stuckinbathroom
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User ID: 903
stuckinbathroom
2mo ago
One could argue that absolute monarchy-theocracy was also historically a “proxy for war”, precisely because the masses lacked the capacity to commit large-scale violence at the time.
The ownership of weapons and the skill of warfighting was restricted to a warrior-elite class, so a simple count of ballots from the masses would be useless as a measure for each side’s strength. Instead, war was avoided (sometimes) by each member of the warrior-elite taking whatever territory he could hold by himself, through force of arms or cunning diplomacy. The franchise didn’t have to exist as a proxy conflict to prevent a war of all against all, because hardly any were capable of waging it. Instead, the elite wrangled amongst themselves to signal their strength and deter invaders—often unsuccessfully, in which case, vae victis.
This system became unsustainable once fielding giant armies of commoners via peasant levies became the norm. Suddenly, the capacity for waging war was proportional to the number of men one could conscript. Thus was the power of the old warrior-elite undone, and thus did democracy become war by other means.
Or so some people say.
stuckinbathroom
2mo ago
Compare that to India, which has Bollywood and much else, despite having the same population and far less wealth.
Er… what else, exactly? I can’t think of any Indian stage plays, video games, or even music (aside from Bollywood soundtracks) that are remotely well-known in the West. As for books, there are a couple of authors that come to mind (more if you count the diaspora, but then to be fair we’d have to add Amy Tan, Ted Chiang, etc. to the China tally).
It seems hard to make the case that China is so far behind India in terms of Western penetration of cultural output, aside from Bollywood.
stuckinbathroom
2mo ago
“Positive feedback loops” could also be apropos, if the claim is that the system amplifies its disturbances.
stuckinbathroom
3mo ago
wet work team
Heh.
stuckinbathroom
3mo ago
The millenial reflexively shudders at criticisms of Israel that he knows are dangerous. The zoomer doesn't even know why he should.
Hmm… is it that the Zoomer truly doesn’t know why the cow was ever sacred, or that he (rightly or wrongly) thinks that Israel has milked the sacred cow dry?
stuckinbathroom
3mo ago
Wouldn't rich individuals trying to convert their foreign-denominated assets into dollars result in deflationary pressure on the dollar?
Increased demand for USD would, ceteris paribus, raise the equilibrium price of USD (that is, the value of USD relative to the foreign currency in question), assuming a free market in forex / floating exchange rates.
This does mean that holders of USD can purchase more units of the foreign currency per dollar, but it’s nonstandard to call that “deflationary”.
stuckinbathroom
3mo ago
I wouldn’t say I’m surprised, exactly, just morbidly curious to hear examples of unhinged Zoomer incivility.
stuckinbathroom
3mo ago
I was even surprised at how much more unhinged zoomers are than myself. I still have some internalized ideas of civility even if I know intellectually it doesn't mean anything. They don't.
I’m intrigued! Can you provide some anecdotes?
stuckinbathroom
3mo ago
So you can still service your dakimakura five times a day, right?
While facing Akihabara, as is tradition
stuckinbathroom
3mo ago
Oranges don’t have preferences, so I'm not sure there's anything analogous that applies to them
Orange you glad that’s the case?
stuckinbathroom
3mo ago
I am, for now, permitted to spread my hatred of onions as far and wide as I want. Their texture is disgusting and they make everything you put them in taste the same.
I don’t like onion. It’s coarse and rough and irritating, and it gets everywhere.
stuckinbathroom
3mo ago
He’s saying that the former Soviet Union experienced Italy-like levels of organized crime, Korea-like birth rates, etc.
stuckinbathroom
3mo ago
“I see the Soviet system as what can stroika, unburdened by what has stroika-ed” —Gorby, probably
Seriously though, what do you mean by this? That Harris is supposed to be an infusion of new blood, a last-ditch effort to stave off gerontocratic stagnation?
stuckinbathroom
3mo ago
There's been a marked shift to the right for young men in the past couple of years
Eh, I’m not convinced. It looks like they just haven’t gone as far left as the women have; that’s different from shifting to the right in absolute terms
stuckinbathroom
3mo ago
What are the implications for the internal division within Hamas between the political wing and the military wing?
stuckinbathroom
3mo ago
How they do things in Philly doesn't factor in.
There’s a joke in here about the Pennsylvania Dutch …
stuckinbathroom
3mo ago
Because that would be a different rule? Under the current rules, it is absolutely possible for the President and VP to be from the same state, so long as they get a majority of electors (across all states) to vote for them—it’s just that the electors of their home state are barred from voting for both of them.
stuckinbathroom
3mo ago
In addition, they both sort-of ran against their fathers' legacies, not as continuations of them
Could you expand on this?
I assume you mean that W’s “compassionate conservatism” went against Bush Senior’s Reaganite “read my lips” pitch, but on foreign policy I don’t think their platforms differed much; to the extent they did, my read it that it’s because Senior ran during the mop-up operations of the end of the Cold War while W ran in a brave new(ish) unipolar world.
And I know nothing about the Adams family (heh)
stuckinbathroom
3mo ago
Non-Asian minority (using a PIN number to withdraw money from an ATM machine, of course)
stuckinbathroom
3mo ago
“Guttural R”, as in French or German? Can you give an example word?
stuckinbathroom
3mo ago
Fair point. Game-theoretically, turning a blind eye sets a very bad precedent.
I’m reading that the town which was attacked (Majdal Shams) is populated almost exclusively by Druze people. While it’s true that many Druze living in Israel feel loyal to the State of Israel, serve in the military, are represented in the Knesset, etc., my understanding is that a majority of Druze in the Golan Heights—perhaps including those attacked today—still identify as Syrians, support the Assad regime, and view the Israeli administration as a hostile, illegitimate occupation force. One imagines that Hezbollah wants to remain in good standing with those Druze, and with sympathetic Druze in the broader region, which might explain why they have denied responsibility for this attack.
It’s at least conceivable that Bibi may avoid a response on the level of October 7, because the scale of the attack was much smaller, because these particular victims are politically useless to him, and because (in all likelihood) no Jews were injured or killed.
stuckinbathroom
3mo ago
Or even better, Black b*tches for Trump
It needs to cross the isle.
The sceptered isle seems to lag the States by at least a few years as far as these Culture War shibboleths go (the odd Summer of Floyd notwithstanding). But don’t worry, old Blighty will have “lager and Paki-Tory skewers down’t pub” before you know it.
stuckinbathroom
3mo ago
Signal processing folk in shambles
Unless she spends a lot of time squawking at the beach and snatching unattended hotdogs, I’m not seeing the nominative determinism here…
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