Going into disasters and it being a disaster are the same thing. I’m not irresolute on the matter, but clearer identification of wrongdoing shouldn’t involve a number of villains destabilizing everything.

Ho Chi Minh, had a clear mandate before the US entered, and should have been welcome to expel the French (who allied with Japan). Now, sovereignty is resolved and all borders and diplomacy are entirely respected by the US. They’re practically an ally these days. The US performed like absolute crap in the war, but now they encourage the sovereignty of the Vietnamese people.

Does China learn lessons like that? Ho Chi Minh’s cadre also had to say no to China, and if it wasn’t for Russia that could have ended worse. And it’s still not resolved. China barely understands foreign sovereignty.

(Ahh, I don’t want to stick up for the US position!)

As aggressive as the US is, they don’t regularly traipse over their own neighbour’s borders to attack them.

China on the other hand, Tibet, India, Vietnam, … and most of their disputes aren’t even settled or beyond dispute yet.

Verdict, China can’t manage stable borders and do away with further disputes.

Point out a country that the US has hostilities with that isn’t destabilizing or in a border dispute?

(Disclaimer, we don’t have to like America to point out the obvious.)

Facebook is reported to be using a shadow profile of non-facebook users. Mastodon stated that whenever you interact with a Threads user it will be recorded by Facebook. All they have to do is join a conversation as a lurker, and your data is sent to Facebook. Given a few more points such as time of day and topic they can start to narrow downwho you are. Add your profile picture, and manner of speech an AI, which they have a multitude of, can generate a probability of who is communicating. Over numerous interactions the law of six degrees of separation will have you nailed down. In some countries this is potentially a problem over data retention, but they’ll have lawyers looking night and day for a way around those trifling laws. Willingness to federate might be seen as consent by default in some cases.