TL;DR: The US Intervening into Mexico to defeat the Cartels would spiral out of control very quickly, converting Mexico and quite possibly the Southwestern US into Afghanistan 2.0 for the US military.
There has been rhetoric over the past few months by various right wing politicians in the US that the US should attack the cartels in Mexico, with or without the Mexican government's approval. Politicians like Lindsay Graham, Dan Crenshaw and Marjorie Taylor Greene have floated the idea, and even Presidential candidates like Tim Scott (https://reason.com/2023/05/24/the-republican-primary-consensus-for-sending-the-military-into-mexico/ ) and Donald Trump (https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-vows-deploy-special-forces-military-assets-inflict-maximum-damage-cartels). This is honestly a terrible idea for the US, despite the damage that cartels currently do when it comes to the drug trade. It is like shooting your own leg because of a tick so to speak.
Mexico is an absolutely enormous country, the size of Western Europe, with a population of 126 million people. It also has a geography not too different than Afghanistan, lined with several mountain ranges and many deserts - yet differs with the rainforests of the south. These Mountain ranges consist of most of Mexico's interior, with the coasts and east seeming like the only locations where major tank warfare would be very possible. It is a county that would be an insurgent's dream.
These politicians specifically claim that the US should intervene into Mexico as to defeat the Cartels with or without the help of the Mexican government. I need to mention - the latter is almost certainly true. Despite Mexico's problems most Mexicans are still very proud of their country and very much do not want a US intervention onto their territory, a political consideration that could sink any Mexican government who willingly lets in US troops. So any US intervention into Mexico would also have to deal with the Mexican government, and effectively be an invasion of the country. It would not just be a border operation either - some of the main Cartel hotspots like Mihoacan and Guerrero provinces are further south from the US than Mexico City. Any operation would have to go at least that far into Mexico in order to achieve meaningful success.
Sure, the Mexican Government in Mexico City could be overthrown relatively quickly, if they prove to be an obstacle in any US intervention. They struggle against Cartels alone, and using a naval invasion the US government could take Veracruz (the closest port to Mexico city), and then march onto Mexico City in a relatively short time. The government is fragile enough that it wouldn't survive the loss of the capital. Yet this fragility in and of itself is one of the main reasons why a war in Mexico would be so terrible. Cartels - the very cartels the US would try to destroy in this war - effectively control swathes of the country, and have long experience with asymmetric warfare. With a total Mexican government collapse, they would become warlords fully ruling over their little domains. And this would be when they would be most dangerous. The US couldn't just kill one leader and be done with it, they would have to destroy every single faction to win this war. And if the factions ally to fight the Americans, then that simply means divide and conquer strategy is removed from the table as a means to defeat them.
Due to US blunders the cartels have access to US weapons, and some even have US training (https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2010/11/3/us-trained-cartel-terrorises-mexico https://www.propublica.org/article/allende-zetas-cartel-massacre-and-the-us-dea ). Additionally, Cartels apparently have a history of attempting to corrupt US border agents (https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/immigration/border-coverage/as-cartel-power-rises-so-do-concerns-about-cbp-corruption/ , https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/28/us/homeland-security-border-bribes.html , https://www.businessinsider.com/customs-border-agents-mexican-cartel-smuggling-2016-11 ) , an issue which will allow them to blunt the effectiveness of US operations and continue to access guns within the US. Such problems will be greatly worsened if the Cartels experience similar success corrupting US army troops. These problems will make it more difficult for US forces to fight the Mexican Cartels in an open war, as many of them will be able to counter what the US throws at them.
It is very doubtful that the war would remain a US vs Cartel war anyway. A US intervention into Mexico without Mexican government approval would be seen by the Mexican people as a patriotic war of independence, something akin to how Ukrainians feel about the Ukraine war. Non-cartel nationalist militias will almost certainly pop up to fight the US for this very purpose, following in the footsteps of previous Mexican national figures like Pancho Villa and Santa Ana. Given the broader appeal these sorts of groups would have among the Mexican public than cartels, they could even begin to replace the cartels as the US's main enemy in this Mexico War given a few years time. They would not be without international support either. For instance nearby Cuba has a long history of aiding Latin American guerilla forces against US forces/allies (like in Nicaragua, Columbia and Grenada), and has been heavily sanctioned by the US since the 1960s. Additionally, Wagner Group has already been attempting to establish itself in Mexico (https://www.politico.com/news/2023/02/18/russia-wagner-group-ukraine-paramilitary-00083553) - a war between Mexico and the US would be perfect for them to offer their services, and recruit Mexicans into their organization. Additionally a rebranding of this conflict from an anti-criminal operation to a war of Mexican sovereignty would bring much more sympathy to the Mexicans than to the US,. A new US war in Mexico would be like a second Iraq war when it comes to how badly it would affect US international relations, perhaps even worse.
This war would also likely require the US to intervene in many more countries than just Mexico. Mexican cartels have already expanded their activities to other countries throughout the region. Countries like Ecuador, Guatemala, Columbia, El Salvador and Honduras have been suspect to activities by Mexican cartels, mostly for the sake of controlling the supply chain of resources needed for producing drugs in Mexico. In these countries (especially Ecuador), Mexican drug cartels have coopted local gangs to help with their goals, and use local farmers to produce plants needed for drug production (such as coca needed for cocaine). Even if the US somehow eliminates the cartels from Mexico, they will simply move their base of operation to one of these countries and continue their practices. The US would need to export this war on Mexico to all of the countries where the cartel is active if they would want any chance of creating an end to such a war once it begins.
The US couldn't simply walk away from such a war. The US border has sections of deserts and mountains which are by definition hard to defend. Not to mention that there is already a huge amount of illegal tunnels between the US and Mexico, many of which are operated by the very cartels which the US would be at war with. These connections into the US are already the main way cartels get their guns and sell their drugs after all, so it would not be so difficult to repurpose them for attacks on American soil. With the population of the areas of the US right north of the US-Mexico border being majority latino, the local inhabitants will be virtually indistinguishable from any Mexican insurgents crossing the border into the US to commit attacks. As such it would be easy for operatives to sneak into the US, commit attacks on US towns north of the border, and then melt into the local population (similarly to the tactics used against US troops by insurgents in Iraq). This ability to vanish into the local population has the potential to cause a massive amount of persistent fear for Americans, and worsen the ethnic tensions between white and latino Americans. This war would be more like a larger version of the Israel - Palestine conflict rather than another Afghanistan in the sense that the line between the "warzone" and US territory would quickly blur.
This war would likely only become worse from there. If either the US starts launching reprisals on Mexican communities for insurgent attacks, or right wing American militias launch their own reprisals on American latino communities as purported "vigilante justice" for these insurgent attacks - latino communities (especially those with closer ties to Mexico) within the US could be pushed towards becoming insurgents themselves. This is more likely than it seems, as the US Army has committed massacres against civilians before as retribution for insurgent attacks (https://web.archive.org/web/20131212141534/http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?id=8518011 https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-nov-07-fg-balad7-story.html ). This would be similar to what happened with Arab Israelis during the 2021 Israel-Palestine crisis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Israel%E2%80%93Palestine_crisis ) when large swathes of Arab Israeli youths decided to riot in support of the Palestinian factions. After that point there is no going back, it would mean a true open war between US citizens. That is a pandora's box that would only cause greater harm for the US, and permanently render the Southwestern US a conflict zone. If this scenario comes to pass such a war could last decades - in a similar vein to the Troubles in Northern Ireland. This cannot be understated, no part of the continental US has been a part of a conflict zone since the Mexican civil war of the 1910s. And the permanent alienation of latino americans - a group which now consists of 62 million people out of the US population - would have severe ramifications for the internal security of the United States. It would be a crippling blow which cannot be quickly healed.
This conflict would eat away at the US's status as a world power. Being stuck in a major guerilla war right across the border, and a conflict spilling into the US proper, the US would have to deprioritize its interests elsewhere. As a rule of thumb (https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Portals/7/combat-studies-institute/csi-books/mcgrath_boots.pdf) there needs to be 20 soldiers for every thousand inhabitants for an occupation to be successful. For Mexico alone with its 126 million strong population, that means 2.52 million troops are needed for a successful occupation (to say nothing of the other countries which the Mexican Cartels would use as bases against the US, or the factor that the Southern US would experience spillover from the conflict). The US does not even have that many active troops, so they would have to cut corners like they did in Iraq (perhaps bringing the 2.52 million number down to 500,000 to at least create a semblance of a functional occupation). Overall this would leave the US much weaker on the geopolitical stage, and allow for US opponents to fill in the vacuum left by US power. For example, with so many troops tied up in Mexico, the US would need to rely a lot more on their fleet in order to defend Taiwan against China in the case of a Chinese invasion of that island, as the US simply would not have enough soldiers to fight the Chinese PLA on the ground. And the sheer expense needed to deal with a war in Mexico and insurgents within US borders would force the US to consider a considerable drawdown of their military support for allies like Ukraine.
If either Donald Trump or Tim Scott becomes president in 2024 (with Trump being the nearly guaranteed Republican nominee, given DeSantis's floundering), this war could very well become a reality. It could very well begin before 2026 - though I predict that this war could be started at any point between 2025 and 2028 if one of those candidates were to win the US presidency If this does happen, I highly doubt that the war will end anytime soon after it begins. Especially with the geopolitical destabilization of the Southwestern US, it would create challenges for the US which would harm its position across the world and greatly weaken its internal stability. Any candidate or person who considers this idea should reconsider it.

Top 30 Prospect Performance
Low-A Modesto

Prospect	Performance	Position	Age	Ranking
Cole Young	1-5, 2B, R, RBI, BB	Shortstop	19	Mariners #3
Gabriel Gonzalez	1-5, R	Outfield	19	Mariners #7
Michael Morales	7.0IP, 4H, 2BB, 0ER, 5K	Pitcher	20	Mariners #20
Josh Hood	1-4, R, 2BB	Second Base	22	Mariners #29

High-A Everett

Prospect	Performance	Position	Age	Ranking
Harry Ford	0-4, BB	Catcher	20	Mariners #1
Axel Sanchez	0-1	Shortstop	20	Mariners #15
Alberto Rodriguez	1-5	Outfield	23	Mariners #27

AA Arkansas

Prospect	Performance	Position	Age	Ranking
Jonatan Clase	0-2, R, BB, SB	Outfield	21	Mariners #12
Isaiah Campbell	1.0IP, 0H, 0BB, 0ER, 1K	Pitcher	25	Mariners #16
Robert Perez Jr	0-3	Outfield	22	Mariners #21

AAA Tacoma

Prospect	Performance	Position	Age	Ranking
Cade Marlowe	1-4, 3B, 3RBI	Outfield	25	Mariners #16
Juan Then	1.2IP, 5H, 2BB, 5ER, 1K	Pitcher	23	Mariners #23
Zach DeLoach	1-4, BB	Outfield	24	Mariners #26

Unranked Excellence

Prospect	Performance	Level	Age	Positon
Freuddy Batista	4-5, 2-2B, R, RBI	Low-A	23	Catcher
Reid VanScoter	7.0IP, 8H, 2BB, 1ER, 8K	High-A	24	Pitcher
Kyle Tyler	6.0IP, 3H, 2BB, 0ER, 10K	AA	26	Pitcher
Devin Sweet	2.0IP, 1H, 0BB, 0ER, 2K	AA	26	Pitcher

Final Scores
Modesto defeats Stockton 8-1
Hillsboro defeats Everett 4-3
Arkansas defeats Midland 2-0
Sacramento defeats Tacoma 10-6
Highlights
Cade Marlowe’s RBI triple.
Isaiah Campbell gets the save.
Standings

Affiliate	Record	Standings	Diff	Level
Modesto Nuts	25-24	3rd in division	+8	Low-A
Everett AquaSox	24-25	4th in division	+12	High-A
Arkansas Travelers	31-18	2nd in division	+49	AA
Tacoma Rainiers	26-29	2nd in division	+0	AAA

Prospect Performances Index.

I see lies all the time but rarely, if ever, see retractions or apologies.
I appreciate that we’re all entitled to our own opinions but is there a difference between stating a fact vs stating an opinion ? or do we just have to assume that all “facts” are just the opinion of the person saying them ?

This mainly concerns the gulf states since it’s understandable why Syria isn’t too keen to check out the next LeBron James at the moment. Should also note I’m Kuwaiti born and raised.
From my entire childhood I see kids playing football religiously but it never translates to any success. Why? The only exception is Mo Salah, but that’s out of a population of tens of millions. There also doesn’t seem to be interest in any other sport here other than football. I’m a huge basketball fan and I play pickup and when I do it’s against Filipinos. You’d think since people play so much football at a young age here we’d have a good team, but that’s not the case. Even our leagues aren’t good and respected.
Hope no one takes offense to this, I’m just curious.

Over the last six months, I’ve been in Asia (and the Pacific) bouncing around as part of a larger trip, but diving being a huge emphasis, accumulating around 200 dives during this period. I’m leaving some of my dive log notes and thoughts of each place since it would probably help people in planning which hotspots to go to within this region and how they compare to each other.
For additional context, I went into this trip having around 200 dives, mostly in the Caribbean and Red Sea, with a little bit of SEA experience.
I know it personally was difficult when doing research, especially when pretty much all of these are described as “wOrLd cLaSs” or “bEsT iN tHe wOrLd” to some varying degree (spoiler: not everything is IMO).
I personally dive because of reef health and fish life, so my notes are written with a heavy bias towards that. I acknowledge that bias so obviously places that only have a big muck / macro presence will be rated lower on here.
A-tier and above is a place I’d gladly go back to and dive again. I’d also recommend these places where you should make plans to travel here or go out of your way specifically to dive.
B-tier and above is good. Maybe not incredibly mindblowing but still good and worth doing nonetheless. But there are some flaws that keep it from being superb.
C-tier is mediocre. I could maybe find a few bright spots, but I didn’t find diving here to be particularly great or terrible at the same time. Just average. I wouldn’t make trips to dive these places specifically. I might recommend diving them if they overlap with some better stuff higher on in the list, but they’re skippable.
D to F-tier is just bad. Very little things to enjoy if at all. Avoid.

S

• Raja Ampat, Alor

A+

• Komodo, Palau

A

• Nusa Penida, Apo Island

A-

• Richelieu Rock, Kimud Shoal (sharks)

B+

• Gato Island

B

• Balicasag, Pamilican, Sipadan, Sogod Bay

B-

• Kapalai, Hin Daeng / Hin Muang

C+

• Panglao, Malapascua (local diving)

C

• Surin Islands, Mabul, Koh Bida, Dauin

D

• Similan Islands

F

• Koh Haa

Malaysia

Sipadan, Mabul, Kapalai (15 dives)
Difficulty:

• I have a good amount of experience in moderate current, but I found that the diving wasn’t particularly difficult when I was here. We had currents on some Sipadan days, but they were gentle pushes at most. I’d say that Cozumel currents were much stronger than what I experienced at Sipadan. Although, I have heard that Sipadan could get wild sometimes, so YMMV
  
• Dives could get somewhat deep, so having AOW is probably advisable before coming
  

Wildlife:

• Tons of turtles and sharks. Probably at least half a dozen sharks from afar and even more turtles every dive
  
• Saw schools of jackfish, parrotfish, and some barracuda here and there, but didn’t see the famous barracuda tornado
  
• Outside of those, not as many fish as I had hoped for. Decent level of biodiversity, but there were lots of places with little fish activity. The smaller, shallower healthy patches had lots of fish
  

Reef life:

• I have mixed feelings about the reef life here. The parts that are healthy are super vibrant, but they were in the minority for sure. A lot of really depressing, barren areas with dead fields of coral outnumbered the healthy parts. Reefs are my biggest reason for diving, so I was most disappointed by this.
  
• Sipadan was likely better in the past, but the overall state of the reef is in much poorer condition nowadays
  
• The fact that the dive shop I went with only took people to the same three “best” dive sites all the days I dove at Sipadan doesn’t give me much confidence that the rest of the sites look that good or better
  

Dive sites:

• Not too much variation in types of dives or topography of the sites. Mostly wall dives with dropoffs. I got a bit bored after three straight days of diving Sipadan and thought that was an adequate amount of time to spend there. Most dive shops also only focus on the same handful of the best dive sites, so it gets repetitive fast
  
• You also can’t dive Sipadan every day that you’re there. All resorts will do some sort of package where if you dive with them for five days, three will be Sipadan, etc. and the others will be in Mabul and Kapalai. I think these sites are, for the most part, boring. Honestly speaking, no one should make the trip out here just for these dive sites, unless you enjoy macro that much. Even then, there are many other places around SEA that are easier to get to that have a better reputation for macro
  

Overall: Sipadan B, Kapalai B-, Mabul C

• I do think Sipadan is fairly overrated, probably due to the exclusivity of the diving because of the permit system, giving the illusion that it’s going to the best dives of your life
  
• Yes, I think the diving is decent, but not exactly “best in the world” as Southeast Asia tends to have a reputation for. I also don’t think Barracuda Point is one of the best dive sites in the world as it’s commonly advertised lol. I think it’s mostly marketing hype. I found lots of areas around SEA with much less marketing behind them to be equivalent or better than Sipadan
  
• Given how hard it is to get to Sipadan, the costs of diving there, and the proximity of Indonesia / Philippines, I’d say that if you’re deciding between diving in Malaysia and the other two, I’d pick the latter every time
  
• If I was already in Malaysia and wanted to tack on diving, then yes, Sipadan is a good addition to your existing itinerary. I just wouldn’t go out of my way or pick it over other options. I will likely not be returning to Sipadan to dive for this reason, especially since you can’t even dive Sipadan every day and the non-Sipadan dive sites are not great
  

Indonesia

Raja Ampat (20 dives)
Difficulty:

• Going into this portion of the trip, I was expecting a ton of currents and difficult diving based off what I read online beforehand
  
• We had currents on most of the dives, but they were pretty manageable for the most part. Many of these dives would be diving with the current, where it felt more like a gentle push, sort of like a slow moving treadmill. Some dives where you fought or swam against the current was more like a tiny bit of resistance where you could still frog kick through
  
• I also didn’t experience down currents, but based on the dive sites we did, I wouldn’t consider them to be anxiety inducing even if they were present. Most of the dive sites had a sandy bottom and weren’t walls or drop offs, so it’s not like they would be particularly dangerous
  
• There was only two dives where I felt that the currents could’ve been overwhelming for a less experienced diver, but they were ones where we hid behind rocks or used reef hooks to look at mantas anyway, so it’s not like you’re actively swimming with or against the currents
  
• Most dives also weren’t that deep, probably around 60-70ft at the absolute deepest. We spent the majority of these dives at 40-50ft
  
• Even putting myself in the shoes of a less experienced diver, I think the diving was manageable for a wide range of skill levels – which I did see many people of varying experience on my liveaboard and at the dive sites
  
• All in all, I think you can comfortably enjoy Raja Ampat with sub-50 dives under your belt or if you’re comfortable underwater. The diving is for the most part, not that difficult and shouldn’t be a barrier for your decision making
  

Wildlife:

• Huge schools of the most colorful fish everywhere you look. You’re swimming with schools of fish on most dives. The highest density of fish I’ve ever dove with across every destination I’ve ever been
  
• Only small criticism here is the lack of pelagic life like sharks, turtles, and mantas (outside of one or two sites), but that’s not a slight on Raja Ampat at all. Seeing pelagics is just the cherry on top of an already amazing experience that you see at Raja
  

Reef life

• Some of the best, most colorful, and healthy reefs I’ve seen in my life. That’s not to say that the entire region is pristine (it’s not), but given the world we live in today, it’s the best I’ve personally seen
  
• I’d consider most sites to be absolutely beautiful, with a handful of them to be “just” good
  

Dive sites:

• Most dive sites were sloping reef dives with maybe some small pinnacles or bommies here and there
  
• My qualm with the diving in Raja Ampat is that the dive experience is relatively the same across all of them. Get in, dive, look around, get up. No towering structures or interesting topography to navigate. You’re here for the beauty of what lives there, not because of how exhilarating or exciting the actual diving is IMO
  

Overall: S

• One of the best dive experience of my life so far. I would come back here to dive all the time if I could. Maybe doing a liveaboard to the southern region next time, as I focused on the central this time. But the barriers to dive here are pretty high. Expensive domestic flights, full travel days to and from Raja Ampat including flights / layovers / waiting for transfers, etc., and the best way to dive is via a liveaboard which is more costly than any other option
  
• Both the floor and ceiling are very high in Raja Ampat. There wasn’t a time where I felt that a dive wasn’t good or that the entire reef looked like it was in poor condition. Every site had something good to write home about
  
• One thing is that Raja Ampat actually isn’t as remote as you think it is. There’s a huge liveaboard scene and random resorts or homestays sprawled throughout the islands. I had phone signal the entire time lol. A handful of dive sites actually felt a bit crowded at times, in case that matters to you
  

Nusa Penida (15 dives)
Difficulty:

• I actually found diving here to be more difficult than Raja Ampat, lol. Currents were present on many dives, but you also had surge and lots of cold water thermoclines to fight against, which I didn’t have in Raja
  
• All in all, not terribly difficult diving either where you should reconsider if you’re newish, but maybe wait to get a few dives under your belt or be comfortable with various types of underwater conditions to fully appreciate the diving here. Although, I think you can also enjoy most of the diving here while being relatively inexperienced as well, as lots of sites have minimal currents.
  
• Most reputable dive shops will cater to your experience level anyway, so I wouldn’t let Penida’s reputation deter you completely. I’ve had friends with < 20-30 dives who rarely dive enjoy Penida, and many people get OW certified here, FWIW
  

Wildlife:

• Honestly, a little lackluster. Most sites, while having beautiful and healthy coral, felt like a ghost town because of relatively little fish on them aside from a few select spots
  
• The manta site that everyone goes to is amazing though. One dive I saw around 20 mantas throughout the hour. Pretty much everyone I know who’s gone to Nusa Penida even for 1-2 days has seen a manta, so I’d say your chances are very high
  

Reef life:

• I was actually shocked at how good the reef health was here. Some absolutely stunning slopes filled with reef life. I had heard good things about Penida, but was actually blown away by some sites here. I think some of the best sites like Mangrove had reefs that are fairly comparable to the better sites in RA and Alor, IMO
  
• On average, I think the overall reef is probably some of the best I’ve seen of anywhere
  

Dive sites:

• I thought the diversity in sites was a bit lacking in Penida. Most sites that you visit in Penida are just part of a long reef that spans the length of the island. Because of this, the topography doesn’t change much, nor does the diving experience
  
• You could spend a whole day diving different sites, but be on the same reef at different parts of the same side of Penida and the experience would be the exact same
  
• On the days you dive Manta Point, you’d probably also visit Manta Bay and Crystal Bay, which are all fairly boring sites. I’d even say Manta Point is fairly boring outside of the mantas and the latter two are straight up mediocre
  
• I spent about five days here overall and thought that was a good amount of time since I got to dive the majority of the sites. I could’ve spent another day or two here to dive the other sites in the channel between Penida and Lembongan or on the other side of Penida, but those are less commonly visited
  

Overall: A

• Really good diving as a whole. If you haven’t dove Indonesia yet, Penida would likely be some of the best warm water diving you’ll do
  
• I’ve heard Penida being described as Komodo with training wheels and I’d agree with that. Good place to get your bearings in diving with current
  

Komodo (30 dives)
Difficulty:

• This is an aspect that I feel is a bit overblown by commenters online. Yes, there is current and yes, sometimes they can get a bit crazy. But that doesn’t mean that as a less experienced diver (<50 dives for example), you can’t enjoy the majority of Komodo. I probably wouldn’t go as a complete newbie with fewer than 20 dives though
  
• A lot of the sites have current, but fairly similar to other Indonesia and Philippines hotspots. The currents aren’t too bad the majority of the time. The sites with heavy currents are limited to a few, and dive shops will avoid putting you on a boat where you’re going to a site that surpasses your skill level (e.g. they’ll have different groups / boats for central vs. northern sites, the latter tending to have more current)
  
• That said, if you want to fully enjoy Komodo with no restrictions or limitations, then yes, you should at least AOW / be more experienced or be comfortable in water. This is mainly in the northern sites like Cauldron, Crystal Rock, Castle Rock, and a handful in the central area which are known for currents
  
• The dives aren’t particularly deep either. Max depth was ~70ft at most for many sites, with the majority of the dives probably spent at 40-50ft for most sites
  

Wildlife:

• The tradeoff between Komodo and Raja Ampat is that the former has more big stuff like mantas, sharks, and turtles, while the latter has more fish activity. Some Komodo dive sites had quite a lot of fish activity, as much as the sites in Raja Ampat, but not comparable on average across all sites. In Komodo, you had a chance to see big stuff on the majority of the dive sites, whereas it was a bit rare in Raja Ampat. The hooked dives in northern Komodo are pretty great too, where you see a lot of fish and sharks swim by, and nothing in Raja can really compare to that
  
• At the end of the day, it’s a toss-up depending on preference
  

Reef life:

• Reef quality is amazing at some sites, just good at others, and non-existent at some. Unlike Raja where you could get amazing reef quality on almost every dive, Komodo’s sites were a bit more diverse. Some sites like Manta Point where you’re not necessarily diving for the reef and more so for manta encounters, were filled with rubble and fairly bare. On the other hand, sites like Batu Bolong and Tatawa Kecil are clearly some of the best in the world
  
• Komodo’s best reefs would be comparable to some of the best Raja sites, but Komodo also had fewer sites where the reef really wowed me
  

Dive sites:

• The good: Komodo has a wider variety of dive sites and dive experiences as a result. The diving here is more “fun” because of the different currents and drifts that let you dive the site differently. The topography of each dive site is also much more diverse, allowing for different dive profiles. You really feel small while diving some of the Komodo sites with all of the towering structures and cliffs. Raja Ampat’s diving, for example, is a bit more “homogenous” in that the experience is fairly similar across all sites
  
• The bad: There are some “poor” dive sites that you will inevitably visit on your trip. For example, sites where the emphasis is on muck diving. Not my favorite as you know. Or if you go to Manta Point and don’t see any mantas. Or sites where the reef isn’t that good. Muck dives aren’t my favorite, and I almost consider them a wasted dive since it’s all predominantly luck based and you could see nothing. You could feel differently, though
  
• I spent around ten days diving here doing 30 dives and thought that was perfect. I got to do every site, even some in the south, and repeated some sites that I liked the most. If I were to come back to Komodo, I’d do a liveaboard and spend my time exploring the south, which you can’t really do via day trips
  

Overall: A+

• I think Raja Ampat is better for fish life and coral health while I think Komodo is more fun for different types of diving, bigger animals, and better underwater topography
  
• As a whole, I think Raja Ampat is a better dive destination for a once in a lifetime trip, especially if you do it on a liveaboard. The whole experience feels very ethereal and special. But if you’re looking for something quicker, easier, and cheaper to do, then Komodo is a very fine substitute
  
• On a tangential note, and I’m gonna sound a bit gatekeep-y, but I think Labuan Bajo has become or is on its way to becoming a backpacking hotspot, and not in a good way either. It’s undergone a ton of development in the last several years, and the Indonesian government is pumping tons of money into directing people there. Things have grown way too fast and the infrastructure just can’t keep up. I’m hearing from locals who work in the dive industry saying how they’re getting priced out. Selfishly, more development and traffic is always bad for places like this as more shitty divers thrash around on the reefs and more pollutants destroy them too. Anyway, I would probably go sooner rather than later because who knows if the Indonesian government will be able to keep the reef in this condition with the increase in traffic
  
• You also notice how popular Komodo is getting because a lot of the dive shops are visiting newbie friendly sites every day which aren’t exactly the best ones IMO. I noticed a ton of people getting OW certified or doing their first few open water dives, and I don’t recommend this at all. I would pick a smaller dive op with fewer reviews on Google and TripAdvisor to avoid the cattle boats and for a more personalized experience to avoid the newbies. You’ll get to dive a wider range of sites and they’ll be more receptive to requests if you dive with them continually
  

Alor (25 dives)
Difficulty:

• This place is not easy to dive. Alor probably had the most dangerous and difficult conditions of places I’ve been to yet. There’s a number of challenging environments: thermoclines or huge temperature drops, deep dives, heavy currents that are frequently changing. I’ve experienced up and down currents before, but they were fairly straightforward and not that quick. Even in Palau and Komodo. But some were violent in Alor. I think the area’s topography is the reason for this. You could be zipping by on a wall on a drift dive when suddenly you could be dragged up to the surface, and right after you exhaust some air in your BC to go down, you could be pulled down and out by a downcurrent with just a few seconds in between. Then right after that, the current could change from left to right or vice versa. It got me breathing a bit hard even at my experience level
  
• Thermoclines also made it a bit more difficult too. The area supposedly gets cold upwellings everywhere that bring the water temperature to the low 70s, but the coldest I’ve experienced were mid 70s only in a specific part of the area. Nevertheless, going from 82-83 to mid 70s isn’t fun
  
• However, because there’s so many dive sites here with all sorts of conditions, even if you’re not the most experienced, you can still see a lot of really beautiful things in the easier dive sites. I would recommend being more experienced, though. There’s no proper hospital or chamber for hundreds of miles, so you’re fucked if something goes wrong
  

Wildlife:

• Tons of sharks and rays (eagle and spotted, not mantas unfortunately) sightings, on many dives Huge schools of fish, pretty much exactly what I was talking about in the RA section
  
• Dolphins in crossing on the surface all the time. Rarer to spot while actually diving, but it's possible
  
• I did a handful of muck dives and we did see some cool nudis, but I can’t definitively say that it’s the best macro diving I’ve done in Indonesia. I enjoyed macro diving more in the Philippines
  

Reef life:

• Almost just as good as RA’s, if not better in some areas. Insanely diverse corals, huge amounts of thick reef coverage where you don’t even see sand at the bottom. I probably give the edge to RA here since I’m fairly sure the diversity in corals is better at RA, but I did a liveaboard that covered more area whereas Alor is more concentrated. The fact that the two are debatable is a good thing
  
• I don’t think there was ever a time where I thought I had just an “okay” reef dive here. I think even the worst reef dives here are spectacular in comparison to everywhere else except RA
  

Dive sites:

• The dive site variety in Alor is absurdly high, probably the single most diverse place I’ve ever dove while being land-based. You have almost every single type of diving here: drift, cavern, wall, pinnacle, sloped, hooked, muck, etc.
  
• There are 70 (and more being still mapped / discovered) dive sites all within a 5-30 minute boat ride. I avoided most of the muck sites, and still felt like I had more reef dies to discover and see after around 25 dives
  
• Since there’s so few dive shops (~5), they all know each other and coordinate which sites are going to be done the following day. I literally never even saw another dive boat on the same dive site the week I was there
  
• The underwater topography here is simply amazing. Similar to some sites in Komodo, you just feel small. But there’s a higher proportion of dive sites like this compared to Komodo
  

Overall: S

• I am obsessed with Alor, and despite diving every day for over a week straight, I’m yearning for my chance to come back and see more of it and see what else has yet to be discovered
  
• I struggle to properly describe Alor. A more fun RA? Komodo with better reefs? I would characterize Alor as a combination of the best parts of RA and Komodo in one. Alor has the reef quality and fish activity of RA, but with the pelagics, currents, and interesting underwater topography of Komodo. Every criticism I had about RA about how “boring” or easy the diving is, is not an issue within Alor. I rank Alor as just as good as RA for me, and I probably flip flop between which I like more
  
• Usually when people talk about the best diving in Indonesia, RA and Komodo are the two that are most named. I whole-heartedly believe that Alor is on its way to becoming the third and it’s only a matter of time before everyone catches on and this place explodes in popularity. It’s that damn good Given the quality of dive sites and how close they are, I feel comfortable in saying that Alor is the single best pound for pound diving location I’ve been to. Nowhere I’ve been has this many quality sites in such a compact area. RA, Komodo, and Palau are technically one area too, but the dive sites are way more spread out and sometimes require hours to get to.
  
• To give you some context on how remote and unvisited it is – you simply cannot decide to walk up and dive this place last minute. You absolutely need to plan it out at least a few months in advance, sometimes 8-10+, and you probably need to be somewhat flexible too. Some dive resorts I contacted were actually booked up this far in advance. There are no hotels, guesthouses, etc., so you need to either stay with the dive resort, or you need their help in booking a local homestay or bungalow. And most dive resorts are small, only catering to 6-10 divers at a time at most
  
• These small group sizes are actually a bit of a negative, IMO. Because most dive shops only have 1-2 boats at most, if you’re overlapping with divers of different experience levels or people have other requests or preferences, you’re gonna be pulled in one way or another based on the group as a whole
  
• Truly wild, wild diving here. There is no tourism industry. Dive sites are still being found and figured out on the spot. Lots to still see that aren’t formally written down or documented. Not even RA is like that anymore. This is one of the final frontiers of untouched diving
  
• It’s kinda funny because no one seems to agree as to what these exact sites and site names are. Google “Alor dive sites” and ask all the dive companies what they call a particular site and you’ll probably get a few different names in return
  

Palau (25 dives)

Difficulty:

• Palau as a whole had some of the more tricky diving that I experienced on this trip. Maybe a bit more difficult than Komodo's diving. I definitely think you need to have a minimum skill level to comfortably dive here. That’ll probably differ from person to person, but overall, I think that while you don’t have to be an expert, you gotta be comfortable in the water at the least.
  
• There were currents on most dives, ranging from mild to rapid. They weren’t necessarily the strongest currents I’ve faced, but they were some of the trickiest. The currents pushed you up sometimes, down others, and changed directions frequently
  
• The strongest currents I faced were on the dives where you hooked in and watched pelagics, so I don’t really consider that to be a difficult situation where you need to dive against or with the current. But it’s worth noting since you might have to swim through or against current to get down there in the first place and hook yourself in
  

Wildlife:

• The most shark activity of any warm water diving I’ve ever done. On the hooked dives, we saw at least 10+ sharks every time, oftentimes many in the same camera frame, in addition to some manta action and lots of turtles too. These hooked dive sites also had a great amount of fish activity as well I saw the most medium to big-sized fish activity in Palau relative to anywhere else in Asia. Lots of groupers and bumphead parrot fish, for example. I went around spawning time and saw loads of parrot fish during this time
  
• The tradeoff is that the biodiversity, density, and color of the fish here isn’t as high as in Indonesia or Philippines
  

Reef Life:

• Wide range in the quality of the reefs. A few sites were absolutely beautiful, most were decent to good, others just okay, and some looked sad (the corner dives for example. They had nice pelagic action but the reef area around where people hooked in were thrashed)
  
• The walls were very nice, with soft corals and every color of the rainbow up and down the entire wall. The reef dives were a bit monotonous. The corals there were predominately hard, brown, and had lots of dead patches in some areas. Funnily, I think one of the best reef dive sites was on a wreck. The wreck was covered in so much coral it was as if it wasn’t even a wreck
  
• The reef quality ceiling is very high, but the floor is pretty low too
  

Dive sites:

• Huge amounts of diversity in the type of diving available here. Probably the strongest suit of Palau. There’s something for everyone: drift dives, wrecks, caverns, walls, reefs, hook dives to watch pelagics, etc. And to be honest, I found the washing machine currents to be pretty fun too. It was the first time I experienced them to that extent, and it was fun enjoying the ride
  
• The diving here is definitely among the most fun I did anywhere on this trip
  

Overall: A+

• I frequently hear people comparing Raja Ampat and Palau as two of the best warm water diving spots there are around the world. I disagree with this comparison and think Raja is a clear step above with its biodiversity. Palau is more comparable to Komodo IMO. I rank Komodo and Palau as a 2A and 2B sort of situation and probably rank Komodo a bit higher
  
• Palau’s best reefs aren’t as good, fish density isn’t as high as Komodo’s, and the biodiversity of both can’t compare, but Palau does have more pelagics
  
• Similar to Komodo, Palau provides a great range of diverse dive sites and “fun” diving. Not every site is also the most beautiful either
  
• I think where Palau does have Indonesia / Komodo beat, is the amount of pelagic action that you see in the hooked dives, with a huge amount of sharks
  
• I also do agree with the common sentiment that Palau does everything well, but nothing the best
  

Thailand

Andaman Sea (30 dives)
Difficulty:

• I was a bit surprised by the difficulty of diving in the Andaman. I had this perception that Thai diving was calm and easy, but I actually had to work on a number of dives. There were a decent amount of dives that had current. Not sure if it was also my liveaboard, but we were going fairly deep too, around 80+ ft and stayed at depth long enough to reach NDL time on each dive. Not terribly difficult diving, but not a leisurely stroll in the park either

Wildlife:

• Lack of fish in many dive sites. At least you’re treated to large schools of sardines and glassfish sometimes
  
• Saw a very low amount of big stuff — less than five turtles and sharks in total across several dozen dives
  

Reef life:

• The reef health in Thailand is in abysmal shape for the vast majority of dive sites. There are no colors, and everything is brown or stone gray for the vast majority of sites. A lot of the dive sites are either completely smoothed over or are just fields of dead rubble. Soft coral is pretty much non-existent except from a few places. The rest is falling apart. Truly depressing to see
  
• That said, Richelieu Rock is one of the few exceptions to this, which I’ll talk about more in a bit
  

Dive sites:

• Southern Similan dive sites are a complete waste of time. I would skip this area if you could. Mostly “rock diving” as the dive guides like to call it, where it’s really just large rocks sitting there because everything has died off, all the fish have left, and all you have left are smooth rocks. Seriously, though, rock diving? I’ve never heard or done anything like it. What a sad excuse for a dive area, and complete waste of money
  
• The northern sites like Koh Bon and Koh Tachai are a bit better, but still nothing to write home about Surin islands are okayish – I thought Thai diving would be as good as this as the baseline, but I guess not. Mostly just brown hard coral that’s devoid devoid of color, no soft coral, and tons of dead areas here
  
• Richelieu Rock is objectively a world class dive site, and an instance where its reputation is well deserved. If I didn’t get to visit Richelieu and dive it four times on my liveaboard, I would’ve considered the liveaboard to be a complete waste of time. Probably the fishiest dive site I’ve ever been to, filled with the most colorful soft corals I’ve seen in Thailand. Richelieu Rock would be considered a great dive site anywhere I’ve been around the world. I’m kinda surprised how good the site is given how shit everything else is around it
  
• I based myself out of Koh Lanta because I heard it had the best day diving, but most of it is just okay. The only trip worthwhile is Hin Daeng / Hin Muang, and even that’s just decent, not great. Not worth going to Thailand just to dive them. Not best in the world by a long shot
  
• Koh Bida was decent, but skippable, and Koh Haa was straight up terrible and not worth the time nor money to go to
  

Overall: Similans D, Surins C, Richelieu Rock A-, Hin Daeng / Muang B-, Koh Bida C, Koh Haa F

• I’ve never felt more disappointed and misled in all my dive experiences than I was in Thailand. I already had lower expectations going into this portion of my trip since I had just dove all over Indonesia, but Thai diving somehow failed to reach those low expectations
  
• Ever since I started diving, and as I was doing research for where to dive in Thailand, I’ve read so many reviews or comments that said how Thailand diving was “world class” or that it was “comparable, if not better than the Red Sea”. This may’ve been the case many years ago, but it’s certainly not the case in 2023. I was expecting at least decent diving, but after a 30round dives all along the Andaman on a liveaboard and daily trips, I would consider at most five dive sites to be at least “decent,” and only a few of those to be actually good. The rest ranged from outright bad to mediocre
  
• I’d say that Andaman diving is more appropriately comparable to Caribbean diving, and I probably err on the side of the Caribbean being better on average as a whole, despite Thailand having one, maybe two dive sites that are better than anything else that I’ve dove in Caribbean
  
• I only recommend diving in Thailand if you have never dove anywhere else warm in the world. If you’ve dove anywhere else in SEA, don’t waste your time and dive in Thailand
  
• I did a seven day liveaboard that spanned the entire Andaman and I would recommend to only do a two or three day one that focuses on the Surin islands and Richelieu Rock only
  

Anyway, feel free to AMA. No pics because I mostly record in video, and I'm too lazy to edit something together for now. Plus anyone can make any dive site look good with select shots.

Note: This is a series I want to create, centred around some given element or facet of worldbuilding and storytelling. Primarily, each post will either be a piece of hard science in terms of physics or logistics or otherwise core elements of the setting itself (such as military structure), or non-physical core elements of the people and their world (such as sports and personal enjoyment matters, for emotional regulation and social stability, among other reasons). In short: all the things that actually create a functional, realistic culture. As such, I simply named it hard & accurate sci-fi. Just know that the focus may not actually be on hard science, or 'hard sci-fi'.
An often overlooked element within space opera (and sci-fi in general) would be all things recreational. You might not find a good way to heavily feature this into your story (or, own game-making of Aion, as the case may be), but it can be something to just touch upon and have in your mind. I wanted to walk through this a little, as it shall become quite relevant at a later date.
The logic is very simple: using humanity as a fundamental base (technically, an axiom), we can conclude that any humanoid or even alien species would have to gift themselves some kind of national sport, wargame, gambling system, or otherwise. The real-world examples literally encompass almost all of culture itself, making me believe that if your people are even remotely humanoid in their fundamental nature, then the recreational is a core facet of culture itself. This is so integrated into our real culture (rather, cultures) that we take it for granted, and don't even think about it when it comes to fiction-writing. But, it's a nice thing to add if you want added realism and stability, or an extra human touch.
Fantasy seems to feature invented sports and the like far more than sci-fi (unless such is the entire narrative of the sci-fi story, of course -- and, then, it's typically car-based). If we look to history, we clearly have the very creation of modern dice (India) as a gambling tool, and we have wargames (Go and Chess, etc.) as either direct military training tools (wargames proper), or abstracted wargames for more general use, since at least 3000 BC. Sports-wise, we see Blood Bowl (Warhammer fantasy sports game), Quidditch (fantasy; Harry Potter, which is akin to football mixed with netball in the air), and a dozen major examples from sci-fi, often featuring murder and cars (which we could see as a kind of replacement for the Roman and Greek sports), or else some kind of American sport hybrid. These include Real Steel, Futuresport, The Running Man, Rollerball, and Death Race (also, movies by the same names).
The aforementioned are obviously plot devices, and possibly don't have a place within your space opera setting and story. But, the fundamental drive and psychology are there. There are a few other examples from sci-fi board games and novels. Not to mention general sports and activities, such as Swimming.
Personally, the Aionic national sport and recreation activity is Swimming. The reason is four-fold: (1) it is a driver for both health and relaxation; (2) it can be social and peaceful; (3) for symbolic reasons; and (4) because there is likely not much water in space, yet humans still have a deep drive towards water (naturally, this is only applicable to any water-based culture, such as humans). It also occurs to me that water is a natural fitting for space, more so, if we take the TV trope, 'space is an ocean' (which does seem to be the natural categorisation, though it's not the only one). Another reason might be that it creates a reward system/social mobility, or at least the implication of such. Maybe, boarding a spaceship and taking a trip to the 'local' Swimming Centre is the week's holiday for your lower class people. On the other hand, maybe the high class types sit in Swimming Centres all the time. Not an uncommon trend throughout both fiction and history, as you might imagine.
That's just my own example, and may act as a springboard (no pun intended). You can justify dozens of real sports and otherwise activities, or invent your own. They may be readily accessible, or limited to certain classes of people or otherwise groups. There will likely be many different activities and sports for all your peoples, just as we see on Earth.
Some of you already know that I already have a major plan in mind for another sort of game: a wargame of sorts, within the game of Aion. This shall be a nested game (at some point), which you can play. It's going to be a violent sports game, akin to Blood Bowl mixed with some elements of Necromunda, both from Games Workshop. It's mostly for the ruling classes, etc. to engage in warfare without having to actually enage in warfare! Instead, they can simply pit warriors against each other in this deadly match of sport! (More on this in the future.)
Now, if you're writing a new story or campaign, just one trip to one sports centre or otherwise will do the trick, assuming you have planted in the reader's mind the notion that this is very normal and healthy for the culture/people. Best is to try and fit it into the wider plot, or else as a passing element (a few pages). One natural way to deal with this is to tie such into a wider theme or plot-point. Don't just have people randomly go Swimming just to inform the readers that they are Swimming. You need to work it in a bit better than that.
Depending on your culture, you may want a dozen violent/unhealthy sports and activities, or you (i.e. your culture's governing body, etc.) may only regulate more peaceful, healthy ones. I would try and tie this into the wider theme, anyway, and take into account the kind of people/culture you have. For example, you may or may not want Football with ant-like robots. On the other hand, moon-tossing for giant space Russians always sounds like a fun game. Like that makes any sense! Maybe bottle-tossing!
If your culture is based on Americans or Hongkongian, for example, then you should think about their native sports and activities, and how that might fit into whatever you're doing with them in space/the future. Other than that, you need to consider the (a) disposition of your culture; (b) the history of your culture; (c) the function of your culture; (d) the state of your culture; and (e) the peoples of your culture. Although this is not an exhaustive list, it should suffice.
It also occurs to me, we just don't see enough sports in space outside of these movies/stories that are wholly dedicated to said sports, which is weird considering how sport-obsessed humans have become since 500 BC (but, especially since 1920 AD). This is often in relation to the ruling classes in rich, urban settings (cities/towns), or the average citizens in urban areas, finding a bit more free time on their hands (i.e. Scotland and England circa 1920 AD). Makes sense: you have bored, work-less nobles, or even workers with nothing to do. They need something to do; thus, they invented all sorts of games, wargames, and sports. You see this with horse-related games, ball-related games, and even something like fox tossing.
Tennis was 'the game' (popular sport) of the middle classes and above by the 1880s through the 1980s (hence, most early video sports games of the 1950s through 1970s were all Tennis-based). Worth noting that most early video games were themselves sports games or wargames! Actually, most video games are wargames circa 2023 AD, with a vast number of the rest being sports. I stress this only to stress the importance of such things to human culture and entertainment... indeed, most of our entertainment is also either war-based (Boxing, etc.) or otherwise sports (Football, etc.). Not shockingly, most modern sports were invented, therefore, in the British Empire (sometimes with French or Dutch roots). Older sports are seemingly universal -- ranging from Africa to Native Americans to India -- and are typically ball-based (classically, often using heads, or else leather balls).
Of course, most sports are impossible in zero gravity, so I'm just assuming you're creating some kind of zero gravity war-based game, or otherwise sport (fundamentally throwing-based or ball-based), or your culture is on a planet or space station of some kind, which has artificial gravity.
Tron is a great example of offering some inspiration (duel type, and others), not to mention Spy Kids 3-D (2003) (car race) and Ready Player One (2018) (car race). Then, you have combat training type games (I'll just call these 'physical wargames') and VR games (Gamer movie, for example), not to mention VR holiday trips.
Speaking of which, I'm reminded of Germany's vast, cheap, powerful cruise trip system by 1938, which saw millions of working (and fairly poor) Germans taking such Party-regulated trips and holidays (mostly a propaganda tool, funded with blood money, of course). In the more modern context, this is what we saw by the 1950s in America and England with various holiday sites, theme parks, modern cruise trips, and beach holidays (though these do date to at least 1920, but typically only by the middle classes and above). Naturally, because the Western trips and parks were not funded by literal blood money, Germany was able to be more advanced than the West, for a short time.
No less, Tolkien himself once came on holiday to the town I live in (on the coast, North of England), which was a famous holiday town back in the 1850s through 1960s. This was commonplace, including long walks through the woods and various built-up areas. Even in the 1700s, people began going to the 'sea air' for so-called health benefits. In reality, this was likely due to the fact the city air was unhealthy. The sea air was simply fresh, clean air (though, it likely is good for you, psychologically speaking, compared to the grey-state of city life). All of this to say that humans have a deep desire to be in nature, and to relax. This is true most of all for the rich and urbanised (as you can imagine).
Space theme park, anyone? Giant cinema on the Moon? Sure, why not. Titanic cruise trip across the galaxy? Doctor Who already did that, but you get my point! There is much to be done, and you only have to add a few such items, and briefly touch upon them, but I think it does wonders for the human connection, and some added realism (assuming such correctly fits your setting and themes).
There are many other activities of note, of course, including but not limited to art groups, acting/plays, drinking games, general board/video games, card/dice/token games, sword-based sports, hunting, Shooting (sport), and actual warfare.
These serve many functions in society, some positive, some negative. I may speak to some of this in more detail at a later date.
I have said enough. Ah, speaking of which: talking might be another consideration for your culture. This is as old as Man, and does count as such an activity in the context of debate. You famously find this within the Jewish and Islamic worlds: likely because they don't enage with the other items I mentioned as much, and their religions require great moral debate and such. On the other hand, Buddhism requires a lot of silent thinking (which is a kind of debate, in a sense). This heavily depends on your culture's primary religion and otherwise. Some cultures are almost purely geared towards warfare, for example, like the Akkadian Empire (though we are likely a bit harsh on them). In this case, the focus would be on action. If your culture is anything like the modern West, then it's also going to be heavily driven by action, purely due to the speed of the culture and its workers. How this manifests itself depends on the type of government and culture you have in place (the Dutch Empire vs. the U.S., for example).
(Clearly, within a cyberpunk direction or more classical space opera context, the primary free-time activities and modes tend to be centred around sex, war, and/or slave-labour, as shown by Star Wars in general, and most cyberpunk stories. This may or may not fit your narrative, however. The other core negative -- rather, mostly negative -- item would be gambling, which is the only item which doesn't innately involve the body, though often bleeds over into various animal gambling games/activities, and is not healthy in most cases. This typically keeps the more lower classes engaged in the 'slums' sector (typically of a planet or star system). Very common trope/theme, as noted in the bright-cyberpunk-space-opera sort of movie, The Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), when they go to a trading hub planet, filled with crime, sex rings, and gambling, including little weird creatures fighting each other, akin to dog fighting or such on Earth. But, again: you don't actually require this, it's just one popular way to go within the wider sci-fi context, and it serves a few narrative purposes.)
Later on, I shall dig deeper into all of this, as it pertains to Aion and the gameplay itself! :)

Funny Story to keep from crying
Sharing this story as a warning and for myself.
Yesterday, I was scammed out of $200 in the states. Doesn’t it seem like everything our brains do cost us more money than the others and adds more stress to an already failing heart due to prescribed stimulants.
Anyways, had a full day planned with my boyfriend at Costco. Recently became a member so we’ve been going almost daily. Unfortunately, Costco only accepts VISA payments. My only VISA was out of money, I thought maybe I would just buy a VISA gift card from CVS to use for my Costco trips.
Get to CVS and I have to read every card, pre-paid vs gift cards. I spent about 10-15 mins looking over cards while my boyfriend was outside waiting in the car with our cat and dog (we took them on a nature trail that morning). I was getting overwhelmed by options and my urge to get to Costco was over powering my other senses. With that I blindly grabbed a VISA gift card (Vanilla brand), didn’t look at the packing whatsoever. Get the the register, the guys having problems checking me out and I still don’t look at the packing (I’m more frustrated with the checkout process).
After all that, I’m finally out the door and on the road. I immediately open the gift card and notice that the 3 numbers on the back of the card are SCRATCHED OFF. I immediately knew I was scammed at that point. I flip the card over and more numbers are scratched off, making it useless!!
I’ve gone through the process and made every phone call possible to get this resolved. So I’ll just have to wait till they get to my case. It ruined my morning. And the funny thing is my visa had a check deposited that morning… if I just check my bank account.

MLB
NYM -135 ❌
HOU -130 ✅
COL +100 ✅
CHC SDP O8.5 -115 ❌
SFG -155 ❌
NCAA Baseball
Clemson -3.5 +120 ✅
Indiana State -1.5 -110 ❌
Oregon -155 ✅
LSU -4.5 -110 ✅
Florida -5.5 +100 ❌
Wake Forest -5.5 +100 ✅
TCU -145 ✅
Texas A&M -165 ✅

(Pun intended)
*** Effort Post ***
Whenever the topic of socialism or welfare comes up in Christian circles, the notion of Christian voluntarism is quick to follow. What is this Christian voluntarism? It is the idea that national welfare should be based on voluntary charity by the church, not the state. This idea seems to have influence in George Bush’s Compassionate Conservatism, and also to a lesser degree in David Cameron’s Big Society.
Two defenses of the concept are in “The Tragedy of American Compassion” by Marvin Olasky, and “Christian Charity vs Government Welfare” by Thomas Johnson[1]. In truth, elements of the idea itself has subtlety become accepted by a very many Christians, and is present in general Christian apologetics on economics (see bibliography). It must be noted that the proponents of the idea rarely embrace the term Christian Voluntarism[2], which seems to be rather a function of how generally accepted and non-sequitur the idea seems to be.
The theology behind Christian Voluntarism
Sadly, many of the texts linked do not have a strong theological basis; they are largely historical defenses for the idea (See Olasky 2008 and Johnson 1970). Thus, a strongman of their theology must rely on those aforementioned Christian apologetic sources rather substantially (see bibliography). Also, thanks to u/Laojac who provided a strongman here.
Christian voluntarism is fundamentally reliant on the charity practiced by the early Christian Church. We know that people in the church shared their property with each other and cared for each other; Acts 2:44-45, Acts 4:32-37. We know they were commanded to care for their families, alongside the poor, and that there were fundraising efforts to send money over to people in need in the church (1 Tim 5:3,8, Galatians 2:10, Hebrews 13:2-3, 2 Corinthians 8-9). Christian Voluntarism takes this model for charity and attempts to nationalize it is a welfare system, for charity. It uses a few methods to support this.
First, it argues that bible tells us that giving should be voluntary. 2 Corinthians 8-9, and especially 2 Corinthians 9:7, exhort voluntary charity, not done under compulsion. Ergo, the state should not require taxation to fund welfare. Whilst the online tracts do not go much further than this, there is an interesting way that this can be extrapolated further. The particular significance of this verse, interestingly enough, is it is one of the key verses to refute the requirement of tithing. Tithing existed under the wholistic economic system of the old testament that did have many rather radical economic policies; the sabbatical year and the year of jubilee, etc. So to call in this verse against the requirement of taxation does provide a rather big challenge; this new idea of caring in the new testament is not a system of governance, like in the old testament, with taxes and regulations. It is a system guided by the holy spirit, whereby people voluntarily care for those around them. The requirement for people to care for families in 1 timothy 5 would definitely fall into this.
Second, it fundamentally ties welfare to work. To quote 2 Thessalonians 3:10 - “those who do not work shall not eat”. This can be taken in the more obvious sense of “there is no such thing as a free lunch” – people need to work to provide for a living, but for the Christian voluntarists, it is taken as a command of a mutual obligation – those who do not try to work shall not get welfare. (Olasky 2008, p 9-10). Unsurprisingly, this is where ideas of “deserving” and “undeserving poor” come from worthy (Olasky 2008, p 11-12). This also forms what welfare should look like – Welfare has a purpose to help people make a living for themselves (Olasky 2008, p 25, 29). But specifically, in practice it also means that those who don’t want to work should be excluded from welfare (Olasky 2008, p 12, 29, 228). Christian voluntarist tracts argue further that welfare itself is corrupting in that it enables backwardness and degeneracy to exist, encouraging laziness and the breakdown of families (for example, Olasky 2008, p xi -xvii, 222).
Third, supporting this is the argument that Biblical notions of property are explicitly in favor of Liberal private property. This is the belief that the owner of property, can do whatever they want with their property. This starts with an appeal to Exodus 20:15,17 as examples of OT Justifications for private property. It points to the various points in the bible that recognize private ownership. To reference a few; Genesis 4:4, Micah 4:4, Acts 5:4. A very notable verse is Mathew 20:15; “Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money?” – taking this statement at face value would suggest Jesus is very much in favour of liberal private property rights. The whole conclusion of this that people have the right to do with their property what they want. The most immediate implication is the government cannot seize property - This is used against the threat of state socialism.
The Problems with this theology
Of course, we need to recognize that the Bible doesn’t tell Christians to take over the state and implement a welfare state. The fact is that the bible doesn’t prescribe a structure for economic justice in the broader national community. But similarly, this means the bible doesn’t prescribe the Church as being the welfare system of the broader national community. There is a legitimate question about how to pursuing economic justice in light of biblical commands and examples, and the description of the New Testament church (Acts 2:42-47, Acts 4:34-35) exists to show us what economic justice should look like in Christian communities specifically. However, it is a significant stretch to argue that this decentralised system of churches providing welfare is what the bible prescribes as the only legitimate national welfare system.
NT Christian communities were not set up to be a welfare system for the Roman state. They were examples of model Christian communities that we can look to guide us in holy living. They did exist as an alternate perception of economic justice to Old Testament Israel’s state-embedded system, certainly. However, this alternative state was for a few reasons; First Old Testament Israel was a sacrificial system, one that was no longer needed after Christ’s death and resurrection (Heb 10:1-18). Second, Old Testament Israel was a theocratic state, that would make a people for God who would be outwardly different from all around them (Deut 28:9-10). However, Christ did not come to establish a kingdom of this world (John 18:36), instead a people who would follow him due to their changed heart (John 18:36, John 3:5-8). The nullification of the theocratic state of Israel was not a rejection of the state’s interference in economic policy. Rather, it was a recognition that the theocratic state had fulfilled its soteriological and eschatological purpose.
With this context out of the way, we can refute the specific justifications of the voluntarists; The first, 2 Corinthians 9:7, which tells us that giving should be voluntary, not under compulsion, was in a specific letter given to a specific community responding to a crisis at the time. To transform it into a condemnation of state taxation for welfare is a substantial stretch. Paul made clear that it was also a test; he would not command this church to give charity but wanted to know the sincerity of their love, by comparing how much they gave compared to other churches (2 Corinthians 8:8-9).
He was not laying down a law about the state. Nothing in the passage suggests that the state cannot provide welfare. Nothing in the passage suggests that the state cannot demand taxation. Indeed, bible does not reject compulsion in terms of taxation as Christians are exhorted to pay their taxes (Mark 12:13-17; Rom 13:6-7). Contextually, the Christian Voluntarist must also grapple with the absence of a condemnation of the grain dole of Rome, both within this passage and within the broader New Testament. Now, one could argue that if the state gets involved in welfare then the sincerity of Christian love has failed – but that is a very different argument, an argument that needs to grapple with both the fallen nature of humanity, and the social implications of democracy. Nevertheless, the passage at hand does not refute state taxation or state provision of welfare.
Moving to the second justification – that, welfare should be tied to work. This specific passage, 2 Thessalonians 3:10, occurs within a context where there are believers who are “idle and disruptive” (v 6, 11) and who are “not busy; they are busybodies”. They are commanded to settle down and eat (v 12). To use this passage to encourage Christians to work is good. It is not the purpose of the passage to be used for a model of how a welfare state works. Unlike 2 Cor 9:7, which is deliberately misused by Christians to deny welfare to others – this passage can be used to form a welfare state system. Like Acts 4:32 for the Socialists, and 1 Corinthians 14:12-26 for the Corporatists, 2 Thessalonians 3:10 seems quite able to be derived to justify a political policy. However, to declare that 2 Thessalonians 3:10 necessitates a policy program on welfare is misguided – it was a teaching for a particular church at a particular time. The practical considerations of this particular section will get further treatment further on.
The final argument that the bible prescribes liberal private property. This argument has lies that it conceals in truths. Fundamentally, the bible does recognize property rights. It recognizes that we can own property and have liberty in using that property. However, the bible also recognizes two other things; First, that we are not the absolute owners of that property. God is the absolute owner of everything, not humanity (1 Cor 10:26; Psalm 24:1; Deut 10:14). The second is that any property we have, we steward for God; we are not allowed to use property for whatever purpose we deem fit. The OT system has a variety of restrictions on how we can use property, much of which existed for economic justice. There were prohibitions on taking interest (Leviticus 26:36-37); Gleaning laws that mean restricted the amount of produce farmers could get from their own harvest, requiring they leave some to the poor (Lev 19:9-10; Deut 24:19-21). Furthermore, there are the radical redistribution policies with the Sabbatical year and year of jubilee (Leviticus 25:1-7, 8-55). The commandment to not steal was situated within these verses about responsibilities, something noted by Both Catholics and Reformed Christians (See the Catholic Catechism, Westminster Larger Catechism and Heidelberg Catechism). The New Testament similar has a variety of commands about how to use property; (Luke 6:30, 1 John 3:17, 1 Tim 5:8, 6:17-18).
There is one verse that falls outside of the above explanation; Mathew 20:15 – “Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money?”. The context of the verse is that Jesus is teaching a parable. In the parable, the vineyard owner pays all his workers the same amount, no matter what they work. Parables have single purposes – the purpose of this parable is that it doesn’t matter however late you sign up to the gospel, you will still be saved. It is not a parable with prescriptions on wage payments. It is not a parable with prescriptions on private property.
Fundamentally, there is no biblical prescription against the state establishment of a welfare state. This, in itself, does not disqualify Christian voluntarism as an idea; rather it means that advocating Christian voluntarism requires making a different argument – that the Christian voluntarist form of welfare is the best form of welfare.
The Economics of a Christian Voluntarist welfare state
Gøsta Esping-Andersen’s seminal work “The Three Worlds of welfare Capitalism”, divides welfare states into three ideal types; “Liberal”, “Conservative” and “Social Democratic”. Of these, Christian Voluntarism is closest to the “Liberal” ideal type which is found in the US, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. A liberal welfare state is one that aims to encourage the pursuit of employment, and so the state will provide as little as possible (Esping-Andersen 1990, p. 42). Means testing and mutual obligation is often used to minimize the states ways to welfare provision. Those who cannot rely on government support must rely on charity (Esping-Andersen 1990, p. 26-27).
Christian Voluntarism is essentially a Christian defense for the “Liberal” welfare state. However it does far more, because in practice it would mean the undermining of the liberal welfare state. The Christian voluntarist would tear down the last vestiges of a state led system so that people instead rely on Charity. They would attempt to further liberalize an already liberal system. The practical implications of this are that even a state led system that incorporates the principles of the “deserving and undeserving” poor, alongside the mutual obligations of “those who don’t work don’t eat”, are too much for the Christian Voluntarist.
This system fails both quantitatively and qualitatively. It fails quantitatively because a welfare state based on charity cannot support the entire population. Welfare encompasses old age, unemployment, workplace injuries, permanent disabilities and more. The amount of money needed to organise such a welfare system is unachievable by charities (Green 2017). Reviews of “The Tragedy of American compassion” point out that the historical charitable system championed did not provide welfare for all – it was very geographically dependent (Hammack, 1996, p 261-262).
This system also fails qualitatively. One would think that a Christian voluntarist would see that charity and welfare are symptoms of economic greater problems, and addressing those greater problems would reduce the burdens on charity.[3] But Christian Voluntarists don’t address the issues which lead people to need charity. Unaffordable healthcare and involuntary unemployment are two clear examples of structural economic problems; the former due to the various oligopolies that exist throughout the healthcare system, which is unsurprising given it is a market with high start-up costs, and the latter often due a deficiency in demand. The solutions to these factors require substantial economic reform by means of regulation and government spending, which is antithetical to the Christian Voluntarist ideal. Christian voluntarists are not advocating for these solutions to reduce the burden on charities.
Two further addendums need to be added to this analysis. The first is that there are flaws with regards to the policy derivatives of 2 Thessalonians 3:10. The idea of an undeserving poor has lead to many problems – for example this group has historically included beggars and criminals (Schmalz 2017). The definition of who is undeserving will inevitably both include and exclude people who may need help. Olasky, for example, includes Alcoholics and Drug Addicts as part of his ‘undeserving poor’ (p. 227-228), when, in truth, these groups could quite easily be seen as the most needing of support – albeit in a more compressive form then mere cash handout. The principle of mutual obligations behind this need to be thought through. Interestingly enough, the gleaning system in the OT seems to be a system that follows this idea; welfare is there, but people have to work to get it. This principles behind this are also evident in a full employment policy in the modern era. However, today’s governments generally prefer of “mutual obligations” for welfare, or forms of workfare instead. In the context where workers outnumber jobs these programs essentially act as punitive “full employment policy”.
The second is the Christian voluntarist claim that any welfare system should be orientated towards public morality alongside economic justice. This is a fair claim, and frankly welfare systems must be cautiously constructed with consideration of economic justice, and also the moral fabric of society. Here the example of the ideal type of the Conservative welfare state (historically found in found in Germany, Belgium and Austria), can be drawn upon. This welfare state, for example, is constructed with the family in mind (Esping-Andersen 1990, p. 27). It also relies largely on decentralised system of welfare provision that incorporate religious providers (Esping-Andersen 1990, p. 27). Even with the focus on the moral fabric of society, other factors must also come into play; The conservative welfare state benefits married couples over singles; what does this mean for the economic situation of single mothers? Such a welfare system needs to counterbalance the social fabric of society with it’s economic needs.
To Conclude
Theologically, the claims of Christian Voluntarism do not stand up; there is not set biblical principle about the state’s involvement in welfare provision. Economically, the Christian Voluntarists fail to appreciate the quantitative size of charitable provision needed to match the welfare state, nor do they deal with the structural issues facing the economy.
Fundamentally, I am not a Christian Socialist. I do not believe that the descriptions of Christian communities in Acts can be described as socialist – I may write another piece like this later on. I’m not coming from a liberal, modernist or progressive Christian perspective. Rather I’m annoyed that Conservative Christians have accepted the claims of liberal economies and tried to make a more liberalized welfare system based on a misguided claim about following the Bible.
[1] The specific defense provided by Johnson is explicitly voluntarist, in that it draws on voluntarism as a philosophy. It is also Pelagian and so should be rejected; “Any Christian who does not openly and vehemently denounce all forms of government welfare, cannot, in truth, call himself a Christian, for government welfare is the antithesis of Christian charity.” - this is clearly heresy.
[2] Indeed, the term only seems to appear in online Christian Forums. However, Academics do describe this idea as voluntarist, and it is a Christian defense of Voluntarism, so terming the idea “Christian Voluntarism” is apt.
[3] This was the approach of the founder of the St Vincent De Paul society, Frederic Ozanam. He was an economics lecturer and argued that charity was insufficient to change the situation – what was needed was a change to the relationship between workers and capital (Moody 1953, p 129).
Bibliography
General:
Green, E., 2017. The Voluntarism Fantasy, Democracy A Journal of Ideas, viewed 22 October 2022, https://democracyjournal.org/magazine/32/the-voluntarism-fantasy/
Konczal, M., 2014. Can Religious Charities Take the Place of the Welfare State?, The Atlantic, viewed 22 October 2022, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/03/budget-religion/520605/
Schmalz, M., 2017. Taxing the rich to help the poor? Here’s what the Bible says, The conversation, viewed 3 June 3, 2023 https://theconversation.com/taxing-the-rich-to-help-the-poor-heres-what-the-bible-says-88627
Zeiger, H., 2014. The voluntarism fantasy?, Philanthropy Daily, viewed 22 October 2022, https://www.philanthropydaily.com/the-voluntarism-fantasy/
Christian Voluntarism & Compassionate Conservatism:
Olasky, M N, 2008, The Tragedy of American Compassion, Crossway Books, https://archive.org/details/tragedyofamerica0000olas/mode/2up - Olasky provides a specifically Christian Argument.
Johnson, T L, 1970 May 9, “Christian Charity vs Government Welfare”, Human Events,
Accessible: https://fee.org/articles/christian-charity-vs-government-welfare/, https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/christian-charity-government-welfare/ - Johnson also provides a specifically Christian Argument.
Weed D, 1977, The Compassionate Touch, Carol Stream, https://archive.org/details/compassionatetou00wead/mode/2up - Weed provides a secular argument.
Argumentative Sources
Esping-Andersen, GJ, 1990, The Three Worlds of welfare Capitalism, Princeton University Press.
Hammack, DC, 1996, ‘The Tragedy of American Compassion’, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly.
Kuyper, A, 2021, On Business and Economics, Lexham Press.
Lee, F.N 1988, Biblical Private Property Versus Socialistic Common Property, EN Tech.J. 3, pp. 16-22, https://creation.com/images/pdfs/tj/j03_1/j03_1_016-022.pdf
Moody, J, 1953, Church and society : Catholic social and political thought and movements, Arts Inc
Christian Apologetics on Economics
Got Questions, 2022, What is Christian Socialism?, Got Questions, viewed 22 October 2022,
https://www.gotquestions.org/Christian-socialism.html
Groothuis D, 2021, CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIALISM: WHAT SHOULD A CHRISTIAN BELIEVE?, Focus on the Family, viewed 22 October 2022, https://www.focusonthefamily.com/church/christianity-and-socialism/
Jeremiah D, 2022, What does the Bible say About Socialism, DavidJeremiah.Blog, viewed 22 October 2022, https://davidjeremiah.blog/what-does-the-bible-say-about-socialism/#:~:text=While%20the%20Bible%20encourages%20generosity,according%20to%20His%20sovereign%20will.
Miller C, 2013a, 2 corinthians 8, communism as an economic system, A little Perspective, viewed 22 October 2022, https://www.alittleperspective.com/2-corinthians-8-communism-as-an-economic-system-2/
Miller C, 2013b, 2 2 corinthians 9, giving cheerfully (communism, part two), A little Perspective, viewed 22 October 2022, https://www.alittleperspective.com/2-corinthians-9-giving-cheerfully-communism-part-two/
Piper, J., 2015. How Should Christians Think About Socialism, Desiring God, viewed 22 October 2022, https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/how-should-christians-think-about-socialism
Understanding 2012, 2nd Corinthians 8: Charity or Socialism? (Love or Compulsion?), Understanding, viewed 22 October 2022, https://cutpaste.typepad.com/understanding/2012/08/2nd-corinthians-8-charity-or-socialism-love-or-compulsion.html
Hughes G, 2018, Was Jesus a Socialist, When we Understand the Text, viewed 22 October 2022, https://wwutt.com/was-jesus-a-socialist/
TOW Project, 2011, Sharing the Wealth (2 Corinthians 8:13-15), viewed 22 October 2022, https://www.theologyofwork.org/new-testament/2-corinthians/sharing-the-wealth-2-corinthians-813-15

1. Blake (Black Knight) Blake is either YC1 or YC2 by rank, and in terms if power he deserves the title. After losing Cleo he hit the Sea Gym, took some Blue Blood, and ate the Mera Mera no mi (Flame Flame fruit). He was noted by Kasparov to be the strongest of Blue Bloods commanders.
2. V (Former Leader) V is bound to his chair that keeps him alive but due to the fact that he resides in a ship, he is still somewhat mobile. He uses his creations to attack so him sending them to attack is just as strong as him hiding in his base. And he did the most damage to the DLP out of anyone until Blake.
3. Hemlock (Current Leader) She stated that she surpassed Valentine and she had shown during the final battle that her blades and assassination skills had made up for a lack of Noodle and Monty.
4. Valentine (Former 7th Flame) Hemlock stated that she had passed him in strength, however she also lost the ability to enlarge her snakes. His animal was one of the most powerful as the bat was invisible, and he had an overpowered devil fruit that he heavily staggered the DLP with.
5. Olaf (Current 5th Flame) Him and Ragnar were absolutely demolishing the Clockwork Dragon while trying to find the Forth Brother. He was also stated to be the second strongest current flame.
6. Tempest (Current 7th Flame) She was the main contributor to the fight with Void Agent Aria, but she also had to hold back in every fight do to the danger of harming her allies.
7. Scourge (Current 6th Flame) He has shown shown some of the least amount of feats from the flames, but he was still able to help out greatly with the final battle and the webslinging greatly helps as support.
8. Blake (Former 5th Flame) He was a major contributor in the fight with V and while he had his Hell Hound Blaze he was able to breathe fire. He also joined in partway during the fight with Emperor Dominius but couldn't do much.
9. Gravy (Former 4th Flame) He was able to take out multiple of the robots that V sent at he DLP but he hasn't fought any humans. While he still had Boris and was an assasin he was still known as one of their stronger members and Hemlock thinks it is a shame he is wasting his talent.
10. Bullet (Most recent 4th Flame) She was the person that finally killed Cleo and showed some progression in power after the last time the DLP saw her. She was killed by a divine departure from Void Roger
11. Cleo (Former 3rd Flame) She was quite a nuisance for the DLP both while fighting them and just being flat out annoying. Her pet Patty was quite strong while fighting and she herself still showed very much skill due to her assassination training
12. Tako (Former 2nd Flame) Not Steve was able to scare away both Ragnar and Duros, he knocked William unconscious and also almost did so to Verona. Rustage noted how much harder that battle was supposed to be so he is likely stronger than we saw.
13. Skendor (Unknown Flame) He was in an epilouge and was the person that killed Captain Hastings, he was a brief appearance but he was killed by an enraged Rain and her Sea Kings.
14. Mortimer (Current 3rd Flame) We haven't seen anything of this combatant but the other below have not shown too much battle prowess.
15. Malaise (Current 2nd Flame) She possesses some sort of an illusion fruit that allowed her to trick the minds of her enemies to give objects fake life, they look similar to Verona's animed objects but don't possess any life.
16. Humphrey (Current 1st Flame) He possesses the Tori Tori no mi: Model Owl, which is an Owl Zoan. He was in a scuffle with William and Pearl during the Davy Back Fights.
17. Little Timmy (Former 1st Flame) He was killed by V's robots but seemed to be more of a support character where he could heal others with shots.
18. Taurus (Non Combatant) He was a member of the Long John Pirates but has not shown any battle prowess.

At the beginning, I was totally sure that history was (and is) the main force behind the modern behavior on modern elites. Yet I think is not safe to look to much in the past. Jianfu Chen has a wonderful book called “Chinese Law context and transformation” where he explains in deep the characteristics and the history of modern Chinese legal system. Even if the book itself is highly focused on law-development, the first chapters tell the history on where Chinese law came from:
- The first point is that the Kuomintang abolish most of Confucianism policies, a then the CCP banish it to create a new system inspired by soviet law.
- The second point is that the CCP acquired its experiences from the rule over land in the Chinese civil war and from the Soviets.
- The third point (and the most important according to Chen) is that Maoism, was essentially, a ruleless state. Constitution existed in this period but most of the laws were nothing else than the expression of revolution and often not applied.
- The fourth point is that China, basically created its modern system only when Deng Xiaoping took power. (And he point him as the person who decided to create the idea of party-state when he put the four principles into the constitution,

1. The principle of upholding the communist path
2. The principle of upholding the people's democratic dictatorship
3. The principle of upholding the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
4. The principle of upholding Mao Zedong Thought and Marxism-Leninism")

One can argue that Chinese system is influenced by Confucianism in the way the politicians see themselves as fathers while the population is the family that must be taught to become good citizen, yet it doesn’t seem to be the case.
The CCP has a structure characterized by the strong internal fights and lack of an actual institutionality, these things are something the party itself know. Yijiang Ding wrote an interesting article about it. According to him, the CCP only began to institutionalize itself when Jiang Zeming took power. And even there was a fight between Jian and Deng because Deng do not left Jiang to be the in the head of the military committee. According to Ding, the pacific transfer of power only began when Jiang passed the power to Hu Jintao. YET JIANG DO NOT LET HU TO BE THE HEAD OF THE MILITARY COMMITTEE.
This is really interesting because on her article, was only because of the pressure of the party itself that Jiang finally decided to retire itself from politics.
Cheng Li adds other point of view, and that is the division on the party.
When Hu Jintao took office, the party was divided in two blocs, the author calls them “the populist vs the elitists” one guided by Hu and Liu Keqiang and the other lead by Xi Jinping (and supported by Jiang).
Hu Jintao never had the force and the unity Deng and Jiang had. And this is interesting to analyze. Professor Andornino (my professor of east-asia politics) said that the reason behind Xi to have so much power is because the party itself was in favor of him. Hu Jintao was pointed out by Deng Xiaoping, yet Hu Jintao was not able to choose a successor. Was the party who choose Xi.
And Xi according to Rush Doshi (who wrote an interesting book called “Long Game”) is the person who has the power to promote and began the transition of power between the United States and China. The book “China Dream” is clear about it.
If we see this, is obvious the history is important to understand why authoritarianism emerge, yet I think we shouldn’t look to much in the past and rather start to understand what happened in the recent past to see how authoritarianism emerged in modern Russia.
What was the effects of Perestroika on the economic elite of the Soviet Union?
How the shock economic therapy of Yeltsin affected the way society see liberalism?
What was the political origin of Putin and how he created its image?
I personally agree on the idea that Russia need to stop thinking like an empire but why does Putin (as a person) like to bring back the rhetoric of civilizational war?
I personally think that if we understand better the transition of power between Gorvachov, Yeltsin and Putin, we could see better why democracy failed in Russia.
Books and articles recommended:
Chen, Jianfu. 2015. Chinese Law: Context and Transformation. BRILL.
Li, Cheng. 2009. “The Chinese Communist Party Recruiting and Controlling the New Elites.” Journal of Current Chinese Affairs 38 (3): 13–33.
Ding, Yijiang. 2015. “Consolidation of the PRC’s Leadership Succession System from Hu Jintao to Xi Jinping.” China Report 51 (1): 49–65. https://doi.org/10.1177/0009445514557389.
Liu, Mingfu. 2015. The China Dream : Great Power Thinking & Strategic Posture in the Post-American Era. New York: Cn Times Books, Cop.
Rush Doshi. 2021. LONG GAME : China’s Grand Strategy and the Displacement of American Power. Oxford University Press.

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Hello,
J'ai remarqué un phénomène étrange sur /france ces derniers jours : certains posts qui arrivent en front page du sub accumulent un nombre de crossposts astronomique.
Par exemple, ces deux posts qui sont arrivés en tête du sous hier ont respectivement 46 et 38 crossposts:
https://www.reddit.com/france/duplicates/13y9wlu/exclusif_8_fran%C3%A7ais_sur_10_ne_voient_pas/
https://www.reddit.com/france/duplicates/13yf2vz/je_ne_pensais_pas_que_vous_me_retrouveriez_de_la/
Vous pouvez faire le test vous-même en triant les posts du sub par top de la semaine.
D'autres exemples en vrac :
https://www.reddit.com/france/duplicates/13vlrvl/%C3%A9ric_coquerel_d%C3%A9clare_recevable_la_proposition_de/ (8 crossposts)
https://www.reddit.com/france/duplicates/13uplf3/le_ministre_fran%C3%A7ais_du_num%C3%A9rique_se_d%C3%A9clare_pr%C3%AAt/ (18 crossposts)
https://www.reddit.com/france/duplicates/13wt7wp/cyril_hanouna_la_cha%C3%AEne_c8_condamn%C3%A9e_%C3%A0_une_amende/ (10 crossposts)
https://www.reddit.com/france/duplicates/13viliq/gr%C3%A8ve_in%C3%A9dite_%C3%A0_disneyland_paris_le_climat_social/ (8 crossposts)
Dans tous ces cas, les crossposts sont quasiment tous faits en direction du profil de l'utilisateur en question et pas sur un autre subreddit. Les comptes qui crosspostent massivement ces sujets ont tous des noms générés par défaut par reddit, très peu de karma, postent sur des subreddits de type /FreeKarma4You, et surtout : ils sont tous très intéressés par des subreddit liés à Temu. Pour ceux qui comme moi ne connaissent pas, il s'agit d'une companie Chinoise d'e-commerce fondée en 2022.
Wikipedia:

Temu is an online marketplace operated in a number of countries by the Chinese-based company PDD Holdings Inc.[1] It offers heavily discounted goods[2] which are mostly shipped to consumers directly from China.[3]
Temu is owned and operated by the Chinese-based and Cayman Island registered[4] company PDD Holdings, which also owns Pinduoduo, a popular online commerce platform in China.[5] The platform first went live in the United States in September 2022[1] In February 2023, Temu launched in Canada.[6] That same month, the company aired a Super Bowl ad.[7] In March 2023, Temu launched in Australia and New Zealand.[8] In the following month, Temu was launched in France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK.[9]
Temu allows China-based vendors to sell and ship directly to customers without having to rely on warehouses in the destination country.[10] Online purchased on Temu can be made using an Internet browser or through a dedicated mobile app. In late 2022, the Temu app was the most frequently downloaded app in the United States.[11]
Temu offers free goods to some users who successfully encourage new users via affiliate codes, social media, and gamification.[2] It also uses online advertising on Facebook and Instagram. According to Sarah Perez writing for TechCrunch, "These ads appear to be working to boost Temu's installs. But dig into the app's reviews and you'll find similar complaints to Wish, including scammy listings, damaged and delayed deliveries, incorrect orders and lack of customer service."[11] According to Andrew Chow writing for Time, Temu is also starting to develop a reputation for undelivered packages, mysterious charges, incorrect orders, and unresponsive customer service.[2]
In May 2023, concerns were raised about risks to users' personal data as the Pinduoduo shopping app was removed from Google Play Store after some of its versions were found to contain malware.[12]
On May 17, 2023, Montana governor Greg Gianforte banned Temu on government devices state-wide, along with ByteDance applications (including TikTok), Telegram, and WeChat.[13][14] The ban was criticized by the American Civil Liberties Union as "anti-Chinese".

En pratique, ça a l'air d'être un concurrent à Wish avec tous les problèmes que ça implique (par exemple, on retrouve souvent ces profils parler de dropshipping). Apparemment, j'ai eu de la chance de ne pas en avoir entendu parlé jusqu'ici étant donné qu'ils font de la pub de manière très aggressive et avec un budget énorme.
De fait, les subreddits liés à Temu ressemblent un peu à un champ de bataille, on y trouve quasiment uniquement des posts pour mendier du karma:
/TEMU_Official
/temu
/TEMU_Canada
/TemuHelp (celui là a carrément un post en sticky qui parle de vendre des bots...)
Il faut admettre que ces comptes ressemblent quand même fortement à des bots. Je ne sais pas trop quel intérêt ils retirent de toutes ces manoeuvres, peut-être que quelqu'un qui connaît mieux la plate-forme pourra nous éclairer là-dessus.
Finalement, à part le haut nombre de cross-posts, on est pas vraiment impacté sur /france étant donné que ces comptes sont, de ce que j'ai vu, très souvent en dessous de la limite de 50 karma nécessaire pour que AutoModerator ne vire pas leurs posts automatiquement. Je me demande quand même pourquoi ils ont l'air de viser /france si massivement. C'est peut-être juste parce que j'ai pas remarqué le phénomène sur d'autres subreddits que je fréquente moins, donc si vous avez des exemples je suis preneur.
C'est peut-être aussi une bonne idée de prendre note de ces comptes et de les bannir du sous tant qu'ils sont en dessous de la limite de karma et facilement identifiable par ces crossposts. Une fois qu'ils auront acquis le karma nécessaire pour poster ici, que leurs commentaires soit juste des reposts ou générés par IA, je pense qu'il y a de bonne chances qu'ils passent inaperçus.
C'est tout pour moi !
Edit : J'ai pris quelques captures d'ecran sur PC pour ceux pour qui les liens ne fonctionnent pas :
https://i.imgur.com/A6FwDNQ.png
https://i.imgur.com/BI2KJ3i.png

After ten years of being a mercenary, I thought I had finally found my forever shop.
At every shop, I had worked at prior, the shops couldn’t present enough work to keep me busy, at all times. At this shop, I couldn’t keep up with the amount of work. I was in my element.
The shop was salary, but I still busted my ass. My co-workers didn’t like me much at first. They thought I was crazy producing the amount of work I was doing. “C’s get degrees, Smoke.” Eventually they realized that work was my passion and we all got along just fine.
After a few months, I realized something was a little weird about the shop. The relationship between the employees and the owner was very cultish. If someone quit, or was fired we were to never mention that persons name ever again. “His name was Robert Paulson…” I can’t stress the aura of cult enough.
The owner would state his wildly conservative, almost nazi-like, thoughts and opinions, and everyone would just agree that he was right. I always disagreed and called him short sighted. I realize, looking back, he would have fired me just for my anti-his-cult rhetoric, if I wasnt producing more than anyone he ever hired. I just can’t not say something when someone tries to tell me about the blight of the black/Mexican man on America.
One morning, I had a coffee in hand and waited for the owner to hand me my next job. He looked at me, “do you know how much I want to hit that cup out of your hand?” In front of two other employees I responded, “what the fuck is that? You a fucking sociopath? Because that’s a sociopathic thought.” His face changed and he laughed it off.
I went straight into fight mode. I was instantly unhappy. This became our relationship. He would say something a serial killer would say and I would call him out on it. Sometimes it would scare me.
He would say things like, “you’re getting fat, you should go to the gym.” “Your wife is hot I’d fuck her.” And every time I would call him out. “I’m happy with my weight. If you’ve ever starved before you would be happy with some weight as well.” “She wouldn’t touch your ugly mug with a ten foot pole.”
One day, in front of several employees the owner said, “I want to fight you.” Immediately I responded with, “Oh, I’ll fuck you up, if you want. When and where?” He scoffed the comment off. I looked at a co-worker in disbelief. The co-worker’s head snapped away from my eye contact in a submissive fashion.
About a week later the owner approached me in the morning, while holding some UFC type fighting gloves. “I brought some gloves, at lunch we fight.” “Look dude, I’ma kick your fucking ass and I WILL put you in the hospital. I’m gunna get hurt, you’re gunna get hurt, why the fuck would you want that?” He smiled a psychopathic smile, “lunch time, it’s on.” He walked away.
I looked over to the tech working next to me and he looked SCARED. I took a breath, and continued with my work. I wanted to put the owner in the hospital for a lesson in respect. I thought, “if I’m kicking his ass they are going to jump me…” I found my center and remained calm.
Lunch time rolled around and I put a long 19mm wrench in my back pocket, and pulled my shirt over it. I had decided I was getting too old and tired to fight someone, and figured as he strapped his gloves on I would just cave in his skull and be done with the shit show. If I get jumped, I get jumped.
Lunch time came around and he never exited his office. I ate my lunch and took my break, and nothing happened.
The next day, nothing. A week went by and nothing. He never spoke about it again and I never brought it up.
After sometime he decided to start to invite me to his house for get togethers and to chill. I NEVER went. I would be very blunt in my responses as well. “I’m not doing that.” “Why not?” “Because I don’t fucking want to. I have my own life. If ten hours a day, five days a week isn’t enough quality time together, then I don’t know what to tell you.”
He insisted, one Friday, that I go over to his house and watch football with him on the weekend. I declined, like I always did. He texted me that Saturday and asked if I was coming over. I texted back, “nope, I’m busy today.” “The game is tomorrow.” “Oh…. well, shit. Still no.” “Come on man come watch the game.” “I’m not interested.” He didn’t text back.
That shop was weird. I left after a year and a half for more pay and a less cultish work place.
That place was so creepy looking back. I know I have been excommunicated there. Never have heard a word from any person from that place since.
Don’t get me wrong, there was never violence at that shop. It was actually pretty chill. I never seen someone actually fight or be violent, but that threat was always there. It hung in the air like a fog.
I still don’t know why the other techs work there. All of them were 3-10 years there. They had to have had some sort of relationship with the owner that kept them there. I just don’t know what that could have been.
Never leave the market place. Mercenary till death. Loyalty gets you fucked.