Soselin

You didn’t respond to what I wrote.

China is not imposing a military base, it was invited in to be a balance against US domination.

It’s not ideal but it’s not imperialism, it’s a move by the Somali government to counter the massive western presence.

Is this computing?

I’m sure Somali would prefer to have no military bases but since that option isn’t available to them, bases are imposed by the west, they’d prefer to also have China there and not just America.

This is playing out across Africa in terms of investment.

If you’re not factoring in balance of power geopolitics to understand why China is being welcomed then you’re just making anti-China noises.

Africa is inviting China in as a counter to centuries of western militaristic dominance. This is easy to understand.

I’m sure Africa would prefer to not have either but they certainly prefer to not only have the west. Since the west is by far the overwhelming military presence that refuses to leave, it’s only due to this that Africa wants to invite China in as a balance.

It’s their least bad option available to them and that is due to centuries of and continuing western military domination.

Are you aware that base is literally just down the road from one of the biggest US bases in Africa that dwarfs it?

My understanding is Somalia invited them in because they didn’t want to just be a US puppet and inviting China in as a balance of power force is their best option, their least bad option. That’s basically what’s happening in all of Africa, you understand?

I don’t know, like sure I agree Somalia should be allowed to boot them out of Somalia chooses to do that but an actually rather small base to support specifically anti-piracy operations in Somalia seems like a pretty small bean to me.

In the purely abstract yeah sure I agree the best world is one without these bases but it doesn’t seem a tenable stance to pretend it’s imperializing Somalia when it is just down the road from a US base that is about 10-20x the size.

When China starts invading nations to force a permanent military occupation or refusing to leave when asked, then you have a point. But you don’t have that which makes pointing at this base hyperbolic and pale whataboutism to justify a massive western military presence that is often, even usually, not invited but imposed.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Droit_du_seigneur

The wealth worship is progressing. It’s a secular prosperity gospel. “Since we know for a fact that capitalism rewards the most capable individuals with success it therefore follows the wealthiest are our most capable individuals. Being the most capable means being the smartest, strongest, the healthiest. So clearly they have the best genes. The wealthy are an innately superior group, selected by nature to be a superior class of individual to lead us all. Let us cleanse the word of the inferior poors.”

How does this differ from a liberal democracy?

I think he just means it's a regular western style democracy, with opposition limited to business friendly parties and popular consent manufactured through domination of the media, but they openly hate gay people.

For example, what's one thing you can criticize Orban for in terms of voting rights that isn't also happening in the USA or the UK? It's just the opposition to gay pride parades and ranting about "the homosexual agenda" and dog whistling about "traditional family values", that's what he means. He's basically the GOP or Berlusconi. It's not actually very out of step with the west, he's just open about it in a way that makes mainstream liberals uncomfortable because they care about appearances.