World Politics

So, is this becoming a pattern? Non-random? Deliberate?

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But how will the ponies call to the mainland!?! j/k

Something fishy (hahaha) is going on there…

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Crab Treat GIF by pikaole

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The notion of building fences along portions of Finland’s long border with Russia seems to have wide support, but Helsingin Sanomat reports that’s not the case.

One of the few who are highly critical about the plans is researcher Jussi Laine from the Karelia Institute, according to the paper.

Border fences and walls are expensive and they do not serve the purpose for which they are built. According to the researcher, if there is a will to cross it, people will figure out a way.

“People will get past the fences no matter the method,” Laine tells HS, adding that those determined to cross will only find more dangerous methods and fall into the hands of smugglers and traffickers.

Therefore, building barriers could endanger people’s lives and end up supporting organised crime, according to Laine.

“I’m not saying that Finland’s border fence is completely useless, but I consider the disadvantages to be significantly greater than the benefits claimed,” he says.

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A measured and insightful argument there.

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https://twitter.com/katienotopoulos/status/1583465880419454976

For years, Li’s online critics decried him as a consumerist cult leader who indoctrinated people into spending more and more with his boisterous, toxic, dystopian sales talk. But, to his fans, Li was more than a salesperson offering exclusive discounts — he was a companion. “He is making money from us, but we are happy with it,” Little Tiger told Rest of World. “He is like a friend I’ve never met.”

Then, on June 3, Austin Li disappeared. During his regular livestream, at about 9 p.m., Li began presenting a segment featuring a Viennetta ice cream cake, known for its contrasting layers of ice cream and chocolate. Li’s assistant held up the cake, which had been decorated with biscuit wheels and a wafer-roll — it appeared to be shaped like a military tank. Almost immediately, the livestream cut out.

The ice cream cake touched a deep political taboo in China. Li’s livestream had aired ahead of June 4, the anniversary of the Chinese government’s crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square. On that day in 1989, the Chinese military sent tanks to central Beijing and opened fire, killing at least hundreds of civilians. Outside China, the image of a lone man confronting a line of tanks became synonymous with government repression. But, within the country, the government has downplayed and suppressed discussion of the incident ever since.
That evening, when Little Tiger tuned in to Li’s channel like she always did, she was surprised to find the show had ended prematurely. “I felt so sad that he just vanished into thin air,” Little Tiger said. “If I had known he would be gone that day, I would have bought more.”

Immediately after the cutoff, Li posted to social media platform Weibo that his team was fixing a “technical glitch.” Two hours later, he said that the show would not resume that night. Then, he went quiet.

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I think I’ve seen that movie…

Well, if we’re lucky the aliens come here to destroy us, and this threat unites Earth. For a short time, anyway.

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Only read the beginning as it seemed to miss the obvious things: they’d say they didn’t exist, they’d use whatever sex/gender thing they had to “prove “ their points, they’d accuse scientists of being alien lovers and haters of humans, call them satanic paedophiles etc.

The article seemed to be stuck in Cold War realpolitik rather than the reality of modern creeping fascism.

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Sigh :sweat:

Jussi Laine is absolutely correct. Before anyone in Finland’s government decides to start building fences, they ought to take a good hard look at real data on effectiveness and costs from Texas. Not the make-believe shit the GOP puts out, but factual information on how very useless they are for stopping people, how much they cost to build and maintain, and the enormous costs to local wildlife. Seriously. Fences that don’t enclose a relatively small area are not only useless but actively harmful.

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