alanjjohnstone
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Undiplomatic words at the diplomacy table
The United States and China leveled sharp rebukes of each others’ policies in the first high-level, in-person talks
Should this news item be on the China thread?
“…China has said it is prepared to do more to protect its extensive business investments in Myanmar, which include factories, pipelines and other big infrastructure projects. China’s state-run Global Times asserted that protesters “incited by the West” had attacked 32 factories, causing 240 million yuan (about $30 million) in damage…”
https://apnews.com/article/beijing-china-martial-law-myanmar-df4e07d2903350b4fc119189deaac492
Indoctrination works it seems
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/3/18/israels-upcoming-election-where-did-the-occupation-go
In a Hebrew-language study recently published by the Molad: The Centre for the Renewal of Israeli Democracy, Israeli psychology professors Daniel Bar-Tal and Amiram Raviv attempted to explain the reasons behind the Israeli society’s – and hence the Israeli political classes’ – support for the occupation and the state’s violent policies towards Palestinians.
The two psychologists argued that as a result of long-term indoctrination, Israeli Jews accepted as fact a narrative in which all Arabs are inherently violent, untrustworthy and determined to destroy Israel. Within the same narrative, Israeli Jews are cast as a moral people whose efforts to achieve sustainable peace are being thwarted by their war-mongering neighbours.
According to Bar-Tal and Raviv, due to this narrative that has been hammered in to their minds for decades, Israeli Jews believe it is they who are under attack by the Palestinians. Hence they believe, to avoid a repetition of the Holocaust, they must be strong, united and willing to do anything necessary, including turning a blind eye to human rights and international law violations by their state.
Renowned Israeli psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky once wrote that a conflict ends on the day a society realises the price it will pay for a peace agreement is lower than the cost of the ongoing conflict.
Unfortunately, as the Israeli political parties’ reluctance to discuss the occupation and its consequences in their electoral campaigns demonstrate, the Israeli society is yet to reach this realisation.
“I’ve openly said that the SPGB is far more democratic than, for example, the SWP.”
That is a very mealy-mouthed clarification and an extremely low bar you have put forward in your defence having declared that the official stance of the SPGB was to oppose democracy.
Some anarchist background reading on the Kronsdadt
MS, days before this latest atrocity warned that anti-asian racism was on the increase
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56424616
Whether outright racist which the killer denies he is, describing himself as motivated by his sex addiction, reflects on the racial stereotype of asian women in the US
You have hit on one accuracy…I am completely baffled by your promotion of your position.
In all these years of this debate which if my memory serves me right, you originally claimed that there is no objective truths, and gave an example that if people believed the sun went around the sun, then it led to how truth in the physical sciences is demonstrated – by voting on scientific hypotheses, and only a technocratic elite will oppose such a process. And no doubt, even that rough summary will be proof that i am indeed baffled.
I’m passed the stage where i require any philosophical explanations for the need for working people to take control of their lives and determine their conditions. As Marx said, his German Ideology should have been left to the gnawing away of the mice.
You refer to your mistaken choices made as reason why you now abstain from actual party politics, something that Marx declined himself to do, participating in various organisations throughout his life, from the Communist League to the First International. His individual understanding of society, he recognised meant very little if it was not reflected by an active social movement. He was not an individualist but i find that you prefer to hold that individualist role.
“…if everyone is so opposed to democracy, and this seems to be the official stance of the SPGB, why not just say so?…”
I concur with Matt, you have revealed deliberate and malicious misinformation.
After all those years of being on the fringe of the Party and having been privy to some of our internal disputes, i’m surprised you have not recognised that one of our organisational problems is an over-commitment to democratic practices which sometime have hindered our activities.
All our Annual Conferences and ADM are usually full of well-intentioned resolutions to improve upon our democratic procedures and make the Party fully accountable to the membership’s will.
Taiwan has strengthened deployments in the disputed South China Sea and that the United States has approved the export of sensitive technology to equip Taiwan’s new submarine fleet.
An informative article of media manipulation citing the expose work of Peter Oborne who on this forum has been quoted approvingly on various international affairs.
Japan and the United States on Tuesday condemned Chinese “coercion and aggression” in the Indo-Pacific region. In a joint statement the two nations’ foreign and defense ministers said they will not tolerate Beijing’s “destabilizing behavior.”
https://www.dw.com/en/us-japan-and-china-in-indo-pacific/a-56887763
Renewable electricity production needs to grow eight times faster than the current rate to help limit global heating, according to a report.
The International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) said urgent action was needed to keep pace with rising demand for electricity, which could require a total investment of $131tn in renewables by 2050.
Francesco La Camera, the director general of Irena, said the “window of opportunity” to achieve the goals of the Paris climate agreement was closing fast.“The recent trends show that the gap between where we are and where we should be is not decreasing but widening. We are heading in the wrong direction,” La Camera said.
Ministers are weakening the UK’s environmental protections in the aftermath of leaving the EU, an assessment of the government’s performance has found, despite promises of a green Brexit. Legally binding commitments on key areas of pollution, nature restoration, waste and resource use have been put off to 2037, and the proposed new environmental watchdog will lack teeth, according to a report by Greener UK, a coalition of 12 campaigning groups.
A study analysis of tree rings dating as far back as the Roman empire to create the longest such record to date and the series of severe droughts and heatwaves in Europe since 2014 is the most extreme for more than 2,000 years, the research suggests, causing thousands of early deaths, destroying crops, igniting forest fires and low river levels. Climate scientists predict more extreme and more frequent heatwaves and droughts in future.
