• phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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    5 months ago

    Yeah but… That is kind of the problem.

    Imagine that the US goes full hippie and dismantles its entire military, sending all the money to schools and hospitals and infrastructure and its economy. Fixes poverty, free healthcare, yay!

    Pardon my French, but China and Russia would ass duck it into oblivion within a week. THAT is why we can’t have nice things. As long as there are dictators out there, we will continue to need armies, unfortunately.

    Russia has shown that depending on each other with economies doesn’t work to keep the peace, all you need is a greedy bastard who is happy to throw hundreds of thousands of innocent lives into the meat grinder, happy to ruin his countries economy, all so he can play the next tzar.

    So like it or no, we NEED armies and given the choice of being ruled by the US or China or Russia, I’ll choose the US a hundred times over, as idnlike to stay out of punishment camps for the rest of my life.

    • I’m very aware the World won’t play nice. That’s why my scenario was dependent on an impossible situation. That sucks!

      Humans suck.

      Of course there are countless nice people that love others, wish kindness, and happiness.

      Unfortunately, the masses have not been able to control the powers that have driven the World in a combative and globally destructive feedback loop. The combination of violence and climate disaster will mean the extinction of humanity much, much sooner than most believe.

      • phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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        5 months ago

        Oh yeah, I do believe that humanity will go extinct within the next 100 years or so. At the very least there will be a huge downfall. India registered 52.9 degrees this week, but climate change is a hoax! What can you do.

      • in4aPenny@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        We’ve been in these situations before, albeit in smaller scale, the formula still works the same. And it never ends up well for the “ruling class”. It’ll probably take a lot of fuckery before the world unites in the class struggle, but when that happens we’ll know what to do. Just look at what human nature does in natural disasters - we collaborate, cooperate, and rebuild. We will do the same in the future.

    • MacAnus@sh.itjust.works
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      5 months ago

      I think you missed this part: “Imagine if each country spent their military $$ on water, food, housing, and free medical care for their citizens.” I know it unfortunately isn’t even remotely realistic but that’s the comment you answered to :)

      • phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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        5 months ago

        Well yeah but that is the point. If all countries were democracies, if all countries worked together economically, if all countries made sure that wealth was nicely distributed amongst the world population with a top 1:5 difference between the poorest and richest, then we wouldn’t need armies, we wouldn’t need borders even…

        Borders and armies exists because we have dictators and an again rapidly growing wealth inequality

    • OBJECTION!@lemmy.ml
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      5 months ago

      Funny how China and Russia combined spend a tiny fraction of what the US does on the military if the US only has it for defense.

      • phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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        5 months ago

        You either know that these dumb over simplifications are disingenuous at Nestor you should really go to school.

        Yes, yes, yeah yeah, military industrial complex is a thing, but you should.also count your blessings that the US does spend what it does. As bad as the US is, as fucked up the shit is that it regularly pulls with its armies, it’s all child’s play with what, say, China or Russia would do.

        Before you start with how loving and caring Russia and China are, maybe you should ask the Uyghurs and Ukrainians about that.

            • OBJECTION!@lemmy.ml
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              5 months ago

              The point that I should lick the boots of the murderous monsters who killed hundreds of thousands of innocents in Iraq and Afghanistan and are actively arming an ongoing genocide, all so they can protect their precious quarterly profits and buy off more senators? That point?

              I hope you someday find yourself on the receiving end of what you support, imperialist warmongerer.

              • phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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                5 months ago

                No, the point is that you apparently like licking boots? So you prefer China’s rule or Russia’s?

                Understanding reality is not licking boots

                I wonder how well you’d fare under chinas or Russia’s rule. But that is the point you’re missing. I never claimed that the US plays nice, a lot of US politicians belong in jail for life.

                However.

                If China was in power (or Russia for that matter) you wouldn’t even be able to vent your frustrations, lest you are far away from high windows you can fall out off. Or maybe you just need to spend 20 years in a Chinese rededication camp?

                As bad as the US is (and yeah it’s bad, nobody denies that) the alternatives are way WAY worse