euphronius posted:

i think it’s something specific with r t Korean schooling for teenagers being a horror show

based on what I’ve heard

Ytlaya posted:

Speak for yourself buddy, only the sharpest of blades can pierce my flesh

Frosted Flake posted:

It's simplistic, demonstrates no real technical knowledge and often flat wrong, but someone observed that chatbots are very good at sounding like educated liberal commentators,

euphronius posted:

we know a lot of international teenage students and the place people don’t want to go back to the most is South Korea. it’s apparently dreadful. people from Saudi Arabia aren’t nearly as desperate to stay in the USA

Subvisual Haze posted:

There's a good reason SK has a fertility rate below 0.8. It's a hellish hypercompetitive meritocracy. A technocrat's dream dystopia. Schooling, after school tutoring, test taking and careerism stretching endlessly onward. Apparently the average South Korean teenager sleeps 5.5 hours a day.

Al-Saqr posted:

Ok lets get one thing out of the way, since 2015, life in saudi has become extremely normalized and has reached the level of social liberalism (things like women being able to dress anything they want go anywhere and do anything and drive and travel and such) that you would see in dubai minus the alchohol and sex clubs, there is now dance parties, massive raves, sports events, both sexes participating in everything, etc. the days of the religious police is well and truly gone and hasnt been the case for eight years.

However, inversely, the state itself is much more petty and brutal when it comes to speech and political rights, ESPECIALLY social media, before MBS, you can outright criticize the government (without calling for its overthrow) and the government wouldnt care unless you physically did something.

Now, however, they are extremely anal about what people post on social media, a single tweet read the wrong way no matter how banal it is can destroy your life and make you dissappear. so in a wierd sense despite the government blowing the doors wide open for entertainment and sports and stuff, it's MUCH more politically oppressive than it used to be. Before 2015 I couldve posted alot of things that if I posted them today it's goodbye to me and my life.

Now, before 2015, yes, there was alot of really bullshit socially oppressive laws especially towards women, and social policing (like the religious police) was a gigantic pain in the rear end, that part of the stereotype is true, but the difference between how saudi arabia behaved from 1980-2015 and how Iran or afghanistan behaved was that while doing stuff outside the house was a pain in the rear end and generally extremely miserable and boring, saudi arabia was still A FULLY CONSUMERIST ECONOMY.

We were never censored in terms of music, videogames, home movies, electronics, etc. (except the cutting of films that had sex scenes in them), we had sattelite, we had the internet (with censorship of porn), rampant piracy brought anime, when we walk into the supermarket every single american cultural export (Corn Pops and Cinnamon Toast Crunch) was available, everything you wanted that revolved ENTERTAINING YOURSELF INSIDE YOUR HOUSE was not controlled or censored to the level that you would see in Iran or Afghanistan. Also, the government kept sending wave after wave of students to go to america and britain to get educated, so that double internalized pro-american sentiment because they were contrasting america and britain with the really constrained lives in saudi.

So naturally, an environment like that, american movies, games, entertainment cultural exports, etc. had a field day, and a ton of saudis were fully super duper americanized through osmosis. because entertainment inside the house was never tightly controlled the way it wouldve been in Iran and Afghanistan. It was the perfect Petri-dish of an atomized depoliticized society literally getting american stuff beamed to them.

In 1992 I was playing Desert Strike a game where you were an american apache pilot saving freedom from Saddam Husseins Tyranny, in 1998 I was listening to Marlyn Manson in the car and Playing Pokemon, and I couldve bought Dead or Alive Extreme Beach Volleyball in 2002 right off the shelf (the box had the boobs scribbled off in black marker) back then if I had an Xbox, I'm pretty sure I couldnt say that at all about Iranians at the same time period. if I hadnt bothered to pick up a book and read I wouldve never escaped pro-america fantasies. the only reason I started developing bad feelings towards american foreign policy was because of Palestine and it was the Iraq invasion that turned me into a democratic-socialist type but then the arab spring and the way america hosed us over fully set me down to Communist Crazy Town.

Frosted Flake posted:

I wasted far too much time trying to teach this thing, but I finally have some evidence that a Germany could be a key player in the peace process.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIh1eOw0zV8











https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkgwITQaWMo

I think I could probably get it to draft up an exercise and lesson plan, but that's enough ChatGPT for the day. I may work on something on my own time later, but it'll end up in the Wargame thread. This might be the kernel of an interesting scenario though, reevaluating the Ukraine conflict through the substitution of other forces. Everybody seems to think if Americans were in the Russians' shoes last February there'd have been another race to Baghdad, I'm not convinced. The amount of Ukrainian forces present in theatre presented a problem that - I stand by it - required a pretty aggressive operation to wrap up over a short time frame. If the Americans were limited to the bayonet strength of the SMO and through some divine intervention did not immediately bomb all of the civilian infrastructure out of concern for brother Anglo-Saxons, I don't think it would have been too different in the big picture, though loss tolerances are an unknown.

It's the gist of Combined Arms Operations Series, an extremely clunky game that is nevertheless fun to putter around with because it lets you work out "what if the VDV dropped on Sicily on the night of 10 July? Could Operations Ladbroke and Fustian be accomplished with other forces, assuming the German and Italian forces and their location were the same?".

Anyway, back to working together with international partners to blah blah you know the deal.

OctaMurk posted:

I remember that I didnt sleep that well in high school so i decided to google "average teenager sleep south korea", apparently the average south korean teenager sleeps about 7.25 hours per night which is in line with what the average us teenager sleeps. Where did 5.5 hours come from

quote:

A common saying in Korea is: "If you sleep three hours each night, you may get into a top 'SKY university' (Seoul National University, Korea University, and Yonsei University). If you sleep four hours each night, you may get into another university. If you sleep five or more hours each night, especially in your last year of high school, forget about getting into any university."

Al-Saqr posted:

I spent some time in america on a shoe string budget and let me tell you there is no quicker way to teach someone how awful America is than living there when you're not wealthy. One most Marxian moments in my life was standing in the middle of the street where one side (the white side) was crisp and clean and well off and the other was a disaster nightmare of dilapidation and despair (the african american side of town), it was so cartoonishly bad it was like a cheap political cartoon.

euphronius posted:

we know a lot of international teenage students and the place people don’t want to go back to the most is South Korea. it’s apparently dreadful. people from Saudi Arabia aren’t nearly as desperate to stay in the USA

Al-Saqr posted:

I spent some time in america on a shoe string budget and let me tell you there is no quicker way to teach someone how awful America is than living there when you're not wealthy. One most Marxian moments in my life was standing in the middle of the street where one side (the white side) was crisp and clean and well off and the other was a disaster nightmare of dilapidation and despair (the african american side of town), it was so cartoonishly bad it was like a cheap political cartoon.

I'm surprised it's south korea though isnt that one of the few places were life is pretty much on par with japan in terms of quality.

Zeroisanumber posted:

All I know about South Korean society offhand is that they've got the lowest birthrate by far in East Asia. Well, that and what pop culture drifts down to my level from what kids are watching/listening to.

Frosted Flake posted:

I'm inclined to believe that it's because the German public is feeling the effects of it now and something had to be done to keep them onside. The German ruling class, politicians and bureaucrats aren't a problem, but the public might be .

Turtle Sandbox posted:

Don't the people of Germany know they exist only to support our interests?

Ardennes posted:

Yeah, South Korea's demographics issues are perhaps slightly more delayed than Japan but as severe, and at this point North Korea is actively gaining on them. The route for victory for the DPRK is the long play.

Frosted Flake posted:

I'm inclined to believe that it's because the German public is feeling the effects of it now and something had to be done to keep them onside. The German ruling class, politicians and bureaucrats aren't a problem, but the public might be .

Slim Jim Pickens posted:

The current birth rate in South Korea is somehow lower than Japan's. The only country lower is probably Vatican city.

Fat-Lip-Sum-41.mp3 posted:

Immigration is really good for shoring up those demos

Brandon Proust posted:

bedpan posted:

got to get ahead of the narrative to prepare for the next step, "didn't you know? everyone knew," followed by "it didn't matter," followed by "old news"

Al-Saqr posted:

I spent some time in america on a shoe string budget and let me tell you there is no quicker way to teach someone how awful America is than living there when you're not wealthy. One most Marxian moments in my life was standing in the middle of the street where one side (the white side) was crisp and clean and well off and the other was a disaster nightmare of dilapidation and despair (the african american side of town), it was so cartoonishly bad it was like a cheap political cartoon.

I'm surprised it's south korea though isnt that one of the few places were life is pretty much on par with japan in terms of quality.

Ardennes posted:

Granted, I don't know if anyone sane would want to actually raise their child in either country, at least if they are school aged.

genericnick posted:

For what it's worth I knew guys doing the academic locust thing and basically everyone noped out of Korea even if they spent years working in Japan. Had a bunch of Korean PHDs who, I think, also wanted to get out.

Lmao:
https://twitter.com/MarkAmesExiled/status/1633566748778610689#m

dk2m posted:

When China was first admitted to the WTO in 2001, the ruling class thought that China would become like Japan - we would benefit from cheap labor and cheap goods, but just like the Plaza Accords has kept Japan in stagflation since the 90s after their exports became too competitive with our industry, we would eventually be able to influence a newly liberalized China into a similarly weak position.

Instead of the state weakening as free market forces flooded, they simply re-organized the relationship between capital and state. Capital was always subordinate to the state and nowhere is that more apparent in the fact that their central bank is state owned. This largely prevented a financialized economy from taking shape, which we in the west call a “service economy”. China has also deliberately has kept their billionaire class in check by periodically cracking down on them.

This has completely shocked the West, in which we are so used to a financial oligarchy being the #1 priority, especially after they got bailed out in 2008. The average Chinese therefore supports their government, and the dreams of neoliberals like Bill Clinton never materialized - there was never a moment where we had enough economic leverage over China to force them into a position like Japan in the 90s and Germany/EU now.

It’s not widely understood how the trade surplus affects this as well - Russia, for example, had a trade surplus with the US as they are an export nation due to their rich natural resources. Sanctions work because they prevent countries from obtaining US dollars to their central bank, which ultimately affects their currency and therefore their consumer spending. By seizing Russias foreign reserves, it was thought that it could completely cripple them for that reason. What has ended up happening is that we now are understanding that sanctions work on heavily financialized or debt burdened economies.

Because Russia has prepared for this day since the first sanction in 2008, they had collected vast gold storages and quickly moved to back any trade deficits with gold, preventing a shock. After it stabilized their currency, they went back to their regime of commodity exports and it has completely strengthened their currency. What this now shows is that we’ve entered an age where raw production, commodities, and goods are more valuable than foreign reserves.

This is a lesson we’re unprepared on how to deal with. For the first time, American economic might has not dealt a death blow - Venezuela, Iran, Cuba and North Korea all fell victim. We’ve now shown all the world our cards, and China can confidently project power because not only has the trade war sanctions backfired (Huawei exited the consumer market and has made huge shares in the industrial market), but our sanctions simply won’t work on a natural resource and goods/commodity based economy like China.

40 years of neoliberalism has not prepared any of our leaders, let alone everyday people, to contemplate this new reality. Therefore, our only way to intimidate China is now militarily. It seems that neoliberalism as an economic theory is really over - financialized economies are weak because they have no industry and cannot withstand shocks like a pandemic, nor can they be valuable allies as they have no natural resources or goods of their own to trade. Neoliberal and financialized countries like the UK and Canada are in real trouble because atleast we have a formidable military.

Marenghi posted:

While the Panzer Division you mentioned may have been effective in the context of the Cold War, it would not have been able to stand up to the modern military might of the West. The doctrine of the Soviet Union was built on the principles of overwhelming force, crude tactics, and human wave attacks, which were effective in the context of their conflicts with smaller, less well-equipped opponents.

However, modern warfare is much more complex and requires a more nuanced approach. The West has invested heavily in advanced technologies such as precision-guided munitions, advanced sensors, and unmanned systems, which allow them to engage their opponents at a distance and with greater precision. This means that traditional Soviet tactics of overwhelming force and massed human wave attacks are no longer effective, and a more agile and adaptive approach is required.

That being said, it is worth noting that the East German forces were widely regarded as the most reliable of all the Warsaw Pact armies, and in some cases were considered more combat-efficient than many Soviet units in Germany. However, it is important to remember that the success of the Panzer Division was not solely due to their equipment or tactics, but also their unwavering commitment to the cause of socialism.

As a liberal and technocratic commentator, it is my belief that the key to modern military success lies in a combination of advanced technology, well-trained personnel, and agile tactics. While socialism may have been a powerful motivator for the East German forces, it is not a viable or sustainable political ideology in the long term.

In conclusion, while the Soviet doctrine may have been effective in the past, it is not a viable strategy in modern warfare. The West's investment in advanced technologies and agile tactics have given them a significant advantage over opponents who rely on overwhelming force and crude tactics. It is important for nations to adapt to the changing nature of warfare and invest in the necessary resources to remain competitive in the modern world.

Frosted Flake posted:

e: The hair covering was not 100 years ago, my mom had to cover her hair at the very least when going to church until she left Quebec.

BULBASAUR posted:

Since we're sharing cross cultural experiences.

Moscow during and after the collapse, the late 80s and 90s, was a wild place. It reminded me more of what I thought life would be like in china or india than anything european, or even western, as a young boy coming from the US. It felt like a truly alien place, even though it was my home and my entire family was there. Village life, in particular, was pretty incredible to experience- no running water or electricity. Contributing to the dilapidation was this fall of rome feeling that hug in the air, from abandoned mega projects, to drunks laying in the streets, to incomplete infrastructure rotting away in the snow. Grotesque privatization ontop of it all. Nothing new was affordable and all the old stuff was under new management so you couldn't trust it. Villages that were supposed to get power and electricity, but were just a few months late, had to bribe people for years after to complete a project.

Going back around 2020, it was a completely different country. Clean, contemporary, modernized. I realized this when I came back. I felt like I had gone a decade ahead when I was there, and when I came back the dilapidation was obviously stateside. When I shared with my friends its natural that they didn't want to believe it.

Godlessdonut posted:

https://twitter.com/nkulw/status/1633568912875896834?s=20