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Culture War Roundup for the week of August 21, 2023

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The blackest of blackpills is that you really can just kill all your enemies and stay in power for the rest of your life.

this only seems true if you control nukes. saddam was running this playbook but it didn't keep him alive.

He ran into the "don't make the USA your enemy" exception.

(Even he got away with killing rebels after the first Gulf War and likely would have stayed in place despite sanctions if not for 9/11 and the free shot it gave Bush and Cheney)

That’s only true if you’re able to successfully kill all your enemies. It’s very easy to fuck up once and lose everything, including your own life, the lives of your family, and the lives of all your allies. Live by the sword, die by the sword. I much prefer being a nobody than a dictator or mob boss.

I mean you can, but it tends to unravel pretty quickly if you ever get behind the 8-ball

Only a blackpill if you for some reason have no respect for strength or power, which would be odd given how important they've been for all of history.

Smallpox has been extremely important throughout history, but I neither respect it or would welcome it's return to relevance.

One can respect power while acknowledging its many tragedies.

@fuckduck9000, does this qualify for naked power worship? How much Truth Signal is there in Putin's ability to slaughter everyone who judges him as a ruinous czar whose mediocre and craven character is only exceeded by his ruthlessness?

Not much of a signal, assassination is a pretty egalitarian weapon. The main difference is not the power differential imo, it’s that putin’s enemies don’t wan’t him dead as much as he wants them dead. I’m sure Prig could have organized something, but he chose to rely on the warm-heartedness of putin instead.

Prig, you, hillbilly and me, we all first have to recognize that the dictator might kill us easily, and it will help him – is that worship, or respect, of power?