Lurker > M1Astray

KiwiTerraRizing posted...

China is a decade from economic collapse. Their population is shrinking and they dont have enough young people to keep the economy going.

They import most of their food stuff (fertilizer, stuff that makes it so they can actually grow shit), their manufacturing makes disposable junk and their navy cant even operate in deep water. Taiwan is about the only place they could actually invade.

Add to this that Xi does not get any bad news as people are afraid to tell him out of self preservation.

They don't need to wait another decade. Three to four years will be about what they need to wait.

If they go right now there's a very real chance America will still step in because the incoming administration despises China and is chomping at the bit to have an open war with them. So then China would end up having that war against the US that they very clearly don't actually want (because even Xi likely has some inkling they might lose).

Much safer to let Trump's second term have a chance to actually degrade the US first before making any moves and in the meantime swoop in and grab a ton of economic power the US is vacating (further weakening the US long-term).

Bokothechoco2 posted...

This, though China/Hong Kong was probably a factor in starting this mess even before. Now Russia wants Ukraine, CN wants Taiwan, and NK wants SK. Once one is done, the others will follow, and they'll all assist each other while Orange Guy will probably ignore or even promote it all. And from there we'll see them go for more of Europe, Japan, SEA, etc. Losing Ukraine will be the start of a nightmare from hell.

TBH China/Xi is probably playing a longer and far smarter game.

They've stated they want to break the US hegemony as a major goal for years, with the US set to go full isolationist for four years America is basically destroying it themselves.

China will likely spend these next few years strengthening its new economic position before it goes after Taiwan. I don't frankly expect a "everyone invades all at once" scenario, at least not involving China/Taiwan. China stands to be able to take Taiwan much easier at a later date once the world is utterly reliant on them economically and the US has imploded internally.

Thing is last I heard the chief writer has nothing to do with the extra versions, so even if Metaphor gets one it's not the same.

P5 Royal was crap anyway. I know, potentially hot take because of the revisions to the main Palaces (which TBH I don't really care for) but P5's biggest issue was always its bloat wrecking the pacing and Royal came along and said "would you like some bloat within your bloat so that your bloat can be bloated while it's bloating?"

There's a reason I've crashed out of three attempts to play Royal (and I'm never going to even see the new content because of it lmao).

I've played enough of Metaphor at this point to say the game doesn't need a "rerelease". It's a full package in its own right with all the QoL stuff you'd need.

All hail Lord Louise!

OwlRammer posted...

Yeah but big pharma is out to get them tho, the vaccine is actually to make them sick more often so they spend more money on doctor appointments and prescriptions

The problem is big pharma is actually that evil.

Not the same industry but the crap Nestle has done in the past is downright evil. It is, more importantly, a really good lesson about what all these major corporations do to us peasants for a buck. All capitalism when taken to its final stages is about exploitation, the conspiracies about big pharma are just taking things to their logical conclusion.

None of which is my saying I am anti-vax. But I can definitely see where the distrust of big pharma comes from. Because being frank I sure as fuck don't trust them (me, trust an American mega corporation? lol. Just lol).

Your mistake is thinking the right wing vote-base is educated enough to understand how cells and viruses work. Why do you think so many of them are climate change deniers? Because even something as simplistic as pointing to a coal stack and remarking the shit being spewed has to go somewhere is too much for their brains to comprehend.

Agent_Stroud posted...

I say make the Trumpers do it. They voted for Donnie after all.

That is indeed the longterm plan. Destroy the education system over generations, make the population dumber and dependent on cheap nasty chemical-laced food products by big corporations, con them into believing the right is on their side.

Then once far enough along you've successfully reverted the masses to a state where you can peacefully revert them to peasant-classes doing manual labour for a living.

Problem for them is they're probably not far enough along this transformation for it to work, so a good chance it'll backfire and cause some sort of movement to arise if they push too hard too fast.

Nominating Gallica from Metaphor ReFantazio. Fairy companions FTW.

On one hand I feel sorry for kids going to go through this hellscape of an """"education"""" system.

On the other hand I look at the impending destruction of civilization via climate change and feel sorry because this is small-fry compared to what's coming next decade.

The irony that the people voting because "get polutucs outta muh kids educations" have wrought about something infinitely more cultish is probably not lost on anybody.

If there are tariffs across the board of even 10% (and Trump's saying 20-40% IIRC) that means things like tech purchases go absolutely crazy expensive.

There's no excuse for these tariffs. They're garbage policy that will break the global economy. The only amusing part is how all these wannabe oligarchs think they'll be the winners off destroying the current order, money flows up not down. It's why China abandoned the socialist path to combine communism with capitalism.

Doing what all smart people with political aspirations do when a soon-to-be-deeply-unpopular leader is running around: keeping a low profile hoping people don't associate him with the leaders brand once things go sour.

divot1338 posted...

DOGE isnt a government agency and he wont actually be in government.

That so. So Musk is even more expendable to Trump than I previously thought then. Oh I am so looking forward to Musk and Trump's inevitable falling out with each other, it's going to be popcorn-worthy..

wanderingshade posted...

Cats are probably mostly bothering you at 3am because they're bored. I've never lived in a house with multiple cats but I'm assuming you don't end up with cats that do shit like howl at the bedroom door or run up and down the hallway if they have other cat friends.

On the contrary they're actually more likely to cause a ruckus in the middle of the night as that's prime playtime for them if they have friends.

"Wannabe Oligarch Loses Battle of Capitalism Due To Own Stupidity, Has Bitchfit in Court Over It."

TBH I just find it kind of funny because it's such a display of pathetic behavior. The thing I've noticed with authoritarian types the world over is they never seem to understand just how truly pathetic and weak-minded they look to the rest of the population.

Musk-y boy has forgotten he's not in government yet so he can't rig the process yet. On top of that given his love for buying media outlets to take control of them he should've just bought it first.

Gotta say reading through the Dune trilogy and God Emperor of Dune for the first time this year made the last few weeks quite the trip. Those books were downright prescient about certain aspects of humanity and politics (and technology and how it enslaves the mind for those who rule the world).

As for Star Wars gotta wonder how George Lucas is taking the turn of events. Gotta be remembered that he was pulling from the rise of Bush when penning the prequels rather than predicting the insanity of Trump.

Dark_Moon posted...

Notice how trump and his allies have stopped talking about draining the swamp.

Well technically speaking they are draining the swamp. Never promised not to fill it back with new filth more profitable to themselves directly, did they?

The "swamp" was always code for "the establishment", all the public servants from high to low that are about to get sacked and replaced by loyalists.

As a non-American I can see things getting super bad.

As in "2028 election results not being ratified" bad.

Trump has legal immunity for anything he does in office. He has stated the entire campaign that he is going to destroy his enemies day 1. He's even outright stated 2024 will be the last election in America.

So far every single one of his cabinet picks with the exception of Marco Rubio (who'll just get thrown out like everyone else that Trump disagreed with in his first term) points to Trump making very overt moves towards Project 2025.

Put very simply people need to start listening to what Donald Trump is promising to do and get it through their delusional coping skulls he is going to do exactly what he's promising to do.

Remember that I come from this as an outsider. I don't have skin in this game directly (although America allowing China to do as it pleases will cause massive issues for my nation and the world in general), these are just my largely unbiased observations of the situation.

Those observations are bleak on a good day. The only hope is that his cabinet has zero competency and the purging of every single level of administration and beurocracy ultimately prevents him from getting into the nitty-gritty stuff regarding legal process and election process. It's game over otherwise and we're all going to look back on 2024 as the year of the death of the world's most powerful democracy, possibly even the birth of the world's most powerful totalitarian empire.

I'm still not sold that Earth is doomed. It's experienced far worse conditions than anything we measly humans can inflict and bounced back.

TBH I'm not even convinced humans are, as a species, screwed either. I think based on the fact the global temperature did actually go down a little during the covid years that if a mass die-off of humans were to occur (like, say, the complete and absolute collapse of all forms of agriculture in the three biggest polluters of the species causing a massive and rapid die-off, which is likely since all three of those nations in particular are some of the ones set to be most impacted by climate change) that the ship would right itself rather quickly.

Granted the mere fact the situation has gotten to "yeah, we'll be fine if two thirds of all humans die in a short period of time in horrid conditions" as the "good scenario" says how bad things are. But it's why I don't believe the species is done yet.

In a sense it's possibly a good thing Trump plans on going full isolationist. Because once the US removes itself from the global stage it means they're also going to lose their power at stopping other nations from trying to do something.

The_Wheelman1 posted...

Ukraine is fucked. Russia will make a comeback in the war all thanks to Donnie. So yeah, Putin is smiling right now.

My only hope is that with the US ceasing all support for Ukraine they also lose veto over what Ukraine does with long-range weapons gifted from other nations like the UK.

TBH this situation highlights why the US's strategy was dumb from the start. Yes, using Ukraine to bleed Russia out longer term is a strategy. But it was always known if Trump got back in that strategy fails and then you have an emboldened Russia poised to start gnawing away at NATO and the rest of the Baltic states.

Better to have just punched them in the proverbial face from the outset. These regimes only respect strength anyway and the only long term solution is to show you won't tolerate them disrupting world order.

Glob posted...

Im not so convinced about this part.

I am, and I live outside the US. That 20% tariff on all imported goods Trump is planning on putting in? That's going to isolate America and probably crash their economy overnight. Remember that when the US economy sneezes the world economy gets a cold so imagine how bad an actual crash will be globally.

Once the US is out of the global leadership role they're out. Your guess is as good as mine what China, North Korea, Iran, and Russia are going to do in the next four years. None of it bodes well for the species nor the planet. It's probably a tad over the top to say WW3 is on the cards, but it is worth noting that WW2 happened last time the US took its eye off the ball and isolated itself and Russia/Iran/North Korea are all being extremely active right now in ways of escalation.

Hyena_Of_Ice posted...

Mail-in voting will be banned for anyone who isn't severely disabled or elderly.

Bold of you to assume those two groups will be catered to. In fact I recall one of the first groups that tends to be culled in fascist states is the disabled.

GrandConjuraton posted...

So who do you peg as being the world superpower, then? It certainly won't be the US now.

The world doesn't always have a single undisputed superpower. Typically when the big empire falls there's a fair bit of chaos before a new power does emerge (and that sometimes takes centuries).

Russia is a nation in decline, China's built on a house of cards that will fall over at some point (probably when climate change basically destroys their ability to produce agriculture in about 15 years time, they'll fuck the Pacific over till then though through economic coercion), and the US has all the tools to ride out the climate crisis on top but is instead destroying itself at warp-speed and will crumble once we hit 2.4C warming and the agriculture industries stop being able to sustain their population (assuming it doesn't rip itself to pieces in a civil war before then).

There is no other power to take over right now. The EU will inherit what's left of the world in the backend of the century.

I'm not going to lie as an Australian it's dawning on me how much this result is actively going to fuck my nation over in the coming years (or just year, things are going to probably move very fast once he's in power Jan 7).

I've always said the security deals we've had with the US aren't worth the spit you'd use to seal the handshake, we're a useful disposable proxy to help pin China.

Trump's worse. We'll be tossed aside just like Ukraine and at China's economic mercy on the ass end of the planet now. Just like WW2.

Bet the fuckers that signed us up for AUKUS instead of just buying some off-the-shelf subs are really fucking pleased with themselves now. Thanks Morrison for fucking us over even after covid's gone and you're gone from office, and thanks Albo you useless sack of cowardly shit for not ripping up what was obviously a scam deal from day 1.

CADE_FOSTER posted...

Israel will be allowed to genocide the palestinians now

Worse. Israel will be allowed to escalate the war with Iran and cause the entire region to erupt in conflict.

Zikten posted...

The whole planet will be fucked due to this.

Doubt it. The planet's survived far worse than what we're doing to it and bounced back.

Frankly with how fast things are moving (1.6c is going to be hit in the coming months, almost twenty five years early!) I suspect we're going to see some of those massive population die-offs in the next thirty years and all three of the worlds biggest polluters are in the line of fire of those die-offs.

The environmental problem is likely going to resolve itself in Mother Nature's usual brutal fashion. It also might happen so fast a decent chunk of modern-civilization will live to tell the tale.

Speaking as an international citizen I think people don't fully grasp how bad things are about to get if Trump does implement what he's been talking about regarding trade.

Basically you can kiss goodbye to the world order of today. The US is about to vacate its seat as head of world trade (which China will immediately fill), it's about to leave Europe to deal with a rogue nuclear nation, and it's about to let China and North Korea take over the Pacific (through economic coercion).

The US will never get its position back in the world order. Once the world order has been changed that's it. Now the average citizen in the US probably doesn't give two shits about the world at large (hell a good chunk of Trump voters don't even seem to give a shit about their own citizens) but the US losing its influence is going to cause a lot of economic damage for the US itself.

Just to give a small example of one of the US economical impacts I suspect will happen. When Trump starts putting exhorbitant tariffs on all foreign media those companies are going to move to Europe/the UK to do business. When Trump goes after the entertainment industry for being "woke" the mega corporations that run that industry will, likewise, move overseas. Once they are set up there they will not return.

That's assuming the US even wants to turn back the clock in four years instead of doubling down and electing a Republican that reinforces everything Trump gets up to.

And believe it or not this is the happy scenario of a Trump presidency. Those following world affairs and the current geopolitical state of things are likely well aware we're approaching a possible World War 3 (indeed many a person has possibly already thought something alone the lines of "in three years time we're going to look back on the Ukraine war as the start of World War 3").

Trump turning the US isolationist letting all these powers run unchecked could very easily be the trigger.

I'd advise anybody who is planning any sort of major tech purchase (TV, game system, PC, laptop, whatever) to get those purchases done before February because that sector will be the first to go down the shitter once Trump starts implementing his agenda. I know that's my plan, I'm not American but I need a proper computer for my upcoming studies and my current one is on its last legs.

emblem-man posted...

Harris has not done any identity politics. I don't think she's even ever uttered the fact that she could be the first woman president.

The issue is, people blame Democrats for random shit they see on Twitter

Indeed, from what has been broadcast here Harris has done a good job avoiding that and from the outset I appreciated it (Clinton was doomed the moment she started bringing things like the "glass ceiling" up). But at this point it doesn't matter, it's been so ingrained that it's basically part of the Democrat party's brand (rightly or wrongly).

At the end of the day the average voter globally is, to be blunt, ignorant (or stupid if I'm being blunter). They don't think critically. They think things in simplistic terms, such as "economy doing well? Guy in charge must've done it, vote them back in." "Economy doing bad? Guy in charge must've done it. Vote them out."

The average person is simply not smart enough nor informed enough to understand things like global economic situations, nor the idea that economic policies from the previous President/Prime Minister might start manifesting in their wallets years after they've left office.

Anyway I think this is enough depresso expresso for one day. If the world's about to go to shit in February I'm going to go enjoy my last couple of months of peace and go gaming and some reps between sessions.

LightSnake posted...

The Dems were responsible for the biggest economic stimulus and labor improvements in decades and it didn't help. At all.

They also constantly push "identity politics" and a load of fuddy-duddy causes. The intellectual classes need to get it through their skulls that that sort of thing is political poison to the average human being. Right, wrong, doesn't matter, it just is.

The right has managed to convince the working classes that the left has left them behind and does nothing for them (and to a degree it is true), until they start recognizing that and starting to really push economic building (particularly for the working classes) they are finished. Globally.

The left-of-center political party in my country (Straya) is doing the same. Economy going to complete shit, housing unaffordable for the majority. But oh, lets spend a year having a referendum on giving the "first nations people" a lobby group to government enshrined in the constitution (rather than any actual policy for those people or economic policy) and then spend the next year and a half just doing nothing at all.

I'm not happy about the current situation (frankly I think a global economic depression is on the cards for multiple reasons. Trade war with China, that 20% tariff will crash the US economy overnight and when the US economy crashes so does the entire world's, and of course militarily a lot of America's enemies are poised right now to take over if the US takes its eye off the geopolitical ball which Trump is not only going to do but personally hand over to them).

But I can see why things are ending up where they are. The "left" (quotation marks because frankly most so-called left wing parties haven't been left wing in decades) has, to be blunt, gone up its own anal cavity for a long time now and it's resulted in them losing the people in general. Even I don't like them and I fully recognize and understand what their alternative is.

LightSnake posted...

Trump winning once felt like a fluke.

This doesn't. This feels like something has changed, horribly. Or maybe it's just been revealed. Democratic turnout was up, but...there's a flip, and peoplewant Trump more.

This is the result of decades of the so-called "left" ignoring the working classes and leaving them behind economically. It's happening globally, America's not special in that regard.

As an Australian I gotta say I'm not looking forward to the New World Order that's going to start as of January. China Russia and Iran running the planet. Good times to be alive. /s