Zuzak [fae/faer, she/her]

Beginning to think the body double conspiracy theorists were right all along.

Define your variables. Wtf is “b,” the number of votes candidate B would have, plus one for no reason? Why is candidate T getting t votes and not t-1 votes? Terrible math, try again.

“Wow, the Fire Nation is just like the latest country the news told me to hate, good thing America’s around to Share Our Greatness™️with them!”

Exactly. The surgeon general tweeted out, “STOP WEARING MASKS” and CNN was publishing articles with all the anti-masker claims, including that they don’t work and could increase your risk of getting it instead, and people just pretend like it never happened and the anti-maskers came out of thin air.

It wasn’t just an idiotic ploy to deliberately spread misinfo to trick people into leaving masks for doctors, it was also about the government trying to cover their own ass for having sold off their emergency stockpiles for fast cash.

Fahrenheit is the temperature brine feels.

“Gender is what’s in your pants” alright then my gender is death

As the only real leftist on this site, I will be travelling to each state just so I can commit voter fraud in each one and write in “Karl Stalin.”

That said, if people who haven’t harmed anyone are being imprisoned solely because of their beliefs, regardless of how poorly informed those beliefs are - which this New York Times article discusses - then it’s fair to criticize the state for those actions.

“Haven’t harmed anyone” - antivax conspiracy theories have led to the reemergence of all sorts of diseases, so that’s already one reason already. But moreover, allowing CIA-backed organizations to operate in a socialist country is a recipe for disaster, and there have been countless cases of leftist projects that were defeated after failing to take the necessary steps to stop the CIA from operating with impunity and installing a fascist. Look at Mohammad Mossadegh of Iran and the CIA coup in the 50’s if you want an example of what happens when you go against Western interests and refuse to crack down on foreign subversion because of your principles. Rule number 1 of good policy - you can’t do good policy if you’re not in power. If a policy results in fascists coming to power, then it’s not good policy.

I’m not fully convinced one way or the other, but the arguments were compelling enough for several major governments to speak out against it and pass laws in response.

“Several major governments” will speak out about any random bullshit that makes China look bad. They’re the ones who come up with it in the first place!

I’ve also been unable to find rebuttals to the specific evidence. As a contrast, the World Trade Center “jet fuel can’t melt steel beams so it must have been an inside job” conspiracy theories prompted government investigations and a ton of debunking articles that I can easily find via a web search.

Not exactly shocking that there’s more articles debunking a claim that makes the US government look bad than there are debunking a claim that makes the Chinese government look bad.

Inference involves making a conclusion by taking evidence and applying logic and reasoning. Not sure why you think that’s “made up.”

Now you’re just being a debatebro. Inference is a lower standard of evidence than hard proof. You obviously know this. Given the clear incentives people have to cast China in a bad light and to always assume the worst, and given a track record of made up bullshit in that regard, “inference” from these people is worth less than dogshit.

Let’s say I’m at work and my lunch goes missing. If I think that one of my coworkers is the type of person who might steal my lunch, then I might infer that they probably did that. But let’s say that any time anything goes wrong, or even when nothing goes wrong, I accuse that coworker of random bullshit that never turns out to be true. At what point do you start saying my so-called “inferences” about this person are just “made up?”

Tribunal:

What Tribunal? What organization was involved, why are they an authority on the topic? Let’s see, the full name of that Tribunal was:

“The Independent Tribunal Into Forced Organ Harvesting of Prisoners of Conscience in China,” known as the China Tribunal,[66] was initiated in 2018[67] by the International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China."

I wonder what the International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China is going to determine about whether transplant abuse is happening in China? Say, who’s on this, anyway?

The China Tribunal was initiated by the charity ETAC, of which “a minority of its committee members are Falun Gong practitioners”.[3]

Who would’ve guessed?

One man, Wang Xiaohua, was imprisoned in a labor camp in Yunnan in 2001 when he and twenty other Falun Gong detainees

Another source that’s just “Falun Gong says this.”

Israeli authorities arrested several men involved in mediating transplants of Chinese prisoners’ organs for Israelis. One of the men had stated in an undercover interview that the organs came from “people who oppose the regime, those sentenced to death and from prisoners of the Falun Gong.”

Source is a book I don’t have access to.

Tibet

Tibet has historically been a part of China and is claimed by the ROC. It emerged briefly as an independent entity in the political instability in the early 20th century, along with countless little warlord states, and it never received international recognition. During the time when it was a de facto state, it was a backwards authoritarian theocracy with a caste system, serfdom, and a life expectancy of about 30. China ended these things and vastly improved the quality of life for the vast majority of Tibetans.

There are plenty of people in the US who would say that the changes in the South following the Civil War and the abolishment of slavery constituted a destruction of the Antebellum culture. “A civilization, Gone with the Wind,” to quote the movie. The South did undergo many changes including culturally, as much of its culture was tied to the institution of slavery. If it’s true that Southern culture was so tied to slavery that freeing the slaves destroyed that culture, then I say good riddance - and if freeing the serfs destroyed Tibetan culture then I’d say the same.

Organ harvesting

If you actually read that article, the evidence presented is laughable.

The authors qualified their report by noting the inherent difficulties in verifying the alleged crimes: no independent organizations are allowed to investigate conditions in China, eyewitness evidence is difficult to obtain, and official information about both organ transplantation and executions is often withheld or is contradictory. The initial report however received a mixed reception. In the US, a Congressional Research Service report by Thomas Lum stated that the Kilgour–Matas report relied largely on logical inference, without bringing forth new or independently obtained testimony; the credibility of much of the key evidence was said to be questionable.

In other words, nobody’s actually collected any real evidence and it’s all just speculation and inference. It’s made up. Many of the people pushing the narrative have incentive to lie about China.

FLG

Falun Gong is a far-right political group funded by the CIA with made-up religious trappings so they can cry oppression when they aren’t allowed to spread lies and bigotry with impunity. Just from the Wikipedia page on them, they oppose gay rights, feminism, and modern medicine and science and espouse QAnon and antivax conspiracy theories - this is the main source of “organ harvesting” claims btw. China Uncensored is directly affiliated with Falun Gong.

I wouldn’t necessarily describe the TV Tropes page as white supremacist but that’s the context for that stuff, and the page is definitely missing some disclaimers and context.

Can’t believe ISIS would do something like that 😔

Lol.

I’ve been watching Voyager for the first time and just got to the episode. I think I agree with the decision (as a lever-puller) but it does raise some interesting questions. As Janeway mentions, if they’d been able to do it immediately, she’d have done it without question, but after two weeks of Tuvix integrating with the crew it’s a more difficult question. If Tuvix had been around for say 5 years I think I’d disagree with separating him. I think the way I look at it is that the social bonds possessed by Tuvok and Neelix are more important than the mere two week old bonds of Tuvix, but if Tuvok and Neelix were long dead and their loved ones had already mourned them, while Tuvix had had more time to become a fixture in people’s lives, then the circumstances would be different. Tbh I disagree with the idea that Tuvok and Neelix get the biggest say - I think that the input of Kes and the rest of the crew is valuable, and Kes pleads to get Neelix back while none of the crew back Tuvix.

Does that mean the worth of lives is based on popularity? Not generally, but I do think that social connections are a relevant thing to consider. Part of what makes murder bad is not just the loss of the individual’s life, but also what it means for everyone else. If you could press a button to create a life then press another to end it, would you have made the world a worse place by doing so? I don’t think so. But if you press a button to create a life then go out and murder someone who already existed, then I think you have.

I’d also say that the captain’s responsibilities in her role as captain are relevant and also support the decision.

Food has a cultural component tied to its manufacture and identification. And IPAs are food that probably shouldn’t exist and which only does as a byproduct of market capitalism. They’re the Lacanian ‘object a’ - an empty, manufactured falseness. We don’t desire the thing itself, but the thing whose absence it symbolizes. What you’re really consuming when you drink an IPA is its innate mechanical predictability.

(Thanks to the thread last week arguing about pumpkin spice lattes for giving me a new copypasta to use about anything I personally dislike.)

Boss Battle music

Always fun to see accusations with no link and speculate on what actually happened.

If people are skeptical of Söhnlein, he understands. “Forget OceanGate. Forget Titan. Forget Stockton,” he tells Insider, referring to his late partner at OceanGate, Stockton Rush, who was one of the passengers aboard the doomed Titan.

I don’t think it works like that bro

Have you considered the possibility that some people like the taste of pumpkin spice lattes? Or do you just get to dismiss everything you personally dislike as “The Lacanian ‘object a?’” You could substitute literally any food or drink for PSLs in what you said, it’s completely meaningless.

It’s just empty words and phrases for you to feel superior to others based on what treats you enjoy or don’t enjoy.

Say what you will about the map, at least there’s no England.