I would consider myself a skeptic of the notion that the US will engage in a hot war with China anytime soon. But I'd still say it's a non-zero chance - high enough that I think it's something we should all think about. Because if the US does engage in a hot war, I'm 100% the US military will absolutely get their ass handed to them on the battlefield.
So if a hot war happens, the US will eventually be faced with a choice: either accept the biggest military humiliation the country has ever experienced (by far), or start firing off the nukes. Given where we're at today, I feel pretty strongly that American exceptionalism, worship of civic religion, and Americans' lack of experience with death and devastation means it won't be hard for the ruling class to stir up pro-nuke sentiment. Even if it means there's a real chance that China fires off nukes that hit the US.
So I think one thing we need to do (if you're a US American or Australian) is remind people that nuclear war is beyond horrific. This video I think covers this all pretty well. But I also have to give a massive content warning, as naturally the content is gruesome and disturbing.
We also need to really destroy these myths US Americans hold about Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I like how Ethan said on the Proles pod about nuclear war:
So, we have to retell this story of "they dropped the bomb to save lives", because it's really frightening to grasp the idea that the government and the military and the powers that be that govern our lives that are currently in charge of everything would sacrifice so many innocent lives. And not just kill people, just do some of the most horrific things that have happened to human beings. They would do that for a political bargaining chip. They wouldn't do that to end the war, they were doing it to strongarm a country they thought they'd be fighting soon.
I don't actually know the present level of upkeep, but I wouldn't be surprised if part of the US nuclear arsenal infrastructure is dilapidated enough to cause a catastrophy on US soil that would be a hilarious self-own if it wasn't so horrific.
Billion dollar F-35 crashing on take-off: funny, high-grade hilarious
ICBM hitting anything or blowing up prematurely: horrifying, likely to make things worse for generations
Too intertwined at the moment. There were already calls to localize supply chains under Trump, and the on-going headaches with shipping and the growing war drums with China have increased those calls. Plus, automation and better development in Latin America gives the US options for cheaply making things somewhere besides China. Expect a lot of things to start being made in Mexico, Guatemala, etc. instead to avoid those links.
Taiwan is the big flashpoint because the US strategy seems to be to let them make all of their semiconductors. It's a huge vulnerability, but they have to have an outpost.
I know we like to say our government is fascist now, and it is, but the pure suicidality of regimes like the third reich cannot be underestimated.
The US is past fascism imo. Capitalism has been in a true terminal crisis since about World War 1 because that's when the Imperial powers ran out of new markets to add (land to plunder). Fascism was like a suicide mission to try to reset the clock. We know that doesn't work because blowing up the planet doesn't make there be more stuff. What comes next is what came after the fall of Rome - the system eating itself breaks down trade networks, which makes commodity production collapse (can't sell shit if you can't get it to market). Commodity estates collapse and can't pay their debts and taxes, city dwellers can't get paid so they go back to the countryside to try to grow food. To avoid getting killed by a bandit, they swear loyalty to a wealthy patron who owns an estate that he lets them farm in exchange for some labor time - i.e. they become serfs.
Tl:Dr is that the future isn't fascism - it's techno feudalism. You'll live in a company town and work at the battery plant or geothermal greenhouse in exchange for a pod and rations, but it'll only be like 40 hours a week and the local Lord will give you a feast when he makes a profitable NFT sale or kills a rival in the metaverse.
I know we like to say our government is fascist now, and it is, but the pure suicidality of regimes like the third reich cannot be underestimated.
It'd be interesting to see fascist USA invade Mexico and Canada for American Lebensraum (again) while also fighting war with CHYNAAA
I’d hope we’d see formerly unlikely allies join together like the US and USSR in WWII. Canada is new France, Mexico and Central America are new Poland, Denmark, Hungry, etc. Role of USA is now played by the EU, who don’t ideologically differ from the US but don’t like how they’re going about it. USSR -> China. UK is… hmmm Russia? Since they have land close to AK? I dunno, the analogy is breaking down.
ay im new here how I save posts this was a great one that I wanna be coming back to later
Watch Threads. Simple as that.
Nothing else I've seen really captures the collapse of everything we consider civilisation.
China makes all the treats! So i really doubt we'll see anything beyond proxy wars with china.
I do agree tho that Americans are bloodthirsty and will fucking beg the government to fire the nukes if they even start to feel like they're losing
I can't imagine the US could ever justify nuking China without the entire world turning on them in an instant. If the US were cornered so badly I have to imagine the EU would jump ship, both because of public opinion and economic interests.
As a Statsian, that would be delicious and the start of a huge change. It needs to happen without the nukes, please for all that is good…
My bad, I've seen it before but with captions, let me see if I can find the captioned one.
If your military is too weak to invade a country you negotiate.
The US wanted full surrender in a conflict they couldnt win without resorting to nuclear holocaust.
That makes the US evil. Full stop. There can be no.handwringing on a situation they brought about on purpose.
lol, this is an alt for the account "Hortener" that was banned for liberalism and sinophobia about a week ago.
You can tell because the same phrasing about "servants" being "masked" is used by both accounts, and this one was created the same day Hortener was banned. See the modlog for some examples of why.
do you not know what happened in the japanese trials? because pointing out unit 731 is very ironic given that the US gave the commander an amnesty and a cushy job
No, Fuck off with this genocidal shit. like you said the japanese leaders did not care about the nukes. This is insane. The japanese were already starving. They also already were being carped bombed by the US, the reason for the Bombs was couriosity by US brass. Not some utlitarian bullshit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCRTgtpC-Go this is a good documentary on why your position is monstrous.
Yeah, which is why the bombs were useless. And the US leadership knew this. It was about wanting to see what would happen.
The bombs were specifically mentioned by the Emperor in his surrender address.
Oh Fuck off. The Emperor had literally no power, and the leadership of japan was on holiday when the bombs dropped and only convened when their holiday was over. Go to :reddit-logo: if you want to repeat propaganda for the US empire and their warcrimes.
Watch the first 5 minutes of the video i sent you.
It did NOT END THE JAPANESE GOVERMENT. It literally did not and the allies literally said so THEMSELVES. You are advocating for one of the worst war crimes ever commited. Watch the fucking video i sent you.
The japanese goverment would have ceased just as well without the bombs. That the Bombs were needed is US propaganda.
they were already ready to surrender conditionally, and doing so unconditionally damn nearly led to a coup, despite the bombs, so no it was not the aim nor a mjor factor in ending the war, though it was a factor in achieving US aims
The first 5 minutes address your entire argument. Let's both watch these 5 minutes and then argue. For example why does Eisenhower say the bombing was a crime and that admiral that it was useless. Why does the report commisioned say that Japan would have surrendered wven without the bomb, or an invasion(soviet or american)
Literally parroting debunked state-department propaganda defending atrocious war crimes :what-the-hell:
It is my personal opinion that the use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender because of the effective sea blockade and the successful bombing with conventional weapons.
- Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy, chief of staff to both FDR and Truman (1942-1949) - quote from Leahy's war memoirs I Was There - 1950
The Japanese had, in fact, already sued for peace before the atomic age was announced to the world with the destruction of Hiroshima and the before the Russian entry into war...the atomic bomb played no decisive part, from a purely military standpoint, in the defeat of Japan.
- Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, commander of all Allied forces in the Pacific, Oct 5, 1945, Associated Press interview
I voiced to [War Secretary Henry L. Stimson] my grave misgivings, first on the basis of my belief that Japan was already defeated and that dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary, and secondly because I thought that our country should avoid shocking world opinion by the use of a weapon whose employment was, I thought, no longer mandatory as a measure to save American lives. It was my belief that Japan was, at that very moment, seeking some way to surrender with a minimum loss of 'face.'
- Dwight D. Eisenhower, quote from his memoir The White House Years: Mandate for Change, 1953 - 1956, published 1963
Based on a detailed investigation of all the facts, and supported by the testimony of the surviving Japanese leaders involved, it is the Survey's opinion that certainly prior to 31 December 1945, and in all probability prior to 1 November 1945, Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war, and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated .
- United States Strategic Survey Summary Report (Pacific War), published 1946
so uh, how do you watch a "restricted" video without a google account?
The us can't go to war with China, they make everything we use. Also pointless for China to go to war with the us when we're trading all the money for effectively snackyfoods and plastic. The us gets to have as few proletarians in their borders and china gets infinite cash
Now rogue nuclear attacks? Yooooooo
