I'm sure Xi is beyond having his feelings hurt by Biden, but just look at Bilken's reaction lmao.

Inviting a head of state to your country to publicly insult them is unacceptable anywhere, so this is only going to further tarnish the shitty reputation of American diplomacy.

  • heartheartbreak [fae/faer]
    ·
    1 year ago

    Biden's reason doesn't even make any sense

    Well you see here jack he's the leader of a country with a totally different style of government than ours

    Barely even paraphrasing lmfao this guy's brain is swiss cheese

    • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      1 year ago

      Ehh it kinda makes sense if you agree with the idea that liberals view any deviation from Western liberalism as ontologically wrong and evil. Just jarring to see it said out loud in a diplomatic setting.

      • heartheartbreak [fae/faer]
        ·
        1 year ago

        I agree but just because the quiet part is said out loud doesn't make it make any more sense lol

    • mathemachristian [he/him]
      ·
      1 year ago

      We are moving backwards from "Capitalism is a necessary evil because of human nature" to "Capitalism is the only good form of economy".

      • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
        hexagon
        ·
        1 year ago

        Agreed. The swiss cheese holes have gotten to the tact and inhibition parts of his brain.

    • CarbonScored [any]
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Seriously. Biden just outwardly saying his definition of dictator is 'leader not in exactly the same way as us' is really weird.

      • BlueMagaChud [any]
        ·
        1 year ago

        hitting the dog whistle and then breaking out websters dictionary

    • GarbageShoot [he/him]
      ·
      1 year ago

      Look, he is. He's a dictator in the sense that he's a guy who runs a country that is a communist country that's based on a form of government totally different than ours,

      May as well give the quote. Seems like, insofar as it has substance, it just circles back around to gommulism bad

    • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      1 year ago

      Trump would wait at least a few days before calling Xi the leader of Hamas or some dumb shit.

      So yeah, you're right.

      • EnsignRedshirt [he/him]
        ·
        1 year ago

        Nah, Trump likes Xi. He’ll be all over the place about China, but on an individual level he can spot a winner, and he likes winners. He might even still call Xi a dictator, but he’d be like “and that’s good, because he’s a very smart man. Very smart. China is lucky to have him. Some of us aren’t so lucky, if you know what I mean.”

        • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
          hexagon
          ·
          1 year ago

          I'm not sure Trump likes Xi. Sees him as a worthy adversary? Maybe. Like? Ehhhh.

          Those are just my vibes though.

          • EnsignRedshirt [he/him]
            ·
            1 year ago

            If we’re being real here, Trump doesn’t like anyone. He’s an extreme narcissist, almost to the point of solipsism. When I say he “likes” Xi, I mean that he’s more likely than not to say nice things about him. He had lots of praise for Xi while he was president.

          • KarlBarqs [he/him, they/them]
            ·
            1 year ago

            Trump likes anyone who is nice to him. He would like Xi because Xi would be polite to him because Xi knows how to handle diplomatic tact, no more, no less.

            • GalaxyBrain [they/them]
              ·
              1 year ago

              Worked for a bit for Kim Jong Un. Also out of that inthink came the smartest thing Trump ever said and I'm paraphrasing "Part of running a country is having diplomatic relationships with other countries and there isn't generally a downside to meeting with leaders of other countries." Coming from business brain but also, like...yeah, pretty sure if I was the president of the US one of the first things I'd do I chat with the leaders of as many other countries as possible, I'm the new guy.

                • GalaxyBrain [they/them]
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  That one is even better for sure. Like, shouldn't really even be controversial, but only the least filtered guy to ever get that position could say it let alone any American politician. It's weird to not be able to admit your country is flawless.

      • Dingus_Khan [he/him, they/them]
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        He called the leader of Egypt a dictator to his face, through a translator fwiw.

        Edit: ok it actually wasn't to his face. He called Sisi his favorite dictator before he arrived to an event, in front of diplomatic staff from Egypt

    • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]
      ·
      1 year ago

      well Trump's zero sum game everything is a negotiation attitude would genuinely help here.

      he might think Xi is a dictator but he also wouldn't give a shit either way

    • UlyssesT
      ·
      edit-2
      2 months ago

      deleted by creator

    • 2Password2Remember [he/him]
      ·
      1 year ago

      trump was without question a better president than biden on basically all fronts

      Death to America

      • EnsignRedshirt [he/him]
        ·
        1 year ago

        The benefit of Trump over Biden as a president is that there’s always a chance that Trump accidentally does something good out of vanity or incompetence or laziness, whereas Biden will always follow the same playbook that continues to make everything terrible. Like, I could easily see Trump hearing about the pro-Palestinian protests and saying something off-the-cuff that criticizes Israel or is supportive of Palestine, because he doesn’t actually care either way except insofar as it affects what people say about him in the moment.

    • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      1 year ago

      The one thing they seemed to get was resumption of direct military to military hotlines. Not sure how useful that's gonna be if they piss the Chinese side off though. Not hard to order the generals to pick up the phone, listen to the yank, then say "okay" and hang up.

      • Awoo [she/her]
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        It's definitely useful for when the americans are doing their stupidly fucking dangerous freedom of navigation missions through chinese territory. During these missions the US ships have to turn off various monitoring equipment among other things. It's so fucking easy for one or the other side to misinterpret one another if they ever do something they're not expected to do in those situations, without communication they will default to assuming the worst and that's where it gets hairy, everyone starts shooting, and then everyone else in the region starts shooting because everyone is shooting. Launch after launch will happen because there's no de-escalation channel or way to just say "shit that was a mistake we're sorry" when something actually goes wrong.

        Imagine when a ship gets spooked, does something unexpected, then some scrambled jets get shot down, then even more shit happens, and every single asset in the region just acts independently based on the information they have at hand (the ship/jets nearest to me just got blown up, we should release our payload into the target). It's a huge cascade.

        Communication really matters to avoid this.

          • Awoo [she/her]
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            You don't need to do large provocations for this cascade to occur. Freedom of navigation operations have the potential to spiral out of control extremely easily.

            This video poses this scenario very well: https://youtu.be/vJXWJ-Px5tU

            I don't necessarily agree with all the interpretations of effectiveness of weapons/missiles etc in this video, but as an example of how officers in charge of each of these assets will act independently on incomplete information about the situation it's a very realistic example of how this shit could cascade on a complete misunderstanding. The particularly interesting part of this begins at 6:00 but the lead up is important in establishing the list of assets in the region in the scenario. An emergency phonecall in this situation would have resulted in the US knowing "this is a mock attack as an exercise, not a real one" and the spark that lights this cascade of events would not have happened. But without that phonecall, the training exercise jets are shot down, and what follows is a cascade of events leading to devastating losses of both sides as every existing asset interprets the nearby events as existential and releases their full capabilities. Whether the interpretations of the effect of these jets/missiles are correct is not really relevant compared to understanding how this cascade could easily happen from routine exercises that happen regularly without a line of communication.

            • AlyxMS [he/him]
              ·
              edit-2
              1 year ago

              Can't believe I watched the whole thing, god the entire video is so... masturbatory.

              • PL-15, literally the newest A2A missile ever fielded and a significant kinematic advantage over AIM-120. Nope, can barely score two hits with a 20 missile salvo. Also always launched from max range to minimize chance to hit I guess.

              • PL-12, estimated to be equal to AIM-120C. Scored like 1 hit after a 100 something missile salvo.

              • AIM-120D, don't ever misses, downs dozens upon dozens of aircrafts while barely taking losses. "Once again proves the united states's advantage in missile technology".

              • Evasive maneuvers against modern A2A missiles: If the F-18s do it, it always works, 98% effectiveness against anything. If the flankers do it, it never works. They might as well be flying straight, would have the same results.

              • Missile salvo of 30 sea skimming cruise missile toward a carrier: All intercepted, no problem.

              • A small salvo of Harpoons, pretty much the most obsolete ship to ship missile still in service, okay the 054A made a valiant effort but can't intercept them all. Also the CIWS can do nothing against a subsonic target.

              • DF-21D. From the late 2000s and highly experimental. Not perfected until DF-17 and 26 from recent years. Functions flawlessly at max range and we only lost the carrier due to this wunderwaffe.

              • Okay we lost but we are against overwhelming odds also we intentionally placed multiple handicaps on ourselves. And we still had an exchange ratio of like 1:50.

              • Everyone in comments: OMG this simulation is so accurate! But as a navy man here we would've never had those handicaps and we would've totally wreaked havoc on their obsolete military guys.

              This thing had the plot of a top gun movie but is presented like a simulation done to the last detail. Just... strange. Gives off a big "elite waffen SS against soviet human wave attacks" energy.

              • Awoo [she/her]
                ·
                1 year ago

                Yeah it's absolutely masturbatory, I did warn about the estimates being off. It's interesting in that it's a pretty fair estimate of how these assets might react in such a situation though.

              • JuryNullification [he/him]
                ·
                1 year ago

                Also the CIWS can do nothing against a subsonic target.

                Is this criticizing the video or a real life assessment?

                • AlyxMS [he/him]
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  The video of course. CIWS is literally built for those. I don't think it's simulated at all in the video. But once again I think the 054A only had a single one of them? So maybe it wouldn't have mattered much.

        • zephyreks [none/use name]
          ·
          1 year ago

          US FONOPS are actually insane. They broke the decades-old status quo that established the Taiwan Strait as Chinese territorial waters under the CPC-KMT consensus.

    • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]
      ·
      1 year ago

      I heard they did get the Chinese to stop supplying the chemicals used to make fentanyl to Mexico. (as I understand it previously Chinese companies were selling chemicals that have legitimate and legal industrial uses in larger quantities than the legal market can support, similar to how American gun manufacturors make 40% more guns than the legal gun market can support)

  • egg1918 [she/her]
    ·
    1 year ago

    Really think they're fucking up by reopening the military communications link. I guess China has to to show they're the reasonable party, but the US is just going to do what they were already doing. That is, ratcheting up tensions as much as possible whenever it suits them (pelosi fucking off to Taiwan for personal gain, that whole weather balloon embarrassment) then privately calling the PLA to say don't worry bro it's no biggie we promise. And then a month later doing it all again. I just don't see what China has to gain apart from the initial PR boost.

    • Yiazmat@lemmygrad.ml
      ·
      1 year ago

      that whole weather balloon embarrassment

      speaking of that, even though the US has openly admitted that the balloon wasn't a surveillance device and didn't collect any data, just yesterday my local news station was still calling it a "spy balloon" lol

      • Water Bowl Slime@lemmygrad.ml
        ·
        1 year ago

        Yeah I've noticed that here too. It seems like the final stage of disinfo is for people to repeat the lie on their own without any outside influence. It's the same deal with the Uyghur thing - official government sources dropped the narrative ages ago, but you'll still hear it repeated as if it were historical fact from journalists, influencers, redditors, etc.

          • egg1918 [she/her]
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            I couldn't agree more with that second paragraph. I think you'll enjoy this article very much https://redsails.org/masses-elites-and-rebels/. All this propaganda just gives the settlers a veil to spew their hate from behind. Chuds don't really need it because they're chuds, but it gives the liberals an excuse to be just as disgusting - only they'll dress it up in smug, condescending language.

          • Hohsia [he/him]
            ·
            1 year ago

            Fuuuuuck I wish vonnegut lived to see this era of politics

            We would’ve without a doubt gotten some bangers

          • Water Bowl Slime@lemmygrad.ml
            ·
            1 year ago

            Ya I don't think libs are brainwashed either. I read that red sails essay too and I agree with it but idk what better word there is to describe this. Bigotry permit? Hate pass?

              • Water Bowl Slime@lemmygrad.ml
                ·
                1 year ago

                I can't see it catching on. I mean, have you ever seen anyone here use the term (other than to define it)?

                "The US is running a licensing campaign against Russia."

                "These people have all been licensed."

                "Dude shut it with the Uyghur shit, you're super licensed."

                It just doesn't fit right in anything other than an academic context.

                • alicirce@lemmygrad.ml
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  Accusing someone of being "brainwashed" isn't, as far as I have seen, so rhetorically effective that I think we need a drop-in replacement like "hate-passed." If "you're super licensed" sounds silly it's because "you're super brainwashed" is also silly.

                  What about:

                  "Do you actually believe that nonsense or does it just give you license to discount the incredible social progress China has made?"

                  I think the post earlier in this thread used it well. They're not defining the term, they're explaining the phenomenon. Because it uses a familiar term, it is easy to understand and doesn't read jargony:

                  I think this is better understood as licensing American settlers to unleash their preexisting white supremacist worldview onto a politically acceptable target.

                  Rejecting the term "brainwashing" means not only improving our understanding of how propaganda works but also improving our rhetoric.

      • barrbaric [he/him]
        ·
        1 year ago

        Even the articles that came out confirming it was just a weather balloon referred to it as a "spy balloon" lmao.

      • NewAcctWhoDis [any]
        ·
        1 year ago

        If I remember the articles correctly, they never denied it being a surveillance device, just that it transmitted (collected?) any data. So the running media story was "spy balloon that wasn't actively spying". That raises the question of "why?", but libs never seemed to bother with that one.

  • Awoo [she/her]
    ·
    1 year ago

    The way he says this makes me think there's probably a whole school of thought in the establishment ghoul circles that revolves around wording things in specific ways that translators will soften or "interpret" in a way that makes them sound not as bad in alternate languages.

        • Blep [he/him]
          ·
          1 year ago

          I mean the ghoul translator softening is much funnier if the people in question already know whats being said

      • oregoncom [he/him]
        ·
        1 year ago

        Chinese liberals and western "china watchers" usually seethe very hard at the fact that he doesn't speak English, so probably not?

        • Venus [she/her]
          ·
          1 year ago

          There's no way he doesn't speak at least some English, he has lived in the US

  • 小莱卡@lemmygrad.ml
    ·
    1 year ago

    "he is the leader of a communist country, anyways lets move on" thats what he said lmao, fucking children politics.

  • GaveUp [she/her]
    ·
    1 year ago

    Honestly not even mad, this is completely expected lol

    • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      1 year ago

      My guess is that as soon as he heard it, Xi leaned over to his aide and whispered "Looks like I owe you a beer" into their ear.

  • Mindfury [he/him]
    ·
    1 year ago

    begging Xi to clap back with "you could say the same about Biden, but you'd be wrong; he doesn't even run his country, the CEOs are the dictators"

    • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      1 year ago

      The face of a man who knows he's about to work through the night because his boss just said something incredibly dumb.

      • UlyssesT
        ·
        edit-2
        2 months ago

        deleted by creator