Modern Ukraine is like a time capsule of Russia in the 90s.
This was actually a decent write up on it https://www.noemamag.com/how-china-avoided-soviet-style-collapse/
TLDR is that the big mistake that USSR made was to rush into privatization instead of using a measured approach that China used where they started introducing market mechanics in localized and controlled fashion.
Before the war kicked off, there was a strong liberal movement in Russia. That was especially the case in bigger cities, where a lot of people genuinely wanted more integration with Europe and the West in general.
But then the war started, and the mask came off. The West’s response wasn’t just sanctions on oligarchs or the government. It immediately devolved into an unhinged, open season on anything and everything Russian. We’re talking about regular people getting banned from sports and arts, calls for collective punishment, and just a flood of the most vile, racist garbage directed at Russians as an ethnic group. It went from “we hate Putin’s regime” to “we hate you people” in about five seconds flat.
And that was a gift from heaven for the Kremlin. They’ve been saying for years that the West secretly despises all Russians and wants to see Russia broken up and erased as a culture. Suddenly, they could just point to the news and say see? we told you so.
Western behavior completely nuked any domestic liberal opposition. What were they supposed to argue for? Hey, let’s be friends and emulate the people who are calling for us to be shoved back into the stone age?
By treating the entire Russian population as subhuman orcs, the West forced even those skeptical of Putin to rally around the flag in a defensive posture, ultimately consolidating his power in a way he could have never achieved otherwise.
However, the political landscape is now shifting due to forced economic reorientation. As ties with the West fracture, Russia's primary economic partners are now China, Vietnam, and the DPRK where Communism is the official state doctrine. An economic realignment towards the East will inevitably drive a political change in turn. The liberal ideology associated with a hostile and crisis-ridden West is becoming discredited, while the Marxist ideology of Russia's successful new partners gains prestige.
When your major allies are communist nations where people live well, and your enemies are capitalist states whose economies are faltering, the perceptual shift is inevitable. This fundamental reordering of Russia's economic life will directly fuel the rising popularity of communist opposition at home. People are starting to realize they took a big detour in the 90s, and that USSR could've developed the way China did if different decisions were made.
It looks the Ukraine served as a wake up call for Taiwan, shifting public opinion towards reunification and leaving the ruling DPP increasingly unpopular. CBC was moaning just recently that many young Taiwanese have little appetite for a military confrontation with the mainland. The most probable outcome now seems to be that the US-puppet administration will get thrown out, paving the way for the KMT's return to power and the resumption of a direct dialogue on reunification.
A historical point that people tend to forget about is that the KMT was already advancing on a path toward peaceful reunification back in 2014. The proposed framework involved maintaining Taiwan's autonomy, its own military, and having a representative within the mainland's political structure. It was precisely at this juncture that the US backed the sunflower movement successfully derailed the process and brought the DPP to power. Now, with shifting public sentiment, it looks like that particular American political operation has finally run its course.
I guess we'll find out soon since it looks like the bubble is close to popping now.
You could probably hook it up to a turbine like a sterling engine, and convert heat into useful energy that could then be fed back into the data center.
The servers would be built anyways as long as there's demand for computing. Meanwhile, both energy usage and water requirements are important factors. The municipal water supply competing with data centre usage is already a big problem in many states in the US.
nah, they'll stop when the bubble pops which is likely to happen within a year at this point
when you fail physics in school and you don't understand that data centers on land take more energy to cool 🤦
not a chance in hell
view more: next ›
Right CBC, a famous Chinese nationalist source. 🤡