If I had 700k in savings I could probably retire right now, nevermind when I was 67.
Says he still has an outstanding mortgage, but how much could he possibly have left to pay off??

I feel we have been hovering right around there for a while now.

I have about the same position on this. A lot (though not all) of these people are insufferable, though we don’t have nearly as many in my country as the US does. Being annoying on the internet is, thankfully, not something people get deported for however.

Nor does it mean I wish them death, which is likely what would happen if they were sent back. Their death and a prolonging of a war that is just going to kill even more.

Surely they don’t actually think NATO is an equal partnership between them and the US, right?

I don’t keep up with him, because why would I, but did Hinkle get banned from some Chinese platforms or something?

It’s a good thing the capital flight laws were in place already. Seeing millionaires (and up) fleeing a country is probably one of the most overt signs that China is obviously doing something right.

I mean, there are dozens of other metrics that show that too, but it’s nice to have another one.

One could argue they have…for Russia at least. They’ve been a great impetus at pioneering industries independent of the dollar. A lot need time to reach maturity still, but that may never have happened if the dollar wasn’t being weaponized.

Dang, the Russian disinformation has corrupted the World Bank now too! They must be using their mind-scramble lasers.

I could be mistaken, I am not an expert on Estonia by any stretch so please correct me if I am wrong, but my understanding was that they were already one of the more fascist leaning EU countries. Which is a…questionably impressive feat.

Very curious how the only Ukrainians we hear say they want to fight are the ones…not fighting. Admittedly, those in the trenches are probably not giving many interviews, but if they were so eager to fight surely the rest should be clamoring to enlist.

Agree, good on the crew for not trying to push through and turning it around. But these planes seriously should not be flying.

Can I get that with the puppet dictator bundle?

Puts on lib hat

Well you see, this shows that the war is basically already won and that Zelensky is getting back to governing affaris because they don’t need to pay attention to those (sorry which slur are we using right now? The hordes one again? Got it) asiatic hordes anymore.

Throws off hat in disgust

Seems to be real, he took a plea and left the UK already. He had to admit guilt to sharing state secrets. Plea was about as good as he was going to get, and given existing health issues makes total sense for him to take it.

I am honestly still floored he got that much, but I am pretty stoked about it.

You’re not wrong, there is a LOT of political apathy from folks. Especially younger working age people who are just determined to get a job and keep their head down. If you join politically active groups that is obviously not the case, but those can be smaller.

Do you mind if the resources are in Japanese, or is English preferable? I have more of the former, but some of the latter.

1. I think a lot of people have unfortunately just kind of internalized the “China bad” propaganda, and have definitely internalized the “DPRK evil kidnappers” line. People very strongly do not want to be embroiled in a war and disagree with the leadership’s willingness to basically be a forward operating base for the US. If there is one thing you can usually find widespread support for in Japan (minus the fascists), it is not engaging in overseas military operations.

However, there is a really encouraging silver lining here. While the older generations almost uniformly hate China, the younger generations increasingly say they have a positive view/affinity for China. I think a recent survey had something like 10% of the older generations had a positive view of China, while 40% of younger generations did. Especially among anyone that has traveled there. It’s a trend I hope continues.

2. Realistically, I think they’d go socdem-liberal honestly, at least right away. If they could start to align more with China that would be great, but there would be some big changes needed internally here for that. For example, recognition of the atrocities comitted by Japan in the past. I think that kind of recognition and apology are possible though, existing political parties already hold that position.

The Red Purges were so effective that there really isn’t much socialist ideology at a national level right now, even in the socialist and communist parties.

3. Basically, yes. I think a lot of people in the cities don’t think about it, because out-of-sight is out of mind. But if you put the question to them, people at the very least seem to think the bases should be further outside residential areas. Every time the USian forces commit a crime, public sentiment worsens and never really recovers.

We exist! With the disclaimer that while I am not natively from Japan, I’ve lived here virtually my entire adult life, over 20 years now, and am naturalized. I am involved with local marxist groups.

Interestingly, Marxism had and continues to have immense influence on intellectual traditions here. It really first came to Japan through universities, and a lot of that continues today. At least at the university and graduate level. A lot of the MEGA project work was done out of Japan, surprisingly enough. If the puppet government and the US hadn’t come down hard on post-war communists in Japan (see: Red Purge), I think it is very likely we would be a socialist state today.

There is definitely a lot of resistance towards US influence that has grown in recent years, I won’t say it all comes from socialists as much as it comse from people who have just been disenfranchised with the US. This is especially true, unsurprisingly, in regions that are directly hosting military bases, particularly in Okinawa/Ryukyu. Which is basically double occupied by Japan and the US. Theft, sexual assaults, drunk incidents are all pretty common side effects. A helicopter actually lost pieces of the helicopter while flying over an elementary school not that long ago. These are all things that have a lot of people really fed up. All the hot dog and hamburger “Friendship Days” they host can’t really make up for these things.

A big issue recently is the relocating of a US base closer to residential areas in Okinawa. Okinawa governor Tamaki refused, so Tokyo courts mandated that he had to approve the permits. The deadline came and went and the governor has refused to do so. While the permits did get rammed through eventually (the governor never caved, Tokyo just went over his head) he delayed everything about four years and significantly eroded public trust in Tokyo.

I don’t necessarily think this is a sign of a full decoupling from the US, but it is definitely an element that has significantly impacted the public perception. I think the average person here would still consider the US an ally, but wants to be less reliant on the US economically and militarily.

It’s possible, but our current leadership couldn’t be anymore a US lapdog so it’s hard under them. That same leadership has basically controlled Japan since ww2 by the way, outside of one very short period. That party is increasingly dropping in popularity though. We have a large “communist” party, but after the red purges they’ve become basically socdems at the national level (I am involved in some local activities with them though and there’s good folks there).

There’s definitely areas/leaders that are pushing back more and more against that, especially any area that has to deal with the US military bases and all the problems they cause. The governor of Okinawa in particular.

With some radical shifts of leadership and maybe a couple more doohickeys, it’s possible. Maybe I am optimistic though.

I was listening to a podcast, and the host was talking about how his son (early middle school age) apparently came home from school singing ad jingles just because of how much they were exposed to it. It’s basically the plot of a dystopian novel.

I feel an urge to scream it into the world every single day just how much i despise ads and whoever invented them.

If you are like me and just like reading history for fun, even the history of things like advertising, there is some actual interesting history there. Advertising goods for sale basically goes back as far as recorded history does. We have examples of adverts from the Song dynasty. These tended to be fairly innocous though. Basically just signs advertising a product sold at a shop.

Modern advertising, the more invasive kind that we hate, unsurprisingly got its start in the US. All the advertising execs that basically set out with the goal of exploiting human psychology to sell product are from the early 1900s in the US/UK for the most part. Nielsen and the dedicated advertising agency came a bit later. Thomas Barratt (UK) was one of the worst, he famously bought the rights to a painting and then added a product he was selling to the painting. The artist hated it but couldn’t do anything about it.

Is this a regular event? Does another mod always reinstate you or something? Or do they just realise they lose half their content when you aren’t supplying them with actual news?