there342
17d ago
And yet the ATF is not breaking into the houses of children with glock switches.
there342
23d ago
Palestinians are completely justified in having armed resistance and participating in an armed conflict.
And this is why there's always a distinction between jus ad bellum and jus in bello. Palestinians might have very good reasons to go to war, but they also break the rules of war seemingly as a hobby.
The question of what makes a terrorist isn't whether they're right to start a war, it's how they conduct themselves in one. Palestine has been breaking pretty much every rule, at every opportunity. Fighting from sanctuaries, fighting without identifiable uniforms, attacking targets with mass civilian casualties being the entire strategic point.
There is no special terrorist clause in the Geneva convention.
No, but there are clauses for unlawful combatants, which "terrorist" is a normie-comprehensible shorthand propaganda term for. Palestine fights its fights via unlawful combatants all the time. And unlawful combatants have very little in the way of protections, because they undermine everything else in the rules of war.
there342
23d ago
Is it not the 'common sense', dominant narrative in the US that the 2000's were a mistake born out of lies and a hysteria?
Maybe? Terrorist is obviously something of a rhetorical term, but not many people view the war in Afghanistan that way anyway, and I don't think many came away with the impression that there were not actually terrorists involved in either Iraq or Afghanistan.
there342
29d ago
Agree with this entirely. AI is going to lead to a new inundation of total slop. My positive-to-neutral attitude shifted to slight hostility (though still feeling that a lot of the complaining is pure entitlement) when I saw printouts of shitty AI art at a county fair that some teenager cobbled together in a presentation. I would have respected childish crayon drawings more.
there342
2mo ago
Natural beauty is eroded, and the world is less interesting. No, these species did not make number go up, but that doesn't mean they meant nothing. What are the negative implication of humans living in a pod and not knowing what a tree is?
there342
2mo ago
can you show me examples of JD Vance being an effective speaker? I'm not doubting you but I want to see this.
there342
3mo ago
Very common line of thinking for that shade of political thought, I think. It's a recurring issue.
If we just called them unhoused instead of homeless, the stigma would be gone and everything would be better. If we just call them neurodivergent instead of mentally ill/challenged, the erasure of the stigma will mitigate the issue. And be sure to call "slaves" "enslaved people" instead. None of these initiatives actually really improved anything as far as I can tell, but at least they function as shibboleths.
there342
4mo ago
Actual, fat dissipating exercise takes strong commitment in both the will to keep moving as well as time. If you want to walk enough to make an actual difference, you have to be doing it for hours and hours. But most people think they're good if they go a single mile in 20 minutes. And that still puts them above many people these days.
there342
4mo ago
I expect them to yield to this pressure eventually. No progressive, left-wing, or liberal movement seem to really have any leverage they ever seem willing or able to use against attacks from the left. I don't see how they could fight back without painting a big target on their back.
there342
5mo ago
It really is a shame that people who are afraid of vengeful ghosts wield so much power over us.
there342
5mo ago
Contrast the total lack of sympathy scabs got despite the fact that they were just trying to scrape by.
there342
5mo ago
The argument from on high is that this forced integration will ensure skin in the game. By forcing rich parents with the means to affect the institutions to have their kids attend dysfunctional schools, they'll have no choice but to address the root causes of the dysfunction.
Except what actually happens is the middle class gets punished and has hardly any more recourse than the poor, while the rich do as they do and find ways to escape the consequences of their luxury beliefs.
there342
5mo ago
The supreme court can't send people to enforce the law. It has no enforcement arm of its own. If the agencies that control all the people with guns choose to ignore them, there isn't really any recourse.
there342
5mo ago
Not if they become highly affordable crime-ridden dysfunctional wrecks that no one wants to live in, which already exist. The chances of these being remotely safe in any kind of current-day city is virtually nonexistent at this point.
there342
5mo ago
Essentially, they want all the valor that men get out of war, when valor was the tiniest concession that men received in return for putting up with pure horror and misery. Just without all the downsides.
there342
5mo ago
There is a widespread conspiracy theory that black women are dying in great numbers during childbirth due to a lack of black doctors. Study after study claims that "black women more likely to survive childbirth with black doctors" and it's become a major talking point on the importance of things like affirmative action. Now it's the only way to save expectant black mothers. I don't think most people have thought about by what mechanism white doctors are supposedly killing black mothers, but it's enough to perpetually fuel the DEI push.
there342
5mo ago
I agree with everything you've said. But there's another American tradition that comes into play. Surely you've heard of "reasonable doubt." In a case like this, there seems to be an awful lot of it. Case closed? Well, the idea that reasonable doubt ever gets the appeal that our foundations say it should is pretty laughable, but everything you've listed seems like clear cut reasonable doubt. It's not like this guy went out and sought someone to murder in something that looked like it could have been self-defense, and the risk vs reward of imprisoning someone wrongly as opposed to accidentally letting a nearly-self-defense-but-actually-murder-committer off the hook doesn't really favor a conviction.
there342
6mo ago
My favorite was Hawaii, where they said "That doesn't vibe with our 'Aloha spirit' so we're going to ignore it." So, why are federal gun laws enforced in gun-friendly states?
there342
6mo ago
To be fair, Half-Life at least revels in this. Gordon Freeman is a prisoner compelled to complete the narrative by the G-Man, rather than fulfilling the experience for no reason.
That said I can relate to your experience, there's something to be said of how trapped they make you feel taken at face value.
there342
6mo ago
Where do you get the idea that adults' mothers are looked down upon in such a way? All around the world, men will literally kill people for insults directed at their mothers. There is a reason "Son of a bitch" is such a common insult. To denigrate a man's mother is worse than insulting himself, his siblings, or his father.
there342
6mo ago
and then approve of similar white aspirations
Don't people tend to employ infinite "Appeal to +power" arguments in these cases? Well it's different for white people, because they hold the power, or so it would go.
there342
6mo ago
I have no doubt that a decent fraction of the actual Arabs and Muslims who go to these protests in the US are anti-semitic, but I also think that that only a tiny fraction of the rest of the protesters are.
The problem for Jews is that, under the progressive framework, they have absolutely no cause to criticize someone beneath them on the oppression hierarchy, so those Muslims may be a minority, but they cannot be questioned.
there342
6mo ago
Being wealthy, successful, intelligent, winners in a meritocracy, puts Jews at the top of the oppressor pyramid
Also, I think it bears mentioning, white. Jews are effectively seen as super-white among some circles. Much has been said about how Jews in Israel originate from Europe, meaning they're on the wrong side of left-wing ethnic preferences, adding to the disdain that they should draw.
there342
7mo ago
Generals have a lot of connections, within their government, within their army, and even outside their own country, that can't be easily replaced. There's a lot of human capital there that isn't really replaceable very easily. The knowledge and experience a general has is pretty hard to simply build institutionally, and it isn't every day you get a good leader, no matter how well-structured your institutions are.
I have no doubt that someone like Soleimani was absolutely irreplaceable. I don't think his death is the difference between greatness and ruin in the way Alexander might have been, but I still do not think Iran has recovered from his loss (and thank god for that).
Besides, kill enough generals, and you won't really have any replacements lined up- you can't really recruit someone with that level of command ability in a day.
If you're at the point of freeing all your nation's prisoners to stir up trouble and keep the heat off yourself, I have to wonder if you're still the one defending the nation or just what it needs defending from.
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