• DamarcusArt@lemmygrad.ml
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    1 year ago

    “Our economy is in the shitter due to our terrible mismanagement. What should we do about this?”

    “How about we piss off China, one of our largest trading partners?”

    “Nigel Bitterswax Chudley the fourth esquire, that is a truly brilliant idea!”

    • ghost_of_faso2@lemmygrad.ml
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      1 year ago

      UK politics makes more sense when you consider supply/demand neo-liberal economics.

      Everything must get worse to maximize the rate of profit.

      • DamarcusArt@lemmygrad.ml
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        1 year ago

        I think they just honestly don’t realise that the British empire is long gone and they are an American vassal now.

          • Egon [they/them]@hexbear.net
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            1 year ago

            Sometimes the leaders are also just idiots. The US is running on 3rd gen failsons, the UK is at least at 7th gen. They have all swallowed the copium

          • DamarcusArt@lemmygrad.ml
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            1 year ago

            Sorry, I meant the people don’t really seem to know, but yeah, their leadership profit very well from this new arrangement.

          • StalinForTime [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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            1 year ago

            I think it’s a bit more complicated and localized. Like I’ve met bourgeois people who are otherwise idiots, but have been or are sufficiently effective at managing and exploiting their workforce or have inherited wealth and know sufficiently how to play the networking, corruption, and non-disastrous asset-management game, but if you asked them what they think about the influence of British financial institutions on third-world resource extraction they wouldn’t know what the sentence meant, even when spelt out and explained.

            Most elected politicians do not need any actual specialized knowledge about the socio-economic system they are supposedly governing, largely because they do not govern it on a day-to-day basis. It’s a different situation once we are talking about the higher up capitalists and the professional administrators, bureaucrats and managers of the state and commanding heights of the, notably in the financial sector (which carries out many of the functions of central planning in a capitalist economy) and the deep state. The latter are well aware of what is going on and know we are correct. That’s why they are the most dangerous.

  • Summertime Soviet@lemmygrad.ml
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    1 year ago

    what the fuck is up with imperialist Westerners taking stances against China, then going on diplomatic visits there.

    “hello yes, I stand in opposition to your sovereignty and your authority in the international sphere. Pls be friendly wif me uwu” shut the fuck up

    • Water Bowl Slime@lemmygrad.ml
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      1 year ago

      I think they’re provoking a response so they can “prove” the aggressiveness of authoritarian China or whatever. Then they can publish spicy headlines to sway public opinion

      • Shrike502@lemmygrad.ml
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        1 year ago

        Gotta agree. The spin is something along the lines of “We came to those backwards barbarians with our hands extended in peace, and they swatted us aside for exercising our FREE SPEECH! Clearly it indicates how bellicose and authoritarian they are!”

    • pigginz@lemmygrad.ml
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      1 year ago

      Maybe intentional self-sabotage for the purposes of manufacturing consent? Or perhaps just simply pandering to their racist countrymen and colleagues. If you’re not constantly saying “China bad” you might get mistaken for an evil CCP shill, so its best to set the record straight before you leave.

      • Addfwyn@lemmygrad.ml
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        1 year ago

        I feel like it’s that last one. If they don’t make an anti-China gesture, people might think they are evil authoritarian supporter.

        Remember, diplomacy is now only talking to people who agree with you 100% on everything. Otherwise you are expected to walk out of any meetings they have been invited to. My nephew would be a better diplomat than most of these assholes.

    • CriticalResist8@lemmygrad.ml
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      1 year ago

      Huge contradictions in that they need China but also want to project tough guy energy and seem like they’re still relevant on the international stage riding off the legacy of their colonial empires

  • Phenyq@lemmygrad.ml
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    1 year ago

    Hope that China will deny this visit and impose sanctions on UK. As far as I know they sanctioned Lithuania for Taiwan bullshit

    • o_d [he/him]@lemmygrad.ml
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      1 year ago

      Or South Korea. Libs love talking about how Russia is run by oligarchs, but this topic never seems to come up when they talk about SK.

  • Buchenstr@lemmygrad.ml
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    1 year ago

    jesus christ didn’t the foreign minister just visited china as well? It seems like a pattern now, foreign official visits china, foreigner complains about some made up bullshit, and the foreign country comes out with some awful imperialist dog-drivel.

    Good diplomacy dipshits, fuck your economy.

  • to be fair, if i were the little lordling running a troubled, fragmenting island and visiting a global superpower, i would make some kind of announcement about how i’m going over there and really going to stick it to those motherfuckers, expecting to be met with throngs of hooting idiots below the parapet.

    and then, once over there and behind closed doors i would tell them they can piss on me for $100 and if they want to kiss me on the lips its $150.

    that’s just old school statecraft.