The imperial core is continuing the process of self-cannibalization as the interimperial wars between Europe and the US over resource and territorial control continue. Greenland, populated with less than a hundred thousand heavily exploited people, is the newest territory to fall under Trump's gaze. The main draw is the mineral resources present there, of which it boasts nickel, copper, cobalt, and platinum, and much more than remains unexplored under the ice. But the ice is melting, and profit must be made. There is an additional element of wanting Arctic territory to counter Chinese and especially Russian interests and aims; Russia is increasingly eyeing the northern Arctic route as an alternative to more vulnerable routes through the Suez Canal or around Africa, and is investing heavily in icebreakers for that purpose.
However, even if Europe possessed the desire to resist American annexations - and they absolutely do not, at the end of the day - they do not even have the ability. Denmark may, to a lesser or greater extent, make angry sounds and talk about national honour or some such, but their military would be trampled underfoot by even the New York Police Department, let alone a concerted military effort by the US. If Trump wants Greenland, he will have it. This will naturally increase the grumbling in Europe about reconsidering the Transatlantic alliance, and that grumbling may, in the medium-term future, as the American Empire continues its decline, lead to meaningful results. But in the short term, Europe shall have to bear whatever Trump throws at them, for they obviously cannot now ally with Russia, who was the natural counterweight to American interests for decades before 2022.
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Israel-Palestine Conflict
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA 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.
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.
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.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
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.
lol the CPC Shanghai branch has got to be filled with the most lib people I’ve ever met. I know at least two guys (high academic achievers) who are members of the Shanghai branch and they know nothing about Marxism. Can’t even hold the most basic discussion that an average Hexbear user could easily do. I literally don’t know how they got through the mandatory Marxism-Leninism course lol.
I also asked them what happens during party meetings, and basically they just have to attend once in a while, and people take turns talking about what challenges they are facing in life/work etc, you get encouragements and advices from one another. I can confirm that no discussion about socialism or Marxism or anything like are involved for most of the members, at least with the Shanghai branch.
This is interesting and strange. The party has examinations for entry that are difficult to pass, Xi failed 6 times. What is in those examinations?
Additionally isn't marxism in the national curriculum? In schools?
Xi's failure probably has less to do with his performance, but more has to do with his family background. Usually, to be a member of the party you have to apply with a letter of recommendation from a teacher or someone within the party, the party will review your case, do a background check in your family and give you an interview before deciding your admission.
In theory of course. You can always game the system.
The one in high school and undergraduate are like your typical civics class so most students simply rely on rote memorization to get through them (which some people including myself have problem with the Chinese education system on its over reliance on rote memorization and really try to box students into giving pre-determined answers rather than encouraging creative thinking and answers, but that’s a very long story for another day).
Most people don’t care about studying Marxism - only political nerds like us care about taking Marxist thoughts/theories seriously lol! There was a surge of interest in Marxism among Chinese youth during late 2019 and early 2020 during Covid when the kids had a lot of time to spend being locked down, but that was a relatively recent phenomenon.
Also you have to understand that there is no way you can find so many teachers and lecturers who can competently teach Marxist theories. Most teachers assigned to the class are just winging it and that’s why you have this (supposedly famous) tutor on bilibili telling students that “communist countries are like the Scandinavian countries with high welfare, our country is still a socialist country trying to catch up with them and hope that one day we can have strong welfare like the Scandinavian communist countries” lol. That’s the kind of quality you should expect from the average teacher.
I think you should ask your new Chinese friends on xiaohongshu and see how they got through their Marxism class in college lol. I’m pretty sure most people just winged it.
Regarding joining the party, I’m not sure about Xi’s time but the intake process is kind of complicated. You can’t just randomly apply to join the party. You need nomination letter(s) from persons of some stature (like dean, school principals, party officials) and most of the invitations are extended to students with academic excellence to entice them to join state-owned enterprises after graduation. Also, you have kids from family with party connections. There is an essay (like a statement of interest) you have to write, and I think a couple rounds of selection process from the committee.
I think in the rural area it’s a bit different, in that there is less focus of academic results and more that people who are eager to volunteer for the party organized work and this is how you get to know people from the local party branch and get nominated through there (I’m actually not sure how it works in the rural area but now I’m interested in asking around and find out).
In any case, there is a mandatory Marxism-Leninism course you have to go through as part of the orientation process, and I believe there is an exam as well. I don’t know the details but I don’t believe it is anything that is too in depth because, you know, socialism with Chinese characteristics… can’t let people question too much about the market part of the market socialism.
My experience with Chinese commenters so far on the app has been very marxist, functionally on the same level as hexbear, a few of them a little higher on the same level as some of the bookier lemmygrad members. But this could be selection bias in that the ones that reply are the ones that know what they're talking about.
Yes, it’s true that you will find politics nerds everywhere. Even a small fraction of people is a lot if you consider China’s entire population.
Of course it's Shanghai, didn't they screw up zero COVID too? I think it being the finance and trade centre since the Deng reforms have rooted in the capitalist mindset quite deep.
The only city that dared to openly defy the national Zero Covid policy and implemented their own hybrid version of lockdown inspired from lockdowns from Western countries, which not only failed spectacularly but also ended up spreading Covid to the entire country and forced the government to give up the entire Zero Covid strategy itself!
But if you’re the city with the highest GDP and the financial center of the country, I guess even the central government has to give in to your demands.
10+ years ago, everyone I worked with in Shanghai that was Shanghainese loved Friends, and imagined every American was living that lifestyle.