This, yggy has basically admitted that he figured out that getting the haters mad converts into $$$ in his pocket so he’s going to keep doing it
WaPo trying to distinguish between apolitical “festivals” and political “protests” seems like it could be problematic, especially given the examples they used in the memo.
https://twitter.com/maxwelltani/status/1389301664482533378?s=19
Would love to go back in time and tell a youngNit how quickly the world would shift from, “losing your virginity was a crime” to “Pride is just a fun, completely apolitical celebration, kinda like the 4th of July”
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Need further guidance on whether attending the Gathering of the Juggalos is okay.
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Judge Nit believes the Juggalos are a celebratory people with a long and glorious heritage, so I’ll allow it.
It’s farcical for them to think that, by muzzling their employees’ political expressions in their personal lives, the paper can become–or even have the appearance of–a non-partisan or unbiased organization.
So apparently you can know absolutely nothing about the topic you are writing about and the New York Times will publish you.
It’s amazing that a piece that doesn’t mention “the face thing” or “the word for X in Chinese translates to Y + Z”* could still be this bad, but it is.
Anyhow, apparently Joe Biden is moving towards official diplomatic recognition of Taiwan. (There is zero evidence for this.)
Biden doing this would mark an end to the US’ “One China” policy. (The US’ position regarding “One China” has always been that it acknowledges Beijing’s “One China Principle”, it was never adopted as official US policy. You’d think someone writing in the NYT about this topic would be aware of that.)
This would change the status quo (agreed). The status quo has served both sides of the Taiwan Strait well for decades (wait, what status quo are we talking about here? China is sending fighter jets into Taiwan airspace on a daily basis and routinely threatening an invasion.)
Now we get to the part that is so bizarre and idiotic I can only see racism as the explanation.
Apparently America forging closer ties with Taiwan would “signal” to Beijing that peaceful reunification is not on the table. The PRC government, which spends untold resources infiltrating Taiwan’s institutions and attempting to influence Taiwanese public opinion, is somehow under the impression that even following the death of One Country, Two Systems in Hong Kong and Xi’s ending of the “Reform Era” in mainland politics that the Taiwanese people are still open to reunification.
You see, the Chinese are a simple lot, eternally optimistic and incapable of understanding opinion polls and election results. Such means of understanding reality are unnatural to the Chinese condition. Thus, they of course remain convinced that the Taiwan Question will be resolved peacefully within our lifetimes as long as no Taiwanese officials are invited to banquets. The daily PLAAF incursions into Taiwan’s ADIZ are but a mating ritual of sorts.
Oh, and this same moron wrote in The Atlantic in 2018 that “One Country, Two Systems” is the answer because look at how free Hong Kong remains and Taiwanese would still probably have as much freedom as Vietnamese.
*I’m pretty sure the Chinese word for crisis actually translates to…wait for it…“crisis”
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Basically, Peter Beinart is what you get when someone consumes PRC propaganda and accepts it at face value (which more or less requires one to have a racist worldview regarding Chinese people).
Beinart doesn’t seem to be saying this in his NYT column. It’s true that his two systems one China stuff in the Atlantic article is laughable in light of what’s happened in Hong Kong, but I think he raises a lot of good points. It isn’t clear at all that the US Navy can decisively intervene to prevent a Chinese invasion of Taiwan this year, or in five years or ten years. It is clear that diplomatically recognizing Taiwan would be very provocative towards China, to no clear benefit. And removing ambiguity in if the US would intervene in Taiwan if they’re threatened with invasion would be both provocative and potentially commit the US to an unwinnable war.
So instead of doing those things, if the US wants to support Taiwan we should sell them more and better weapons. Give them the F-35Bs they want, advanced mines, sonar, air defense missiles, antishipping missiles. That would be provocative but at least it would make it a lot harder for China to invade if it comes to that.
The reason not to diplomatically recognize Taiwan in an official capacity is the possibility it forces Beijing’s hand via demands from the Chinese populace. Banquet invitations and meetings won’t bring that about.
The notion that “peaceful unification” is on the table, that Beijing thinks its on the table, or that Beijing has acted in any way that suggests it’s something they wish to pursue is absolutely absurd.
Forging closer ties with Taiwan doesn’t require a binding commitment to war with China.
That’s what I’m saying – I don’t think that Beinart is saying that peaceful reunification is on the table in his Times piece. But he’s saying that removing all possibility of that fiction being plausible at some point in the future is provocative. Which is maybe a subtle point but I think there’s something to it.
Ok, but then we’re back to him having no point: We should maintain strong ties with Taiwan but avoid official diplomatic recognition…exactly what Biden’s policy is.
You’re probably right, looking at some of Beinart’s other stuff it seems like he’s a full on China apologist. I certainly support economically decoupling from China (it was reckless to outsource so much there in the first place), and, surprise, he opposes that as well. He’s probably a Senior Fellow of some bullshit foundation funded half by China and half by Saudi Arabia.
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Sometimes one can do the right thing without a profit motive.
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Sometimes, one can do the right thing even knowing that it has negative real world consequences.
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A full-on diplomatic recognition of Taiwan as an independent country could very well force Beijing’s hand.
If Beijing felt an invasion of Taiwan was a good idea, it would have happened by now. Right now, it’s only the Chinese equivalent of Pepe-memeing computer game addicts that want to see an invasion of Taiwan (although admittedly that is a huge number of people). For the average person, being able to say “Taiwan is part of China” is all there is to it.
I’m not worried one bit about provoking Chinese diplomats, but doing something that would rally the PRC population into an anti-Taiwan government frenzy would be a threat to peace in the region.
Which times?
They really don’t, though. Absolutely nothing will ever happen to them.
Can’t we just buy out the patent rights outright from the pharma companies or would that like bankrupt the US?