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Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

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Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#811

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's just quote you then, for avoidance of doubt: "Denmark isn’t an “ally.” An alliance is a mutual relationship. Denmark offers the U.S. nothing. " You either wrote that or someone temporarily borrowed your laptop but as far as I can see there are no third options. Unless of course you have some creative definition of what you consider to be an ally but until only a short while ago the EU was given a pretty concise…

I’m sorry for using figurative language on the internet where Dutch people are around. The full relevant part is below: > Denmark isn’t an “ally.” An alliance is a mutual relationship. Denmark offers the U.S. nothing. It’s a country the size of Maryland… In the construction “it’s not an X, it’s a Y,” X and Y are read in contrast to each other. Denmark isn’t an “ally” in the sense that it can’t offer meaningful aid to…

Ahh, the True Scotsman equivalent of not quite an ally. FFS man, at least own your words and stop weaseling, I have absolutely no problem with figurative language, I was speaking English before you were born.

Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#812

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having free elections doesn't make you the good guys if you elect a tryant to be a tyrant. Republicans are getting what they voted for and they STILL want what's happening. I've heard them say it. This leftist idea that everything will just be ok and we don't need to do anything because it'll all be fixed in the next election needs to stop. Right now the only people actually protecting the republic are the people in…

> Republicans are getting what they voted for and they STILL want what’s happening. Trump was elected as a specific reaction to the previous administration’s immigration policies. You’re right that voters supported that, but they didn't sign up for the rest. If you look at the polling, the tariffs and the Greenland push are explicitly unpopular. > having free elections doesn’t make you the good guys if you elect a ty…

This excessive faith in democracy is problematic. The founders of the United States, the Romans, and the Athenian philosophers who came up with democracy all openly talked about one of the risks of democracy in mob rule. Sometimes the most popular idea is in fact not nice. Good things don't just automatically come from adding a little democracy to the mix.

Sometimes (it's not so rare) the majority of people WANT horrible things to be perpetuated by their government. It isn't just "mistakes" or being tricked or some sort of scam, governments act with the consent of the people and a ruling majority voting for atrocities is not uncommon.

I'm not saying democracy is bad, but I am saying it's delusional to think that just having democracy cures all ills.

---

I have heard first hand people I know, seen people in videos online, and seen plenty of comments online to the tune of "ICE is doing EXACTLY what we want, keep going". A lot of people want exactly what has happened and while I think either the majority is eroding or already lost in support for these things, it is by no means a landslide in public opinion against the rising fascist politics in America. Sitting by and expecting to win the next election and just gritting your teeth until then is not the right response.

A huge portion of why this has happened is democratic "knowledge" that they deserve to win so they will, and making really bad political decisions based on this attitude.

Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#813

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have to ask yourself, compared to current US leadership, is China actually all that bad? US is being driven by the personal whims of a deteriorating tyrant, Congress is allowing it and the courts are only doing a tiny amount of checking his power. You can't just say "despite everything happening we're still the good guys and China and Russia are the bad guys!" Osama bin Ladin won. The goals he had when he attacke…

China is buying 50% of Russian gas and supplying them with drone parts and gunpowder which is directly used to kill Europeans and destabilize Europe. They are also exporting their surveillance state technology to dictatorships in Pakistan, Iran, and Venezuela. Look at Iran, 16000 protestors are dead in two weeks. That is the Chinese model of stability. Bad leaders exist everywhere, Europe included. But in the US, the…

The US just kidnapped the leader of Venezuela, Iran got into this theocratic regime situation in the first place because of US interference, and our closest NATO allies are legitimately preparing for war with the US and decrying the new world order. Not to mention the previous decades of destabilizing, arming, overthrowing, etc. many many countries to serve our own self interest.

You're a European leader looking at this situation frankly trying to decide whose atrocities and foreign policy is worse, it's not exactly obvious and choosing China because at least China isn't trying to annex your neighbors and is behaving rationally even if it's not nice things it's predictable.

There's a big difference between "We're the good guys, we stopped the bad things happening in our country before they started" and "I know we're doing awful things but I bet it'll stop soon with our next election".

Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#814

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A minority of people in the developed world would agree with your assessment that the American left is "extreme". It's mostly American "centrists" and conservatives that think so.

Again though, the original point is that left/right assumes there are extremes. All you have said is that in the rest of the world the "left" is more extreme. If that extreme is good or not is a mostly a value judgement - there is no right or wrong answer. There are consequences to what answer you pick though.

I know you said there are consequences to which one you pick, so we partially agree. But "There is no right or wrong answer" implies all value judgements are purely subjective, that all values are purely subjective. But I think we agree this couldn't be farther from the truth - these values _govern society_ - they affect everyone around us. Choosing bad values is genuinely harmful. Having the value that slavery is okay isn't just subjective, it's harmful and evil. Maybe if you believe slavery is okay, then you might disagree, but it doesn't make you any less objectively wrong. We could get into a big long thing about how this becomes objective, but suffice to say, if people do not want to be owned, and see being owned as harmful to them... then... they are being harmed.

Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#815

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Defaulting on the debt would be a great “emergency” that requires elections to be cancelled…

Thankfully elections are more or less impossible to cancel since they are scheduled by the states

And having armed federal agents at the polling booths won’t be a problem? Or declaring it “stolen”, or simply ignoring the results, or refusing to leave office.

None of those are much of a stretch from all the laws already broken repeatedly

Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#816

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you say "nearly limitless" source of borrowing, the limit is the gain in global wealth. The US has been siphoning off a huge chunk of world wealth by printing dollars to serve as the currency for that wealth. All the people complaining about "US Debt" and $26T of "net investment" or whatever don't realize that this is/was the benefit of the US being stable, strong, and friendly. When the US is unstable, weak, an…

Its baffling that you think the collapse of the USD would have no negative ramifications on the rest of the world...

IT will be painful, but we (the rest of the world) will weather the storm, and come out to a brighter and cleaner world. The greatest con the US pulled was to scare the rest of the world of being bullied by powerful fascist nations whilst becoming the most powerful fascist bully.

Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#817

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your position is they are not extreem. Mine is that what we call left is already too extreem. However what the 'right' wants is different but mostly not in the direction I want to go.

A minority of people in the developed world would agree with your assessment that the American left is "extreme". It's mostly American "centrists" and conservatives that think so.

It really doesn't matter what non-Americans think in this context; only Americans get to vote in American elections. (And additionally, I think you're essentially wrong that American politics is to the "right" of other developed countries in general.)

Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#818

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your position is they are not extreem. Mine is that what we call left is already too extreem. However what the 'right' wants is different but mostly not in the direction I want to go.

What laws or presidential orders have the US Left done that shows how extreme they are?

The US Left doesn't represent a broad enough population to win most national elections; certainly not enough to pass national law. They win local elections in places like SF or Seattle that were Harris +52 (e.g. contrast with Maduro's fake election only claiming a 9 point margin) and are over-represented in Dem party donors, which influences Dem representatives.

Nevertheless, they express extreme positions. Like "people should be treated preferentially by race" or "private property should be abolished/confiscated" or "the police should be defunded" or "transwomen should be allowed to compete in women's sports categories" or "illegal immigrants should receive taxpayer-subsidized healthcare." These are like 70-30 or 80-20 issues at the national level, with Leftists on the wrong side.

https://decidingtowin.org/

Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#819
post #753

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're responding to someone describing a civil war as a best case scenario. I have no grievance politics.

The problem is that alternative seems to be America starting WWIII or America violently occupying Europe. That means even more death.

you're really going to have egg on your face when none of these three paths happen

Re: Danish pension fund divesting US Treasuries

#820

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Gestapo had the backing of the courts and the laws as well. Your argument is not as strong as you seem to think. Also -- it's fairly well documented at this point that ICE is often without a warrant, and is detaining and in some instances deporting US citizens. These aren't one offs, and looking at what's going on in MN makes that pretty clear.

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