Somaliland only has like 6 million people. It’d almost definitely intensify the civil war, especially because Palestinians would 100% partner with the Houthis.

The country of Tiananmen Square?

True but irrelevant.

The country whose people practically develop an ever-changing coded language to avoid big brother coming down hard on any sort of criticism?

Yes. I never said that China tolerates criticism, but that doesn’t mean Chinese people live in fear of their government. An incompetent government will have criticism coming from every which way, necessitating draconian measures and exaggerated crackdowns, which does lead to fear (ask me how I know). This isn’t the case for China because, despite their faults and the evil shit they get up to, Chinese people are generally satisfied with their governance. Fear isn’t an automatic result of authoritarianism; it appears when there’s too little carrot and too much stick.

The country that runs “reeducation” camps for many who do get caught?

True but irrelevant.

The country that has Uyghurs and Tibetans to blame “within,” and Japan without? Or the US?

Source? Not for their oppression of Uighurs and Tibetans, or rivalry with the US and Japan, I know about these, but that they’re using any of these as scapegoats for their own troubles. Oppression can be motivated by things other than scapegoating, and it’s not like China is lacking in real reasons to oppose the US and Japan. Without something that corroborates your claim this is just a non-sequitur.

Where senior cadres of the party magically grow richer?

This is just a non sequitur. Senior CCP officials are rich, but the other half of your claim “everyone else pretty much won’t” goes against everything we know about Chinese economic growth.

If this happens I hope this is the straw that broke the camel’s back

Absolutely not, this camel can take a lot more of these.

Think of the list of political rights you take for granted. The right to voting, free speech, association, peaceful assembly, etc. Those don’t exist or are severely curtailed, meaning that political activity and discourse that anger the ruling class can and will be punished. How much is tolerated and what kind of punishments are doled out varies depending on the strength and heavy handedness of the ruling regime.

People live in fear and try to adapt, self-censor. Authoritarian leaders need a bogie man, somebody they can blame for all their failures. So an ethnic group, minority, or another country will constantly be blamed for everything from the economy to ingrown toe nails. The elite will get richer, everybody else pretty much won’t.

Not necessarily. Authoritarians are usually corrupt/incompetent, which tends to lead to these things, but competent dictators with legitimate public support exist, China being the best-known example.

*Basic political rights. You can have a perfectly liberal democracy where the average person is one missed paycheck away from starving to death. Education for example has nothing to do with authoritarianism, except that authoritarians tend to benefit from lack of education.

Counterpoint: All of 20th and 21st American history outside of WWI and WWII. The US never declared war on Iraq or Afghanistan.

Hell, they gave it to Henry fucking Kissinger.

The generation of Gazan children that lived through the war will likely be the most traumatized, both physically and mentally, in the world. I don’t want to even think about the generational trauma that will result from this.

Solidarity among evil people, never fails to make me want to puke.

Oh the supreme court is rotten no argument there, but he’s not being tried by the supreme court, at least not yet. The regime would have to appeal decisions at multiple levels before getting there, and by that point it won’t matter anymore.

I expect a kangaroo court.

I don’t. The US justice system isn’t that compromised just yet. It’s only really stacked against the poor; if you can pay enough (which Maduro presumably can) you should be able to expect a somewhat fair trial.

If you’re from the US, then that someone is you and your fellow Americans. If you’re not, then you’d need (a lot more) Americans to get off their asses first, which I wouldn’t bet on personally. It’s gonna get worse before it gets better.

TIL that different Fediverse clients have different character limits. Now I’m starting to feel like my 5000-character limit is a scam.

The long-term, the economy gets fucked, but the short-term, the aristocratic family’s balance books look fantastic.

I wonder why this sounds familiar. Must be the wind. That aside thanks for the excellent write up. I’m kinda starting to get Romaboos.

So I’ve got a few questions if you don’t mind.

the structure of the economy meant that a significant amount of benefit still reached the exploited poor, peasants and urban laborers alike.

Can you explain how exactly that worked? How would an average Roman peasant benefit from Roman conquests or trade?

Coloni were not nearly as productive as previous agricultural systems, for the obvious reason that they benefitted very little from their work.

If they were less productive, then why did the aristocracy accept this system? Or did the ability to exploit their coloni more make up the difference? Did this make them meaningfully richer?

More generally, from what I understood it seems the Western Empire went through a cycle of giving more power to the aristocracy and everything getting worse. Was this avoidable or would it be accurate to think of the late Western Empire as an anachronism giving more and more power over to the aristocracy in to temporarily sustain itself until it eventually collapsed? Why did this happen in the West while the East managed to survive?

I’d like to point out that can actually play your system by building voting blocs to defend your interests.

But then they might have to say mean things to liberal proto-fascists and that might lead to the creation of the fourth Reich (ignore the Nazis in government those don’t count).

Wow, that was fast.

You’d be basically revolting against the capitalist ruling class, so organize and go on strike is a tried and true tactic.

Thought about them. What now?

I wish everyone involved in that “raid” a slow and painful death. “Endangering US troops” my ass those assholes deserve to be endangered.