<div dir="auto">I think we're at an impasse regarding the political stuff. I'm not left wing or right wing, and while I agree with some of what you are saying, I disagree highly with some of the other stuff, and with the presentation in general. So I think I will refrain from discussing it now.<div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">As for geopolitics, that's different. Taiwan has a lot of defense itself and a lot of allies that will defend it. It is about 100x more important to the global economy than Ukraine, and to US/NATO hegemony, too. I think an invasion will result in the Fujian coast getting glassed to oblivion, and more. It's a war of attrition that the CCP can't afford, especially with the fact that places like Xinjiang, Tibet, and Inner Mongolia are practically not even China anymore. </div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">You can tell when power is real and when it's not. China does not have true sway over its citizens and land in that regard.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Say what you will about Russia, I'm not a fan of their government, but it appears that they're far more adept at retaining control over persons*m^2 than China is--the latter never went through a massive secession scenario like Russia did after the fall of the Soviet Union.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">That is coming for China. The big reason it hasn't happened already is the nukes, I think. There are a lot of angry non-Han ethnic groups in China. And Hong Kong is angry too. And now even the mainland Han citizens are angry enough that they are showing it in public despite consequences. That energy is not possible to tamp down, and it's not possible for China to become North Korea. It has too many borders with other countries; its land is too vast and its West is divided by mountains. When NATO decides to arm the Uyghurs and Tibetans, it's over.<br><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto"><br></div></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Mon, Dec 5, 2022, 5:07 PM spike jones via extropy-chat <<a href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org">extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div lang="EN-US" link="blue" vlink="purple" style="word-wrap:break-word"><div class="m_-9210809209061292099WordSection1"><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><div style="border:none;border-top:solid #e1e1e1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in"><p class="MsoNormal"><b>…</b>> <b>On Behalf Of </b>Will Steinberg via extropy-chat<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [ExI] commies vs marxists was: RE: chinese fires, was:RE: book review<u></u><u></u></p></div><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><div><p class="MsoNormal">>…An optimistic scenario is that China will lose the war with Taiwan. Also, a realistic one. They're going to get annihilated when they try. <u></u><u></u></p><div><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal">>…Alao: for the love of God please stop imbibing news from whatever echo chamber you're in or just go to /pol/ so you can at least get it undigested. It is at least interesting to see how things trickle down to the mainstream, I suppose. Stick to engineering.<u></u><u></u></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal">>…On a related note, didn't we make another list for politics as to facilitate this one to discuss science and transhumanism instead of vapid mass media punditripe? This is as bad as John K Clark's Trump derangement, albeit presented with an avuncular "aw shucks" façade. But just as toxic and just as irritating to listen to. I'm also not a fan of a list admin displaying political bias…<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">Will, I am not a list admin. Haven’t been for a coupla years or more. That is ExiMod, but I am not ExiMod. I will give you that much information about the identity of ExiMod.<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">I will freely offer that I have never heard anyone suggest Taiwan would defeat China. I get a lotta stuff from a lotta sources, never heard that one. <u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">No I have no intention of stopping my imbibing in either Reason or Slashdot. Or Astronomy for that matter, or Nature or Physical Review Letter, any of that stuff. Oh the Babylon Bee, that one is really funny, but it isn’t a news site, it is fake news and parody.<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">I only ask for clarity and openness on some really weird stories I heard, and I gave some examples which keep pointing back to the FBI doing really fishy stuff, such as… why do we still not know what is on the infamous laptop after they already fired a guy for slow-walking the investigation? Who replaced that guy and why isn’t there any word about that still? How long does it take to determine if the content on that machine is fake or forged? Couldn’t they just contact the people who appear to have written it and ask? Did they? What was the result?<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">That hammer attack business, the FBI report is weird. I don’t understand how someone got into that area unnoticed and broke into that particular house using only a hammer. It makes no sense to me that would by physically possible to do, considering the circumstances. Regarding echo chambers, do you know any which have an answer to some pretty obvious questions? Such as… why didn’t they just release the body cam video? Let us determine if the FBI report agrees with what we see. <u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">Regarding US politics on the ExI list, while not encouraged, it isn’t forbidden. We asked that posters refrain from personal insult, be civil, which this discussion has been, so I wouldn’t consider any of it out of line were I a list admin. On John’s list, personal insult is allowed. We imbibed in it for a while, all in good fun. I haven’t been there in about the past year, so I don’t know how it is now.<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">spike<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p></div></div></div></div>_______________________________________________<br>
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