alephknoll

> Democracy / constitutional republic is an option for highly intelligent and engaged population.

Democracy works best when the population is dumb, scared and disengaged.

> Without democracy, revolts just result in more revolts because new rulers have no special claim of legitimacy.

No. It works the same way with or without democracy.

It was just a simple observation. You are reading into things too much. There's no need to be so defensive. Your comment hasn't upset me in the slightest ( rationally or irrationally ) and I sincerely hope you weren't offended by mine.

Do you have regret? Ever asked yourself why did I do drink coffee just before bed. Have you ever played a game and thought if I do this, then my opponent will do that, so maybe I shouldn't do that. Have you ever had a meeting or interview and you went through how to introduce yourself or conduct the interview in your head?

I have a hard time believing that there are people who have no inner dialogue. Especially in modern societies. I think it's something we all do, it's just that we didn't know there was a word for it.

Ever ask yourself, why did I waste so much time on HN or other social media? Then you probably have an inner dialogue.

By that criteria, everything is a failure. After all, it's the job of the proponent to oversell you on things.

So does israel. Will politico write a hit piece about that as well?

> After banning TikTok people will naturally start to wonder about regulating Facebook and other social media and this would be a good thing.

It's not 'people' demanding anything. It's the elites. Why would the elites want to ban facebook or any social media they control. Not to mention facebook, reddit, youtube, etc are much older than tiktok.

> Russia is a minor player compared to China, a distraction that was welcomed by China with open arms as it helps divide and weaken the West.

How does that follow? The war united the west, not divide it.

> China is the only one actually capable of influencing the world to embrace despotism and collectivism at the expense of freedom.

You mean china is the one forcing collectivism ( EU ) on europe? What is 'the west' other than collectivism?

So many stupid people watching stupid youtube videos and regurgitating nonsense. You probably have a brain. Try using it sometimes.

The most despotic entities in the world isn't china, it's the US and the EU. The most collectivist entities it the world isn't china, it's 'the west'.

Is china forcing everyone to be like them? Are they exporting communism everywhere? No. Guess who is trying to force everyone to be like them? The west.

It's the same thing as banning. It's banning via a different method. It's more of a ban than china 'banning' US social media for refusing to follow chinese laws within their own country.

Nothing has to push them. These countries want to go nuclear. The only thing preventing them is the threat of american intervention. Japan and South Korea had secret nuclear programs that we put a stop to. Canada, Brazil and Mexico will never be allowed to own nukes. No nation in the western hemisphere will allowed to own nukes outside the US. As for germany and the netherlands, we'd sanction and isolate them if they ever developed nukes. They could have nukes, but their economy would be in shambles like north korea. If taiwan went nuclear then it would be the end of taiwan and both the US and china would take them out.

For the same reason this post was flagged. Israel. Did you really have to ask? Hard to imagine google workers protesting russia, china or saudi arabia being flagged.

Or they could take the easier and less conspiratorial route and control government by controlling intelligence? Governments act based on intelligence. Intelligence determines who we go to war with, what surveillance measures we need and what constitutes national security.