Teddy Roosevelt never said “The only good indian is a dead indian.” That quote is typically associated with Philip Sheridan.

A number of sources claim a similar quote (“I don’t go so far as to think that the only good Indians are the dead Indians, but I believe nine out of every 10 are…") alleged to be from an 1886 speech in New York, but this still goes against how he treated native americans generally and I can’t find the original speech so I’m a bit suspicious of this as well.

People are seriously acting like Bin Laden was bait and switched by the US. I somehow remember it differently…

And your evidence for the US installing this government is what exactly?

Let me say this as a westerner - if someone all of a sudden tried to put me in a Putinist puppet state, shit would burn. To the ground.

deleted by creator

White people can do this.

Source: My friend worked around the clock in banking while living a room in a rowhouse in Manhattan. His roommates were random white people who were like aspiring artists.

Well Trump can say whatever he wants, whether he actually can do what he says is another matter. In this case for example, congestion pricing has simply continued as before because Trump doesn’t have power to change the laws of New York. When it comes to killing people, government employees are subject to the same rules as everyone else about unlawful killing, even if they were ordered by the president. Of course Trump can pardon his assassins for federal crimes, but states can still prosecute them and if nothing else the victims can still use deadly force to defend themselves without being guilty of a crime.

So legally speaking, Trump isn’t so much a king as just some fat, old, possibly mentally-challenged man who can’t be punished for things.

But in the technical sense, we’re all kings and can do whatever we want. We’ve just agreed as a society that if people do certain things we all unite to help put them in a cage or whatever.

The cybertruck is exactly the sort of thing Nazis would come up with. It’s the King Tiger of trucks - impressive specs and appeals to insecure men, but way the fuck too big and designed for unrealistic situations instead of practical reality.

I don’t think they say “No intellectual would be a socialist”, instead they say intellectuals are bad and evil. It’s a classic pattern among dictator cults of personality.

All with little to no reaction from outside news outlets and governments. But that’s where they’re mistaken. Look at the reaction on campuses to Israel’s bombing - there was plenty of will in the west to back Palestinian rights. But because it started with a terror attack, it was easy for people to support silencing them.

What if it started with the equivalent of the George Floyd video instead of Oct. 7 and protests erupted without the anchor of Oct. 7 holding them back? Biden would’ve loved to take that opportunity to finally stick it to Netanyahu and cut off Israeli funding. It may be surprising, but with the sole exception of Trump every US president absolutely hated Netanyahu. But because Democrats can’t afford to lose Jewish voters they’ve tolerated continued aid. Give them the right excuse, and it ends (I mean not under Trump, but whoever the next guy is).

The masses will always be attracted to the opiates offered them by those seeking to control them for greedy purposes.

No, they count as a colony as far as I’m concerned. But there’s a difference in how they are treated. PR is basically treated as an independent nation, despite having voted for statehood (ignored by the ruling GOP). HK wanted to have just a modicum of independence, and the Chinese government reacted with goons and gulags.

There was a time when the US was as colonialist as China, but in the 20th century it let the Philippines go, and passed on turning Germany and Japan into colonies, and let the Panama Canal go back to Panama. There’s an analogy to Hong Kong in there somewhere, or with North Korea which remains a totalitarian puppet of China to this day.

The US is far from perfect, but they’re not China. Not even close.

Yeah but why would we be more concerned about Chinese competition than say, the EU? Because China showed who they are in Hong Kong, and we want that to be as un-powerful as possible.

As soon as the government oligarchs who own the media thinks it might matter, they have a million tools to silence you.

But it’s also worth noting that the Chinese don’t even have that. At least in America, you can get your message out by getting a billionaire to agree with you.

At least not until they use their influence operations to elect a pro-China president.

It’s funny that we’re arguing this on a platform that’s legal in the US, and banned in China. Is lemmy.ml a US surveillance op too? Are you? Am I?

Actual argument I had recently with a “libertarian” family member:
Libertarian: “Rent control shouldn’t exist! It’s wrong for big government to tell property owners and renters what kind of agreements they can enter!”
Me: “What are your thoughts on single family zoning that bans missing-middle housing throughout most of the US?”
Libertarian: “Well that’s different! People choosing what kind of rules should apply to where they live is the epitome of freedom!”
Me: “Couldn’t that same argument apply to rent control?”
Libertarian: “Wha…you have clearly been brainwashed by the woke mind virus! So sad!”

deleted by creator

I think we’re running out of advancements that make life better, now all technology does is make production cheaper/increase shareholder value.

Like many, he was a right-winger until he became the victim of the right wing. Suddenly he became the most extreme example of the “woke” activists he used to attack.

Your commitment to long-term civilizational success, Elon, is not universally shared

It’s not even the majority position

What you call the “woke mind virus” cares about one thing only: equality

The levelers want to destroy everything because in the rubble we will all be equal

• Tweet reposted by Luigi, worshipping a capitalist 10x worse than the one he shot