Crowstep
1d ago
I'm a huge Firefly fan, but I hope this doesn't go anywhere. In the list of shows brought back from the dead, it's rare to see a successful one. Twin Peaks, Arrested Development, Futurama, X-Files, all terrible after they were brought back. The final season of Community was good, but I attribute that to no time having passed after it got dropped by the network.
Crowstep
2d ago
a literal spooky doomsday clock
Did you just...add a word to my quote? I don't know if that's against the rules or not, but it's definitely poor form.
Their official stated policy goal is to leave the fate of Israel up to a democratic referendum which includes displaced Palestinians
I genuinely don't know what this is based on. I've Googled around and all I can find are articles about Iranian proxy war strategy. That is, a war with guns and bombs and rockets. Nothing about referendums. Indeed, I'm curious how exactly invading Israel and destroying its military could lead to a peaceful referendum?
Israel has been waging a proxy war upon much of the Middle East through her greatest proxy America
Iran is not the Middle East, Iran is Iran. And the Iranian regime has been dedicated to the destruction of Israel since it took power in 1979. The idea that Iran is standing up on behalf of the greater Middle East seems like a stretch, given that Iran is currently bombing every Middle Eastern country it can reach, and has spent years funding paramilitaries in them.
Crowstep
3d ago
Iran can’t be blamed for defending themselves from an unjust attack by Israel.
Iran has been waging proxy war against Israel for 44 years via Hezbollah, Hamas and their other paramilitaries. it has a literal doomsday clock counting down the days until Israel's destruction. If the regime didn't want a war with Israel, they've been going about it a funny way.
And it's not as if Israel is a threat to Iran. They're seperated by two countries and hundreds of miles. If Iran wanted peaceful relations with Israel, all they would need to do is stop funding Hezbollah and Hamas and stop threatening to nuke Israel.
There is a lot to criticise Israel about regarding Gaza and the West Bank, but Iran's conflict with Israel is one of Iran's making.
Crowstep
4d ago
Associating the constitution with the nation's identity seems a particularly American custom. For most people, the constitution has about as much emotional pull as the tax system. France changes their constitution every 20 years or so.
Crowstep
5d ago
My one new thought on the war is that I definitely did not have Donald Trump and Ayatollah Khamenei joining forces to strictly enforce the Kyoto Protocol emissions targets on my 2026 bingo card.
Donald Trump passes lots of laws that make it harder to build renewable energy, then does something chaotic that makes the incentive to build more renewable energy much stronger.
It's not far off what happened with the tariffs. He wants to reindustrialise America with tariffs, but instead the tariffs hit intermediate goods that hurt American manufacturers the worst.
He thinks Canada is too woke, so threatens to annex it. Thereby snatching victory from the jaws of the right wing candidate.
The defining characteristic of the regime seems to be chaos, rather than any particular ideology.
Crowstep
6d ago
Work. I can back this anecdotally
It's worth mentioning that Americans used move a lot more than they do now. In the late C19th, a third of Americans changed address every year. Even at the height of American civic engagement in the 1960s, people moved more than they do now. So I don't think we can really blame people moving for work for a recent decline in friendship.
The obvious elephant in the room here is the rise of social media. Where people mindlessly scroll instead of talking to people in real life. While i think this plays a role, sociologists have been recording these kind of declines since the invention of TV. I suspect something deeper going on. What do you think?
The common thread is that any technology that makes it easier to be alone (TV, the internet, smartphones, quick home delivery, work from home) decreases the incentive/necessity to go outside and interact with real people. Even in the 90s, I remember boredom as a kid, with only 4 TV channels and books, there was much more reason to go and hang out with my friends. Now, boredom has been basically eliminated. Of course, we still need to socialise in person, but the low friction option prevails too often and leaves us all lonely and depressed.
Is she in this year's East/West Collegiate Bowl?
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