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RolStoppable said:
Certainly, things need to get worse for the West to deal with the big picture in a more united way. But I'd say our saving grace is that the West has a lot more common with each other than the BRICS countries and their allies. All those autocracies are ultimately very selfish, so just about the only thing that unites them is their disdain for the West. They talk about a new multipolar world order, but I don't think they'd be able to agree that, for example, China takes the reins. That's why the bigger threat for the West is to collapse from within due to the stupidity of their own peoples who vote for far-right populism. |
A lot of what I am going to say isn't aimed at you, it's general thoughts fuelled by the recent events in the Middle East.
BRICS are selfish, but they don't have to see eye to eye to deal us blows, they have done this as individual countries and found ways to benefit from these blows through symbiosis. Examples are many, recent ones Russia's war, it's a choice only Russia made, and they only needed the others to stay neutral, and they neutral they have been.
Look at how India bought all Russian oil it can at deep discounts and sold it to us at inflated prices. Saudi Arabia, not a BRICS country, has single handedly caused energy-price-dependent inflationary pains on us despite us begging them not to. When Biden threatened them with consequences, they doubled down by inviting Russia to OPEC, now known as OPEC+, and no consequences were suffered. Europe at large doesn't know what energy prices are going to be like this winter because our far-right allies are looking for ways to benefit themselves at our expense. We are that weak, MBS is slowly realising this and testing the limits, again, I say good for them.
When it comes to "left vs right", I think we need to acknowledge that the rise of China has happened majorly under supposedly left leaning politicians in both, the USA and Europe, it seems like only yesterday when Hillary and Biden have campaigned on "China ain't bad folks", Hillary had to be dragged kicking and screaming by Bernie to change her mind on this issue before campaigning for her.
It's also important to note that politicians from both sides of the aisle has shielded far right governments from any meaningful criticism or consequences for their actions, "as long as you buy our weapons, we'll turn a blind eye", and we stupidly believed this won't come back to bite us. For years, whenever I point out our idiotic reliance on far right governments in Saudi, China and Israel, I have been hit back with "they are our necessary allies, this means they're different from Russia". Well, there you go, we're being tag teamed by all them, and now the right-wing in our turfs is the direct beneficiary from the economical turmoil and inflation the left and the right equally responsible for by empowering far-right governments all around the world, it is self-serving for the right for sure, but why does the left do the same? Because Bernie is right, we live in a corporate dystopia delivered to us by the oligarchy.
We should hold our all politicians, Trump and Obama, even when it's our "allies", turning a blind eye to what's happening to Yemen and Gaza, or supporting Jihadists against Assad and the destruction of Syria just because we think our version of democracy should be imposed on others, not reflecting enough on the Iraq war, all of that have and will continue to come back and bite us.
As for BRICS being selfish, we actually need to learn some of that. Biden seems to understand this as evident by his Inflation Act. Macron's and Kemi Badenoch hissy fits over the selfish inflation reduction act were embarrassing, but Macron's subsequent conclusion was correct, we need to stop depending on others to deliver what we should achieve ourselves (or something along those lines). Biden's type of selfishness should be encouraged and applied more widely. But instead, we get selfish and petty over non-issues like Brexit. The tyrannical behaviour by the EU over the AstraZeneca vaccine was petty, how some of our politicians and the media are still using the EU as an excuse for their deficiencies despite the fact that we left is childish, I am sure the BRICS is watching us being children and laughing in Chinese.
We also need to point that the media has failed us miserably. Watching the Turkish elections, one of Erdogan's lackeys was asked about the media bias in their country, he rightfully hit back pointing out that our media is owned by rich people pushing rich people's agenda. I'd add that when they're not pushing the rich's agenda, they're creating imaginary divide just to drive engagement up as well as their revenues, despite the real chaos this causes, chaos which our detractors directly benefit from.
Brexit shouldn't have been a dividing issue, Britain wanted to be governed differently, no more differently than a country like Norway, big fucking deal. But hey, we're still beating the Brexit drums despite the fact that Britain exports to the EU are the highest they have ever been, business investment in the UK is the highest it's ever been (and this is after adjusting for inflation), long-term growth outcome is projected to be higher than that all major economies in the EU. Brexit campaign was full of lies, but the remaining campaign is evidently has been full of falsehoods that will never come true, despite the shit-show the Tories have been for 5 years and COVID19.
Here is the kicker, I actually don't care for the obsession with growth from either side anyway, because it's never a metric of our living standards, an important metric, sure, but it will only matter to the rich if our politicians don't capitalise on it and translate it to benefits for the regular people. What will improve our living standards is for a government to solve the housing crisis and make owning a house an attainable dream for most of its people, a crisis that originated while being in the EU (and not because of being in the EU). Yet, watching the media, one can only conclude that the solution to all of our problems is either leaving or rejoining.
The media also needs to stop crying wolf, it only divides us further, it turns their coverage into political-point-scoring rather than covering policies on their merits. I am no fan of BoJo, but he's not far right or remotely in the same basket as Trump, the guy delivered a massive NHS investment package, under him, a record of doctors was recruited (funnily, facilitated by Brexit), gender freaking neutral language was adopted by the NHS under his watch, as well as diversity quota for management positions and I am all for it. Green policies that were more ambitious than the EU targets, massive budget dedicated to turning our cities into cycling friendly spaces and low traffic neighbourhoods. When it's all said and done, he might just end up to the left of Kier Starmer. He's among the few leaders in Europe with a correct unshakable stance on the Russian invasion, wasn't it for Britain and the US, Macron would still be looking for ways to preserve Putin's ego. This doesn't mean that he should've been given a free pass for his scandals, of which there were many, far from it, but we need to draw meaningful distinctions between individual policies, rather than the tired useless approach "right vs left" formula that doesn't educate anybody on what is happening and who is responsible for what.
To finish this rant, I am trying to do my bits by support of grassroots projects financially by making monthly contributions to left-leaning Youtube media outlets, Novara media in the UK and Breaking Points in the US, I have no regrets seeing how both have been covering the Israeli-Gaza conflict these days. I disagree with all of their presenters/hosts with their views on immigration which I believe is too idealistic and ignores real concerns, but they're the best I can find and I think with time they will rethink their stance on immigration, even if that doesn't happen, it's fine, we are never going to agree on everything, as long as they continue the type of coverage that seeks to educate rather than tribalise.
Last edited by LurkerJ - on 21 October 2023
