6 ms·

It’s not China that is threatening to annex Greenland though.

guywithahat 3mo ago
There's nothing wrong with the US buying greenland, which has been done for territories around the world? The US has a long history of protecting individual freedoms, China does not. There's an irony that you're aware of the misgivings of the US because we have free speech protections. You're probably less aware of the misgivings of the EU because they regularly arrest citizens for speech, and no awareness of the issues with China because they'll just disappear journalists in the night.
- kachnuv_ocasek 3mo ago
  How long has the history of the US protecting the individual freedoms of non-white or non-rich citizens been?
  - deleted 3mo ago
    [deleted]
  - skippyboxedhero 3mo ago
    Since the late 60s there has been explicit federal legislation. I assume you meant this as a rhetorical question but there is a definite answer because the US is a transparent system. Law is passed, the courts enforce. The fact that you are unable to answer this question about China where it is often unclear why certain people are being targeted should demonstrate how big the gap is. For example, when Xi's first corruption crackdown happened, it turned out that it was being orchestrated in part by someone in their 90s who had left front-line politics twenty years ago (and much of why that happened is unclear, we are only just learning about things that happened in Chinese politics multiple decades ago so it will be a while before we know...we do know that Xi was then able to make unilateral sweeping changes to his own role shortly after that broke every convention of the last 5 decades)...it is difficult to compare this to anything that happens in any other political system. In China, you find out someone has been executed for reasons that are obviously not explicit months after it has happened. It is genuinely quite difficult to compare to anything else. 6 people meet in a room, they have almost all the power, and maybe you will read about what they might have said 4 decades later in a book...that will never be published in China.
    - inigyou 3mo ago
      There was legislation, sure. Were the people actually protected or did they just write a paper saying they were protected?
- kingofthehill98 3mo ago
  >The US has a long history of protecting individual freedoms You can't be serious. Was the individual freedom of those 120 Iranian girls protected? Was the individual freedom of Renée Good protected? Alex Pretti?
  - skippyboxedhero 3mo ago
    The inability to conceive of a country where these things would happen and you would have no idea that it had ever happened...and, perhaps more importantly, wouldn't care that you didn't know.
- deleted 3mo ago
  [deleted]
- ascorbic 3mo ago
  You're kinda missing the important bit there: buying Greenland under threat of invasion
  - guywithahat 3mo ago
    I think you're kind of missing the important bit; there is no threat of invasion and there never has been. People just want reasons to be mad at Trump, and so they make things up
    - SideburnsOfDoom 3mo ago
      > there is no threat of invasion of Greenland by the USA and there never has been. This is a dumb take. You're starting with "I don't take their threats seriously" and conflating it with "it didn't happen at all". But it did happen. > The Trump administration threatened military action to take control of Greenland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenland_crisis#Annexation_threats https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenland_crisis#Annexation_th...
rib3ye 3mo ago
When it comes to annexation, China doesn't threaten, they just invade and extinguish.
- kingofthehill98 3mo ago
  Yeah, I remember clearly when China invaded/bombed: Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Venezuela, Panama, Syria...
  - dragonwriter 3mo ago
    You absolutely should remember the Chinese war with the first of those; if you have trouble, a good way to remind yourself is that it was not long after the US one.
    - coldtea 3mo ago
      Yeah, so getting 1 out of 10 he mentioned, even if it's their direct neighbor (where disputes happen for all countries), ain't bad! This absolutely means they're the same /s
      - dragonwriter 3mo ago
        If I had wanted to say “China and the US are the same”, I would have strung together a set of words that looked a lot more like “China and the US are the same” than the ones that I actually posted.
  - rib3ye 3mo ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Vietnamese_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Vietnamese_War
- Xunjin 3mo ago
  Could you give me some examples? Which wars do you have in mind?
fc417fc802 3mo ago
Because China has never invaded or annexed a neighbor ... ?

There's nothing wrong with the US buying greenland, which has been done for territories around the world? The US has a long history of protecting individual freedoms, China does not. There's an irony that you're aware of the misgivings of the US because we have free speech protections. You're probably less aware of the misgivings of the EU because they regularly arrest citizens for speech, and no awareness of the issues with China because they'll just disappear journalists in the night.

kachnuv_ocasek 3mo ago
How long has the history of the US protecting the individual freedoms of non-white or non-rich citizens been?
- deleted 3mo ago
  [deleted]
- skippyboxedhero 3mo ago
  Since the late 60s there has been explicit federal legislation. I assume you meant this as a rhetorical question but there is a definite answer because the US is a transparent system. Law is passed, the courts enforce. The fact that you are unable to answer this question about China where it is often unclear why certain people are being targeted should demonstrate how big the gap is. For example, when Xi's first corruption crackdown happened, it turned out that it was being orchestrated in part by someone in their 90s who had left front-line politics twenty years ago (and much of why that happened is unclear, we are only just learning about things that happened in Chinese politics multiple decades ago so it will be a while before we know...we do know that Xi was then able to make unilateral sweeping changes to his own role shortly after that broke every convention of the last 5 decades)...it is difficult to compare this to anything that happens in any other political system. In China, you find out someone has been executed for reasons that are obviously not explicit months after it has happened. It is genuinely quite difficult to compare to anything else. 6 people meet in a room, they have almost all the power, and maybe you will read about what they might have said 4 decades later in a book...that will never be published in China.
  - inigyou 3mo ago
    There was legislation, sure. Were the people actually protected or did they just write a paper saying they were protected?
kingofthehill98 3mo ago
>The US has a long history of protecting individual freedoms You can't be serious. Was the individual freedom of those 120 Iranian girls protected? Was the individual freedom of Renée Good protected? Alex Pretti?
- skippyboxedhero 3mo ago
  The inability to conceive of a country where these things would happen and you would have no idea that it had ever happened...and, perhaps more importantly, wouldn't care that you didn't know.
deleted 3mo ago
[deleted]
ascorbic 3mo ago
You're kinda missing the important bit there: buying Greenland under threat of invasion
- guywithahat 3mo ago
  I think you're kind of missing the important bit; there is no threat of invasion and there never has been. People just want reasons to be mad at Trump, and so they make things up
  - SideburnsOfDoom 3mo ago
    > there is no threat of invasion of Greenland by the USA and there never has been. This is a dumb take. You're starting with "I don't take their threats seriously" and conflating it with "it didn't happen at all". But it did happen. > The Trump administration threatened military action to take control of Greenland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenland_crisis#Annexation_threats https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenland_crisis#Annexation_th...

rib3ye 3mo ago

When it comes to annexation, China doesn't threaten, they just invade and extinguish.

kingofthehill98 3mo ago
Yeah, I remember clearly when China invaded/bombed: Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Venezuela, Panama, Syria...
- dragonwriter 3mo ago
  You absolutely should remember the Chinese war with the first of those; if you have trouble, a good way to remind yourself is that it was not long after the US one.
  - coldtea 3mo ago
    Yeah, so getting 1 out of 10 he mentioned, even if it's their direct neighbor (where disputes happen for all countries), ain't bad! This absolutely means they're the same /s
    - dragonwriter 3mo ago
      If I had wanted to say “China and the US are the same”, I would have strung together a set of words that looked a lot more like “China and the US are the same” than the ones that I actually posted.
- rib3ye 3mo ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Vietnamese_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Vietnamese_War
Xunjin 3mo ago
Could you give me some examples? Which wars do you have in mind?

fc417fc802 3mo ago

Because China has never invaded or annexed a neighbor ... ?