or things have to be otherwise be bad enough that they genuinely think that things can’t get worse for them if they attend and change might actually happen if they attend.

Usually, the main reason for protests and revolutions to grow immensely is if the means of livelihood is affected. No food to eat? Blame the government. No jobs? Blame the government. No housing? Blame the government. They’re cutting pensions? Blame the government. Speaking of which, the planned pension reform by Putin, years ago, was the only time his leadership was seriously threatened by the public. Otherwise, Russian people don’t care if Kremlin bombs the Georgians or Ukrainians, or dissidents keep flying off the window, so long as their means of living are not touched. In that sense, individuals are selfish and don’t mind authoritarianism as long as they themselves are not severely affected.

Humans are complex and are not naturally predisposed to crave for democracy, contrary to what many Westerners believe. Ultimately, it is a question of liberty versus security. Some prefer security so long as standards of living is well kept by the ruling elites, and certain degree of freedom is allowed to the public. That’s why, unfortunately, some authoritarian leaderships persists for so long. Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy for as long as anyone can remember, and Francisco Franco’s fascist regime survived long, in spite of the fall of fascism after World War 2.

But he’s white! How can he be an immigrant!

Nah. Russia will implode itself on its own even without resistance. As if Russia never learned anything that autocratic control over economy never works, because their political culture is too corrupt to function effectively.

Francis Fukuyama, as wrong as he was about the end of history, is still correct that dictatorships eventually collapse because they surround themselves with yes men who are too detached from reality. The invasion of Ukraine is the beginning of the end for Putin. It is only a matter of time.

Economists say Trump’s policies are detrimental to the American economy. And sure enough, his policies pissed off almost everybody, even oligarchs, when the stock market crashed in early April 2025. His big beautiful bill is gutting basic welfare and government spending. Fascism always collapses on its own because their policies are based on emotions and rejection of expert advice. Reality eventually catches up.

America will eventually decline as superpower (all bloated empires eventually do). As we speak, China overtook US in terms of research and development spending. However, Trump’s policies and exodus of researchers makes America less competitive, which will accelerate the country’s decline as the sole hyperpower.

If germany wouldn’t have started the war or would engage in limited warfare then nazi germany would have existed till now.

They definitely won’t survive until now. Little known fact that most people are unaware of post-war is that Nazi Germany was on brink of another economic collapse in 1939 because of excessive government spending. The pillage of resources from their conquered territories gave them small injection of wealth to keep themselves going for a while. Even if Nazi Germany went fully isolationist and engaged in limited war (which I think is even impossible), eventually their poor policies will cause their own demise.

so basically yeah, isolationist Nazis would have totally survived,

Everything you said was on point but this part I feel is incorrect. Nazi Germany was on the brink of bankruptcy by 1939 because of government overspending, mainly due to rearmament. Hitler felt he had to absolutely invade other countries to pillage the resources and maintain the German economy. People tend to give too much credit to the Nazis but the regime would have totally collapsed on its own if it weren’t for the war delaying the inevitable.

Hitler and the Nazis aren’t different to any other dictatorships in post-war third world countries. They are bunch of fantasist buffoons. The Nazis only got lucky they went so far because they inherited strong institutions to leech off of, particularly the legacy of the Prussian military-- the army with a state.

I have the game on my backlog!

That’s genuinely the reaction when I pointed out how ridiculous it is for the military (or anyone really) to be overwhelmed by a rotting and slow-moving corpse. World War Z and I am Legend made the zombie apocalypse more believable.

It is not physical money being given to Ukraine, the amount of money mentioned is the worth of already outdated military hardware being given, which would have been decommissioned in the near future anyway. And Ukraine is actually paying for this in IOU (the lend lease programme). With all things considered, helping Ukraine is bang for the buck.

This is what people may not want to hear, but even before Trump 2.0, Pentagon did express concerns of dwindling stocks, especially if the US wants to keep China in check. It is easier to blame Trump, but this time it may not be his fault. As the article mentioned, there has been change of priorities (not that I support Israel).

America speed running to be ruled by Enclave.

Those who support China (and Russia) because they are against American imperialism, are just supporting another imperialists.

The CCP is a pretty pragmatic organisation. They plan long term with decades in mind. Not to mention that US’ internal whackery is just easily handing over the torch to China this century. Unfortunately, it is hard to see how CCP will collapse. It might even take the next century for that to happen.

China: We came here to rescue you. Please do not resist.

A country founded on genocide and explicit principle of setting up free market, is against even slight implementation of common sense policy of affordable education and healthcare.

Colour me shocked.

As an outsider looking at American politics, “blue no matter who” is a propaganda to condition Americans citizens to always accept the lesser evil, and to not bother to try to lobby or pressure their own representatives to be actually be better.

Dabbling in stocks, it made me realise that it’s impossible to be ethical in the capitalist system.

Raising consumer prices because of increased minimum wage is a myth. Even fucking Henry Ford of all people knew the benefits of raising wages! More wages means more people buying his cars! More wages means more consumer spending! And it is not like raising minimum wage is what drove prices to increase since the pandemic; even though the minimum wage has been stagnant since the 1970s! Businesses will tell you that they have to increase their price because of “inflation” despite having record profits!

Still “both sides are not the same”? Even if Democrats have slight majority in both or either houses, they still dilute policies to appease the fascists from stonewalling. Meanwhile, the fascists legislate every unspeakable evil policies and Democrats don’t even try to resist as opposition.

He looks at least 28 years old. Not that looking old further diminishes him.