In the US, money laundering accomplishes essentially the same thing.

What part of creating a mixed capitalist society run by an authoritarian regime leads to an utopia on any time frame? Spell it out for me because history suggests it will end poorly.

Putin has been in power for longer and there have been times were his popularity dipped. Then he launched a successful military operation and boom, popularity back up.

that they can’t imagine a society that doesn’t work that way

Well I’m imagining a classless, borderless society where everyone’s needs are met and it is fantastic.

You think this is a normal way for a government to be

Nothing about the US government is normal unless in the context of an Empire rapidly approaching the point of collapse.

and you think the smart thing to do is assume everyone is like the US

I have enough knowledge to know that in both better and worse situations, other countries do things often very different and assume as much but try not to assume details. Luckily I’m well read.

All these people saying “they want to reinstitute the shah” are basically just making a strawman

From what I’ve seen, it’s Iranians in the streets but I’ll fully admit I’m far away and I’ve seen little.

No, Cowbee in particular. I get along quite nice with communist for the most part.

If the exports weren’t mostly products made with components and raw materials that were imported, you’re thinking would be sound if we were considering the issue in isolation

Most full of shit people ever end up being totally full of shit. Big surprise.

That implies that water can’t make water wet.

Nobody is calling out for civil war

Elements of the Right have spent years calling for a civil war, what rock have you been living under?

I’ve been using Sarajevo as an example for a while. People will be getting shot by snipers just for trying to find food or water.

I encourage all Americans to arm themselves (and really humanity as a whole) and always have but I think Native Americans especially should arm themselves or face a possible repeat of history. Trump is threatening to Invade Greenland and Canada over resources and attack Venezuela to prop up the Petrodollar. There’s zero chance he’ll respect treaties with Native Tribes if there’s mining that can be done on the Rez

A co-op could handle it without much problem.

A lack of housing is not the problem most places. The problem is that housing shifted from being a place for people to live to a way for people to acquire “passive income”. Hell, the very design of housing changed in a noticeable way: houses shifted from being homes to being feature laden investment vehicles.

This is exactly where the US is weakest and where we’ll be hurt the most. If the value of the dollar drops significantly and/or the market for Treasury Bonds collapses, the US is FUCKED.

I doubt it. The US has very little power to foment anything there. Mossad has assets in Iran but limited assets that they use sparingly. This was almost certainly an organic grassroots revolution. Now, I’d for sure agree that Mossad and the US are doing anything in their power to move things along.

Good for them that they want to overthrow their oppressors but depressing they want to replace them with new oppressors in the form of a Shah.

China isn’t capitalist

That’s delusional

the working classes are in charge of the state

The party is in charge of the state. The working class have vanishingly little power.

A revolution would be devastating for the Chinese working classes.

That’s what the Ruling Class in every country says. Can’t let everyday people get too uppity

It’s more like offering someone a weight loss pill that will work for a couple months and then make you gain more weight than you started with.