Twitter is known to ban accounts that contradict The Narrative(TM), so it’s not surprising that the Russian point of view is underrepresented there. But what about the Web generally? It seems that unz.com — to pick an example close to home — has some very impressive internet traffic figures for a ‘rogue’ website, and it’s also a generally pro-Russian website. Does that not count for anything?

Also: who exactly is RT’s target demographic? They seems to perennially chase the Leftwing in the West, which hates Russia with a burning passion and therefore won’t RT the time of day. Why not re-orient themselves a bit more around the Rightwing in West? Or is Putin intent on alienating them, too? Or is it simply that RT English is targeted at some other demographic, perhaps in the Third World? That would make some sense. They sure don’t seem to interested in courting native speakers of English — at least not those who could realistically be won over.

There are several moments.
– Twitter is blocked in Russia, and it’s not surprising that there’s little representation of the Russian point of view.
– In Ukraine, the British have created a powerful structure – the Center for Psychological Operations, and they are widely represented on the Internet and yet here on unz.com.
– The moderation of the Russian-speaking part of many services like Youtube is based in Ukraine and the Baltic States. They run wild there.

EU chief Von der Leyen is reported as giving the order to ban RT and Russian media, precisely because the EU was aware the 2022 Russian incursion into Ukraine was LEGAL by the precedent of the Kosovo case the EU and NATO won in the Hague in 2010 … and Von der Leyen wanted to hide this from EU citizens

Region of Kosovo declared independence from Serbia (like Donbass from Russia) – LEGAL
rebel region asks outside nation(s) for help – LEGAL
outside party provided military help, NATO for Kosovo, Russia for Donbass – LEGAL

Von der Leyen reported as admitting in EU offices that banning Russian media was above all to hide that Russia's 2022 Ukraine incursion was LEGAL based on 2010 Hague Kosovo case precedent, Minsk violations, & Kiev killing Donbass Russians who seek Rus helphttps://t.co/SbwtzNu2MH pic.twitter.com/9x9P6YBcUI

— EU Brussels Needs DOGE (@TribunusBru) January 21, 2025

Any quotation from one of the great writers of the 20th Century deserves approbation. So here it is!

Short of direct intervention Russia has clearly sliced off a few pound of territory from the Ukies.

@anon[314] is right , the only way to get out of the bubbles or to get some semblance of truth is to read from all sides and through the lines to deduct what is really going on.

We all know that western media are under control as much as Russian ones or Iranians ones, but by consulting various media and alternative ones from several countries (translation tools make it possible today), we find out what is going on.

And since all of them, from Biden, Trump, Putin and others have some very clear agendas they want to push like CDBC, digital Id’s, Ai, it is quite clear that they are part of a big club which we don;t belong to and their sad jokes are mostly on us.

It’s a good discipline to assess the information source separately from the information itself

It’s not simply a matter of discipline when the videos are posted to telegram in Russian. You can’t just browse them like youtube.

and an online TV channel that has been banned in Azerbaijan is pretty low on the credibility scale.

With no mention of why the government tried to block their website from the public.

They released a video that embarrassed the government. That is what started a backlash by the government along with all kind of accusations.

I know Russians are expected to by a lot of their own gear but the headline “Russians no longer want to fight and die for Putin� is patently absurd given Russia’s mobilization effort consists entirely of contract volunteers.

I’m not commenting on the title. I pointed out the mismatched camo and lack of basic gear in cell phone videos recorded by Russians.

Who knows, but let’s face it, it’s not hard to dress up a bunch of PoW’s and film them bitching about poor gear. I’m sure both sides do it.

Russia is on video using Chinese 4�4 buggies, passenger vehicles, quads, tractor carts, and T-54s. Yes that means tanks from 1954. The Russian government recently admitted that they have a potato shortage.

But you are suggesting that Ukraine faked a cell phone video to make it look like they have uniform shortages? You really think that is the most likely scenario?

I was just making the same point Helmer does about trying to determine truth from videos on social media. This war like no other is flooded with fake social media content – more so from the NATO side simply because they dedicate more resources to the info war.

You and other posters here are like the children of the picture.

If it isn’t a pied piper blogger telling you what you want to hear then you dismiss it as fake news or propaganda. You don’t want an open exchange of ideas. What you really want is a changing of the guard. Instead of Katie Couric you want Scott Ritter or Pepe Escobar to have a one dimensional show with zero debate. Good Morning America with Pepe. That is what you really want. You find conflicting information to be threatening.

John, did you know this [1][2]?

No wonder that Putin’s United Russia has majority in their parliament (Duma) and brought most NWO/WEF agendas (from Dear Karl, as Putin calls him) in place like 15 million Muslim “migrants” [3][4] and Digital Ruble [5].

Excerpt from [1]: Few people know or care that Washington used to subsidize Putin’s “United Russia� party to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. But Victoria Nuland spilled the beans on this 10 years ago.

Excerpt from [2]: State Department: United Russia programs were financed from the US. United Russia received grants from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), said State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland. According to her, the party participated in “some” programs of the International Republican Institute (IRI) and the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI).

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[1] There is No Proof That Putin is a Russian Patriot | Rurik Skywalker / Rolo Slavskiy Substack | 2025-02
https://slavlandchronicles.substack.com/p/there-is-no-proof-that-putin-is-a

[2] State Department: United Russia programs were financed from the US
· Original Link: https://www.rbc.ru/politics/21/09/2012/5703fd3d9a7947fcbd440ac0
· Google Translate: https://www.rbc-ru.translate.goog/politics/21/09/2012/5703fd3d9a7947fcbd440ac0?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en

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[3] Bastrykin: Such a migration policy is a threat to Russia’s national security | 2024-06
• Original Link: https://eadaily.com/ru/news/2024/06/27/bastrykin-takaya-migracionnaya-politika-ugroza-nacionalnoy-bezopasnosti-rossii
• Google Translate: https://eadaily-com.translate.goog/ru/news/2024/06/27/bastrykin-takaya-migracionnaya-politika-ugroza-nacionalnoy-bezopasnosti-rossii?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en

[4] Bastrykin’s migration campaign. Under whose banners are the fighters of the NWO called? | 2024-06
• Original Link: https://47news.ru/articles/253015/
• Google Translate: https://47news-ru.translate.goog/articles/253015/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en

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[5] Putin calls for “full-scale implementation” of Digital Ruble | Riley Waggaman / Edward Slavsquat Substack | 2024-07
https://edwardslavsquat.substack.com/p/putin-calls-for-full-scale-implementation

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#russia-globalist-colony #russia-occupied #putin-colonial-administrator #putin-globalist-agent #putin-trojan-horse #putin-young-global-leader #putin-pupil-of-klaus-schwab #putin-pupil-of-kissinger #putin-traitor-of-russia #putin-liar #putin-high-treason #putin-backstabber #putin-imported-15-million-muslim-migrants #putin-csto-lie #putin-who-compliant #putin-wef-compliant #putin-accessory-to-nato-crimes

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“Most of their videos are from telegram. Meaning they were posted by Russians” – the logic being that if I post content on Telegram I’m Russian?

It’s a good discipline to assess the information source separately from the information itself and an online TV channel that has been banned in Azerbaijan is pretty low on the credibility scale. I know Russians are expected to by a lot of their own gear but the headline “Russians no longer want to fight and die for Putin” is patently absurd given Russia’s mobilization effort consists entirely of contract volunteers. Is is genuine? Who knows, but let’s face it, it’s not hard to dress up a bunch of PoW’s and film them bitching about poor gear. I’m sure both sides do it.

I was just making the same point Helmer does about trying to determine truth from videos on social media. This war like no other is flooded with fake social media content – more so from the NATO side simply because they dedicate more resources to the info war.

Who pays the piper at Kanal 13 – USAID?

Are you trying to dismiss the video based on the source?

Most of their videos are from telegram. Meaning they were posted by Russians.

Or are you suggesting the video was fabricated?

Not convinced. I think Stalin actually had a better military at the time

Of course, there is no comparison in that all important quality; quantity.

No I meant at an individual level. I believe the Soviet soldiers in 1945 were better equipped than current Russian soldiers at the front. The Soviet soldiers had better winter gear and rations. They lacked AK-47s but I would take Soviet gear of 1945 even if it meant having a semi-auto rifle. Proper boots and gloves are invaluable in freezing weather. The Soviets also had wool coats while there are multiple videos of Russians in what looks like cheap camo from a sports store.

Meanwhile the key question is answered.

Candace Owens wants to get Ryan Reynolds’s deported.

I thought it was to be John Oliver, but perhaps the Canadian was the real problem. Lol.

Nice marketing pitch, that will possibly induce readers to click on the links and visit the site, and maybe buy a book.

Few things however

“Mao Zedong”, really? Why not Pol Pot or Stalin as well?

Social media users are in fact brainwashed into short texts, short term thinking, emotion instead of thinking and bombardment of distractions. Basically it creates people with concentration issues and psychological problems & addiction as observed by specialists studying the effects of smartphone and social media on kids.

Twitter is about slogans contrary to ‘long read’. Nobody ever developed real thought by using slogans which are made for marketing , advertising or propaganda.

In the same vein as what famous characters impersonated by a robot are “saying”, if you want to read inconvenient facts and disturbing truths, I recommend also:

https://slavlandchronicles.substack.com

But really, podcasts are no more than TV shows but on the web, so I don’t see why people would think they are more reliable. This is not the format or genre that is more reliable but the people doing them.

The overwhelming pro-Ukrainian propaganda in the West and therefore on all social media including X is of course no indication of truth but rather typical western bias. Maybe chatgpt should have studied TikTok and Telegram too.

Or maybe we should not rely on biased tools like Ai to build judgement that we can make ourselves much better.

Which brings the question on how will brainwashing and propaganda be accelerated hundred times fold with tools like Ai.

The only way to escape biases and get out of self constructed or conformable bubbles is to take news from all sides, even those we don’t like.

Who pays the piper at Kanal 13 – USAID?

Not convinced. I think Stalin actually had a better military at the time

Of course, there is no comparison in that all important quality; quantity.

They understood it was impossible by means other than force

It was impossible? WHAT was impossible?

ChatGPT does more than measure this and report the metrics. It concludes that the metric is the truth

Hallelujah, empiricism’s final victory, the Truth itself has now been conquered by Science. As AI seeps into every field of human inquiry, artificial truth will inexorably supplant the old fashioned notion of truth we still cling to. At the end of the Age of Reason lies the omniscient God-machine. Until then I will continue to read John Helmer – and not because Artificial Chekhov said I should.

“he always keeps his friends……unless he kills them or looks the other way as they are overthrown”

Russians are today better at fighting their enemies than they have been since 1945.

Not convinced. I think Stalin actually had a better military at the time.

Stalin provided every soldier with a basic uniform and weapon in 1945. Everyone had standard kit.

Today’s Russian military POWs speak of buying their own rations and even weapons.

Notice the mismatched camo (not for snow), lack of gloves and properly boots in this picture:

Video Link

The difference between Russia and the US is that Russia has state sponsored corporate media and the US has corporate media sponsored government.
How about we add to C P Snow’s observation:
“Yet we slink about like whipped curs:;… our self-abasement principally takes the form of subservience to the United States:;… we are under no necessity to participate in the American nightmare of a Soviet monster barely held at bay in all quarters of the globe by an inconceivable nuclear armament and by political intervention everywhere from Poland to Cambodia. It is the Americans who need us in order to act out their crazy scenario… We simply do not need to go chasing up and down after the vagaries of the next ignoramus to become President of the United States.” ~ Enoch Powell
Change the country names and everything else fits today.

“The two men dined alone. They ate parsley soup, whiting, roast veal, cabinet pudding; they drank whisky and soda. Lord Copper explained Nazism, Fascism and Communism; later, in his ghastly library, he outlined the situation in the Far East. “The Beast stands for strong mutually antagonistic governments everywhere,� he said. “Self-sufficiency at home, self-assertion abroad.� Mr. Salter’s side of the conversation was limited to expressions of assent. When Lord Copper was right, he said, “Definitely, Lord Copper�; when he was wrong, “Up to a point.� “Let me see, what’s the name of the place I mean? Capital of Japan? Yokohama, isn’t it?� “Up to a point, Lord Copper.� “And Hong Kong belongs to us, doesn’t it?� “Definitely, Lord Copper.�
― Evelyn Waugh, Scoop

The following short quote/comment [1], IMHO captures perfectly Putin’s Western-manager / liberal-globalist style of handling, or rather mishandling, of pretty much everything including Ukraine. That comment is from 2022 and still applies – nothing has changed.

Here it is:

Quoting [1]: It looks like Putin and his close advisors are trying to run a war on neoliberal lines. That relies on extreme parsimony, a just-enough just-in-time approach to logistics, reliance on managerial magic, a contempt for the enemy that works in the enemy’s favor, and an indifference to the well-being of the people doing the heavy lifting (not to mention the people abandoned in the withdrawals). It’s a corporate mentality, based on fantasies crafted by crackpot intellectuals.

[1] Comment by “James” under “Ukraine’s counterattack: Unheeded warnings from Russia’s pro-war hardliners” | Riley Waggaman / Edward Slavsquat Substack | 2022-09
https://edwardslavsquat.substack.com/p/ukraines-counterattack-unheeded-warnings/comments#comment-9073705

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#russia-globalist-colony #russia-occupied #putin-colonial-administrator #putin-globalist-agent #putin-trojan-horse #putin-young-global-leader #putin-pupil-of-klaus-schwab #putin-pupil-of-kissinger #putin-traitor-of-russia #putin-liar #putin-high-treason #putin-backstabber #putin-imported-15-million-muslim-migrants #putin-csto-lie #putin-who-compliant #putin-wef-compliant #putin-accessory-to-nato-crimes

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750+ Anon001 Comments Archive @ The Unz Review | TUR
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Re Snow’s Rule

C.P. Snow put into the mouth of an ambitious cabinet minister he knew in London a half-century ago. “As a rule you couldn’t win over your enemies, but you could lose your friends.�

Throughout his career, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has accepted and followed the Snow rule: he always keeps his friends, the Russian ones.

Putin does not care to keep Russia’s friends. Just ask Serbia, Libya, Armenia, Syria, etc.

I think VVP rule is: “I’ll never stop trying to win over Russia’s enemies, by betraying and losing all of Russia’s friends.”

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#russia-globalist-colony #russia-occupied #putin-colonial-administrator #putin-globalist-agent #putin-trojan-horse #putin-young-global-leader #putin-pupil-of-klaus-schwab #putin-pupil-of-kissinger #putin-traitor-of-russia #putin-liar #putin-high-treason #putin-backstabber #putin-imported-15-million-muslim-migrants #putin-csto-lie #putin-who-compliant #putin-wef-compliant #putin-accessory-to-nato-crimes

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750+ Anon001 Comments Archive @ The Unz Review | TUR
https://www.unz.com/comments/all/?commenterfilter=anon001
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How do we seperate the liberalism and white supremacy inherent in your implicit claims of individualism and egalitarianism being ‘inherently’ better.

For most of us, religion is a political and sociological not theological position.

We don’t much care what people believe or don’t, it has no bearing on us.

What people do with them, the political positions and social systems affect us all.

Now, science has produced racism, ie the systemic categorization and stereotyping of people and animals into categories; which, the science oriented state & bureaucracy has then used to make judgment and policy.

What we’re contesting I guess, is that the scientific method is the only valid & ‘objective’ means of acquiring knowledge.

Now, we know objectivism is one of the cores of white fragility, how do you answer to this??

https://libjournal.uncg.edu/ijcp/article/viewFile/249/116

What I do find indisputable is that science and reason are superior to mythical and beliefs-based explanations of reality. The explanation of thunder as the rapid expansion of air following a lightning bolt is clearly superior in my mind to “the gods must be angry and that’s why we hear that frightening sound in the sky�.

A model case of false equivalency. Scientists can agree about the nature of thunder, and can explain how it arises or is produced, but they cant agree on the nature of mind and where it arises.

Science is useful tool, but can you make ethics based on the science, or build morality out of pure reason? They tried that during the French and Russian revolutions…

We now know quite well what causes thunder and what happens to our body, including our brain, when we die.

We dont know what happens to mind after death. There isnt even knowledge what happens inside persons mind after death, but we have empirical evidence that there is lots of brain activity after persons death, even after decapitation.

But if we go to those extremes of doubting everything that reason tells us our very conversation becomes pointless. You might as well say that 2+2 may be 5 and we are wrong in blindly assuming that 2+2=4, just because that is what modern mathematics teaches us. What is mathematics after all, not even mathematicians know where mathematics come from, you could very well argue (and you would be right). But rational communication becomes very difficult under such premises.

Extremes of doubting? Who defines what is extreme or not, and in my opinion my examples have not been as radically sceptical as you imply.

And besides, it doesn’t work that way. Scientists have no obligation to prove how we are not reborn into another creature after we die. It is those who make that extraordinary claim who must produce some evidence that this is true. But this has never been been observed. There is no empirical evidence of that phenomenon.

This is funny example of subjectivity of acceptable criteria. For us Buddhists to claim that mind stream annihilates after death is something that is not logical at all, and if someone claims so then he must produce evidence for it. All phenomena, energy and particles change forms and position, but nothing is ever annihilated out of existence, that such thing would happen for mind, is for us wild and crazy claim.

Here is what H.H. Dalai Lama says about the science and Buddhism:
“I have often said that if science proves facts that conflict with Buddhist understanding, Buddhism must change accordingly. We should always adopt a view that accords with the facts. If upon investigation we find that there is reason and proof for a point, then we should accept it. However, a clear distinction should be made between what is not found by science and what is found to be nonexistent by science. What science finds to be nonexistent we should all accept as nonexistent, but what science merely does not find is a completely different matter. An example is consciousness itself. Although sentient beings, including humans, have experienced consciousness for centuries, we still do not know what consciousness actually is: its complete nature and how it functions.”

We have already made some changes, at least in our school, His Holiness has urged that we should not anymore follow old Buddhist cosmological models, because the science has proven that they are wrong.

We have a very large system of epistemology, how to know what are acceptable and valid means of knowledge.https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a6/2_Pramana_Epistemology_Buddhism.svg/642px-2_Pramana_Epistemology_Buddhism.svg.png
The basis for all knowledge is perception, but there are two other ways to gain knowledge, inference, or reasoning that if there is smoke, there must be fire, but its still not as sure way to know as to perceive the fire directly, and then we have trusted sources which for us are the words of the Buddha or Buddhavacana, still its not as reliable as direct perception, but Buddha left us instructions and guidelines how to test the validity of his statements. I personally know monks who have themselves directly experienced the truth of rebirth, and actually one of those monks promised to me that I could myself perceive that truth if I would go for an extremely long retreat and practice with him, I havent gone (yet?) but I trust my Geshes as valid sources of knowledge, I understand perfectly if others dont trust, its okay, everyone makes his own choices, choices that are always subjective…

a comer pic.twitter.com/sd1vRtgga9

— KFC (@KFC_ES) December 16, 2020

I read a new article

Russia Lost 5M Migrants During Pandemic
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2020/12/16/russia-lost-5m-migrants-during-pandemic-a72373

and got curious. Year or two ago Russian government announced easier migration path of ethnic Russians from abroad. What are the results so far?

Great Brexit success…for EU as in own words of “ardent Brexit supporter” it now “gives excellent access to supply chains, automotive talent and target markets” 😉

Sir Jim Ratcliffe, formerly the UK’s wealthiest person and an ardent Brexit supporter, announced this week that plans to build a new car manufacturing factory in Wales have been scrapped in favour of a site in France.

As a no-deal Brexit looms, the announcement was a blow to Bridgend where former Ford workers and residents were expecting a boost from the new factory following the closure of the 40-year-old Ford plant in September.

In a statement, Ineos Automotive, headed by Sir Ratcliffe, said the new site in Moselle, France, “gives excellent access to supply chains, automotive talent and target markets”.

The billionaire described the move as a “unique opportunity”.

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/jim-ratcliffe-billionaire-brexiteer-who-19441353

And in theory, manned space flight would be very useful, if colonies become practicable. That’s a real question mark, though. Mars gravity might not be enough, for normal fetal development, even if the other kinks can be worked out. Sure, in theory, pregnant women could live onboard centripedal trains, but that seems too far-fetched.

We may have to accept the unpleasant truth that there is nowhere in the solar system worth colonising.

Especially, if civilization is going down the tubes.

Yep.

Another problem with space colonies – given the demographic collapse of the entire developed world is it plausible that space colonies could survive without continuing supplies of new colonists from Earth to keep the numbers up? Does anyone believe that space colonists are all going to have six kids?

If the space colonies on Mars or wherever end up with fertility rates way below replacement level is there any point to them? If the supply of new colonists from Earth dries up (extremely possible if governments on Earth suddenly decide to pull the plug on the space program for budgetary reasons) the Martian colonies would quickly die out.

the very crux of our debate is the Buddhist claim that there is a rebirth or continuum of mental aggregates. I am not claiming that science supports us, but similarly there is not strong enough scientific case that denies such possibility

Well, this is a bit like saying that there is no strong scientific case to deny that thunders are caused by angry gods.

We now know quite well what causes thunder and what happens to our body, including our brain, when we die.

Perhaps in a very profound and mysterious way the Amazon forest natives who believe that thunder is caused by angry gods are right and we, civilized people, are wrong.

But if we go to those extremes of doubting everything that reason tells us our very conversation becomes pointless. You might as well say that 2+2 may be 5 and we are wrong in blindly assuming that 2+2=4, just because that is what modern mathematics teaches us. What is mathematics after all, not even mathematicians know where mathematics come from, you could very well argue (and you would be right). But rational communication becomes very difficult under such premises.

And besides, it doesn’t work that way. Scientists have no obligation to prove how we are not reborn into another creature after we die. It is those who make that extraordinary claim who must produce some evidence that this is true. But this has never been been observed. There is no empirical evidence of that phenomenon.

I am in fact very careful not to take our current scientific knowledge as any ultimate truth. As I said in my previous comment, I don’t believe that our species is capable if having a full understanding of the universe, which puts me in disagreement with most top physicists. Besides, I know firsthand that scientists are just ordinary human beings and scientific research is not all pure and noble. There are whole fields of science that are too corrupted by politics to be taken seriously.

What I do find indisputable is that science and reason are superior to mythical and beliefs-based explanations of reality. The explanation of thunder as the rapid expansion of air following a lightning bolt is clearly superior in my mind to “the gods must be angry and that’s why we hear that frightening sound in the sky”.

City-to-city passenger rockets seem flat out crazy to me. There’s no possible way that they would ever be as safe as planes, as they experience much greater forces. Sure, they’ll get you there faster, but who is in that kind of rush?

That said, bigger rockets are very useful, if they can provide cheaper mass to orbit.

And in theory, manned space flight would be very useful, if colonies become practicable. That’s a real question mark, though. Mars gravity might not be enough, for normal fetal development, even if the other kinks can be worked out. Sure, in theory, pregnant women could live onboard centripedal trains, but that seems too far-fetched. Especially, if civilization is going down the tubes.

Navalny posted a positive tweet on the successful Angara A5 launch. As expected many of his followers were not happy.

Buddha not showing any evidence of having understood scientific concepts that we now teach our children in elementary school and saying that there must have been some genetic modification that allowed our species (or previous ones) to achieve Buddhist enlightenment are quite different arguments. But they do have in common that they insist in analyzing religious claims from a cold rational perspective, if that’s what you mean..

What religious or mythological there is in claiming that beings crave things, desire happiness, and try to avoid or avert uncomfortable states of being, or that there exists ignorance regarding the nature of subjective phenomena? Lets take a junkie and a doctor, its a totally subjective question to say whose more happy, right? But its clear that a doctor has less ignorance regarding the nature of phenomena, for he understood that trough hard work even unpleasant things can become sources of happiness, unlike the junkie who constantly escapes to momentarily happiness that is given by drugs. But both the doctor and junkie are driven by pursuit of happiness. There isnt anything inherently religious or mythological in questions like these, and such questions form the basis of our religion and the quest for enlightenment.

I am aware of the problem of defining what an observer is in quantum mechanics. But this is a very deep scientific issue at the very edge of our ability to understand reality. My understanding is that physicists don’t really know what constitutes an observation but they do know through repeated experiments that our observation makes wave functions collapse.

Other than that, there is no scientific dispute about the fact that anything of what we call mental activities takes place through our brains.

I dont know anything about quantum mechanics, but the very crux of our debate is the Buddhist claim that there is a rebirth or continuum of mental aggregates. I am not claiming that science supports us, but similarly there is not strong enough scientific case that denies such possibility, and I really mean it. How we see reality is inherently subjective, there is no objective reality accessible to us, or do you claim otherwise?

Its little bit hard to argue with you, because I am not sure of your position, do you claim that mind is purely product of materialist-chemical interaction, or do you claim that we dont know surely but only science can give us, not maybe definite, but at least somehow trustworthy answers?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_theories_of_consciousness
Even reading just this link you will see that there are serious proponents of such theories as there are opponents, because Im not scientist I cant say who is right and it seems to me that even scientists cant say.

I have a question for you, if there are two brothers who have a similar upbringing and background, why then another brother can end up in a totally different way after hearing just couple kind words from some wise person? You cant possibly deny that people are not capable of changing by hearing some words put together, if those words are inspirational or engaging? If change is possible in such way, then its clear that there is a subjective and qualitative element in our lives, which cant be reduced into a purely materialistic model. If you claim otherwise then you are making claims that science is not making, or if you claim that science will one day know that the materialist model is correct, then thats not science, but claiming that your subjective unvalified and untested hypothesis regarding the workings of the mind is correct.

By the way I really know from my life such case of two brothers, another one is a physician and another one was an ex biker criminal who is now dead, because he committed a suicide.

Hmm if purely materialist explanation of our mind is true, then in such situation I think that there would be no free will, all in our mind would strictly follow electro chemical causal processes, in such situation world would be purely deterministic, and our discussion would be more or less pointless, because we couldnt choose what to believe, but everything in our mind is just purely produced by genes and chemical processes.

Happily there is legit and robust scientific evidence that meditation and Buddhist practices can change our brain to better.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2015/05/26/harvard-neuroscientist-meditation-not-only-reduces-stress-it-literally-changes-your-brain/?outputType=amp

“Mindfulness meditation increased thickness in the prefrontal cortex and parietal lobes, both linked to attention control, while compassion-based meditation showed increases in the limbic system, which processes emotions, and the anterior insula, which helps bring emotions into conscious awareness.”
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2149489-different-meditation-types-train-distinct-parts-of-your-brain/

So its clear even from a scientific viewpoint that our practices do bring beneficial results. Mindfulness or Vipassana is just one practice among many Buddhist meditation practices. Remember that Buddha never demanded anyone to believe anything, not at all, he just found a path to true happiness, but how can we know if his words are true? The Buddha has answer for that, he said that come and test my path, and you can yourself see if there are results or not, and decide if you want to go further on that path.

I myself have been a content on that path, yes there are often problems and obstacles, but such is life, still better to move on some direction than to stay in present state that is clearly not optimal.

One funny( or is it?) fact:
I literally cant find cases when Buddhists have persecuted or harassed atheists, but there are thousands of cases when atheists have killed and slaughtered Buddhists, only in Soviet Buryatia of the 1930s, Soviet state atheism led to killing of 18 000 Buryat Buddhist monks. In those times there were only 400 000 buryats in whole Russia. Same happened in Mongolia, Cambodia, Tibet and China. There are some intellectually dishonest atheist individuals who claim that communists were not somehow atheistic, but they were, there is even now a rule in China that only atheists can become members of the communist party of China.
http://asiarussia.ru/articles/13979/

Well archaeology isn’t the same thing as history. History proper refers to written records, along with other accounts and material artifacts if they’re available. The Chinese obsession and interest in their history I refer to is via their historical literature which is from roughly the time of Classical Greece and later to medieval times.

Stonehenge is from 3,000 BC and thus much older, and it’s as far as we know prehistoric since there haven’t been any accompanying written records discovered.

I believe there is some genetic connection between the modern English and the ancient Britons who built Stonehenge. But one reason the connection is not affirmed as strongly or at all by modern Britons is because the historical population movements and invasions into the British Isles over the past 2500 years by Celts, Romans, Vikings, Danes, and Anglo-Saxons. Modern Britons typically identify primarily with these groups and as being their descendants.

By contrast, China did not have these large population and cultural changes in the same period. There were small populations that invaded and conquered the government, such as the Mongols, but they were typically small and adopted Chinese ways and language, unlike the Celts or Anglo-Saxons who imposed or replaced their language and culture in Britain.

Because of China and East Asia’s isolation from other population groups by geographic barriers such as the Gobi and the Himalayas, archaeologists do tend to connect prehistoric archaeological sites in China to ancestral Chinese.

Well, nobody died in Starship case, but in a way you are correct. Titanic may have sank, but large ocean cruise liners continued to be built and operated and became a successful industry. You could get a cruise ticket fairly cheaply. Same will happen in space.

The difference is that ocean liners were actually useful. Manned spaceflight is not useful.

my brain still finds it easier to understand languages I’ve never even studied like Italian.

I can relate to that. The first couple of summers I spent in London during my early teens I probably learned more Italian than English, being all the time sorrunded by noisy Italians of my age.

There is something musical and contagious about the Italian language (or the people who speak it, I’m not sure).

Your English looks surprisingly good to me, considering that you had little formal education in English language.

I can think of authors that have posted on this site and still show a much more rudimentary English than yours after having lived in the US for many years. In my view anyway, I am not a native English speaker myself.

sometimes you are a little bit too repetitive with your arguments

I can bore to death anyone talking about natural landscapes, mountains, weather and climate but I am not aware of having used repetitive arguments with you.

Buddha not showing any evidence of having understood scientific concepts that we now teach our children in elementary school and saying that there must have been some genetic modification that allowed our species (or previous ones) to achieve Buddhist enlightenment are quite different arguments. But they do have in common that they insist in analyzing religious claims from a cold rational perspective, if that’s what you mean.

Maybe it’s my fault but I cannot evaluate any sort of claims in any other way if I want to make sense of what I read.

there is no consensus at all in the scientific community what mind is and how does it arise, all purely materialist models of consciousness cant explain how consciousness arises from non conscious matter.

No, sorry, I don’t agree with that and I don’t find the links you have provided to the work of a philosopher and a musical therapist very helpful.

I am aware of the problem of defining what an observer is in quantum mechanics. But this is a very deep scientific issue at the very edge of our ability to understand reality. My understanding is that physicists don’t really know what constitutes an observation but they do know through repeated experiments that our observation makes wave functions collapse.

Other than that, there is no scientific dispute about the fact that anything of what we call mental activities takes place through our brains.

As for quantum mechanics, I think that the fact that we are unable to fully understand nature and that only some very privileged individuals are able to grasp the most advanced subjects is very unsurprising. We are just an animal species with limited brain capabilities. If we were the only species capable of understanding everything, that would be truly suggestive of some God-like phenomenon, not the other way around.

there is empirical evidence that there some kind of field of energy in our brains, and changes in that field do change our consciousness, also electro magnetic fields dont just disappear into nothingness.

Quite honestly, I think that citing this in support of any transcendental explanation of our existence is grasping at straws.

Chemical and very weak electric reactions occur inside the brains of any animal species. I’m not sure what exactly happens to the very last electric activity in the human brain before an individual dies. My guess is that it just vanishes as it performs the duty of supplying energy for neuronal processes and that is that.

To be credible, the idea that these weak electric currents somehow survive after a homo sapiens dies and transform him into another living creature requires a huge amount of empirical evidence that is clearly nowhere to be seen.

I guess that in Buddha’s time and many centuries afterwards these notions of “mind”, “soul”, “energy” as separate from the material reality were perfectly natural. Not only people then (like now) needed to find explanations to their existence but these ideas were not too departed from their knowledge and everyday experience. I doubt I would have been an atheist in those times. Sadly perhaps, we now know a lot more about the universe where we live but the time for mythical explanations of reality is gone.

you could understand Hebrew

I have completed most of the Duolingo levels now for Hebrew. Although to be honest, my brain still finds it easier to understand languages I’ve never even studied like Italian.

and get rid of the Eilat airport (although I think that’s already done maybe)

Yes they removed the airport from Eilat, and they constructed a new airport in the desert (on a border with Jordan).

They had to build one of the highest fences, to protect the new airport from potential missiles fired, as it’s directly on the border with Jordan, and you could probably shoot down planes from the desert on the other side of the border. I’d wonder how safe that location really is.

Video Link

fast rail, to Eilat the entire time I was there.

First proposal for this train was in 2012. The approval to begin (planning) for the first section was passed in June 2020. https://www.railjournal.com/infrastructure/first-section-of-israels-eilat-line-approved/

So it surely won’t be completed for years (unless China really helps them).

However, train from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem has opened finally (after apparently18 years of planning and construction – they build a lot of bridges and tunnels, but it was performed before China began investing in Israel).

Video Link

Well, after living there for five years, I noticed how hard it was for Israelis to start building transit or new rail lines without fuckups, unlike the Chinese. They talked about a rail-line, any rail line at all, not even fast rail, to Eilat the entire time I was there. I suppose that if the Chinese are building it, then like the first video mentions, having it be operational in 2021 (!), is a distinct possibility.

[as an aside, I didn’t know you could understand Hebrew since somewhere you mentioned you lived there for a very short time; however, I suppose it’s an easy language and after being gone for a long time and not practicing, I still understood 80-90% of the video]

The canal in Eilat is a good idea, but they would have to destroy a hotel or two, and get rid of the Eilat airport (although I think that’s already done maybe). Eilat doesn’t have fresh water and the climate is harsh, but that hasn’t really deterred Saudi Arabia so I suppose it’s possible from a technical perspective.

I never thought it was possible for other reasons at the time because Eilat is too close to Egypt and Jordan, and those are Sunni Arabs with unstable demographics who hate Jews and can be radicalized by ISIS, but that threat has pretty much receded by 2018. At the time ISIS in the Sinai was pretty active. And they feel more confident now since the Jews now have more children than Palestinians and Trump helped with all those peace deals with the Arab dictatorships. I think the Ayatollahs made a bad mistake in deciding to be enemies of Israel, although they did pretty well in other places. They could have had a good ally and an alliance of minorities in the Middle East and the place would have been very different today, with Iran a much stronger player with completely different alliances. Israel would be weaker and still surrounded by more belligerent enemies on all sides though, I think.

Haifa port extension.

It’s not an extension of Haifa port. It is a new port being constructed on the other side of Haifa’s bay, a kilometre in the sea. China will operate only the new port, while the old port will be in competition with the Chinese operated port.

they managed to actually build something and that fast.

There’s also a new port being constructed kilometres North of Ashdod. New port will be operated by China, while the old port of Ashdod continues with Israeli managers.

New port near Ashdod is being built on an artificial island in the sea, like for Haifa. So in both cases the Chinese operated ports will quite physically far away from Israeli operated ports.

Here in the video shows both the new port being constructed outside Ashdod (at 0:24) and the port being built new Haifa (at 0:40)

Video Link

place in Eilat really, to set up the required infrastructure

The plan is using a canal, that would allow cargo to transferred onto trains, which will move it from Eilat to Ashdod.

Even aside from China’s “Belt and Road Initiative” – because Israel is making peace with Arab world, there will be apparently high demand for Eilat port. For example oil cargo will now move between from United Arab Emirates to Israel.

Probably such a project is far too expensive for Israel to finance, so it’s question the extent China would finance construction.

Video Link

Sorry Mikel that I called you boring, because you are not, but sometimes you are a little bit too repetitive with your arguments.

Last time I didnt have time nor patience to reply to your comment in a way that it deserved, for our Dharma is not very simple thing to explain to those who are not part of our weltanschauung/merkwelt, its like explaining chemistry to some one who had never heard about periodic table or structural formulas of molecules. Then there is my limited capability to express myself properly in English. I do understand almost everything that is written in that language, but I often have a lack of finesse when explaining more delicate and nuanced details of our philosophy. I must confess that I have had very little formal education in English language.

“Sovereignty resided in the body politic of the Khalsa Sikh.�

The root word of ‘khalsa’ can be translated as ‘purified’, but its meaning in a Sikh context is also understandable by looking at its application. It is important to understand what one is purified of.

pic.twitter.com/qbNT1dUsED

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 14, 2020

Well, nobody died in Starship case, but in a way you are correct. Titanic may have sank, but large ocean cruise liners continued to be built and operated and became a successful industry. You could get a cruise ticket fairly cheaply. Same will happen in space.

I dont know much about Celtic nationalism, but arent nationalist or racially minded English already out as a “cultural/political force,” havent they been out for a sometime already?

Its odd when people always forget that its not the French who first murdered their king, but the English.

Can there even be a worse crime or transgression committed by the people than that of regicide? Theres a deicide…

https://twitter.com/truthalwyswin/status/1338039617606410240?s=20

Video Link

I think it’s only 2 or 3 years old. The people in charge on the Technion side are mostly not engineers I believe, but general sciences, and the plan is maybe to make it into a research university in all fields, but they decided to start with engineering degrees to get a large number of students at the beginning and to build up a reputation first.

I heard that there were plans to create it about the time I was interviewing for a job at the Technion (I didn’t get it…), so I’ve been checking up on its progress every once in a while, looking at open positions just in case I need a new job. I figure that if I got to the final stage at the Technion proper, they would probably hire me at this place, but currently it would be a step down.

Of course there is big opposition to China-Israel cooperation from the US, since the latter was planning to use Israel as a research hub for military technologies. If the Chinese have a big presence and spying capacity, then it’s not that good of a research hub. Plus the Chinese could get up to speed with desalination technology, etc… It’s in Israel’s interests to increase cooperation with China but make it so that the US doesn’t notice it too much. It appears to me that the Chinese don’t have the baggage of Christianity or Islam, and they respect Jews for being successful in science and money things (the giant money gift by the Chinese billionaire to the Technion is perhaps the most glaring example), so in the long term, it would make sense for a strong Israel to align with a friendly, authoritarian government far away.

Thanks for the info on the Haifa port extension. It’s amazing that they managed to actually build something and that fast. Places can change quite a bit when you’re not there. The cargo train idea I agree is pretty dubious. There is also not enough place in Eilat really, to set up the required infrastructure, without destroying the environment and the tourism.

There’s something magical about cities built on archipelagos.

There’s something magical about the grandiose landscapes of the American West.

Here pioneers and Pony Express riders once risked being scalped by Shoshone raiders but now you can enjoy the serenity of virgin nature for hours on end from the comfort of a spacious and powerful SUV:

SpaceX Starship did a belly flop. Despite blowing up later it is a significant progress.

A bit like the maiden voyage of the Titanic, which was mostly successful.

sino-israel.org/media/

Shifting manufacturing to India won’t be a simple task.

Taiwanese IPhone Manufacturer’s India factory.

Video Link

Video Link

It may have Chinese government support as well, I’m not sure.

It is definitely a Chinese government project (for training young engineers with an Israeli designed syllabus). China-Israel projects seem to have only a character of “top down”, or operating through the Chinese government.

Expensive looking campus buildings. Atmosphere of students – to study engineering with a lot of patriotism?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oY3nKAK1SsA

Yes I noticed about that story more than a year ago. It’s a kind of engineering school.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1272023946297233

–

In terms of “Belt and Road Initiative”, China is interested in the backup/alternative to Suez Canal via Israel, with the construction of an Eilat-Ashdod cargo train.

This would be an alternative cargo route from East Asia to Europe

However, apparently, trains cannot transport equivalent amount of cargo, and it would introduce an additional expensive reloading stage compared to a canal. So at best, it will be an alternative for a minority of cargo going through Suez Canal.

–
There’s also some kind of US opposition to China’s projects in Israel. For example, USA is trying to block China from buying the old port in Haifa.

But there is already a new artificial island being constructed to give Haifa more cargo capacity.

Since the northern Port of Haifa was inaugurated in 1933, preceding even the state’s foundation, it has served as the primary naval gateway for everything from waves of Jewish immigrants to container shipments.

But officials are now pushing forward with a privatization plan meant to make it more competitive, right as Shanghai International Port Group Co. prepares to open an advanced harbor next year in the same city.

Officials want to sell the older Haifa port for as much as 2 billion shekels ($586 million), but regardless of the final price, the first 1 billion shekels from any deal will go into upgrades like building a new deep-water platform.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2020-08-04/supply-chains-latest-israel-s-top-port-is-for-sale

Chinese government has already bought the new artificial island port next to Haifa. It looks like the artificial island port is being constructed a couple kilometres from Haifa.

Is the assumption that more is better always correct?

There may be an optimum number of scientists, engineers, etc, beyond which, no significant value is added. As automation increases, this will likely be more and more the case.

There is this modern assumption that bigger and more is always better. But that may be mistaken.

I do think Chinese have tremendous human capital, even though test scores say as much about motivation as they do innate ability (but that distinction doesn’t matter in this context).

However, the real challenge for China is to nurture a small intellectual elite capable of making creative leaps, and the larger pool to draw from, only increases the odds. Systems and practices, as noted, are a huge factor, and systems and practices are “sticky”, deeply embedded, and hard to alter.

I think the expectation that China will eventually develop a Western style intellectual pattern will lead to disappointment – and certainly not under the repressive CCP, where freedom of thought is not a priority.

Rather, if the best predictor of the future is the past, perhaps we should look at China’s last Golden Age to see what Chinas new Golden Age – if she is indeed entering a new one, as many Chinese claim, and not just getting more modern and wealthy – will be like?

That was over a 1,000 years ago, under the Tang. If the deeply embedded systems abd practices of Chinese culture have not changed too much, then they tend to produce a certain kind of mentality, whose most creative and impressive expression can be seen under the Tang.

That mentality, applied to Western science, may create a new kind of science, and a new kind of modernity.

Instead of expecting China to continue the Western tradition, we will hopefully get something new – and better. Less Promethean, and more humanistic.

Are conspiracy theories, a religious search for meaning?

Sure, there are conspiracies every now and then, but I’m talking about people who think conspiracy theories are basically the way the world works, and explains everything about history. Protocols stuff.

This kind conspiracy thinking, does the following

1) imposes order on a chaotic world. Randomness, which is frightening, doesn’t exist. All major world events are intentional and planned out. This substitutes for God.

2) history has a purpose and a direction.

3) I, my little insignificant self, am actually hugely important. The most powerful and brilliant minds of the universe spend their days strategizing about how to control and manipulate little old me. Before, God used to spend all his time involved in the petty lives of humans.

4) the bad things in my life are not random.

It is difficult not to see, that conspiracy thinking is basically a religious quest for freedom in a random and chaotic world. It is a meaning giving Life Raft.

In a deeper sense then, God is not completely absent in the face of human suffering. Suffering is a forge, to make the ‘weak’ and the ‘helpless’ who looks for help from the outside, strong enough, to find strength within.

https://sialmirzagoraya.substack.com/p/guru-nanaks-baburvani-a-sikh-theory

Been a lot of debate on Chinese soft power – or lack thereof – on this blog.

Vietnamese favour South Korean and Chinese TV shows, Chinese TV shows gained six out of the top 6. Not a single Japanese show. Nor any Western one.

Of course, China has long had a huge cultural imprint on Vietnam. But so has India over Pakistan, and that hasn’t prevented Pakistan from throwing periodical fits. The last such incident was their PM trying to push Turkish dramas in some sort of Islamic narrative-pushing (even though many thoughtful Pakistani critics pointed out that those TV shows are as much about Turkic ethnic identity as Islam, but fragile Pakistani identity needs whatever it can get ahold of). Similar enmity has engulfed Vietnam in various anti-China actions in recent years. Despite this, China is making cultural inroads.

***

This is a fairly sobering chart.

There are six levels in PISA. The sixth level comprises the top few percentiles in mathematics. In absolute terms, China has a huge lead (though China’s provinces in PISA 2018 was their “best foot forward”). The disclaimer at the bottom notes that even if you’d “only” apply a Taiwanese standard, it would still mean 20+ million kids at the highest levels compared to barely a million of the US.

As I noted in the TIMSS post, these scholastic tests ignore human capital migration, so these things are not quite as dire for the US. But it is going to be an uphill battle for the West.

Nevertheless, human capital is just one aspect. Systems is the other. That is where China had historically failed. It always had the intellectual werewithal to succeed, it just failed to nourish that talent and subsequently deploy it effectively.

The slide is coming from this small presentation by a German academic (h/t Infoproc).

***

Some thoughts on Greek, Persian, Arab, Indian, and Chinese science – a comparative perspective by an occassional commentator on this site who apparently has his own blog.

Celtic nationalism is mostly a proxy to attack the English, it’s no coincidence that 90% of Celtic nationalism is heavily allied with left wing/Marxist politics. It’s to give further credence to the idea that the English are a race of brutal fascistic oppressors deserving of their fate of being wiped out.

The leftist establishment will only back their hideously white culture and language insofar as it serves the agenda of destroying the English. Once the English are out of the way as a viable cultural/political force, and that day can’t be far off, they will drop the Celts like a piece of trash. Celtic nationalists are precisely what Lenin would have termed “useful idiots”.

https://twitter.com/PunYaab/status/1338125359670206473?s=20

I find it strange how Iceland is Eurosceptic and aggressively defends its large fishing grounds, and most leftists consider them absolutely heroic for doing so. Yet when Britain is Eurosceptic and tries to defend its fishing grounds, the left consider it racist and practically an act of war. Such double standards going on there.

https://i0.wp.com/starkeycomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Featured-Image-1.jpg?resize=1170%2C550&ssl=1

Its a consensus among historians that Gaelic was a language of majority of inhabitants of Scotland till 1200-1300 AD

But you are right that English or Anglo Saxon has been spoken for a very long time in parts of Scotland.

https://starkeycomics.com/2019/03/01/a-brief-history-of-british-and-irish-languages/

https://i2.wp.com/starkeycomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/1000AD.jpg?resize=752%2C1024&ssl=1

Gaelic has probably been in Scotland, mainly the Highlands, marginally longer than English due to Ireland being geographically closer than South East England, but overall both cultures arrived in Britain about the same time and were competing groups of colonialists.

I don’t get why Scots, who are mostly English-speaking Lowlanders, are considered Celtic because part of the country traditionally spoke a Celtic language. It would be like saying English people are Celts because Cornwall has a (revived) Celtic language, and Cumbria used to speak a Celtic language.

The Chinese are obsessed with their history. The typical Chinese is more familiar with their history, and historical allusions, references are a much bigger part of their culture and language than in the West. Chinese history and their massive corpus of historical literature along with poetry play the role in cultural consciousness that the Bible and literature and popular culture play in the West.

A lot of their interest in history seems very political though, like they will try to link the oldest archaeological sites they have to the modern day Han Chinese when in many cases there’s no evidence to do so.

It would be like if there was a political agenda in England to link Stonehenge to the modern English, which there isn’t and anyone who attempted to make such a link would be laughed at at best and probably considered a mentally unhinged “racist”. I have no doubt that if Stonehenge was in China, the Chinese would say it was built by the Han.

Okay, I have just sent an email to you. My email address starts with a letter T.

And on the other side, who wouldn’t want a cushy research job in sunny Shantou in this new Israeli university? A billionaire from Guangdong gave a whole bunch of money to the Technion on the condition they open up a branch in his hometown. It may have Chinese government support as well, I’m not sure.

https://www.gtiit.edu.cn/en/index.aspx

Though, when I was looking for work last it was rather new and not that well built up yet. It’s still fairly small actually, and it’s full of Israelis so it could be problematic from a workplace politics perspective. For me an ideal mix would be 20% Israelis and 80% normals.

From their ‘About’ page:

“GTIIT will be a state-of-the-art university dedicated to innovative research, environmental conservation, and social prosperity.

The university will advance Guangdong province, the People’s Republic of China, the State of Israel and all humanity.

A brainchild of Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Guangdong Technion – Israel Institute of Technology will become a leading science and technology research university by leveraging the power of entrepreneurship and innovation with rich China culture.

Guangdong Technion – Israel Institute of Technology will focus on creating pioneering leaders and researchers, through close ties with local industry and topnotch graduate-level, masters, doctoral and postdoctoral level programs.”

More context

I was wondering to check with you on something – can you email me at [email�protected]?

Thanks!

Humor for the Open thread:

New Military Tactic Takes Advantage of U.S. Election Fraud

PEACE 😇
�

With this fellow, I think it was just a myth that he had a foreign background, but he was picked on for his nose, anyway. I’m thinking it must have been Chan. In the movie Painted Faces, he’s called “Big Nose.” I think it is meant to be biographical. And, since he was away from his parents while in the troupe, I can see how it would make sense for people to pick on him and question his antecedents.

…but at this point it’s seriously grating that I’m kind of a minority in my ‘own’ country in my mileu, at work, at home (the wog couple upstairs yell at each other 24/7, not completely sure what language), at play, etc.

I was used to this in bigger cities but I moved to a smaller town in the countryside in the North East of England and am pretty surprised by the level of diversity here, given the low level of economic activity compared to many other parts of the UK. There is a small number but broad range of non-whites (Turks, Indians, Pakistanis, Africans) and then Polish and Hungarian as well. If this is typical, together with the situation in the cities, the 2011 census data must be pretty out of date. Taking just England, it is maybe already over 20% ethnic minority and foreign born.

Some more Cyberpunk 2077 related stuff

And it is a furry taking issue, imagine my shock…

The NZ government recently released a report on the Christchurch attacks. One section of the report, which I linked in my original comment, is regarding the travel history of the gunman, Brenton Tarrant.

I find it quite interesting how well travelled he was (he apparently funded his travels with money he made from a BitConnect investment, of all things), don’t they say “travelling makes you less racist”?

Spirit, what are you trying to say with this post?

Hong Kong was handed over to China with the understanding that it would be gradually incorporated into the PRC. It would have some autonomy during this process, but it was never understood that it would be autonomous indefinitely or have independence.

The giant foreseeable error of the CCP Elites was economic.

A key driver of foreign business in HK was access to UK Law for contracts. The sharp decline in jobs & salaries was highly predictable as activities dependant on UK Law had to relocate. The Elite CCP did nothing to help workers in HK, even though Central Government action caused employment to decrease.

Why is anyone surprised? Ruthlessly diminishing prospects for parents and their children inevitably creates unrest.

PEACE 😇

So we both agree that Gaelic has been in Scotland longer than English, go raibh maith agat

Eastern Euro migrants don’t ‘balance out’ native displacement, they contribute to it.
I only have a positive impression of them at a personal level (in particular, gyms I go tend to be full of masculine, hardworking East Euro guys which makes me wonder where any native ‘men’ still exist at all) but at this point it’s seriously grating that I’m kind of a minority in my ‘own’ country in my mileu, at work, at home (the wog couple upstairs yell at each other 24/7, not completely sure what language), at play, etc.

If my only concern would be other white faces and access to the EU, why not just cut to the chase and move to Eastern Europe myself? (certainly it’s something I’d consider but that’s not the point here…)

We’ll see to what extent a ‘large’ increase in ‘Pakistanis, Indians, and Africans’ actually happens, but I’d expect that would push even more natives further towards Nationalism anyway which would be a benefit in my book.

@ AK:

Chinese Border Patrol in Tibet using exo-skeleton in the field.

https://china-defense.blogspot.com/2020/12/exoskeleton-equipped-china-army-border.html

They are quite a few people who fit this description. Some more open about their foreign ancestry than others. Here is one example.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Wong_%28Hong_Kong_actor%29

I could give you a list of 20 people, all with “big noses” but very few of them would be of Jewish or of suspected Jewish ancestry ancestry. Bruce Lee definitely (Bosman), Jackie Chan no way! I know his family ancestry very well, in particular his family members who never left China. If he isn’t pure Han, I’ll eat my hat!

I’ve noticed that most serious scholars of Chinese history seem to be non-Chinese, mainly Westerners.

Most serious scholars of Chinese history are Chinese and Japanese.

Sinology in the West is actually a very small and weak field. You can be a China expert in foreign relations or even be in academic Sinology without really being able to read Chinese.

The Chinese are obsessed with their history. The typical Chinese is more familiar with their history, and historical allusions, references are a much bigger part of their culture and language than in the West. Chinese history and their massive corpus of historical literature along with poetry play the role in cultural consciousness that the Bible and literature and popular culture play in the West.

I was thinking that China has unnecessarily squandered its previously good reputation with Westerners out of some principle of making a point about Hong Kong.

China has little influence over its reputation among Westerners. Its reputation is largely going to be a function of Western elites and Western media. If Western elites decide to take a more hawkish stance towards China, as the US particularly has over the past few years, this gets reflected in media messaging which “manufactures consent” among the public.

Hong Kong was handed over to China with the understanding that it would be gradually incorporated into the PRC. It would have some autonomy during this process, but it was never understood that it would be autonomous indefinitely or have independence.

As a part of its more confrontational, hawkish stance towards China, the US basically broke the spirit of this understanding by promoting a color revolution in Hong Kong which lasted for much of the past decade. From the US perspective, this was a good strategy because either possible outcome was favorable to the US’s aims: Either the color revolution would succeed and Hong Kong would become an independent US satellite opposed to the PRC, or the attempted color revolution would be successfully suppressed by the PRC, which could then be portrayed as reflecting the excesses of the PRC and justifying the US’s more hawkish and confrontational stance.

China had no good options, really, and it’s understandable that they decided to suppress the burgeoning rebellion.

It has been so many years since I heard it, I forget. Who was that Chinese martial artist/movie star that the Chinese used to say had a big nose, and they suspected that he was part gweilo or something?

I know that Bruce Lee was like 1/8 Jew, or something, but I’m not 100% sure it was him, and not Jackie Chan. I suspect it was Chan.

I tend to think that nuclear war would be bad, but maybe that is because, if it happens, I would like it to be cataclysmic enough to end poz.

But what if Anatoly’s version of nuclear war is correct? Within 24 hours, the bulldozers clear the streets and ports and supermarkets are open again. Within a week, they start promoting women with radiation burns as the new standard in beauty, but only until the two-headed trannies reach maturity.

I am beginning to question, if it is appropriate to question peoples sacred idols. Socrates, as we know, was killed for it.

The reaction of people like AltanBakshi, Ano4, Daniel Chieh, and countless others, has made me reconsider whether it is right to question peoples sacred cows. Enraged by my presentation of alternative opinions, they lash out in fury, distress, and anxiety, threatened and afraid.

The most important thing in life, is that we become satisfied with ourselves and reconciled to life. To achieve this, we invent all sorts of myths, illusions, snd fantasies, narratives that we cling to as a life raft, amid the uncertainties and dangers of life. [go on, read the whole thing]

Instead of screwing with other cultures and their sacred cows, why not have a shot at revising judaism so you won’t be hated everywhere you turn up. Try to be more like parsis or something. You figure it out.

Judaism has been revised, and will continue to be, many times. Thats how it remains vital and alive, organic and adaptable.

In Judaism, you are supposed to be constantly adding and refining. It isn’t static.

As for being hated, if someone doesn’t hate you, you don’t exist.

Lol. And there, dear readers, you have it.

China and India vote against Israel in the UN, but in terms of policies China is one of the most pro-Israel countries, under current CCP leadership.

Chinese government builds much of the new housing and infrastructure in Israel, much like in Ethiopia. When I have last visited Israel in 2018, I saw many groups Chinese government looking workers, near the business parks, and large Chinese infrastructure projects with Chinese flags, such as the vast holes where they dig tunnels under the city of Tel Aviv and Ramat Gan.

There is more hidden and informal Chinese power projection in countries like Spain and UK. In Spain, Chinese people seem to own much small convenience shops, while in UK, there are many Chinese elite living in large numbers and probably buying apartments. In Israel, the Chinese power projection seems less secretive, more formal, and more composing of government workers.

I assume Chinese investment in Israel is related to “Belt and Road Initiative”. China’s government buy strategic assets in Israel, like its ports, and it even bought Israel’s dairy collective farms (and then they import this milk which is collectively farmed in the Middle East, into China).

China may be interested in Israel, because they view it as a potential trading connection between Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean (via its port on the Red Sea).

If I was Chinese, I would feel that investing in Israel was cleverer than investing in Ethiopia. In many ways, Israel has third world African standards. For example, in construction safety, Israel is more like an African country, than a European country, and hundreds of Chinese construction workers have been killed in Israel. But in terms of property rights, Israel is safer to invest in than probably almost all African countries. There won’t suddenly be a revolution and dictatorship in Israel that would expropriate foreign investors, whereas in Ethiopia the Chinese probably underestimate African political instability

For commercial reason CPR could not ignore the old gen (PS4/XO), due to 150 mio users.

But technically they should have only released it on the new gen (PS5, XSX, XSS) & PC only.

The old gen are completely overwhelmed. Low res, low textures, popups, lower density of NPCs/objects – but still only 15 to 25 fps.

Forum usually has a funny deference to precedency in comments.

Someone says an unusual claim (e.g. “Poles have a non-white outlook”; “Donetsk was the worst city in Ukraine”), and the result is a tree of comments about why the statement can be true, rather than about whether the statement is true.

If the first comment writes “Poles have a white outlook”, then there would be a discussion about why “Poles have a white outlook”.

despite being white seem to have a more non-white character and outlook,

Considering that Poles are European people, then the character and outlook of the population is a European one in a tautological way.

Poland is a lower income country for European standards, and the immigration from Poland to UK is unfiltered as it is EU member.

So what you are saying is that Pole immigrants have less “Stuff white people like” (i.e. hipster/bourgeois values) compared to English. Majority of Polish immigrants seem to be unglamorous, provincial kind of people (who go to West Europe to work as supermarket assistants, prostitutes, gangsters, hotel secretaries, carwashers, village drunks, etc). There is another proportion of immigrants who are educated professionals (doctors, pilots, scientists, engineers), but due to lack of selection in immigration, the skilled labour may be only the minority of the total immigrants.

It’s the opposite of Russians in London, where there is no open border, and therefore difficulty of the visa system results in a selection filter for skilled labour and more educated people among Russians (investors, students, engineers, etc).

Oh no, we got too cocky Polish bros

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/11/us/politics/supreme-court-election-texas.html

President Donald Trump called the case “the big one,” and 126 of the 196 Republicans in the House urged the court to take it. But the justices acted quickly to turn it down.

“Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another state conducts its elections,” the court said in a brief unsigned opinion.

Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito said the court had no authority to refuse a case filed on its original docket, where one state files to sue another. But they said the would not have granted Texas any other relief and expressed no view on any of the issues raised in the lawsuit.

So the ruling was essentially a unanimous rejection of the Texas claims.

Poles/Eastern Europeans despite being white seem to have a more non-white character and outlook, relative to the native British any way.

It’s strange because Poland and other Eastern European nations are a lot more white (or European) demographically and culturally than the UK is at the moment. One of the things I appreciate about going to EE (usually Lithuania and Belarus) is that the feel of these places takes me back to how Britain was in the 1990s.

My wife, when she was in her 20s and early 30s always used to prefer to talk to British boomers and older, because they had more life experiences and values in common, whereas with British millennials this was mostly not the case.

I’m surprised that no one has started a Cybepunk 2077 comment at all. Let’s first all mock our host for not completing his grand opus:

https://mobile.twitter.com/akarlin88/status/1336796546843684864

From what I’ve heard, it needs patches.