If youtu.be premium is actually ad free (and I can still run sponsor block) I can see paying for it. I get a lot of value out of it and can’t really justify doing a lot of work to avoid paying.

It’s fascinating how normies will figure out a VPN to use shitty social media but not figure out more open systems or alternative sites.

That seems a strange definition to me - so if a boxer gets back up after losing the match, well his opponent didn’t beat him in that fight?

I hear this a lot, but what would beating the Taliban involve? While the US was there, the Taliban was at best in hiding, it was not holding territory. If you mean removing the very idea of the Taliban from the world? That is both hard to do and arguably also a genocide, at least a cultural one. The US has been good at that, but it’s also frowned on in the current world - see Gaza headlines.

This is also why I’d suggest it’s kind of impossible to both not be the worst of the colonialist systems and stop terrorism (and it’s kind of unclear that even the colonial cultural suppression / conversion / excesses / crimes actually would stop terrorism).

It seems like they already cooperate about as much as is likely, so this is mostly symbolic. I also question whether Russia, China or India - the political players here in my limited opinion, will let UAE throw around more political weight just because they joined BRICS. Heck, China and India are more political competitors than partners.

I mean, to the extent politically we supported the Afganistan and Iraq war, this isn’t much different as far as I can tell. Much of the US is pretty pro war for some reason.

I’ve seen some sketchy motels in my time, which is why I stopped staying in them. Hotels, especially major chains tend to be decent to great quality, and are usually cost competitive with AirBnB according to several news stories and lemmy threads over the last 10 months or so. And they have less weird requirements about you doing bed stripping / cleaning before you leave.