ABigGuy4U
1d ago
Unfortunately your argument fails because you used the letter “e” multiple times throughout the post. This was supposed to be a constrained writing assignment where you don’t use the letter “e”. You may have made some good points, in a well-written post, but unfortunately you fail because you didn’t meet the arbitrary victory conditions that I just made up.
ABigGuy4U
1d ago
I see a fairly large amount of criticism of Israel here, but it seems like about a 70/30 ratio of Ukraine supporters vs Russia supporters. Sometimes even as high as 80/20.
ABigGuy4U
1d ago
That was actually a real proposal that was kicked around by the Roosevelt administration, which is where Chabon got the idea. I don’t think it got particularly far in real life, but it was considered.
ABigGuy4U
1d ago
Maybe it’s just the sites I go to but what I mostly see is:
Pro-Israel/Pro-Ukraine (“I am an Eglin Air Force Base shill-bot”)
Pro-Palestine/Pro-Ukraine (“I support the Current Thing at my Ivy League university”)
I think there is a faction of Pro-Russia/Pro-Palestine third-worldist tankies (“GLORY TO COMRADE DOLEZAL! GLORY TO R/STUPIDPOL!”), but those are considerable rarer.
I’ve literally never seen a Pro-Israel/Pro-Russia poster in the wild, probably because those people are all posting on Hebrew or Russian language websites.
ABigGuy4U
1d ago
It’s really not that different than anything Russia did in Grozny or Aleppo. And it’s definitely more humane and circumspect than what America did in Dresden, or Hiroshima, or Pyongyang, or Hanoi, or Cambodia. Although many (though certainly not all) strong supporters of Israel will weep bitter soyjack tears when such tactics are used by any other party in any other situation.
Frankly I think it’s a miracle that we haven’t seen any kind of massive cross-border terrorist attack like the one portrayed in Sicario: Day of the Soldado. And I think if the border isn’t secured it’s only a matter of time before that kind of thing happens. Especially given that the State Department keeps antagonizing multiple peer adversaries that could easily fund and coordinate that kind of attack. The security situations on the American border and the Israeli borders are very similar, but many people of various political and ethnic stripes engage in ridiculous casuistry to differentiate them.
ABigGuy4U
2d ago
I am reminded of the 4chan greentext about the anon who hires a prostitute to talk to about his problems because her hourly rate is cheaper than his insurance copay for a real therapist.
ABigGuy4U
3d ago
The 90s and the 2000s were when the manufacturing started going overseas and the industrial Midwest began turning into the Rust Belt. It wasn’t quite the opioid ravaged hellscape you see now, but it was beginning to get creaky.
ABigGuy4U
4d ago
And what happens when they get the weapons and lose anyway? Do we just all start collecting Nuka-Cola caps?
ABigGuy4U
4d ago
I really don’t like this sudden government panic over UAPs. Either they really exist and the government has no clue what’s going on, or the government really wants us to think they exist. Both possibilities make me uneasy.
ABigGuy4U
4d ago
I think it might just be depression, housing unavailability and financial insecurity. When you’re clinging by the fingernails to the bottom rung of Maslow’s hierarchy, you aren’t going to be too concerned about self-actualization and fulfillment.
The idea that Taylor Swift’s endorsement was going to sway the election was always stupid. Anyone who would be swayed to vote for Kamala Harris because Taylor Swift told them to was already going to vote for Harris. Her country music fans wrote her off some time around 2012. And it really didn’t help with the grim impression that all the oligarchs were closing ranks around Harris the chosen political industry plant.
Regarding your second point, I know slobbering over TayTay is the Motte’s favorite pastime, but she’s a mercenary. She’s never going to genuinely “come around” to anything. She will go with whatever Current Thing makes her the most money.
ABigGuy4U
6d ago
Yeah, I don’t know if it was a particular quirk of hers or just the writing style of the time. But the way she just summarizes entire conversations without putting any of the dialog feels weird.
ABigGuy4U
6d ago
This nuke talk coming out of Ukraine seems absolutely insane. Arguably just this report alone gives Russia cause to use nuclear weapons against them, much more if they actually go and try to do that. It’s especially bad when combined with the constant grouching about how they need weapons that can hit the city of Moscow. Is Ukraine trying to provoke that kind of response?
ABigGuy4U
7d ago
I think a lot of those anti-Indian posts on 4Chan are astroturfed. Both those and the interracial pornography posts all mysteriously go away every time Israel starts getting bombed. I have no idea how any of that stuff would be in Israel’s geopolitical interest, but it’s a known phenomenon.
ABigGuy4U
7d ago
Hell, Wells Fargo Bank got caught knowingly laundering money for the cartel, and they only got a slap on the wrist. I would not be surprised if all manner of shady business is occurring in lots of other industries and companies.
The X-Files spin-off The Lone Gunmen had an episode in early 2001 about the government perpetrating a fake terrorist attack by crashing an airliner into the World Trade Center, in order to have an excuse to go to war with half the Middle East. It’s on YouTube, but interestingly it has never made it to any streaming platforms.
ABigGuy4U
9d ago
Howard Hughes. It successfully extended his lifespan to 150 years. Unfortunately his crippling addiction to morphine and mint chocolate chip ice cream reduced his lifespan by 78 years, for a total lifespan of 72.5 years.
ABigGuy4U
9d ago
It’s almost as if the Mitt Romney types liked having all those illegal immigrants driving down wages.
Most people don’t know Jack about constitutional law. Many of them thought Roe was the only thing keeping abortion legal and that it would automatically become illegal everywhere the second it was overturned. They probably think Trump can and will ban abortion with an executive order.
ABigGuy4U
10d ago
For me it was very early, in mid-2022 with the laughable NAFO/Sarah Cirillo/Private Lujan propaganda drive that absolutely failed to get most Americans on board with the Ukraine War.
Those types of memes were more popular with the far left, not liberals. The far left has gotten burnt out by the Gaza genocide (as they call it) and the increasingly neoliberal corporate bent of the Democratic Party. The far left is disgusted enough with Democrats that they are no longer willing to take up arms on their behalf, even rhetorically.
A few hours ago, Russia fired an ICBM with a MIRV warhead at Ukraine. It looks like it was just the kinetic vehicle with no nuclear warheads.
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