M_McM

Comment Threads

• Unholyguy commented on Deaths and Deadlines
  The thing about using a classifier like “empire” is it isn’t much good if it’s defined in a way that maps every instance to one bin For instance the way H. defines “empire “the empire-state declares the non-equivalence of multiple populations’ while ‘the nation-state proclaims the commonality of its people’ even if they are not equivalent in practice ” So all it takes is lip service to be out of the empire bin And who doesn’t give lip service to equality ? While in my definition “empire” means direct control over subject nations and hegemony means indirect control . So...
• Unholyguy commented on Deaths and Deadlines
  “Russia, northern Europe and Canada will all enjoy a major economic advantage over the US thanks to climate change” Sure but those 3 areas are currently sitting at between 5-10% of the US’s gdp and all three of them added together don’t even crack the economy of California So it would have to be one hell of an economic advantage And you could imagine how long Canada woul remain a sovereign state if such an advantage started to show....
• Ioan commented on Deaths and Deadlines
  "Okay - Russia still needs to figure out social policy re: AIDS, a collapsing social welfare/old age security/pension and medical programs. The falling birth rate may not be as big an issue since male life expectancy is still barely 65 therefore a smaller average number of unemployed folk to look after per capita vs. other countries, i.e., Japan." Please show me your stats. I have argued with SR over the Ukrainian famine and the fact that he ascribes far more injustices to the US than we actually committed (we committed enough real injustices; there's no need to add fake ones)....
• Ioan commented on Deaths and Deadlines
  "The general thought by historians of empires is that empires grow and shrink at roughly the same rates, so an empires that grow rapidly tend to shrink rapidly. The British empire, the Mongol empire and the Inkan empires are all given as examples of rapid boom and bust, as was Alexander's empire." The Spanish Empire would disagree with you. It grew pretty quickly, and then took close to a century to collapse (Napoleonic Wars to the Spanish American War)....
• _Moz_ commented on Deaths and Deadlines
  “the empire-state declares the non-equivalence of multiple populations’ I agree that that is nonsense, and practical non-equivalence isn't much better because it crosses with the hierarchy of oppression problem. While in my definition “empire” means direct control over subject nations and hegemony means indirect control But you still have definitional issues - China isn't an empire because Taiwan isn't subject and the rest aren't nations. But the US is an empire, because PR is a nation (as is Diego Garcia, and American Samoa etc), and arguably DG makes Britain also an empire. Somewhere along the hegemony spectrum between Australia and...