never in a million years would i have guessed that cotton is needed in artillery shells lmao
Same to me. TIL
The fabric of our life(-ending explosives)
I assume/d the purpose of the ban is/was to further destabilize of Xinjiang, just as with the US-backed terrorist attacks, which are now being used as the pretext for the ban.
Yup, they wanted to destabilize Xinjiang economically which would help create a fertile ground for extremism.
I think it was Ben Norton that the US wants to find a reason to get away with banning all Chinese imports… but their capitalism is holding them back as “just pay more to make it at home” or “deal with the consequences of an embargo” is not an option for the fragile American economy.
Exactly, we're kind of in a unique situation here as far as I can tell. Never before have we had a global empire that managed to deindustrialize its core to such an extent. US now recognizes the problem, but they have no idea how to tackle it.
I'm glad that the head of capitalism is bleeding itself out, but its truly bizarre the decisions that they made. They should've hugged Russia and built them up like Japan after the collapse and they would've had a stalwart ally in the region with a shitton of oil and natural gas. And they really did drink the Kool-Aid that the PRC would inevitably become liberal if the economy kept growing.
I truly believe that the elites ACTUALLY believe the propaganda is poisoning the American Empire.
I think so as well, these people drink their own kool aid.
Of course the elites believe in their own propaganda. They actually consume more of it than the poor. They are more likely to get polsci degrees, "higher quality" education in history. They can watch more movies, read more news.
Propaganda exists to teach not just the subjects how to be good citizens, but also the elites as to how to manage and persuade class society.
The United States is in a unique situation for those reasons and many more (the refinement of domestic anti-left programs comes to mind). We have plenty to learn from past leftist movements, but it gets frustrating when people try to map contemporary politics 1:1 onto the players of Weimar Germany, formation of the USSR, the Spanish Civil War, etc.
Indeed, this is a trap I see a lot of people fall into as well where they just look for historic precedent without spending the time to understand how it differs from the current conditions. Genuine understanding requires what the actual forces driving the events are in each scenario.
As the saying goes, history doesn't repeat, but it often rhymes.
Not true, the Spanish (and Portuguese) also de-industrialized themselves.
fair enough
Yup un the battle between patriotism and greed greeds gonna win out every time.
It didn’t used to be that way, capital has become so powerful it actively threatens capitalism.
For sure unfortunately I'm aware of what happens when the inherent contradictions of capitalism become unsustainable.
US try to not hurt itself in it's confusion challenge.
No no no this is the plan ... the PRC is going to suffer just you see...
holding a knife to my own nose
This'll really fuck up my enemies. Just watc- AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH
DO YOUR FOOT NEXT YOULL GET EM WITH THIS ONE YOU JUST WAIT AN SEE
Taking out China's GDP by reducing it's US dollar holdings to worthless.
US used RISC-V BAN!
US became confused!
It hurt itself in its confusion!
It's super effective!
China is banned from exporting clothing with XJ cotton to the US & US-subjugated vassals, it must import even more from other countries.
I don't get this point. If china can't export cotton or cotton clothes why does it need to import more?
Also, I imagine that fast fashion is also contributing to this cotton shortage. It would be funny if this is what causes western governments to finally do something about fast fashion.
US/EU won’t import clothes made with Xinjiang cotton, and China makes clothes. In order to export clothes made of cotton to US/EU, they have to import cotton from abroad to make clothes without Xinjiang cotton.
So by banning XJ cotton, the US is forcing China to improve trade relations with third countries. Perfect.
I made this second comment when I dove into the article, and I'm not sure what the adjective is when they say "it". Maybe they meant to suggest that because China can't sell its cotton to the United States, that the United States must import more cotton from abroad, which means the military industrial complex can't take as much cotton from those places as well.
It said there are 80 other countries that export cotton. So maybe the clothing industry in the United States had to import more cotton from those sources... And those sources raised prices or something, may be leading to military industrial partners choosing not to buy as much cotton, therefore reducing how much cotton they had.
But I'm just taking a guess because that was kind of a weird grammar thing they did there.
Nah, they'll just ban all fast fashion coming out of China alone, and then call it good.
NATOPedia claims that cellulose is used now, not cotton
Guncotton was originally made from cotton (as the source of cellulose) but contemporary methods use highly processed cellulose from wood pulp.
still might be more harmful if this "highly processed cellulose" is more expensive than cotton coming from China at the current moment. natopedia isnt very clear on that regard, or how much guncotton is produced vs this wood pulp variant.
this is amazing. the writing style is also funny.
Oh no! What a shame.
When you're actual virtue signaling is at direct opposition with the fact you aren't literally a global hegemony.
Jesus christ the west really really likes kicking its own ass when it comes to china
they're desperately trying everything to break china but its just magnified *10 on themselves and in the long run makes china even stronger
It's really incredible, similar dynamic with Russia. It's becoming clear that Europe is the biggest victim of sanction on Russia now.
The overwhelmingly high demand is already stretching the world's supply thin so this is no shock to me.
The Blazing Saddles scene where Sheriff Bart put his own pistol to his head to keep the crowd from attacking him.
lol
In the past i used to wonder how and why empires fall. Now we are witnessing it, and it is not one thing but an accumulation of contradictions and self sabotage.
Same, and turns out the reasons tend to be rather banal in the end.