That’s how China tends to do these things. They’ll give out an intentionally vague directive that can then be interpreted as the situation demands.

I actually do expect that we’ll see more overland integration of Eurasia happening precisely because of these kinds of tactics.

I guess this is what he meant by joint operation of the strait. 🤣

Yup, and we already saw how vulnerable the US is during the tariff wars.

What I expect will happen is that the yuan will become a de facto reserve for the simple reason that China is the world’s factory. What made the petrodollar work was that everybody needs oil, and since you could only buy oil in dollars, countries had to constantly get dollars to buy oil. Similar logic applies with yuan since if you hold it, then you can always convert it into something you need from China. This makes it a safe currency to hold.

lmfao you suggesting fascists don’t control the means of production in the west currently, who do you think controls them exactly?

Denmark isn’t the primary contradiction of our times. The significance of Iran being able to challenge US media power globally should not be understated. This is the first time in history that the US completely failed to control the narrative on the war out of the gate even in the west. And AI tools are what made it possible for Iran to run their own effective propaganda that connects with people in the west. Traditionally, the US was able to leverage its vast media industry, with artists, designers, 3d modellers, script writers, and so on, who’ve honed their skills in Hollywood to run propaganda campaigns that could not be equalled. Now, a small team in Iran is able to put out media that’s just as effective at capturing public attention. This is absolutely a revolutionary development.

The fact that even BBC feels the need to talk about it, shows how effective Iranian media game is. :)

It’s notable that these Lego movies have so much momentum that even BBC had to cover them. Iran is absolutely killing it with their media game.

The neat part here is that the energy shock hasn’t actually hit yet because tankers move at around the speed of a bicycle. The ones that left before the strait was closed are still on route. When the oil and gas they carry is gone and the next shipment fails to arrive is when real fun starts at the pump.

For sure, I found it kind of a depressing read too, but it’s such great analysis of how the media actually works.

China is just playing factorio IRL

Thanks, and the discussions we’ve had here was the initial motivation for the article. We have to engage with the media from all sources, but that doesn’t mean consuming it blindly.

I’m just going to shamelessly plug my explanation of dialectics :) https://dialecticaldispatches.substack.com/p/the-toolset-of-reality

So like absolute win for Spain then?

Seems that even France wasn’t confident they’d get their gold back. What they actually did was sell the gold in the fed and bought new gold in Europe.

I can’t see the US allowing this to happen either.

I’m just hoping the EU collapses before that can happen.

western propaganda is very effective

My bet is that it’ll restart before the two weeks are up. Lebanon is being bombed right now, and Iran is closing Hormuz in response.