u/emergencyfood

Funny you should mention that. I was reading some discussion that several countries' central banks are buying up gold. There was also one guy speculating that they might make some sort of gold-backed currency for international trade.

Time is a circle, etc.

Couple of issues here - first, for the Euro to be used as a reserve currency, the EU would have to be a net importer of goods (and exporter of Euros). But EU policy is based on avoiding deficits. Second, for the Euro to be taken seriously by other countries, there should be something manufactured by the EU, that can, at least in theory, be bought with it. But the EU's manufacturing sector, particularly in Germany, is collapsing.

India Russia and China hate each other to the bone.

India and Russia have had goid relations for over half a century. Polls in India usually show Russia as the most liked foreign nation. China and Russia also have had good relations for at least the last decade or so.

India-China relations are complicated. There is a border conflict, but China is our biggest trading partner, and we need China's UnionPay if we ever want to decouple from Swift.

127,0,0,1

No, India.

Afghanistan, Tajikistan and most of Kyrgyzstan are mountainous. The route is going just north of this range.

They violently suppressed protests (and quietly suppressed political opponents). I'm not saying they're *good* people. I'm saying they're the *least bad* option.

Good. Conscription is worse than murder; it is forcing people to give up their humanity.

Eh, it's complicated. The Awami League protected women, workers and minorities (to some extent). Now it'll be a three way fight between the Western-backed interim government, the army and the BNP (religious fundamentalists). Whoever wins, the people will suffer.

airborne viruses that can travel for hundreds, perhaps even thousands of miles

Airborne viruses usually travel about two metres (hence the two metre social distancing rules for Covid-19). Even if a single virus somehow travels farther - perhaps by hitching a ride on a vehicle - it is unlikely to cause a *successful* infection, because you need enough of them ('viral load') to overwhelm host defences.

I don't know what 'diluted toxins' has to do with viruses and immunology since toxins are a rather different matter entirely

Vaccines work in different ways. The oldest method is what you described - attenuated viruses. Newer ones usually do not contain active viruses. They either have inactivated viruses, or, increasingly, just the viral proteins or mRNA. This reduces the risk of the vaccine causing harm to the recipient.

the immune system can 'learn' and 'evolve' over the course of a single human's lifetime

If the person survives, their immune system *may* learn to identify and defend against that virus. Or it might just forget. Or it might cause random damage due to cytokine storms. Or it might forget all previous information. And in any case, some percentage of the population will die.

Thinking that infections are good because they will help increase immunity is like thinking that a country constantly being at war is good because then they'll always be ready for war. Particularly when you can give the same immunity at a fraction of the risk using vaccines that just have some proteins or mRNA.

breathe contaminated air in the general vicinity of animals, drink water they've pissed or shit in, etc.

Don't go near animals. Boil water before drinking. Simple as.

That is in fact how a vaccine/our immune system works, yes.

Vaccines work using either diluted toxins, or increasingly, proteins / RNA that just look somewhat like the real thing. The immune system works by enough of the population dying off until only those with the necessary mutations are left.

cows don't stop existing just because we don't eat beef.

Humans need to go close to the infected animal to get infected.

being around/eating animals all the time also builds up your immune system's defenses against diseases that originate in those animals

Oh, so being exposed to new viruses reduces the risk of dying to a virus you got … because you were exposed to it?

People getting killed is obviously bad. But just to put this into perspective, how many people were killed in Gaza today? How many children? And yesterday, and the day before? Oh wait, we don't even have a full count because the monsters also murder journalists.

Well, that depends on what you want. Lemmy.world leans right and harbours transphobes and racists, hence the nazi.world jokes. Personally I think such users should just be allowed to make fools of themselves, but if you find that disturbing you can join another instance. lemmy.ml leans left, lemm.ee is fairly centrist, and sh.itjust.works is mildly right. But all are great instances.

The amount of trade is not the only thing that matters. Russia exports food, fertiliser and oil. Trade with Europe / US is mostly in luxuries. If forced to choose between them, China will likely choose the first.

(More likely they won't be forced to choose because they control multiple key supply chains, and can sink the economy of any country except maybe the USA.)

It's even more stark for my country. No trade with the west means we lose a lot of export revenue, and our growth slows. No trade with Russia means famine and fuel shortages. It's not even a choice.

The problem with small independent media is that they can be shut down by just filing twenty different frivolous cases against them in different parts of the country. You need someone with deep pockets - a major labour union, say, or a trust, backing them.

India (red)

1. One man owns several major media outlets and is trying to buy up more.

2. If a newspaper publishes something the current ruling party (state or union) does not like, they paint a pretty big target on their back. They might lose government ads. They might be ~~harassed~~ investigated for any tiny infarction. They will likely not be invited to press conferences or given interviews.

The overall result is that most media try not to rock the boat too much. One field our media is relatively good at is world news, since we aren't in any of the major geopolitical 'blocs', and foreign ownership of media outlets is banned.

They won the recent election (as part of a coalition). They are of course corrupt, etc., but at least they have local roots and influence.

Yes, let's do the thing we just saw another group try (with far more advanced technology and the full support of a superpower, against a weaker opponent) and fail at, not to mention the humanitarian cost.

Or, you know, we could recognise the National Conference as the elected government of J&K, and *listen to them*. They don't like the terrorists either, and they actually have public support.