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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   28734 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of August 28, 2023

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Not really? Lets ignore any ethical benefits here.

If you're going to reason this way, then if someone comes up with circumstances where it's effective, you should then favor it. In fact, you should admit this ahead of time. "I normally oppose loot, rape, and murder, and targeting civilians, because it isn't effective. But if it was effective, I would then approve of it." For instance, dropping atom bombs on Japan is often criticized as targeting civilians, but I'd argue that it was very effective.

The claim was that "I generally find the idea of rules in war to be completely disingenuous and actually kind of stupid."

My claim is that having rules is for many cases is outright effective coordination mechanism.

And overall having actually enforced rules in war, even if other side is not doing this, an effective tool.

dropping atom bombs on Japan is often criticized as targeting civilians, but I'd argue that it was very effective.

not really sure about this one I admit, but I was not claiming that all rules ever proposed were a good idea (and explicitly mentioned cluster munition and mines bans as silly)

But note how occupation was handled by USA and USSR. Outcome is that when opportunity appeared nearly all countries which were occupied by USSR in Eastern/Central Europe started to help Ukraine to keep Russia as far as possible. While Germany grumbles a bit about USA but has no deep revulsion (and in fact, hosts USA bases).

If you're going to reason this way, then if someone comes up with circumstances where it's effective, you should then favor it.

Note that I would take ethical issues into consideration. But wanted to start from establishing that noticeable part of such rules is even improving war efficiency, not degrading it.

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