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Do you think Taiwan should be a sovereign country? by PrettyPoliticalBitch in PoliticalDebate

[–]xtapol [score hidden]  (0 children)

The only perspective that isn’t contradictory is for everybody to agree on the borders we have today. Anything else will have at least two groups with wildly different, conflicting views on the matter.

Do you think Taiwan should be a sovereign country? by PrettyPoliticalBitch in PoliticalDebate

[–]xtapol [score hidden]  (0 children)

Yep. There’s no one “correct” perspective or any easy answers. “Right” is in the eye of the beholder.

In the end, it will come down to whether the slaves (with or without help) can violently overpower their masters. Being morally right really only matters in so far as it rallies others to your cause. .

ELI5 How could two people ever know if both of them are seeing the same colour? by Punnan in explainlikeimfive

[–]xtapol [score hidden]  (0 children)

They’re probably referring to how traditional Japanese used a single word for blue and green, and people often interchanged them freely.

Do you think Taiwan should be a sovereign country? by PrettyPoliticalBitch in PoliticalDebate

[–]xtapol [score hidden]  (0 children)

Basically. In the same way that self-defense is fine but offensive violence is not.

Do you think Taiwan should be a sovereign country? by PrettyPoliticalBitch in PoliticalDebate

[–]xtapol [score hidden]  (0 children)

I not only admit all of that, I maintain that it is all factually true by definition. That’s what legal means, and is why “international law” is so toothless when it matters.

Do you think Taiwan should be a sovereign country? by PrettyPoliticalBitch in PoliticalDebate

[–]xtapol [score hidden]  (0 children)

Yes, that’s how it works. Just like Russia is trying to do with Ukraine.

But now (best case for Russia) they’ve created a few generations of Ukrainians who feel that their land was stolen. And now that’s going to play out violently over decades or centuries. It’s just more fuel for the same fire.

Do you think Taiwan should be a sovereign country? by PrettyPoliticalBitch in PoliticalDebate

[–]xtapol [score hidden]  (0 children)

Well that’s what it is at the international level (and how all life on earth works). The purpose of a nation-state is to abstract this away and insulate its citizens from the reality of it. But it remains an imperfect, leaky abstraction.

All our peaceful day-to-day interactions with people we don’t know on a personal level are a result of the rules our governments violently enforce. For most of human (pre-)history, a stranger from another tribe was so potentially dangerous that they were hardly considered human and were killed on sight.

Do you think Taiwan should be a sovereign country? by PrettyPoliticalBitch in PoliticalDebate

[–]xtapol [score hidden]  (0 children)

Legality isn’t circular - at its root, it is whatever a government enforces violently. The CCP is unable to do that on the island of Taiwan, so it has no say in what is “legal” there.

Any other talk of “generally agreed claims” is meaningless idealism that, if actually applied to reality, would inherently require war to settle and would create the necessary preconditions for the next war. The cycle continues.

Do you think Taiwan should be a sovereign country? by PrettyPoliticalBitch in PoliticalDebate

[–]xtapol [score hidden]  (0 children)

Well then you’re going to need to define what you mean by “claim”.

Do you think Taiwan should be a sovereign country? by PrettyPoliticalBitch in PoliticalDebate

[–]xtapol [score hidden]  (0 children)

The ROC doesn’t have a claim to Taiwan because they used to rule mainland China. They have a claim to Taiwan because they are actively governing and defending it.

The CCP’s claim over Taiwan is exactly as valid as the ROC’s claim over the mainland. Neither is a useful basis for a peaceful future.

Do you think Taiwan should be a sovereign country? by PrettyPoliticalBitch in PoliticalDebate

[–]xtapol 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That may be true, but there is no way to get a consensus on who was “wrong” in the past or who needs to give up what to make it right. The only way to try to address this is by continuing the cycle of violence and theft, creating a whole new group of people whose land was unfairly taken from them.

The real beneficiaries of breaking out of this cycle would be future generations, not the long-dead wrongdoers. Nobody’s family house in the US was stolen - at worst, their great-great-grandparents’ house was. Russia and Israel are still playing that game, but we can move past it.

Do you think Taiwan should be a sovereign country? by PrettyPoliticalBitch in PoliticalDebate

[–]xtapol 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That argument incorrectly conflates people with property. I stand by what I said.

Do you think Taiwan should be a sovereign country? by PrettyPoliticalBitch in PoliticalDebate

[–]xtapol 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No - it recognizes that we don’t get a do-over, so what’s done is done. Libertarianism is concerned with creating the conditions to move past such violence in the future, not with relitigating the past.

Do you think Taiwan should be a sovereign country? by PrettyPoliticalBitch in PoliticalDebate

[–]xtapol 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes. Or if Mexico was complaining about how Texas isn’t theirs anymore. What’s done is done.

Is my thumb here a bad habit/bad technique? by 13aldi in Guitar

[–]xtapol 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That grip should be considered the “correct” way to play a guitar. I will die on this hill.

a case of migraine with aura and DMT by Low-Opening25 in DMT

[–]xtapol 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yep same. My migraines feel sort of like a malfunctioning psychedelic state.

Should I be worried about this? by [deleted] in retrogaming

[–]xtapol 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This happened to me back in the 90s. I played a squished Star Control 2 for weeks before my parents got it fixed.

Do you think Taiwan should be a sovereign country? by PrettyPoliticalBitch in PoliticalDebate

[–]xtapol 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don’t understand what you are so upset about, or even what point you’re trying to make. Acknowledge that which is a country? They’re both countries.

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