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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 19, 2026

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Okay, and that's what Trump is doing because he believes (rightly or wrongly) America doesn't need allies and supplicants, and you're bitching about that?

What is this, just face-saving? The conceptual difference is that the US already has an alliance network, so it makes no sense to just dismantle it, even at cost. But, like, I'm not really "bitching", I'm okay with it, go on. I'm not sure what's better for me in the end, because one important variable is how the desperation dynamics affects the severity of American chimpouts, and I don't have a model for it.

The practical difference is that without allies, within 3-5 years you cease being anything remotely like a peer power to China. It's just unserious to talk about. It's not only a matter of industrial scale, brainpower and state capacity (China outclassing the US in each), it's that they are a near-autarky, and half of your advanced economy including the MIC is dependent on allied supply chains (a fact obscured by relative share of trade in GDP, but a true one). Obviously this means that even Trump's USA is unlikely to torpedo the current system, but it's worth keeping in mind the alternative.

They hate the Japanese, what do you imagine they think of India?

They think vastly better of India, Russia, America and cockroaches than of the Japanese. You have no clue what you're talking about if that's your argument.

is that they consider these territories as already belonging to them. Can't be a superpower if you're just taking back your own property.

And indeed Tibet is internationally recognized Chinese clay. The territorial claims of the PRC are consistent since before the formation of the PRC and only were scaled down over time. CIA-supported governments in exile do not inherently override governments of nation states. "Free Tibet" is some vintage psyop, I'm sort of confused to still see it. Maybe we'll feel this way about Gaza in a few decades.

I can see you will enjoy your future as Philby in Moscow, Chinese version.