Eh, one person replied now. But I get your frustration. There are a lot of things I can’t say in a comment or that I assume others know about so I don’t even explain it. I can’t write a book. I already get the “I’m not reading all that” replies enough as it is. But, when someone reads a comment without that context it can be hard for them to understand.

Things like THAAD in 2016. The protest in South Korea (I was actually there when they happened). I didn’t mention the obvious connection to Iran being that Trump removed them back in March to defend Israel. Something I incorrectly assume people know. So, I could see how my comment could be seen as a “jump” without that knowledge.

But, yes, I’d definitely prefer people reply that disagree.

This started not this week but months ago when they removed the THAAD defensive interceptors; not because they were “missile bait”. They literally shipped them to Israel because they were running out of defensive interceptors there. They did this without any say or knowledge from the South Korean government until. They were told after the fact.

I don’t disagree with your “simpler explanation”. You’re saying the same thing I said but removing the material reasons for why this is happening now. The THAADs have been there for 10 years. They were removed for a reason. The right wing military coup in South Korea failed and a more left leaning (for SK) government is in power. There are multiple material reasons for why the US is abandoning SK. The US was forced to remove THAADS, demanded submission to the empire with SK military support as it’s people rightfully were upset. Trump wanted that submission in response to his sudden removal of the THAADs. They didn’t get submission. So they are trying to get it through fear. The US hopes to stoke fear to move the SK government to the right (similar to Japan).

And if we’ve learned anything from the Iran war it’s not specific weapons or military games that make other countries “missile bait”. It’s allowing US military bases in ones country and becoming a missile spunge for Israel.

Any country with US military bases right now should see them as a threat to their national security. Because you become the target when the US starts an illegal war of aggression.

On paper they are “anti authoritarian”. But, it’s not an ideology that actually has the ability to maintain itself. It’s like the right wing version of Anarchism in that there is no good historical example of it being able to maintain its structures.

For anarchist, the failure comes from pressure of external forces and is not able to defend from imperial powers.

For libertarians, the failures are internal. Without a capitalist state to maintain it; the contradictions of capitalism are overwhelming. The “ancap” systems can’t even reach a “true ancap” stateless society before it’s capitalist are begging for the state to defend them and bail them out. Which often just shifts into a state run under an “authoritarian” like dictatorship that serves the interest of capital.

The real material result of libertarian thought just devolves into capitalism with no liberal democracy. With no liberal democracy to absorb the frustrations of the masses; the remaining state turns to more direct militant measures to maintain itself.

It’s the dumb right wingers version of Anarchism. It’s just an ideology that directs the working class to believe that the answer is less state power. But, the capitalist don’t want less state power. They have it. They just want to offer YOU less and believing libertarian bull shit is a good way for the masses to work against their own interest. No capitalist actually wants to dissolve the capitalist controlled state. It’s literally what maintains their power.

It’s what happens when you don’t have the the ability to analyze through dialectical materialism. It’s confusing when suddenly the fascist mad man is seemingly taking the same stance as “tankies” on normalizing relations with a non violent country who’s only crime has been being victim of a genocidal campaign over half a century ago. Trump likes Kim for the same reason that he likes Xi. He thinks they are actually the evil dictators that the US makes them out to be. He wants to be an evil dictator. He will always respect any leader that panders to his ego and treats him like a leader. Ironically, Western countries are bad at this. It’s why he hates europe. Hell, Mamdani was smart enough to play a similar game of charisma. That’s the dialectics. At least from what we are hearing from Trump. It’s why he says things like this.

The main material reason is that the defeat in Iran has made any chance of the US maintaining its military in East Asia laughable. It cannot maintain its illusion of China being a threat. If China was going to invade Taiwan it would have done it. Instead, China cut its oil imports to help all of its Asian neighbors. The dream of a “shift to Asia” that happened under Obama is gone. The US power in West Asia is dying and they are pulling weapons and troops from East Asia to desperately attempt to hold onto it. They are stuck with capital invested in a region that they are showing absolute failure and weakness in. With capital investments in Israel and the military industrial complex Trump is being pressured to just “bring things back to how they were”. They never will be. It may take a long time before that is admitted. I expect another round of bombing campaigns and maybe even a desperate small ground troop invasion to attempt to save face and “claim the strate”. But this likely will fail and remain in this denial state for some time; ending through a different president most likely.

He will continue to deny the defeat and soon desperately shift to the one region of the world US capital can continue to exploit: South America.

Some of this is me mixing in my own predictions. Feel free to critize that. But, we obviously all know “JDPON Don” falls into the correct position sometimes, often because of his own ego and the shifting global relations in the face of a dying empire.

TLDR: The “tankies” are against American Imperialism. American Imperialism is losing its power and is forced by material circumstances to take actions that “tankies” would consider good. Trump is appealing to the “strong man” in Kim to make his weak move (failed Iran war causing troops and weapons to be removed) look like strength.

Just one more Injunction bro. Please, one more. We’ll get him with the next one bro. We just need one more Injunction bro. That’ll fix it bro. Just one more bro.

These gloves are going to kill or injure more ICE agents than they will innocent people. There is a reason tasers can be dropped by the user. There is a reason that they shoot wired tips at a specific target.

We’re gonna start being able to identify ICE agents from the burns on their hands when these dumb fucking comic book style tasers start malfunctioning.

Someone’s gotta do it. I’m leaving this comment so it’s not me.

That movement was largely a place for young liberals, interested in resistance to Vietnam, to go and be useless and not become socialist. It was a means of keeping them separated from a growing militant resistance to the apartheid in America (Malcom X, Black Pathers, etc).

If you’re smoking weed and telling everyone “just give peace a chance” you can stand idle as the violent state attacks black neighborhoods for mass incarceration and condemn “violence on all sides”. Which is just allowing the violence of the oppressive state to be justified.

Being against bad things while telling everyone else “not yet” when they try to fight to stop the bad things. That’s American liberalism in a nutshell.

Hell, listen to Kings frustration.

I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice

Or in song form by Phil Ochs: https://youtu.be/3cdqQ2BdgOA

Pointing to historical examples that liberals of the past failed on is hard for modern day liberals though. They know the Jim Crow south was bad. They know the Vietnam war was bad. But they’re unable to realize it until after the fact. Israel took them 2 years of genocide to start acknowledging.

I know a lot of liberals that fit the first definition. The only real difference being they enjoy symbolic empathy.

The people I see living in my neighborhood with the “all are welcome here” pride + blm flags in their yard; the same people that show up at our town hall meetings fighting public transit, affordable housing, housing for the homeless.

They spend a lot of their energy having to explain why “maintaining the character and culture” of their neighborhood is all they want. Sometimes I prefer the rascist I grew up with in the south. You don’t have to spend 30 minutes to realize their garbage people. They at least tell you straight up.

There aren’t any liberals that would like Trump if he was a Democrat. Because he doesn’t do the symbolic empathy. That’s why they loved Obama so much. They used him like a BLM flag in their yard.

Don’t believe me? Go to a city hall meeting in your “Liberal” city for a couple weeks.

Edit: A lot of people that have never been to a city hall meeting in their city.

Same way Liberals voting for a candidate actively enabling a genocide. Their side is also full of “you’re not helping our electoral chance” politics.

If you can’t understand how January 6th wasn’t a deal breaker; but you also expect a genocide to NOT be a deal breaker at the same time. I have little hope for you to understand what is going on today and even how we got to this point.

The weird part is people expect MAGA to have moral lines; but if you’re a leftist that can’t exist. You have to listen to our “lesser evil” argument.

Edit: Lots of downvotes but not one person ready to reply and explain why January 6th should be a deal breaker while a genocide should not. I’ll wait…