| ▲ | dmix 3 hours ago |
| > we have noticed power dynamics which weren't well guarded against in the old way The clearest example is a dependency on a single wealthy nation for military and world policing. It's a good thing for individual countries to be able to project their own foreign policy goals like containing Russia without having to rely on the whims of another country's politics. Even here in Canada we should be able to defend their own arctic border reliably and be able to project power to China/India beyond strongly worded letters. > I'd be hoping for more international lawyers and trade agreements. Ignoring the US's recent moves there does seem to be more trade deals than ever between 'middle powers'. > isolationism is a death sentence The best way to maintain global relationships is to offer tons of value. Similar to how China can get good trade deals and influence simply because they have so much to offer economically. This isn't just issues of diplomacy. |
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| ▲ | nixpulvis 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| Well said. One of the USA's greatest exports is intelligence and higher education, and what has been happening with that and the general anti-intellectual atmosphere is to me the most concerning as an american. Ironically, public education in america has been pretty bad for a while. But I'm going to start rambling here... way too many problems, and no damn leadership. |
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| ▲ | gottorf 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | > the general anti-intellectual atmosphere If I may humbly submit, this is not without justification, considering the unadulterated excrement that has been coming out of our institutions of higher learning. There are a lot of people at universities receiving comfortable taxpayer-funded salaries who spend an awful lot of time disparaging the American spirit. > public education in america has been pretty bad for a while Large parts of public education in America is currently a loop of tax dollars that cycle between politicians who shovel an ever-increasing amount of money in and teachers' union leaders that get paid very well and return some money in the form of far-left political activism and donations to those same politicians. Actually teaching kids is at best a fourth or fifth priority. | | |
| ▲ | jonnybgood 15 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | What is the American spirit to you? It seems to not include political activism. Or at the very least political activism you disagree with. | |
| ▲ | netfortius 42 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | A country were a lot of its citizens don't have access to basic human or social needs, and equate a demand for that, already available in the rest of developed world, to "far left political activism" - that is really ironic. There is nothing left on the left (pun intended) in today's America. | |
| ▲ | Henchman21 17 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Sports teams and "after school activitie" are a much much higher priority than teaching. It isn't even close. It seems the only thing we prioritize in education is... entertainment? I'm sure that will be GREAT in a few generations? | |
| ▲ | monkey_monkey 5 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Couching nonsense in faux-politeness just makes you look even more googly-eyed. | |
| ▲ | gchamonlive an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | Could you elaborate on what constitutes far-left political activism? | | |
| ▲ | peyton an hour ago | parent [-] | | I don’t know if this counts as activism, but I was at my university’s Faculty Club and a faculty member walked over and immediately started bitching about Donald Trump without introducing themselves. Like, you’re supposed to be in the business of developing people. What a gigantic waste of time and money. | | |
| ▲ | tzs 11 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | What about that counts as far left activism? Nearly every Republican who was in Congress in 2014 would have described at least 3/4 of what Trump has done this term as illegal and totally unacceptable, and would have described at least half of the rest as incompetent. Unless you can make a case that since 2014 the country has moved so far to the right that even 2014 Republicans are now "far left", about the only thing you can infer from someone bitching about Trump is that they are probably not far right. (Even that one is pretty iffy because he's pissed off a lot of the far right now too). | |
| ▲ | monkey_monkey 4 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | > I don’t know if this counts as activism, I do. It doesn't. | |
| ▲ | jonnybgood 23 minutes ago | parent | prev [-] | | If they were instead lauding Trump would you also see that as a waste of time and money? If they aren’t doing this in the classroom I don’t see the issue. |
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| ▲ | littlestymaar 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| > like containing Russia without having to rely on the whims of another country's politics That's true, but at the same time it was probably already the case before invasion of Ukraine, and it is definitely the case now. The main issue is political fragmentation: would Paris and Berlin risk lives of French and German people (soldiers and civilians due to retaliation) to save Vilnius? But if the answer is true (as obligated by the Treaty of Maastricht, independently of NATO) then Russia stands no chance with conventional weapons against the whole Western Europe, the balance of military, demographic and industrial power is ridiculously lopsided (involving nuclear weapons would also raise the same political question about the French willingness to nuke Russia in retaliation to Russia nuking Poland but if the answer is yes, Russia cannot win a nuclear war either (which everyone would lose)). |
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| ▲ | HPsquared 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | The answer is always going to be "maybe", but hopefully enough of a maybe to deter hostile actions. That puts everything in an uncomfortable state of uncertainty. | | |
| ▲ | bornfreddy an hour ago | parent [-] | | Better uncomfortable state of uncertainty than comfortable state of war. Nuclear or conventional. |
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| ▲ | dvfjsdhgfv an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | > The main issue is political fragmentation: would Paris and Berlin risk lives of French and German people (soldiers and civilians due to retaliation) to save Vilnius? This is a wrong question. If one day Russia feels brave enough to attack any NATO country, the right question to ask is, "Do we want to fight this war on someone else's soil or on ours?". This is the reason why Europe is so focused on helping Ukraine BTW. |
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