Image is of the Big Wet Boy surviving an assassination attempt with his Matrix-esque bullet dodging skills.

Trump's victory, and the further mass oppression of minorities, is closer than ever before. May god have mercy on our souls.


previous preamble

The totalitarian capitalist dystopia which was created by the United States in the aftermath of the Korean War has increasingly experienced problems as the multipolar world is being gradually birthed.

Due to the widespread exploitation of the population, long work weeks, and high housing prices, the population growth of South Korea has plummeted, with the lowest fertility rate on the planet, and the highest suicide rate in the OECD. While a capitalist "success story" before the 2008 recession in terms of profit accumulation for the richest at the expense of most others, conditions have grown more dire in the Long Depression since the crash. GDP growth per year has averaged out at 2-3%. For more concrete figures, labour productivity has stagnated, particularly in the service sector. The rate of profit hit a peak when the dictatorship ended in the late 1980s, but has since massively tumbled. These dynamics are not unique to South Korea; they are happening throughout the West.

While South Korea is stagnating, perhaps even falling, its northern neighbour is rising. With Russia already persona non grata to much of the developed world and yet still maintaining fairly good economic growth and continuously albeit gradually moving towards victory in Ukraine, Putin sees no reason to be intimidated by the West's shunning of the DPRK, and Russia is establishing ties as well as military and economic deals. This seems to portend an end to the post-Soviet period of forced isolation due to UN actions forbidding the people of the DPRK to leave the country (which many westerners believe is a policy originating from the Korean leadership due to their propagandized education).

Many in the West are still, regrettably, unable to properly analyze the geopolitical situation of Korea due to their government programming, leading to bizarre takes about imminent collapse, or desperation on the part of Russia or the DPRK, unable to recognize that the DPRK has a powerful military sector all its own, and decades of autarky has created a durable society where limited resources must be used efficiently and effectively. The position of the Korean Peninsula seems likely to be a critical part of the US-China conflict, whether this is an outright war or instead a series of proxy wars. Indeed, Korea's position may soon become very important in global trade routes if the US tries to cut off the Strait of Malacca to Chinese-bound cargo ships, with vital resources like oil and food potentially transported both over land and via the Arctic Route over Russia and through the DPRK to China. Russia's leadership clearly sees the importance of Korea in the future, hence their actions now; and, of course, South Korea siding with Ukraine has also forced Putin's hand to oppose them more openly.


The COTW (Country of the Week) label is designed to spur discussion and debate about a specific country every week in order to help the community gain greater understanding of the domestic situation of often-understudied nations. If you've wanted to talk about the country or share your experiences, but have never found a relevant place to do so, now is your chance! However, don't worry - this is still a general news megathread where you can post about ongoing events from any country.

The "Country" of the Week is South Korea! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.

Please check out the HexAtlas!

The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week's thread is here.

Israel-Palestine Conflict

If you have evidence of Israeli crimes and atrocities that you wish to preserve, there is a thread here in which to do so.

Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:

UNRWA daily-ish reports on Israel's destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.

English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news (and has automated posting when the person running it goes to sleep).
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.

English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.

Various sources that are covering the Ukraine conflict are also covering the one in Palestine, like Rybar.

Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict

Sources:

Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful. Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.

Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.

Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:

Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.

https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.

Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:

Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.


  • LargePenis [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    6 months ago

    Two days ago, on the first day of the Islamic month of Muharram, my son was born. The little fucker busted out of my wife a few weeks too early, but he's finally here. We left the hospital a few hours ago after two days of medical checks and both he and my wife are now peacefully sleeping while I'm writing. I won the naming battle and we settled on a traditional, but cool name in my very biased opinion. I'm now Abu Hassan, which sounds unreal, because how the hell am I a father lol. Now the real battle starts, I cannot do the same mistakes that Pete Buttigieg's father did and accidentally make him a liberal. Maybe in 16 years or so, you'll have Hassan LargePenis posting a VR interactive three dimensional chad n cuck ranking in the news mega about the slow Russian progress in the Central European front of WW3. Thank you all in advance for the well wishes!

    • EmoThugInMyPhase [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      6 months ago

      I cannot do the same mistakes that Pete Buttigieg's father did and accidentally make him a liberal.

      A lot of those marxists were academics who likely spent more time writing papers and mingling with high society and being out of touch with both their families and the working class. As long as you stay grounded to people both in and out of your family, explain the discrepancies between approved capitalist framing, conditions, and history vs. reality, and encourage him to socialize with all facets of life, they will probably not end up like Mayo Pete

      • Greenleaf [he/him]
        ·
        edit-2
        6 months ago

        And also… while it’s possible to be a noted professor academic and a good parent, it’s not easy. Academia demands everything from you. No different from other high profile professions - you usually have to choose between spending time with your family or writing your next paper. I think it’s highly likely both Pete and Kamala’s dads prioritized their careers over their family, with the expected results.

        Also, this is even more speculative but I suspect both dads were probably very hands off and “I want them to find their own path and I won’t push Marxism on them.” Nope. You have to be at least somewhat didactic.

        Basically, be a good parent and tell your kids how the world really is, and you’re doing about the most you can do.

    • MrPiss [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      6 months ago

      you'll have Hassan LargePenis posting a VR interactive three dimensional chad n cuck ranking

      Can't wait for ai Zelensky to grovel for f35s in front of President Hunter Biden and be ranked a cringe ass cuck in 2048.

      Also, congratulations.

    • WashedAnus [he/him]
      ·
      6 months ago

      I can't wait for him to break the margins on the news mega on my phone

    • FunkyStuff [he/him]
      ·
      6 months ago

      Permanent seat of the UNSC Permanent seat in the Gigachad ranking

    • Xx_Aru_xX [she/her, they/them]
      ·
      edit-2
      6 months ago

      Central European front of WW3

      That's one way to call Lviv

      Also, مبروك على فوزك ضد زوجتك, ومبروك على ابنك حسن بفوزه على تفتيش مجاني في كل رحلة سفر

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]
      ·
      6 months ago

      The Eclipse Phase ttrpg setting has a very popular news service called Monster Raging Goblin Cock News, hosted by a small goth lady called Momo von Satan and a six foot tall opinionated green penis wearing a viking helmet. Maybe fiction and reality are converging.

      • SaniFlush [any, any]
        ·
        6 months ago

        And their show is hosted on the moon of Titan, which is just Space Scandinavia, complete with democratic socialism which is blatantly using deniable assets to do war crimes.

    • sisatici [he/him]
      ·
      6 months ago

      Minimum age requirement is 18 so he has to wait a little more

    • cricbuzz [he/him]
      ·
      6 months ago

      heart-sickle congratulations on the new life you've brought into the world, comrade!