Throwaway05
11hr ago
You don't think this measurably increases the chance of a proactive nuclear attack? (terrorist or otherwise).
I imagine the more religious end of Iranian politics would push hard for it.
Throwaway05
11hr ago
But I have no confidence in Trump's vision or plan. I expect we'll bomb them for a while, Trump will declare victory and stop, and Iran will still be Iran, just shaken, somewhat weakened, and still hankering for revenge.
This is exactly my concern. An Afghanistan style solution does not seem likely to be helpful, Israel and the US Military (but perhaps, not Trump) may have a plan that could work - but if the propaganda apparatus is efficacious enough Trump will bail and we'll be stuck with a hankering for revenge outcome.
That's worse for everybody.
Throwaway05
11hr ago
This is why I drove a distinction between (T)reason and (t)reason in my post.
Throwaway05
11hr ago
It sounds like you disagree with what is happening. The point is that people are turning that disagreement into making things worse for everyone or attempting to do so.
So don't do that.
Throwaway05
12hr ago
Okay we hold back and don't use the big scary T word, which is fair, the legislature needs to be able to express itself even if it's a terrible idea.
But again, what happens if we just stop now? Everyone is worse off - Americans and everyone else will likely die.
Doesn't that make the actions un-American? Irresponsible?
Being mad that we are here doesn't seem unreasonable. Trying to make everything worse in the frustration doesn't seem wise.
Throwaway05
13hr ago
When does "criticism" of the current military action in Iran (and by criticism I mean a variety of behaviors from our political leadership to randoms on the internet) become "treason" (both in the firm prosecutable sort and the "historically your neighbors would have stopped talking to you or maybe chased you out of town" sort)?
I get it, people are mad at Trump, Republicans, America, the Jews, Israel, whatever.
I get it.
Many people would rather have had us not get here. But we are here. The ship has sailed.
If everyone returns to their corners now at the very least we have billions of dollars in economic dysfunction, realistically we have tremendous destabilization in the region which is going cause the biggest problems we've seen in decades. In truth, we call it all off now, Iran will probably finish arming themselves and nuke a civilian population, likely Israel. Even the most anti-semitic person who ever lived should be able to understand how bad doing that could go. It would likely be the worst thing that's ever happened just from the resulting chaos.
So we are stuck.
But you see a lot of people with an agenda trying to defang the war effort or get it cancelled or whatever. Many probably don't expect it to happen, they are just trying to set up Trump looking bad. An example of this is probably the war powers resolutions.
But at that point you have overt politicking putting American, Israeli, Middle Eastern lives (and maybe everyone else?) at risk because you want to slightly increase the chance you can spend two years repeatedly impeaching Trump.
I think that's kind of treasonous? Maybe not the executing kind, but definitely the "holy shit what are you doing kind."
Like the war. Hate the war. It's happened. Criticizing how we got here is understandable, but I think we need to be careful.
Make the PR bad enough and we stop with the job half done and everyone loses.
Throwaway05
2d ago
Tyrant Philosophers
It's coming up in my reading backlog, can you elevator pitch it so I can building anticipation?
Throwaway05
4d ago
I've updated my opinion of Elon considerably downward over the past few years. This isn't motivated reasoning or tribal updating, I think his early work genuinely represented some of the most impressive entrepreneurial achievement of the century, and I weighted that heavily for a long time. It's just that the account has been drawn down pretty substantially at this point.
It does credibly seem like he's become the victim of (wealth induced) substance abuse generated personality change.
That's a hard thing to deal with.
Throwaway05
4d ago
People who used to just die are now morbidly obese with access to cheap entertainment and drugs.
If you get sick we treat you regardless of ability to pay instead of just throwing you onto the street.
This is the society that the billionaires built!
Being poor in America or Western Europe is probably the best now that it has ever been.
Throwaway05
5d ago
From what I can tell these days most male doctors come into med school already attached, meet another doctor in school, or end up getting scooped randomly on the apps (if they don't suck) or flounder on the apps (if they do suck).
People avoid the work drama of the past because of woke stuff, although the mid to late career physicians still get up to that sometimes.
Female doctors seem to hold out for someone on the apps of ultra high quality and succeed or fail, with some going for much lower social class/success boy toys.
Throwaway05
6d ago
I understand many people haven't interacted with much of the Iranian diaspora, like always that's a self selecting group but they resemble Asians or Jews in many ways - strong family ties, a focus on education, and lots of involvement in successful industries and business. This is world class elite human capital with a lot of national pride who would be willing to go back, should the situation change.
Throwaway05
7d ago
Absolutely, we have a millions reasons why getting involved is a bad idea.
This isn't one of them - but it has gotten some of the most play on social media.
It's a shallow emotional appeal that makes no logical sense, but that is where the population is at right now. It's embarrassing.
Throwaway05
7d ago
People die in war and conflict. Iran is a country actively engaged in killing its own people and those abroad (civilian and otherwise). People are arguing about the alleged death of some school children as if this event means that Iran should be allowed to go back to killing whoever they want.
That is stupid.
Throwaway05
7d ago
(2) A disinformation war is happening in regards to whether a school in Iran was hit, and if it were hit, whether its destruction was caused by Iran, Israel, or America. 100+ Iranian girls were killed.
I find it tremendously frustrating that Iran can be indirectly and directly responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians over decades and decades but suddenly this is a huge problem.
I think it's a sign that most westerners are fundamentally unprepared to defend their societies from aggression and stagnation.
Throwaway05
10d ago
As usual you aren't hating the media enough - this was a pre-planned official trip to discuss security arrangements where he was going to pay the extra costs (at least that's what 2Way reported).
Throwaway05
13d ago
(2a) Women (whose sentiment has a huge impact on societal values) object to these relationships since it reminds them of a significant disadvantage they have in comparison to men: Female sexual attractiveness inevitably and steeply declines relatively early in life. Since women tend to compare themselves to the most elite men, they get the frustrating impression that society has made life extremely unfair for them. Perhaps women have always felt this way and what's changed is that they have more of a voice.
I have to imagine something like this is the largest factor, after being told they can have everything women become upset when men aren't interested in them for economic success and they find themselves in their late 30s with no partner or prospects.
They will (maybe rightly?) complain.
Throwaway05
17d ago
Exactly, I feel more impacted by crime in comparison to twenty years ago, even if the really bad stuff was quite a bit more likely back in the day.
Throwaway05
20d ago
I mean this is where taste comes in - you'll note that she doesn't look at all like your other examples.
That said she's literally famous for being beautiful in an industry that the most beautiful people in the world go into. If getting paid millions of dollars a year to be beautiful isn't a sign of being a 10/10 then I don't know what is.
You are allowed to find her not attractive. Many people don't like um ethnic women, or women who are low on curves. That's preference, but if we are looking objectively...
Throwaway05
20d ago
Dying to understand the significance of the three question marks.
Gossiping with your girlies about men's performance is very female coded. A spreadsheet (or document) with detailed stats is very male coded.
So am I. The spreadsheet stays.😁
I like my balls attached, thanks.
Throwaway05
20d ago
Fair dinkum - my standard for what a 9 or a 10 is is something like "is a model" "could be a model" "if you told your friends she was a model they would believe it." With a 10 being more of a get drunk with your bros and sass each other and they won't disagree she is a 10 even though that is a big brag.
I don't think I've thought of it the terms you describe but it's an interesting thought. If a 10 means 99.9th percentile then it really means something, but I suspect you'd run into taste issues. Sydney Sweeney, Zendaya, and Lisa (Blackpink) are all probably 10s by any objective standard but if you go by 99.9th percentile for an individual man's interest then at least one of those three is likely to get thrown out most of the time (see: the hate for Zendaya here).
Throwaway05
20d ago
I am an adult in a committed relationship now. For legal reasons any spreadsheet would have been deleted looooong ago.
I did have a (female???) friend who kept detailed information on her phone with phallus stats, which should would whip out at parties from time to time.
That was always horrifying and amusing.
Throwaway05
20d ago
As a contra anecdote - I've also slept with lots of women, and I've found my level of attractiveness varying quite a bit over the course of my life so I've done a decent range.
I've found this meme to be an exaggeration but mostly true. Plenty of mid women are mid in bed, but the gorgeous women were way more likely to be bad, especially 9s and 10s. Being bad in bed doesn't always mean unenthusiastic, but plenty of 9s and 10s just didn't know how to do anything. Importantly this sometimes included what they liked - since they knew they could count on a man trying as hard as possible they never put much effort into figuring themselves out either, much less a dick.
Might be enthusiastic, but technical skills were rare.
Women have a meme about men with big dicks being bad in bed, and similarly it's not universally true but really does seem to capture the heart of it.
Throwaway05
22d ago
Of all my time on the motte and its predecessors it is this thread that most makes me feel like i'm living in a different world from some of you.
Throwaway05
26d ago
I'm like do people like this stuff?
Compare Biggie to modern rap or Livin' la Vida Loca to whatever this is.... like damn we've gone down hill.
I feel like my point was missed by the majority of posters (which could easily be my fault).
The problem is not opposing the war, it's serving as opposition to the war effort, which some people are clearly doing.
You have a difference between not wanting to spend American lives in Vietnam and giving aid to the VC, or even just hoping that the VC win.
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