Eetan
1d ago
Israel is dropping like a rock in the polls and especially among young people.
On one side, young people with cute frog hats are not fond of Israel. How sad.
On other side, Israel just demolished city of two million, reduced neighboring countries to wrecks, terminates anyone it wants , whether by bombing or targeted killings, and no one in the region can do anything about it. You do not have to love Israel to admit that it is on the roll and it is not going to stop.
Things could change when American boomers raised on Hollywood biblical epics and Scofield bible start dying off in earnest, but this is at least decade away.
Eetan
1d ago
Your argument was that private and corporate owned cities would be "world so full of hate that no human being would want to live in it." Dubai is closest real world example of propertarian utopia.
Eetan
1d ago
In libertarian world, society is as laissez faire as owner of the society (technically, land where the society is) wants it to be. Do not like it? Pull yourself by your bootstraps and build your own society.
Eetan
1d ago
privately own cities operating as if they were corporate fiefdoms and see that as the highest form of social organization, in reality it'd be a world so full of hate that no human being would want to live in it.
Lots of people want to live in Dubai. This place has its own problems, it is not exactly known as land of freedom, but no one described it as "full of hate".
Eetan
1d ago
Shortage of weapons, was, to put it mildly, never a problem for the Arab countries. Israel faced this situation before.
Eetan
1d ago
If this is how culture war is defined, it's too broad to be a useful phrase. By this standard how would you have separated civil rights from culture war? Or would you consider them together?
Culture war could be meaningfully defined as struggle/war for non-material reasons (more precisely, one that began this way). This is not something modern, examples galore from premodern history (mostly religious).
Politics as usual:
"Who is the rightful heir of the throne?"
"Should the nobility submit to the king, or the other way around?"
Culture war:
"Was Son created by the Father, or are they co-eternal?"
"Is veneration of icons proper piety or idolatrous pagan abomination?"
etc, etc.
Eetan
2d ago
I believe the incestigations are going to keep turning up evidence that he was a radicalized leftist, and there were no personal motives for his shooting.
Why the need to "believe"?
The shooter is alive and, according to news, cooperating with the investigation. Just have patience, just wait how he explains his deed, how he answers the question "why you did it?"
Eetan
2d ago
Has there ever been a shooter who got cold feet at the last minute, decided not to pull the trigger, and went home quietly?
Yes, it should be expected that, even people who not only fantasize about the deed, but also prepare and get to the place, only about 1 in 10-20 actually follow with the plan.
See one of most famous assassinations of history. Out of six volunteers, working as a team, dedicated to their cause and willing to sacrifice their lives, when the time came, five just did nothing at all.
(one of them changed his mind later and changed the course of history, but this is another tale)
The motorcade passed the first assassin, Mehmedbašić. Danilo Ilić had placed him in front of the garden of the Mostar Café and armed him with a bomb.[74] Mehmedbašić failed to act. Ilić had placed Vaso Čubrilović next to Mehmedbašić, arming him with a pistol and a bomb. He too failed to act. Further along the route, Ilić had placed Nedeljko Čabrinović on the opposite side of the street near the Miljacka river, arming him with a bomb.
At 10:10 am,[75] Franz Ferdinand's car approached and Čabrinović threw his bomb. The bomb bounced off the folded back convertible cover into the street.[76] The bomb's timed detonator caused it to explode under the next car, putting that car out of action, leaving a 1-foot-diameter (0.30 m), 6.5-inch-deep (170 mm) crater,[75] and wounding 16–20 people.[77]
Čabrinović swallowed his cyanide pill and jumped into the Miljacka river. Čabrinović survived the suicide attempt, as the old cyanide only induced vomiting, and the Miljacka was only 13 cm deep due to the hot, dry summer.[78] Police dragged Čabrinović out of the river, and he was severely beaten by the crowd before being taken into custody.
The procession sped away towards the Town Hall leaving the disabled car behind. Cvjetko Popović, Gavrilo Princip, and Trifun Grabež failed to act as the motorcade passed them at high speed.[79]
"who will be handling the household finances?"
Trad answer is, of course, the wife. For good reason - traditional societies were heavily alcoholic societies, where if average man got his hands on cash, he would instantly spend it all on booze.
Eetan
7d ago
I'd agree that for better or worse the 'capital T' Traditional world is dying. I think an important factor that's often overlooked is that the ubiquitous preindustrial peasant sustenance economies that dominated almost the entire globe 200 years ago are gone entirely or radically diminished today in Europe, America, East Asia and increasingly the developing world as well.
This. How would modern "trad" society look like? How would modern industrial infrastructure, both hard and soft, run on traditional feudal principles? I am not aware of any trad engaging with this question at all.
Eetan
7d ago
If conservatives can be persuaded to join the army to help a Godless empire plant poppies to flood their rivals with heroin, then they can be persuaded to sacrifice some pleasure for the only Empire that has ever mattered, the Kingdom of God.
There is difference between enlistment for good money and benefits on the other side of the world, and fighting civil war against your neighbors in the ruins of your town (without air support, without evacuation and medical care, without regular delivery of ice cream to the front line).
Eetan
7d ago
My point here isn't that I think RETVRN TO THE 1790s is going to happen at the voter box, exactly.
It is not going to happen at gun point either.
Look at most serious attempt (so far) of RETVRN of (partly) modernized society back to trad life.
Yes, I mean Iran.
It is total failure on all terms, and especially trad religious ones. And it was not due to ayatollah's softness, due to excessive devotion to "human rights" or "due process". I am not aware of any "trad" engaging with this example, honestly trying to find out "what went wrong" or "who betrayed the revolution".
Eetan
8d ago
Western style progressivism is the (still) most prestigious memeplex in the world, it is easy to understand why people all over the world want to immitate it (without fully understanding the nuances).
As for assimilation, it is going on stronger and faster than ever, only the assimilation is not going the way you would prefer.
Imagine some far away country, split roughly equally between Sunnis and Shiites, except that the split is not equal.
Sunnis tend to live in cities, control the media, bureaucracy and secret services, the wealthy, powerful and influential tend to be Sunni in way disproportionate ratio, while Shiites tend to be poor underprivileged country folk.
If you came to this country and wanted to stay there and assimilate, would you go to Sunni or Shiite mosque?
Eetan
8d ago
Is there any actual incentive for anyone to do so beyond idle curiosity, much less at scale?
Yes, idle scientific curiosity is the reason. If we found few frozen Neanderthals that could be revived, it would be sensation and "we" as scientific community would be willing to spend billions to restore them to life (and put them in comfortable zoo).
For millions of Neanderthals? Forget it. This is why cryonics should be preserve of handful of eccentrics, not popular practice.
Eetan
8d ago
Asians form their own ethnic interests groups and overwhelmingly vote for Democrats.
This is how assimilation into Blue America looks like. No such thing as current Democratic party platform is conceivable in Asian countries, it is purely American creation.
Eetan
8d ago
Eetan
23d ago
I'd argue vanilla WoW is pretty unserious (and willing to throw random stuff that wasn't there historically, from goblins to kobolds).
WOW Kobolds - tiny ugly mischievous thieving and griefing underground dwellers - are fully mythically accurate.
Far more accurate that WOW elves.
Eetan
24d ago
There is no catboy character because that doesn’t exist in the Western imagination.
Tales about talking human-like animals are older than castles, cathedrals and other medieval tropes.
It depends where you draw the line. If 19th century gothic horror is traditional, why not 20th century Disney style animal people?
(and WOW indeed buckled to the pressure and added multiple cute and fluffy playable races)
Eetan
28d ago
IF these interstellar objects are sent by other intelligent civilizations then they're probably intended to kill us.
The gap between us and interstellar capable aliens is like gap between us and insects, and we usually do not go on long trips just to stomp on bugs.
Is there any rational motive for alien invasion? Usual science fiction tropes: "they want our water/women/fresh meat" are ludicrous, but there is a possibility.
Terrestrial planets are big chunks of iron, nickel and other metals, conveniently gathered near stars. If you want to build space megastructures, dismantling these planets is the most economic way to get material.
Yes, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy where Earth is bulldozed in order to build hyperspace bypass is the most accurate depiction of alien invasion.
About non economic motives, motive understandable to us would be pure scientific curiosity ... and religion.
In science fiction, common trope is scientific, rational and logical aliens laughing at Earthling primitive superstitions.
(less known Christian science fiction countertrope is scientific, rational and logical aliens who find out that Christianity is true, become Christian and laugh at atheists.)
Aliens coming to preach their religion (whether peacefully or at blaster point) is something, AFAIK, not done in science fiction (except as slapstick comedy).
"Have you embraced Great Green !Z'hqw':$*>#q?x as your lord and savior?"
Eetan
28d ago
Israeli-born citizens should not be allowed to be attorney generals. Or they should recuse themselves in any case involving Israelis. Or Jews. Or they shouldn't be allowed to be government officials. Or lawyers. Or something.
If, hypothetically, 95% of Italian-American community supported the Mafia, would be Italian-American prosecutor or judge dealing with organized crime case seen as impartial?
Eetan
28d ago
The truth always comes out in the end.
70+ years on, and UFO/UAP truth is nowhere to be seen. Maybe there is really nothing out there, except layers of psyops upon hoaxes upon scams upon bullshit.
Trust the plan.
Eetan
28d ago
Some hard science news, that nevertheless became part of culture wars.
As you probably heard, third recorded interstellar object is on the way. It stands out of sample of three, just like the previous two.
The usual suspects, most prominent Avi Loeb and John Brandenburg of ancient nuclear war on Mars fame sound an alarm to warn from incoming alien invader.
Mainstream science dismisses the concerns and sees the object as ordinary red colored D-type asteroid.
< tinfoil hat> well, what are they supposed to do? </tinfoil hat>
Not that "we" as mankind could do anything if ayys were really here. See just Avi Loeb's proposals.
What Should Humanity Do on the Day After an Interstellar Object is Recognized as Technological?
...
All nations must agree on a coordinated action plan
...
A representative international committee will be appointed to communicate with the alien visitors
Nah. I cannot imagine better way to ensure Earth's swift destruction than to introduce aliens to United Nations. Compared to this plan, doing nothing at all is the superior alternative.
Eetan
28d ago
Who are they?
Average and representative members of Homo sapiens species, who see "milling around" - walking or standing doing nothing - as the best thing in life.
The hope of making few bucks while standing around is just a bonus.
Eetan
28d ago
No cybersecurity expert should be worth this PR disaster.
Optics! Think about the optics!
Maybe they feel that in modern time, when scandals come and go with lighting speed, when public with attention span of gnat stops caring once last hour's breaking news rolls out of screen, worrying about "optics" is no more necessary.
Maybe they are right.
Too late for this. Israel moved on and lost any interest in improving Palestinian quality of life. The plan for Gazans is to leave or die. And since Gazans have nowhere to go...
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