russians anymore religious then Western Europeans. Putin suppresses quite a bit of Christianity as well, Evangelical missionaries are not welcome in Russia。 America is a far more religious society then Russia.
MayorofOysterville
1mo ago
Only for foreign guys who marry the female equivalent of Chad. Guys move half way across the world for a "traditional wife" and then are shocked when marrying some girl they met in a bar ends in tears.
Defacing churches in Russia and LGBT behavior is treated very seriously indeed.
That's because these things are perceived as against the state not because they are against Christianity. Homosexuality is mildly suppressed in Russia but so is Evangelical Christianity. Because both are perceived as foreign Western ideologies. And homosexuality is at most mildly repressed not "treated very seriously" There are open Gay bars and clubs in Moscow and St. Petersburg, gay men from all over the former Soviet Union move to Russia for it's tolerance of homosexuality. The whole reason Russia passed those gay propaganda laws is because they have enough organic western liberals they needed to suppress them.
And all of this flows from the state. When Russia was more open in the 90s they were more open to both Protestant missionaries and gay activists and now that the state is stronger both have been curtailed as foreign ideologies. Defacing churches is illegal but so is defacing any state approved religious house of worship Mosques included.
MayorofOysterville
1mo ago
However cynically Putin may use Christian rhetoric he's 10x more Christian than the average Western leader who's mentally redefined Christianity to mean 'more leftism but with cross aesthetics'.
Vladimir Putin who swore he was an Atheist to join the KGB for decades and is on record (via hot mike) of hoping tech not Jesus will make him immortal? That Vladimir Putin? He's against western Liberalism and LBGTQ+ sure but that doesn't make someone a Christian. By that standard Joseph Stalin was a Christian.
MayorofOysterville
1mo ago
But people being "entitled to reproduce" was never an actual issue in Marxist societies?
MayorofOysterville
1mo ago
Because even under Marxism with Chinese characteristics, you can't make women WANT to settle for just any dude.
This issue is even more present in hyper-capitalist Korea and Japan it doesn't have anything to do with Marxism. It has to do with Asian family social structures being traditional while the economic structure has become more egalitarian along with small family size. Women don't want to get married because they are expected to work, take care of the house hold, take care of the children, take care of her husbands parents and take care of her parents. It's gotten to where Asian families are attempting to unload the entire social burden of an extended family onto one 28 year old woman it's not sustainable and is a big part of the collapse of birthrates and marriage in these societies.
China under Mao didn't have these problems. Many other more horrific ones but not these ones.
In order to sponsor a spousal visa you have to convince the government you won't use welfare and can support yourself above the poverty line. Those rules seem reasonable to me.
Also spousal visas are the last visa we should plug. Even incredibly restrictive country that allow essentially zero immigration still allow spouse visas. It also creates a huge wedge issue there's gonna be some attractive Mormon missionary who wants to bring his attractive Argentine wife and people are going to say "why aren't we allowing this?" It's just the last thing you'd ever want to focus on in terms of a reward/gains for reducing immigration. And a huge own goal in the sense that you are restricting the freedom of citizens in a way almost no countries do. Seriously the only country with rules this harsh is going to be North Korea, most immigration restrictions are not restricting the rights of your own citizens this is.
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