"Democracy and liberalism" increasingly means canceling elections (Romania), freezing bank accounts (Canada), jailing people for speech (UK), killing thousands of children (Israel), kidnapping CEOs (France), banning foreign market competition (USA), blowing up pipelines, seizing assets, erecting a vast surveillance state, etc, etc.
"Democracy and liberalism" are merely shorthand for a neofeudal rent-seeking oligarchy that disguises itself with parliamentary forms. As Huxley predicted in 1958:
>the democracies will change their nature; the quaint old forms -- elections, parliaments, Supreme Courts and all the rest -- will remain. The underlying substance will be a new kind of non-violent totalitarianism. All the traditional names, all the hallowed slogans will remain exactly what they were in the good old days. Democracy and freedom will be the theme of every broadcast and editorial -- but democracy and freedom in a strictly Pickwickian sense. Meanwhile the ruling oligarchy and its highly trained elite of soldiers, policemen, thought-manufacturers and mind-manipulators will quietly run the show as they see fit.
Meanwhile our ruling class has completely exhausted its moral authority and delegitimized its own political formula: of popular sovereignty, rules-based order, human rights, and so on. The mask is off and no one can take these sacred oaths seriously any more.
THAT is why the world is pivoting to China. That, and the fact that China does not impose as a precondition of lending and trade that you upend your social/sexual norms and/or demographically transform your country through mass immigration. China simply offers a better deal.
Agree with most of this (not the weird anti-immigrant bit but the rest), however China does have some foreign requirements that are a bit of a pain in the ass, like its insistence that Taiwan isn't a country. They also don't like it and will retaliate when you point out the shady shit it does (e.g. the Uighurs), but then thats no different from the states especially under its current toddler administration.
I can't say what Orban is planning specifically, but his recent actions have not been well received by the EU Council, to say the least. Moreover Hungary has been China's main outpost in Europe since 2015 when it joined Belt and Road.
Considering fresh signs of rupture in transatlantic relations, maybe Orban will turn out to have had keen foresight. There seems to be some sort of realignment afoot under the Trump administration.
Orban is a racist, kleptocratic madman that runs a mafia state - trying to apply reason to his actions beyond enriching himself and his lackeys is a fools game
Every country would behave like China in the same situation with Taiwan. Imagine if the Confederates moved over to Puerto Rico or Hawaii or Alaska. America damn sure would say that’s America still. They’re literally the same people from the same land. Same ethnicity. Same history. Only being apart for under a century.
From an alternative pov from any one not from the west/colonizer countries:
We arent talking about those indigenous people regarding this topic. We are talking about the Chinese people there. This would be clear and obvious if Confederates were in any of the examples I gave. All 3 examples have indigenous people now who aren’t cared about now.
Americans were still actively cleansing Native Americans under 200 years ago. The only country that would do anything serious about an attempt at Chinese reunification would be America [and of course NATO and Europe but if America wasn’t doing anything, Europe wouldn’t either].
If it wasn’t for America, reunification would have already happened.
So the pov of Americans or the west caring about indigenous people is faulty from the pov of most of the rest of the world. The west should care about indigenous people in their own direct spheres of influence first.
"Democracy and liberalism" are merely shorthand for a neofeudal rent-seeking oligarchy that disguises itself with parliamentary forms. As Huxley predicted in 1958:
>the democracies will change their nature; the quaint old forms -- elections, parliaments, Supreme Courts and all the rest -- will remain. The underlying substance will be a new kind of non-violent totalitarianism. All the traditional names, all the hallowed slogans will remain exactly what they were in the good old days. Democracy and freedom will be the theme of every broadcast and editorial -- but democracy and freedom in a strictly Pickwickian sense. Meanwhile the ruling oligarchy and its highly trained elite of soldiers, policemen, thought-manufacturers and mind-manipulators will quietly run the show as they see fit.
Meanwhile our ruling class has completely exhausted its moral authority and delegitimized its own political formula: of popular sovereignty, rules-based order, human rights, and so on. The mask is off and no one can take these sacred oaths seriously any more.
THAT is why the world is pivoting to China. That, and the fact that China does not impose as a precondition of lending and trade that you upend your social/sexual norms and/or demographically transform your country through mass immigration. China simply offers a better deal.