Hawaii (an outer island), from when the pandemic started to now bougie alt-right and lib mainlanders have been moving here en mass and gentrifying everything.There is a lot of brain drain as kids leave for college on the mainland then are unable to return because everything got so gentrified. It feels like the native Hawaiians are somewhat making a comeback culturally and economically, but all the big native Hawaiian institutions seem to bend the knee to their colonizers and be 100% lib aligned and pro imperialist. I used to hear more chatter about Hawaiian independence and anticolonialism, but those voices seem to be gone lately. My coworkers have been going further and further right and are now openly racist, homophobic, and transphobic. They used to be apathetic. It's crazy since all of them are minorities and one is closeted.

Every day I daydream about moving to China. There are too many barriers to making that dream a reality though. I wouldn't want to make my SO feel isolated and illiterate. If only there was a socialist country that primarily spoke English.

They're priming their audiences. They've been suggesting that a Chinese economic collapse would directly cause an American depression.

That's what they've decided to go with to deflect blame once the panic of another American depression hits. The bourgeoise knows the general audience is racist enough to accept those evil Chinese commies are causing their problems no matter how many backflips the logic has to do for it to connect. They're scared to accept blame, they're scared it won't work out like 2008 where they all got off scott free so they need to sow the seeds of their alibis before it happens.

I expect them to publish a bunch of totally fabricated stories about China collapsing and pulling America down with them once America sinks into a depression. Better to scapegoat an entire country and allow citizens to take out their rage on the Chinese ethnic minority living in America than to take an ounce of blame. Hmmm sounds familiar.

Not trying to throw shade at the AO3 crowd lol. I'm honestly curious and hope you can explain, what about cultivation + bl makes it the winning formula? Specifically why is Untamed so popular? I tried asking various AO3 types if they could explain the appeal of their favorite ships but they just straight up refuse to tell me why. The only hints I get are from the YouTuber coleydoesthings.

I have tried watching untamed and I just couldn't figure out why it got so crazy popular.

I didnt watch the video but had it pop up in my recommended.

Japan and Korea I feel on some level create things with the knowledge that it will be exported and consumed by ally nations and propped up by weeaboos and koreaboos.

I don't think China really needs to export their media. They have a huge domestic market, they don't need western countries in order to succeed. I feel that most Chinese media is made for domestic audiences and therefore they don't need to create things with westerners in mind. For example square enix will make a video game set in basically medieval Europe (FFXVI) starring primarily westerners. China does not need to do that. It doesn't need international critical acclaim for media. So they can make films that focus on Chinese stories like "Better Days".

Also because the intended audience is domestic, a lot of the media created is pretty niche. For example something focused on a businesswoman that speaks Shanghai dialect at home.

Most media creators there just don't need that international market to succeed and so there is no push to export. The west is so rabid in their brainwashed anti China hate that they would reject anything from China except for small pockets of the population so there is no demand for Chinese media either.

Try pirating some smaller Chinese films, you'll see how difficult it is to get one with English subtitles.

Some media recommendations with easy to find English translations

films: Better Days

White Snake (3d animated movie)

Webnovel: Daoist Gu

Novel: Three Body Problem

Series: Link Click Three Body Problem Countless BL romances that American AO3 Tumblr types gush over

Games: most of the ones I would like have no English translations. But I've played a few like Gujian where it's fun but not my type of game.

Mobile/gacha games(I don't like mobile games) Genshin Honkai star rail

Also Chinese devs have been killing it with apps.

I hope I don't come off as stupid and naive, but I support the antiwork/workreform movements on Reddit. Yes, most of them are American redditor neoliberal reactionaries, however as a whole I think they have some small material effect on destabilizing the system. America is like a collapsing building with a few crumbly pillars holding the whole thing up and antiwork/workreform types are at least wacking at those pillars and I feel like a ton of them are voicing M and ML ideals without knowing it. I think a ton of them could eventually be brought to the left with some guidance.

I played through the campaign in alpha or early beta a couple years ago. I don't know how much they changed but that game was not worth anywhere near $70. I thought the story felt comical like a Mario game ('ooh geez you just missed the bad guys, they went that way' over and over until the end) and the world felt very dull. In D3 you got to at least go to different locations like heaven and hell. In this one it's 95% on earth and you fight the same types of enemies throughout. The legendaries were better than D3 but still feel uninspired. When I got to the end game where it was a bunch of instanced dungeons, I was already so bored I stopped without trying any. Halfway through I already lost my will to play but I just forced myself through to finish it.

Nico Robin from One Piece, I relate to her the most. I also like Reki from Haibane Renmei and Lain from Serial Experiments Lain.