wiki-user: unruffled

  • When the people are being beaten with a stick, they are not much happier if it is called “the People’s Stick.”
  • If you took the most ardent revolutionary, vested him in absolute power, within a year he would be worse than the Tsar himself.

- Mikhail Bakunin

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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 20th, 2023

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  • That Harris used her nomination acceptance speech “with more than 26 million watching from home, to issue a forceful call for Palestinian human rights was actually remarkable,” said Rolling Stone. It could be argued that “taking up the call for Palestinian freedom and self-determination is a bigger coup than a brief speaking slot of the kind the Uncommitted delegates were seeking.” While the Uncommitted movement was unable to secure a speaker, group leaders “cast their work at the convention as a success,” The Guardian said. Uncommitted’s impact was still undeniable, as “numerous delegates, including older Black and white delegates from as far-flung as Texas, were spotted wearing keffiyehs in clear support of the pro-Palestinian movement,” The Independent said.

    Although much of Harris’ rhetoric “continue[s] to be empty,” Uncommitted Washington State DNC delegate Yaz Kader said at Rolling Stone, “The positive thing is when she did talk about Gaza, the roar from the delegates in support was palpable.” Nevertheless, Kader said, until Harris “can make that change” from words to action, “I’m still uncommitted.”

    IMO Kader is 100% right to doubt whether Harris’ words of support for “Palestinian freedom and self-determination” will translate into any meaningful policy changes. I hope they keep up the pressure on this.


  • I’m not suggesting study bias, but I am suggesting that Chinese citizens’ social media and internet use is now so closely monitored by the CPP that it has a chilling effect on free speech, and this may have influenced the results even if they were told the study was anonymous.

    Secondly, since Xi took power, according to that same report, he has “effectively sidelined functional and professional institutions of party and state”, in addition to removing term limits. These are all classic authoritarian strongman moves. The study goes on to point out that having an effective authoritarian as leader - one who has helped improve the lives of many Chinese citizens - is of course going to be popular. The old saying goes that a benevolent dictatorship is the best form of government, and that may be true in some regards, right up until the point it isn’t benevolent anymore. Which is more or less inevitable imo.