Paul Ahearne-Ray

[‏ً @itsnwts]

HOT TAKE: Under capitalism, it's very normal to let children go hungry, let banks force people out of their homes, let sick people die for lack of access to healthcare. But the idea that billionaires could just be less rich, not poor, not struggling, just less rich, is considered insane.

[Andy Kim @AndyKimNJ]

A highschool senior, a pregnant woman, and a man with Stage Three cancer. These are the people I met in Delaney Hall. When DHS tells you they are only arresting the worst of the worst, they're lying. These are everyday people kept in inhumane conditions with our tax dollars.

[Thrilla the Gorilla @ThrillaRilla369]

We’re obsessed with the idea that poor people might take more than they need, but we never question why the super rich are never satisfied with what they already have.

[𐌁𐌉Ᏽ 𐌕𐌉𐌌𐌉 @OrevaZSN]

If capitalism is so great, why do corporations need tax breaks, subsidies, exemptions, grants, bailouts, legal protections, and trade barriers to survive? And when ordinary people ask for help, why is it suddenly called socialism?

[Karly Kingsley @karlykingsley]

👇

[𐌁𐌉Ᏽ 𐌕𐌉𐌌𐌉 @OrevaZSN]

Humans were gifted a planet overflowing with trees, fruit, water, natural medicines, and sunshine. And yet somehow, we decided to invent debt, political parties, capitalism, AI conflict, and war.

[Bear @Beargirl_1]

My favorite James Baldwin line: "There is a reason, after all, that some people wish to colonize the moon, and others dance before it as an ancient friend."

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

Hundreds of millions of people throughout the world are immersed in extreme poverty. Yet, disproportionate wealth remains in the hands of a few. It is an unjust scenario, in the face of which we cannot fail to question ourselves and commit to change things. There is no lack of resources at the root of disparities, but the need to address solvable problems related to a more equitable distribution of wealth, to be achieved with moral sense and honesty.

[Paul Ahearne-Ray @Paul_a_Ray]

I know this is pretty radical of me, but maybe.. just maybe, we shouldn’t use people’s finances and livelihoods, as bargaining chips

[Karly Kingsley @karlykingsley]

🎯

[Sony Thăng @nxt888]

You are asking the wrong question to the wrong person.

You are talking to someone who grew up on the receiving end of Western power, not someone who learned geopolitics from Netflix.

I do not have a problem condemning imperialism "from all sides."

I have a problem pretending that all "sides" are equal when one bloc:

Built 800+ military bases abroad.

Controls the global reserve currency.

Runs the main sanction machinery.

Overthrew dozens of governments on every continent.

And backs the last open-air concentration camp in Gaza while calling it "self-defense."

That bloc is not Russia.

That bloc is not China.

That bloc is the U.S., its European vassals, and its little settler attack dog in West Asia.

So let’s be specific.

When Russia moves in Ukraine, the West calls it "naked imperialism."

When NATO creeps east for 30 years, tears up arms control treaties, backs coups in Kiev, and turns Ukraine into a forward operating base, that is somehow not imperialism, just "security architecture."

When China insists that Taiwan is part of its own historical and legal space, it is "aggression."

When the U.S. sails warships 10,000 kilometers from home, encircles China with bases and missiles, arms separatists, and openly talks about "containing" Chinese growth, that is sold as "defending democracy."

You see the pattern, right?

You only ask me, "Why don’t you condemn Russia and China?" because you swim in a narrative where what Washington and Brussels do is never named as empire, only as "order," "stability," or "rules-based."

Let me make my position clear:

If Moscow tomorrow starts stealing other people’s resources, installing puppet regimes on other continents, and sanctioning entire populations into famine, I will call that imperialism.

If Beijing starts running coups in Latin America, crushing African economies with IMF-style conditionality, and building Guantánamo-style black sites, I will call that imperialism.

But that is not where we are.

Right now, what I see is:

Russia responding to 30 years of NATO encirclement on its own borders, asserting the red lines any serious state would draw to defend its survival.

China reacting strategically to a century of humiliation, rebuilding itself with discipline and patience, and securing its own periphery against a foreign navy that has no legitimate reason to be at its doorstep except to keep it down.

You want to treat that as equal to:

Iraq 2003, a war of choice based on lies.

Libya 2011, a "no-fly zone" turned state destruction.

Afghanistan, 20 years of occupation and then walking away.

Chile, Congo, Indonesia, Iran, Guatemala, Vietnam, Nicaragua, Grenada, Panama, Yugoslavia, Syria, the list is almost endless.

So no, I do not "only" criticize Western imperialism.

I criticize the center of gravity of imperialism.

If a tiger bites you once and a mosquito bites you three times, you do not write a long essay about "both sides of biting." You deal with the animal that can actually kill you first.

That is what the Global South is doing.

You ask: "Why not condemn what Russia is doing in Ukraine?"

Because every Western politician and newspaper is already screaming about it 24/7, while carefully deleting the NATO, coup, and proxy-war context that led there.

My voice is not needed to reinforce the loudest propaganda machine on Earth.

You ask: "Why not condemn what China wants to do regarding Taiwan?"

Because for 150 years, European and American ships, soldiers, missionaries, and bankers carved Asia into zones like they were slicing cake.

China trying to secure reunification, however you feel about it, is not the same category as Europeans crossing oceans to carve up continents that never threatened them.

Russia wants a security buffer on its immediate border after centuries of invasions from the West.

China wants to finish a civil war and prevent a hostile military alliance from turning its front porch into a NATO aircraft carrier.

The U.S. wants no one, anywhere, to have the ability to say "no" to its sanctions, its dollar system, its bases, its vetoes, its bombardments.

You can pretend those are all "imperialisms" on the same moral plane.

I do not.

I live in a world where:

Washington arms Israel while it erases Palestinians in real time.

Brussels lectures Africa on "values" while backing French neocolonial currency systems.

The same Europe that starved my part of the world through colonies now calls Russian gas a "security threat" and Chinese investment "economic warfare."

And you want to talk to me about "balance"?

Here is my balance:

The U.S., Europe, and Israel are the primary axis of global violence today.

Russia and China are big powers with their own interests, but they are also the ones pushing back against a unipolar order that has strangled the Global South for generations.

If one day they become what the West is now, I will turn the same knife on them.

Until then, I am not confused about where the main gun is pointed.

[Dude Just Hates Fascism 🇺🇦🇵🇸 @FascistFacials]

We’ve known for a long time now that most of those in Congress serve their donors’ interests, not those of their constituents. We’re seeing the result of that now.

[Sen. Bernie Sanders @SenSanders]

This is what oligarchy looks like:

If you're Elon Musk, the richest man alive, Tesla gives you a $1 trillion pay package & Trump gives you a huge tax break.

If you're a poor kid on SNAP, Trump appeals a court decision that would have prevented you from going hungry.

Obscene.

[Nikolaj🇺🇦🇵🇸 @nikicaga]

How are you raiding daycares and thinking you're the good guys

[Roy Cooper @RoyCooperNC]

Public servants should serve the public.

Too many elected officials serve their own interests — their political party or their personal power — first.

[Cxspxxr✘🧸 @_6signxxx]

This is how white people tell history.

[a nice enough person online 🍉 @bigkiitten]

i love how we’re just straight up cooking the planet to produce the worst thing ever invented

[Sara @SaraCivian]

I don't really think the answer to people caring that there are ads on RedZone now is "nobody cares" like ... people get way too mad at everything these days, yes, but people care about this because everything is just getting worse for more money all the time lol

[BetMGM 🦁 @BetMGM]

We used to have:

- RedZone without commercials
- Actual sports reporting on ESPN
- Geographic college conference alignment
- Every NFL & CFB game available on a basic cable package

[Boze Herrington, Library Owl 😴🧙‍♀️ @SketchesbyBoze]

If you're using AI to write essays, eulogies, a text to your wife, I do think less of you as a person. Ceding your mental and creative abilities to a machine is an embarrassing thing and people should be ashamed to admit doing it in public.