Pfft! You tankies always omit important data, like population! We should be comparing these numbers relative to the total population of each country! It’s easy to say the UK is worse like this, but if we actually look at the numbers:

The UK’s population is around 68 million, so this is only ~ 0.0049% of their population.

That’s practically nothing! A tiny blip! But as we all know, only like 200 people live in Russia, which means that Russia has arrested over 200% of their population! How evil of them!

(If you want the actual numbers for Russia it is ~0.000285% of their population of around 144 million.)

Every time the west accuses one of their enemies of something they put them in a double bind like this. If they don’t protest and deny it, it’s proof they did it. If they do protest and deny it, it’s also proof they did it.

(Insert Parenti Quote here)

Indeed, they spend billions on anti-China and anti-Russia propaganda, it is constantly hammered down our throats how “savage and violent” they are, and yet a decent chunk of the population doesn’t fall for it, despite the US media control being so dominant in the world. US propaganda tactics are slowly but surely beginning to fail, and while comfortable petite-bourgeois types (or those with petite bourgeois aspirations) do fall for it, they do so out of material interest, not because it is actually convincing.

Those damn Ruskies, constantly undermining the west by pointing out how aggressive the west’s expansionist policies are!

From what I understand about America (though I’ve not lived there nor in China), all of those problems are present as well depending on where you live. Both nations are massive and people’s experiences will be incredibly varied based on where they live and how much money they make.

I think part of the reason the “vote blue you guys! Come on! No matter who! Other team is always worse! You’ve gotta vote for us!” crowd are getting so shrill in recent years is because it is clear that the tactic isn’t working anymore. People are becoming increasingly disenfranchised in the US, as they can see that both parties operate the exact same way, one is just “more civil” about it.

The only problem is that the republicans have started taking that frustration against the system and pushing it towards scapegoats and conspiracy theories. A certain group of Germans in the 1920s were fond of doing that, and the liberal response at the time was…“just vote them out.”

I’m quite worried for the people of the US tbh. The rest of the west is slowly collapsing, but the US seems to be doing a speedrun into open Fascism.

I think it might actually work though. People in the west are so used to the idea of a “collapse” as this big single event where everyone just collectively goes and starts rioting, thanks to the movies.

So a slow but steady decrease in opportunity and QOL over time won’t be like the movies, so they won’t notice it happening.