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Yeah, when I first moved to Christchurch a few years ago people drove well. Years of roadworks after the earthquakes have worn people's patience thin, and it's been getting worse and worse, exactly how you described.
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Apr 19, 2018 13:28
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Today it's finally spring here and the weather is really nice. I felt stupid for wearing long sleeves as I'm a bit hot, and many people are in short sleeves and shorts. I did a double take when I saw walking ahead of me on the sidewalk a group of tiny old ladies bundled up for winter. Winter boots, thick winter gloves, winter coats, and everyone with their hoods up and cinched tight to keep the snow out. Ok, I guess sometimes really old people often over dress, and these were clearly old people from how they were moving: a slow frail shuffle, often putting a hand on each other for stability. Nope, was a group of 20-something mainlander tourists.
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Apr 19, 2018 19:32
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so russia can't block Telegram but chinar can? is it due to tighter control of vpn access in the latter?
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Apr 20, 2018 00:04
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http://foreignpolicy.com/2018/04/18...g-surveillance/ If anyone knows of people organizing these please seriously report them to immigration authorities or the FBI in case they can get expelled/deported/disqualified from visas over it.
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Apr 20, 2018 00:41
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Glad to see my alma-mater is so accommodating to this foreign autocratic police state.
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Apr 20, 2018 02:46
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I mean it's messed up that they report on each other to the home state for potential punishment upon return but you want to literally crack down on the commies or what? Like cold war era presidents did?
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Apr 20, 2018 03:58
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French Canadian posted:I mean it's messed up that they report on each other to the home state for potential punishment upon return but you want to literally crack down on the commies or what? Like cold war era presidents did? It's not the students' faults for being pressured to join and be communists to eachother like that, but if people can be identified organizing this stuff and doing the pressuring, yeah they shouldn't be allowed in the US unless they register as foreign agents or whatever. https://www.justice.gov/nsd-fara It's pretty straightforward: quote:The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) was enacted in 1938. FARA is a disclosure statute that requires persons acting as agents of foreign principals in a political or quasi-political capacity to make periodic public disclosure of their relationship with the foreign principal, as well as activities, receipts and disbursements in support of those activities. Disclosure of the required information facilitates evaluation by the government and the American people of the statements and activities of such persons in light of their function as foreign agents. The FARA Registration Unit of the Counterintelligence and Export Control Section (CES) in the National Security Division (NSD) is responsible for the administration and enforcement of the Act. Anyone who disseminates propaganda on behalf of a foreign government or organization is covered by it. We should probably be doing about 100x more with FARA. hakimashou fucked around with this message at 04:12 on Apr 20, 2018 |
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Apr 20, 2018 04:03
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French Canadian posted:I mean it's messed up that they report on each other to the home state for potential punishment upon return but you want to literally crack down on the commies or what? Like cold war era presidents did? This is better than the alternative of letting an authoritarian government set up ideological cells in a democratic country. Nobody would even consider tolerating it if it were the Russians or North Koreans or, hell, even the Saudis, but China gets a free pass for some reason the reason is money
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Apr 20, 2018 04:11
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Fojar38 posted:This is better than the alternative of letting an authoritarian government set up ideological cells in a democratic country. Plenty of other countries are operating cells in the US...
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Apr 20, 2018 04:52
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jizzy sillage posted:My friend works as an emergency services dispatcher here in New Zealand. He got a call a while back that was a man complaining that people run yellow lights. It is pretty lovely. Especially on the stretch of Great South Rd between Greenlane and Ellerslie, for some reason.
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Apr 20, 2018 06:30
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hakimashou posted:It's not the students' faults for being pressured to join and be communists to eachother like that, but if people can be identified organizing this stuff and doing the pressuring, yeah they shouldn't be allowed in the US unless they register as foreign agents or whatever. uhhh its super normal to have political parties organise in expat communities . Your reaction to it is weird and creepy.
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Apr 20, 2018 07:20
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ekuNNN posted:uhhh its super normal to have political parties organise in expat communities . Your reaction to it is weird and creepy. They’re students studying abroad in the US, and it isn’t a political organization, they’re being forced to report on one another to the state back home to ensure their brains didn’t pock up any unclean thoughts abroad. The article was literally about this, the interviews students have been put through upon returning home by the security services and the staff that accompany them being on orders from said security services to build these cells.
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Apr 20, 2018 07:23
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ekuNNN posted:uhhh its super normal to have political parties organise in expat communities . Your reaction to it is weird and creepy. There is a very reasonable good-faith case to be made that being an agent of the CCP is much closer to being an agent of the Chinese government than, say, being a Tory organizing fellow Tories abroad is to being an agent of the British government.
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Apr 20, 2018 07:46
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Can somebody explain the the difference to me between state capitalism and socialism. I've seen that the Chinese have been trying to create a billionaire class for decades and people use this as proof that China has embraced capitalism China isn't communist but the state still pretty much has complete control of the economy. Much moreso over any capitalist euro economy, and under that definition wasn't the Soviet Union technically state capitalist. The worst thing to happen to the 21st century is that the Soviet Union collapsed imo.
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Apr 20, 2018 07:55
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Socialism is for the benefit of all the people. On paper, that is. And on paper e'er it will remain.
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Apr 20, 2018 08:00
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fdjkbnadjnbkjldaf posted:Can somebody explain the the difference to me between state capitalism and socialism. I've seen that the Chinese have been trying to create a billionaire class for decades and people use this as proof that China has embraced capitalism China isn't communist but the state still pretty much has complete control of the economy. Much moreso over any capitalist euro economy, and under that definition wasn't the Soviet Union technically state capitalist. The worst thing to happen to the 21st century is that the Soviet Union collapsed imo. The term you're looking for is command economy
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Apr 20, 2018 08:15
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fdjkbnadjnbkjldaf posted:Can somebody explain the the difference to me between state capitalism and socialism. I've seen that the Chinese have been trying to create a billionaire class for decades and people use this as proof that China has embraced capitalism China isn't communist but the state still pretty much has complete control of the economy. Much moreso over any capitalist euro economy, and under that definition wasn't the Soviet Union technically state capitalist. The worst thing to happen to the 21st century is that the Soviet Union collapsed imo. I don’t know that there’s going to be a useful delineation between the two. By definition what China has is socialism—with Chinese characteristics. You can think of that as “socialism” or “not real socialism” as you like. And it does have serious state ownership of many of its large corporations. I think people trend towards saying that China isn’t socialist because the capitalist class is allowed to function and flourish and China lacks the strong social welfare programs that people often expect from socialist governments. People think of socialism as offering benefits for the working class and an escape from a system where wealthy capitalists are allowed to infinitely accumulate wealth, and when they look at China they see... not that.
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Apr 20, 2018 08:19
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ekuNNN posted:uhhh its super normal to have political parties organise in expat communities . Your reaction to it is weird and creepy. These are kids who (under pressure from the CCP) might be ruining other kids lives by squealing on them to an authoritarian regime. That's creepy! China is working on their own digital version of the Scarlett Letter, where once you get a strike, you can say goodbye to a lot of opportunities, nation wide. Imagine if one of these "Red Guards" saw a classmate attending an event where the Dalai Lama was speaking at their university, and he/she was not holding a protest sign. That student could find their degree is now useless, and they can never do what they wanted to because they are now blacklisted. Xi is not only trying to create an almost Orwellian society at home, but he's hoping it will encompass everyone with a drop of Han blood in them. As much as I disliked having to work with and interact with mainland university students, I didn't wish them ill will or to have something ruin their lives because they were young and stupid and wanted to experience new things.
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Apr 20, 2018 08:39
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My dad hopefully mentioned the good citizen credit system as a way of improving the behavior of tour groups. He didn't have a comeback when I explained that it's a return to the older hukou-based exit visa rules and way of punishing the families of thoughtcrime suspects and oppressing ethnic minorities, especially in Xinjiang where people aren't even allowed passports. What a downer!!!
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Apr 20, 2018 09:01
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'pee nut' lol
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Apr 20, 2018 09:06
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Pirate Radar posted:By definition what China has is socialism—with Chinese characteristics. Source your quote.
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Apr 20, 2018 09:07
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oohhboy posted:Source your quote. CPC General Secretary Zhao Ziyang said it first, apparently.
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Apr 20, 2018 09:11
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Orkin Mang posted:'pee nut' lol lol yup crunchy
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Apr 20, 2018 09:21
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Pirate Radar posted:CPC General Secretary Zhao Ziyang said it first, apparently. He's out of fashion.
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Apr 20, 2018 09:43
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The other issue with these cells is that what if everyone is being good, and there are no problems. It looks like you arent doing your job. So best to just make up some poo poo here and there.
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Apr 20, 2018 10:32
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ekuNNN posted:uhhh its super normal to have political parties organise in expat communities . Your reaction to it is weird and creepy. What makes you say that?
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Apr 20, 2018 10:50
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Chinese tourists kill kangaroo, hurling bricks to make it hop
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Apr 20, 2018 12:23
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Waiting for that to hit Aussie tabloids
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Apr 20, 2018 12:36
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Kill me pls
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Apr 20, 2018 12:44
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I have a question. Was there just a pile of bricks sitting there, or did they bring their own?
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Apr 20, 2018 12:49
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Bricks are good for the immune system you wouldn't understadn
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Apr 20, 2018 14:23
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fdjkbnadjnbkjldaf posted:Can somebody explain the the difference to me between state capitalism and socialism. I've seen that the Chinese have been trying to create a billionaire class for decades and people use this as proof that China has embraced capitalism China isn't communist but the state still pretty much has complete control of the economy. Much moreso over any capitalist euro economy, and under that definition wasn't the Soviet Union technically state capitalist. The worst thing to happen to the 21st century is that the Soviet Union collapsed imo. Socialism is any form of economic system where the means of production (i.e factories, farmland, companies, natural resources...) is owned by the public and not private individuals. The implementation ranges from syndicalism (where the workers in each "company" jointly own it and democratically control it) to state capitalism. State capitalism is a system where most or all the means of production are owned by the state, ostensibly for the purpose of serving the public and developing into a more directly socialist economy in the future. This is the party line of the CCP. Personally, as a dirty red socialist, the only socialist thing about the CCP and the PRC as a whole is the name and the flag. The whole thing is a ridiculous sham used to justify embracing the worst parts of capitalism while still maintaining the authoritarian and non-democratic political system of Marxist-Leninism, in order to make a tiny elite absurdly wealthy. I mean, the USSR was pretty lovely and on shaky ideological grounds, but at least the people at the top seemed to have good intentions. 
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Apr 20, 2018 14:34
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Geisladisk posted:
This is why the Left can't have nice things.
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Apr 20, 2018 17:11
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Stalin had great intentions
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Apr 20, 2018 17:21
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tote up a bags posted:Bricks are good for the immune system you wouldn't understadn Even better TCM for the healthy: http://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2142316/giant-indoor-farm-china-breeding-six-billion-cockroaches-year quote:At the time of the government report, the farm had generated a total of 4.3 billion yuan (US$684 million) in revenue over the years by manufacturing a potion made entirely of cockroaches.
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Apr 20, 2018 17:24
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Doesn’t everyone send reports to there government when they study abroad? I know when I did a semester in Galway I had to keep Obama updated on what those dastardly micks were up to
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Apr 20, 2018 17:27
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That social credit system is starting to make sense.
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Apr 20, 2018 17:28
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barbecue at the folks posted:This is why the Left can't have nice things. is it really so hard to say "the ussr and prc are irredeemable fuckos who set back the socialist ideology by a hundred years by corrupting the term for their own ends" because this seems like a logically consistent position for a self-proclaimed socialist to have or has the ideology become so attached to anti-americanism that it reflexively supports everything that opposes us interests no matter how lovely
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Apr 20, 2018 17:28
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underage at the vape shop posted:Stalin had great intentions barbecue at the folks posted:This is why the Left can't have nice things. Fojar38 posted:is it really so hard to say "the ussr and prc are irredeemable fuckos who set back the socialist ideology by a hundred years by corrupting the term for their own ends" because this seems like a logically consistent position for a self-proclaimed socialist to have I don't actually disagree that the USSR was a clusterfuck and a disaster. Whether the guys at the top had good intentions or not is just a curiosity, the result was the same. quote:or has the ideology become so attached to anti-americanism that it reflexively supports everything that opposes us interests no matter how lovely Thinking that the USSR was a dismal failure even though it was mostly led by people with the best of intentions (obviously not Stalin though, geez) is not "support". Marxist-Leninism is a terrible ideology that makes it really loving easy to justify oppression and violence as necessary for the greater good. A basically decent person doing awful things because he justifies it with a terrible ideology is ultimately no better than a lovely person doing awful things because he's a lovely person. The only difference is that the former can be studied and understood to try to avoid a repeat performance later.
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Apr 20, 2018 17:51
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The most compelling socialist arguments I see from a political philosophy standpoint is that socialism is supposed to be an evolution of liberal capitalism rather than strictly a replacement in the vein that you had feudal monarchy>liberal capitalism>social democracy. each of them builds organically on the previous system and attempts to force change quickly usually (though not always) ended up being a clusterfuck I actually more or less agree with that basic premise, but it would also indicate that authoritarian powers are even further from the socialist ideal than liberal capitalist countries are, so in zero-sum cases versus countries like russia or china socialists should still be pulling for the West
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Apr 20, 2018 18:09
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