In some ways, yes. American soft power and trust in the country just got fully tanked, but I see it as unrealistic that the country won’t still be a superpower trying to insert itself into everything… it just won’t have a lot of allies. But then again they control all of social media (minus Tiktok) so I’ll bet they’ll sway some assbrains around the world anyway, like with the election in Poland.

The tech and military industries in USA are too powerful that it’ll lose all of its relevance. Of course, the people will live increasingly worse lives - I just hope it’ll at least hit Republicans the worst

Most of all the Russians simply can’t stomach a reality where they’re not a feared global superpower, to such a degree that they’d rather shoot themselves in the foot and be a shithole rather than just a regular better functioning nation

I’m impressed by how many narratives you’re able to tie me to out of the blue. And just for the record my parents are from Iran so take your “Europeans and people of European descent” bla bla narrative somewhere else. Geopolitics is filled with nefarious actors and calling out any of them is never a problem. You’re a problem.

I’ve only ever tried to watch travel videos, yet they still feed me the occassional far-right propaganda and even islamism

And the Taiwanese 😂

So when a person shows up at your house with a gun, you should also just move out and hand it over?

Of course he was always a jerk, but I still think of a reality where Elon never went (officially) Nazi and just stuck with his otherwise important companies. Tesla being an important early mover in EVs, especially in such an oil-dependent country, and all the cool stuff SpaceX has been up to.

Governments in any nation - France deefinitely not excluded - are self-serving and following the wishes of the rich, but the common French people have always had balls!

You know that their Asian neighbours also have low birth rates, right? Then it’s simply shifting the issue to another area.

Really depends on the society. South Korea, for example, is definitely genuinely threatened by its way too sharp decline - including culturally. Otherwise I agree that negative effects are generally overexaggerated and that the future will inevitably demand less human labour.

European governments and the EU definitely don’t care about us, their citizens, but most do see the threat coming from USA these days, thankfully

How is that a “crazy theory”? Information control is not directly tied to capitalism but to any form of regime. The Western model and social media is, of course, strongly tied to capitalism and the desire for economic growth. How does that add to it?

There is no better regime than the West in this regard. Force things on people? You’re gonna risk a revolt or dissent. ‘Subtly’ make people dependent on your product so they’ll voluntarily use it and share everything with you while you ‘subtly’ control the algorithm in your favour? Now that’s perfect. Social media is the ultimate tool of power and governance.

Although North Korea is a very “successful” oppressive regime, largely able to have full control over information both in and out of the country and to greatly limit desertion. I can’t think of a “better” regime in this regard.

This is it… how about these dudes stopped preparing for the apocalypse that they themselves are causing, and instead changed the reality they’ve created, thus preventing said apocalypse from taking place in the first place…

Just to be clear though, it’s not a state programme. But fuck Germany’s stance on Israel for sure…

You know fully well that vaccines make frogs gay. It’s a protective measure not to use them!

For real, what is wrong with you?

Huh? I’m not even from the UK or a royalist 😂 what is up with your stupid assumptions? Go touch some grass fam

“Never”? This is literally the only comment of mine you’ve ever seen 😂 bro, don’t tell me there’s not pleeenty of criticism of the Catholic church going around. By far the most scorned religious institution in the West.

Now what does this have to do with criticism of a pervasive issue in Japanese culture? Do we have to attach a list of every problematic institution every time criticism is given, or do you just have a weak ass mental? Bring an argument rather than ad hominem and we might actually have something relevant to talk about. Otherwise you’re just a tosser.

Don’t let fear of being “racist” keep you from calling a spade a spade. Japan has a track record when it comes to issues such as these.