Biden says he does not regret Afghanistan withdrawal as Taliban take over more towns

Gordon_4

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Twitter has confirmed that the Taliban will still be allowed on the platform



Twitter which has banned countless people for even so much as being slightly too right leaning, apparently is okay with the "death to america" people because they are saying it in a strangely friendly way.

At the CIA and NSA's request most likely. You know people are really stupid with shit they put on Social Media? I'm guessing they (the Intelligence services) want the Taliban on there because the amount of free intel it will net them is worth millions of dollars and they're getting it for peanuts in analytical labour for stuff they can read for free. Its fucking diabolical in a way.
 
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CriticalGaming

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At the CIA and NSA's request most likely. You know people are really stupid with shit they put on Social Media? I'm guessing they (the Intelligence services) want the Taliban on there because the amount of free intel it will net them is worth millions of dollars and they're getting it for peanuts in analytical labour for stuff they can read for free. Its fucking diabolical in a way.
And yet social media leader insist that they do not do anything to influence politics. It is just a total coincidence that they ban a lot of right leaning people. It has nothing to do with people expressing political opinions on a platform designed for people to specifically share their dumbass ideas in a quick and easy format.
 

TheMysteriousGX

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And yet social media leader insist that they do not do anything to influence politics. It is just a total coincidence that they ban a lot of right leaning people. It has nothing to do with people expressing political opinions on a platform designed for people to specifically share their dumbass ideas in a quick and easy format.
They ban a lot of left leaning people too dude. The line seems to be "looks like they're publicly advocating murder"

It's a money thing. You know, free market economics.
 
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Revnak

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You guys realize ISIS used memes targeting western chan dudes all the fucking time, right? Like, this is extremely not new.
 
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Cheetodust

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I thought Trump had very little chance of going down as the worst ever US president... that is, right up until he inspired a mob to storm the Capitol. But I think even then he's safe, because it takes one hell of a screw up to surpass zero leadership whilst your country is heading towards outright civil war.

I feel confident Trump will probably sit in the bottom quartile. He combines l
zero notable achievements together with what will probably be remembered as a botched pandemic response and a great deal of scandal and rancour. Historians do not look kindly upon that sort of record.
Apart from his horrid personality many of his scandals are really not that shocking. The corruption ones at least. Irish politicians have been very publicly lining their pockets for decades, like they don't try to hide it, never have. They've always openly sneered at anyone who tried to call them out. Britain seems to be in the same boat with the "whose mate got that contract".

Trump is only shocking because in the modern day people are actually getting angry at politicians using their public office to get rich.

Leo Varadkar is a more presentable Donald Trump. He made a career out of saying horrendous shit and then when public perception openly turned he switched to pretending to be "woke" to gain votes. But every now and then he'll chance his arm and throw out something like "if you're a straight white man Sinn fein doesn't cate about you." or the odd "fake news". Most of what trump did was say the quiet bits loud and now politicians are split into two camps. Pretending they disagree with him or doubling down on what he said.
 

Godzillarich(aka tf2godz)

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You guys realize ISIS used memes targeting western chan dudes all the fucking time, right? Like, this is extremely not new.
It is never not cringy though.

Also...

Apparently some resistance cells have retaken three districts of Afghanistan. This is going to get bloody
 

Specter Von Baren

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Twitter has confirmed that the Taliban will still be allowed on the platform



Twitter which has banned countless people for even so much as being slightly too right leaning, apparently is okay with the "death to america" people because they are saying it in a strangely friendly way.

Fiery but mostly peaceful death-threats.
 
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Specter Von Baren

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I thought Trump had very little chance of going down as the worst ever US president... that is, right up until he inspired a mob to storm the Capitol. But I think even then he's safe, because it takes one hell of a screw up to surpass zero leadership whilst your country is heading towards outright civil war.

I feel confident Trump will probably sit in the bottom quartile. He combines approximately zero notable achievements together with what will probably be remembered as a botched pandemic response and a great deal of scandal and rancour. Historians do not look kindly upon that sort of record.
A night where only two people died and one of those deaths was if health issues is not going to rank highly to historians. The guy that will have the military on their side and seizes control with trained soldiers will be the one we consider the worst. Or maybe not; they will be the one writing the history books after all.
 

CriticalGaming

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Taliban don't tolerate protests. You protest peacefully, you will be shot. You protest violently, you will be shot. You try to go to school, you will be shot.
 

Avnger

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Taliban don't tolerate protests. You protest peacefully, you will be shot. You protest violently, you will be shot. You try to go to school, you will be shot.
So pretty much what Trump proposed for handling the BLM protests...

Well, except for the being shot at school part; we Americans already accept coffins full of kindergartners as an occurrence worthy of nothing more than "thoughts and prayers." Gotta make sure gun manufacturer's profits keep going up!
 

Dwarvenhobble

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So two stories

Apparently no-one bothered clearing or getting rid of saved biometric data on people helping the Western forces in Afghanistan


"We would go into villages and enrol people into this biometric data system," US Marine Special Operations Command veteran Peter Kiernan recalls.
"You had a device about 12 inches by six inches wide. It would scan their fingerprints, it would scan their retina, it would also take a picture of them."
And the giant stores of biometric data collected by both the US military and the Afghan government could, some argue, pose a risk to those facing reprisals.
He said it was useful in identifying bomb-makers, while it was also used to confirm the identities of contractors and locals working with the US military.
On Tuesday, news site the Intercept said military sources had told it that some HIIDE devices had fallen into Taliban hands, while Reuters reported a Kabul resident saying the Taliban were making house-to-house inspections using a "biometrics machine".
An Afghan official told NewScientist biometric infrastructure was now in the hands of the Taliban.
However in a surprise move as Twitter allows the Taliban to preach on the social media


Facebook has brought in new safety measures for users worried for their safety in Afghanistan, as the Taliban continue to cement their grip on power.
The firm says it "removed the ability to view and search the 'Friends' list for Facebook accounts in Afghanistan" to protect people from being targeted.

Professional networking site LinkedIn has also taken steps by hiding the connections of anyone in the country.
 

Godzillarich(aka tf2godz)

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Apparently, the Chinese government overstimated their people support of the Taliban


The Chinese people are not happy with their government supporting the Taliban.

The fact of the Chinese government is getting major backlash from this is a big deal, all the other stuff like Hong Kong, cleaning other people's sea territory, or persecution of Muslims did not get huge backlash but this did. I recommend reading the article because it's really interesting.

edit:

does not help this also happened
 
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MrCalavera

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Apparently, the Chinese government underestimated their people support of the Taliban


The Chinese people are not happy with their government supporting the Taliban.

The fact of the Chinese government is getting major backlash from this is a big deal, all the other stuff like Hong Kong, cleaning other people's sea territory, or persecution of Muslims did not get huge backlash but this did. I recommend reading the article because it's really interesting.

edit:

does not help this also happened
I guess if you stress to your society how important is to fight domestic islamic extremism, and then you welcome islamic extremists from a neighboring country with open hands, it will spark confusion.
 

Godzillarich(aka tf2godz)

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I guess if you stress to your society how important is to fight domestic islamic extremism, and then you welcome islamic extremists from a neighboring country with open hands, it will spark confusion.
I understand this is an overused comparison but this reminds me of 1984 where the dictatorial state went from supporting to being against a certain power overnight.

The thing is while the Chinese people are closed off from a lot of information they are not mindless drones, stupid, or goldfish, they will remember what they were told yesterday.
 

Seanchaidh

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I guess if you stress to your society how important is to fight domestic islamic extremism, and then you welcome islamic extremists from a neighboring country with open hands, it will spark confusion.
Especially if you've also suffered a good number of terror attacks by the aforementioned extremists.

I understand this is an overused comparison but this reminds me of 1984 where the dictatorial state went from supporting to being against a certain power overnight.

The thing is while the Chinese people are closed off from a lot of information they are not mindless drones, stupid, or goldfish, they will remember what they were told yesterday.
It's not clear that they're less knowledgeable or less manipulated by their media than we are.