Indeed, the cancer thing applies to women with HPV, a virus that most people have also been affected with (though the vast majority of cases do not lead to cancer which still leaves tens of million of women at risk).

Pretty sure they were being sarcastic

I think you’re right - to an extent. You may not deserve this. Americans might not deserve this. Any other arbitrarily defined group of people may not deserve it.

But humanity as a whole? We are a disgusting scourge on this earth, and we probably deserve everything that’s coming to us. The current situation is just a reflection of overaching dynamics of greed, lies and self-righteousness that have always been with us.

I realize this is basically an absurd notion of collective reaponsibility. At the same time, we have no one to blame for our species’ toxic psychopathic behavior but the species as a whole. If we had any decency left we would just delete ourselves as quietly and staightforwardly as possible.

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External self-determination cares little about national laws. That’s kinda the whole point. The real question is what type of conditions need to be met before a right to external self-determination arises and is recognized by other countries. In general, most countries don’t recognize a right to unilateral seccession under any condition. At the same time, it is also agreed that if a state were to make the practice of internal self-determination virtually impossible or meaningless, then a right to external self-determination should arise. In which case any “no backsies” rule under US national law (even the constitution) may be seen as a breach of fundamental rights.

With independence, it usually comes down to who has the bigger stick (in both material and ideational terms). The are definitely scenarios in which US states can make a valid legal case for independence but the conditions for that still haven’t been met as most international lawyers will agree that Americans in all states are afforded the right to internally self-determine. For now. Things are changing quickly.

You have a highly idealistic perspective on China. This isn’t to say that things are lerfect in Europe or North America - they most definitely aren’t. But it is to say that two things can be true at the same time, i.e., there are growing issues in the West and China has a highly oppressive regime.

There is a natural temptation to whitewash and exxagerate the good in other times and places, especially ones that are directly juxtaposed to the one you are inhabiting and are critical toward.

However, we must resist these temptations lest we doom ourselves to repeat the same mistake over and over.

They’re obviouslt just spitting vitriol in response what is perceived as a threat to their identity. Which apparently is the notion that someone somewhere might beattempting to live free and joyously while also being reflexive about past mistakes.

The audacity of those darned European! If I’m not happy, then nobody should!

Careful, your complexes are overspilling.

So you’ll be conditioning yourself ahead of time?

I know its a joke but just to note: I’d love to see Germany “march through Poland” given the poor state of Germany’s armed forces. As it is rn, Poland alone could most likely reach Russia’s heart in a couple of weeks of conventional warfare and debilitate Russian critical infrastructure long before that. Barring nukes of course, which is basically all the Kremlin would have to hang on to in a full out direct confrontation given just how incompetent their armed forces have proven to be.

Great read, thank you for sharing.

Take your own advice and “think critically”.

You need to drink your meds, grandpa.

Resist the algorithms, we must