I think I'd want to delve a lot more into what that alternate history would look like
There’s an alternate history novel called Fatherland that fits the scenario you described pretty well. In that book the US didn’t ally with Nazi Germany, but Germany did win and the two superpowers are locked in a nuclear Cold War with Germany taking the place of the Soviet Union. It’s 1962 and President (Joseph P.) Kennedy is trying to figure out how much to turn a blind eye toward past atrocities in the name of averting nuclear war and securing global peace. It’s also one of the very few alternate history novels about Nazi Germany winning the war that is even remotely plausible and not Man in the High Castle Wolfenstein style loopiness.
ABigGuy4U
1d ago
Have I ever claimed that Ukraine was winning a decisive victory? Brigaded you on any /#/ board? Called on you to be downvoted?
No, and I don’t mean to imply that you ever did. I don’t know what your position was regarding Ukraine’s imminent victory (I only engage with current comments, I don’t scroll through anyone’s post history), but I do feel that was the mainstream position on the Motte two years ago, and on most of the rest of the internet.
Regarding my supposed confirmation bias, I believe it’s a necessity in a time where the information zone has been flooded with propaganda, and I believe my position will be vindicated by history.
Pierce was just the edgy 90s equivalent of Nick Fuentes. His predecessor Lincoln Rockwell was probably never actually a nazi, and his plan was to make an initial splash with the shocking imagery and the brownshirt marches and then drop all that and pivot into being a more normal far right party that could actually have mass appeal. Then mysteriously Rockwell’s head explodes, Pierce seizes control of the organization, and spends thirty years trying to make it look as repellant and insane as possible (like his famous lunatic tract about starting Holocaust II before moving on to a world-burning nuclear war). You’ll notice that this is the exact same playbook that was deployed against the left, where politically competent charismatic figures like Dr. King, Fred Hampton and Robert Kennedy mysteriously die to get replaced by plants, agents and idiotic grifters like Jessie Jackson, Eldridge Cleaver and Ted Kennedy.
ABigGuy4U
1d ago
That is perhaps a valid distinction, but I don’t see any indications that Russia’s military economic advantages have actually decreased over the course of the war. Their military manpower has increased, their armaments production capability has increased. I don’t see any evidence of major economic damage besides the occasional refinery potshot and a bunch of cope about the foreign exchange rate of the ruble.
Motivated prognosticators have been predicting that the Soviet stockpiles will run dry in two weeks for the past three years but it never actually seems to happen. Meanwhile Ukraine barely has any functional power or rail infrastructure left, is drafting double amputees, and has burned through the artillery and air defense supplies of the entire western world.
I’m sorry I’m so salty about this, but I spent a solid two years getting downvoted and /k/ope brigaded for the mere suggestion that it didn’t seem like Ukraine was winning a decisive victory. Now the NPC party line has effortlessly shifted to “frozen conflict frozen conflict stalemate stalemate” when that isn’t actually true either.
ABigGuy4U
1d ago
You specifically referred to a larger standing army and larger vehicle stockpiles, that inherently means manpower and equipment.
Russia was at its maximum military-economic advantage in the earlier phases of the war, when it had not only the larger standing army but the larger standing stockpiles to match to it.
That part isn’t true though. The initial invasion force had about 180,000 men, about half of what’s on the front line now. In some parts of the line in 2022 Ukrainian forces had a 6-1 numerical advantage. And if you still believe “confirmed vehicle losses” in the middle of a propaganda blizzard surrounding a war where both sides use the same military equipment, I don’t know what to tell you. There’s a reason that Oryx abruptly shut down in October of 2023 when it was just about to become obvious that they were full of shit.
ABigGuy4U
2d ago
I will not take the psychiatric meds! I hate the Antichrist! I HATE THE ANTICHRIST!
Cooper has never said that the Holocaust was a good thing, or anything even close to that. And he never said that Hitler wasn’t that bad either. It sounds like your knowledge of Cooper’s opinions comes entirely from Bluesky character assassination tweets.
ABigGuy4U
2d ago
Schizos aren't very good at violence, there's no threat that a schizo is going to get an H-bomb and blow something up.
Based on our real world dataset of one, who we really need to be concerned about is bespectacled autodidacts from Missouri.
ABigGuy4U
3d ago
The second. If you want another example, the giant grim reaper holding a syringe at the 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony.
ABigGuy4U
3d ago
As the resident tinfoil hatter, that mascot looks like predictive programming for something. Also a three year old girl in Mexico died of bird flu a few hours ago. No underlying conditions, no history of travel, no association with dairy or farm work as far as I can tell.
ABigGuy4U
4d ago
If some guy, at the age of 16, invaded my very own home and lived in my basement for decades without my knowing, siphoning my electricity and water or whatever, I would not wish this on him.
And what if your parents spent your entire childhood making it extremely clear that they love the random basement hobo more than you, because frankly, they hate your guts? And then they change their will so that he gets the house, and tell you that they hope you end up on the street in a cardboard box because that’s what you deserve. How would you feel about the basement hobo then?
ABigGuy4U
4d ago
The military brass that have been selected for loyalty, rather than expertise
Obama spent 8 years conducting a massive political purge of the general staff and replaced them all with idiotic loyalists. You just didn’t notice because the media never bothered to mention it.
Do you believe that RFK has the mental capacity to handle a human pandemic, let alone a livestock one?
I don’t know, but at least he has the mental capacity to not start one and then cover up that he started it.
I can't help but think Xi Jinping is laughing behind closed doors at the moment that he's up against such an arrogant and out-of-depth adversary.
And I’m sure Xi was quaking in his boots over the last President, who could only remember he was President for four hours a day
ABigGuy4U
5d ago
It’s safer to try and convince some schizo cutout to do it and hope he succeeds than to risk using someone competent who can actually be firmly connected to Ukraine. If you look at CIA assassination manuals from the 1960s they actually talk about this, and techniques for convincing a mentally ill political radical to try something.
ABigGuy4U
5d ago
It is extremely common for states to launder cyberattacks through non-state actors. Most of the cyberattacks you see attributed in the news to China or North Korea or the Russian GRU are actually committed by affiliated hacker collectives, not the countries or intelligence units themselves.
ABigGuy4U
5d ago
This site is a lot more bearish on Trump than it was a few months ago, but that’s because people on this site hold an unusually large amount of stock, unlike most Americans. Unless there start to be actual bread-and butter negative effects on the economy that the middle and lower classes participate in, no one is going to care. It’s the reverse side of the coin of all those “why are the people living in cardboard boxes and eating rats so unhappy about the great economy?” articles you saw during the Biden administration.
ABigGuy4U
5d ago
All 4Chan boards have been down since Monday evening in an apparent cyberattack. Rumors circulating the 4Chan refugee community in the Down Detector comments section indicate that the site was penetrated by hackers approximately one month ago. The damage inflicted was extreme. Statements by 4Chan’s (strictly unpaid) janitorial staff indicate the site could be down for weeks. Hope is rapidly dimming that the site will be back at all.
There are a number of both ideological and state actors that could be responsible for the attack: the Israeli Mossad, the Ukrainian SBU, the American Central Intelligence Agency, any number of Democratic Party functionaries. But at this time the provenance of the attack is unknown, and no one has taken credit.
What is also unknown is the political ramifications of the Id and meme generator of the internet being abruptly taken offline. Almost all memes on the internet originate from 4Chan and without it, the wellspring of internet creativity and culture will die with it.
Also unknown is what the effect will be of hundred of thousands of Chan refugees migrating across the internet. 4Chan is well known as a containment unit and gulag for the most dangerous ideological elements on the internet. The level of weaponized autism that stands to escape can only be equated to a earth shaking digital Chernobyl.
The final unknown and most troubling question is whether coffee is in fact good for you.
ABigGuy4U
6d ago
The fact that my ridiculously, hyperbolically small percentage is still worth $5000 says a lot.
ABigGuy4U
6d ago
Well if it’s such a terrible blow to society why don’t they liquidate .00001 percent of their endowment to cover the costs of these research programs?
ABigGuy4U
6d ago
I don’t know what the Ivy League is so worried about anyway, their endowments are equivalent to the GDP of a small country and they make more money every year due to their exorbitant tuition fees.
ABigGuy4U
7d ago
I’d argue Steel Battalion (2002) probably counts. It is maximally, offensively realistic. It requires a $200 (in 2002 dollars) custom controller with dozens and dozens of buttons and a throttle. Just starting your tank requires a 10 button startup checklist sequence. The area of the screen showing the actual gameplay is the size of a postcard, because you are looking out the viewing slit of a tank. If you don’t successfully punch out of your burning tank (that has its own molly-guarded button), you die. And enjoy the digital afterlife buddy, because the game is automatically wiping your save file if you do. It all combines to make a game that’s borderline unplayable not because it’s broken but because it’s so uncompromisingly committed to the experience.
ABigGuy4U
7d ago
Yes the ones that are siphoning off percentages of US/EU aid money. Even one percent of two trillion dollars is a lot of cheese.
Wow. I didn’t know that. I just — you’re telling me now for the first time.
He led an amazing life. What else can you say? He was an amazing man. Whether you agree or not, he was an amazing man who led an amazing life. I’m actually saddened to hear that. I am saddened to hear that.
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