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Bulletins and News Discussion from March 10th to March 16th, 2025 - The New World Struggles To Be Born; Now Is The Time Of Proxy Wars - COTW: Myanmar

Image is from Wikipedia's article on the war..

I've wanted to cover Myanmar for a while now but haven't had the needed knowledge to write much more than "This situation really sucks." After doing a little reading on the situation, I feel even more confused. A decent analogy is the Syrian Civil War, at least while Assad was in power (though it's still pretty true today) - many different opposition groups, some co-operating with the United States, others not. The main government supported partially by an anti-American superpower, but who could live with that government collapsing if there are deals to be made with the group coming into power. A conflict kept going and exploited at least partially by the United States and other imperial core powers, though with plenty of genuine domestic animosity and desires for political independence.

Recently, the Myanmar government - the mainstream media uses "junta", which is probably accurate despite the connotations - has promised elections at the end of 2025. This doesn't seem likely to happen, and even if it did, how this would work in a country as war-torn as Myanmar is unclear. The government is losing territory and soldiers at a quick pace; they now hold only 21% of the country, though that 21% does at least comprise many of the cities. It's difficult to get a handle on the number of people affected because civil wars and insurgencies have been ongoing in some shape or form for decades, but we're talking at least millions displaced and thousands of civilians killed.

Here's a comment by @TheGenderWitch@hexbear.net from fairly recently that covers the situation in Myanmar:

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556 comments

  • There is almost no fucking movement in the UK to oppose assisted dying and I am pulling my hair out what the fuck why is everyone so apathetic about this.

    I'm scared shitless about where this goes.

    It's going to be a eugenics program here in the UK just like it is in Canada. It's going to play out exactly the same fucking way. They will use it to kill the disabled and clear up the benefits system.

    • I kinda wish we had an option for AD. In the US if you're poor you have to go on Medicaid, part of being accepted means you have to have less than 2000 dollars and sign your house over to the state who will liquidate your estate upon death to recoup costs spent (even though people pay through payroll taxes their whole lives). The states administer a Medicaid estate recovery system and it's essentially a way for the state to steal property from the poor in order to get health care for the elderly. Out of pocket expenses would be around 10,000 a month which only the very wealthy can afford... I'm definitely not for eugenics on the disabled but if I live to be 85 plus I would rather use AD rather than impoverish my family more so.

      • I would rather use AD rather than impoverish my family more so.

        I did see articles previously where Canada's MAID program has been offered to those in poverty.

        Literal kill the poor program.

    • It's really disturbing how anglos advancing eugenics, just one century ago shit, with only people mildly protesting are christians, who torpedoed their arguments on the altar of abortion.

    • You're absolutely right. I've been saying this is literally the capital class / state building a eugenics programme for a while and it's only this week that a few people even in my cynical, lefty circles have started treating it as anything except silly hyperbole - despite the fact that we've had people who literally went to eugenicist conferences pushing this stuff in government for years.

      The Trussel Trust said earlier today that calls to suicide hotlines have fucking exploded with people really scared and hopeless over Labour's new eugenecist welfare cuts. And while I have complicated feelings about the moral and practical implications of assisted dying, the one thing I'm absolutely certain of is that a state already actively killing disabled people & trying to increase the pace at which they do it cannot be trusted with euthanasia laws.

      • It's so fucking scary. We need to do a MASSIVE push to educate people in the UK on the left about Canada's program, how it has expanded and how it's even gotten to the point where people who are 27 and only diagnosed with ADHD and Autism can be eligible for it. This family lost their case to prevent their daughter from using it. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/calgary-maid-father-daughter-court-injunction-judicial-review-decision-1.7154794

        This is exactly what the program would become here too. The right won't oppose it. The neoliberals won't oppose it. It will expand every year with every proposal to make new groups eligible for "dignity" and stupid ass liberals will agree how great that is while literal fascists cackle as it expands more and more into a eugenics program.

        I have absolutely no doubt that this is what the program would become here in the UK. 100%. We need people to take it fucking seriously and it has to start with showing people Canada's program because they literally no NOTHING about it.

        Everyone says "I'm ok with it as long as it stays just the terminally ill blah blah blah" IT FUCKING WON'T WE ALREADY KNOW WHAT HAPPENS IT'S ALREADY HAPPENED.

        Nobody thinks it will be that bad because nobody has seen the horror of Canada's system.

        • I agree and to the extent that I can, I've been having conversations with liberal contacts in orgs like Sense and the Trussel Trust and smaller ones that I won't name because I'm closer to about the fact that this stuff is really important and worrying context. And honestly it's been mostly deaf ears until more recently, but it's still too little understanding, too slow.

          Part of the challenge too is that American Christian-Right money has absolutely flooded the zone of these discussions for years. It's only recently that liberals in the corners of the media have started noticing this. The Guardian identified the pernicious funding of lots of the biggest 'grassroots' anti-euthanasia groups by the likes of CARE and the American far-right. And in true lazy, liberal fashion its just been to (deliberately or not) shitcoat the entire anti-euthanasia cause without highlighting non-Christian-fash funded groups and doing zero analysis on why they might be pouring money into this. Because I do believe that the US Christian right are fine with the shitcoating aspect and knows that it's win-win either way for them.

        • are 27 and only diagnosed with ADHD and Autism

          To be clear we don't know this is the case, this is the only health issues her father knew about and thus what was entered into court, but it's possible she was diagnosed with something terminal or had other health issues and refused to tell her parents.

          On the other hand I've had disabled friends who've had MAID brought up by doctors, mainly because their benefits situation is so dire they can't afford to live in an apartment that covers their needs. It's absolutely a eugenicist system, I just don't like using the story you linked as an example as it could easily be a legitimate use of MAID, because we don't know the details.

    • doing Aktion T4 but as sensible and rational public policy for 100% humanitarian reasons and definitely not the reification of social murder this time no it's good and sensible and there's no fascism in sight please do not look under the rug

556 comments