Eetan
21hr ago
is L'État, c'est moi a claim to have democratic mandate as well?
No, it is exactly opposite. It does not mean "I am humble servant of the people" but "The people must serve the state, this means me".
Kings of ancient regime derived their legitimacy from divine will, royal blood and tradition, and if anyone hadn't like it, too bad for the rebel scum.
Eetan
2d ago
It is four chan style dissing of aliens and all alien lore, seeing it just as another psyop.
Eetan
2d ago
I'm sure Chinese and North Koreans pretend even harder, but nobody - including themselves - believes in this pretense. And, what is very important, nobody cares, especially in Russia - Russians are completely fine with fake elections, because they don't really value free elections - they are completely ok with fake-electing the same Tzar for life, if he doesn't treat them too badly (in this case, they'd kill him and put on a new Tzar for life). Everybody in Russia knows elections are fake and the parliament is a dressing for what Putin wants, with less power than medieval nobles' assemblies under absolute monarchs. They are absolutely fine with it.
This is the case all over the world. Every regime except Taliban and Gulf monarchies claim to represent "the people" and rule in their name, every colonel who just gained power by coup says he is really defending democracy. Last man who failed to conform to this unwritten rule was late Emperor Bokassa the First.
Looks like total Western cultural victory. When you start seeing various strongmen repudiating this charade and crowning themselves as kings, sultans and maharajahs, you will know that Western supremacy is fading and multipolar, multicultural world arrived for real.
Eetan
2d ago
Yes, typical anarcho communist community ends as bizarre sex cult in peace time or just another bandit gang in war zone, while anarcho capitalist community ends in massive scam and rug pull (AFAIK no one yet attempted to build anarcho capitalist paradise during some shithole country civil war).
Eetan
2d ago
If you want to call medieval Iceland (society rather unpleasant by modern standards, but so were all contemporary societies) an example of thriving anarcho-capitalism, then numerous egalitarian tribal societies where land was held in common are examples of successful anarcho-communism.
Anyway, none of these societies were viable when organized state showed up in the neighborhood. This is the hard problem of anarchy of all kinds, unsolved for 5000 years.
Eetan
2d ago
Certainly the US could take Canada, militarily.
Now, yes. Canada now is just like Ukraine in 2014.
This could change fast. Ukraine in 2014 was hopeless wreck, Ukraine in 2022 was something else.
Eetan
2d ago
Bottom left corner is anarcho-communism, not Lenin and Stalin, but Bakunin and Kropotkin. You can truthfully object that no viable example of autonomous self governing classless, stateless and moneyless worker community ever existed, but this is even more true about hard core anarcho capitalism.
Eetan
4d ago
Hungarian and Polish leadership and national heroes constantly worked with and fought for the Ottomans..
Most of these examples were from Crimean War. At this time, religious passions and crusading spirit were things of the past and these Polish heroes were fighting on Turkish side together with Western allies. If they were traitors of Christendom, so were Viscount Palmerston and Napoleon the Third.
Eetan
4d ago
A fun thought experiment is analyzing everything concretely done in an economic sector
Beware. If you do such analysis thoroughly with full historical perspective, if you follow all tracks and climb through all rabbit holes, you find out that not only our current system has nothing in common with "free market", that corporations and state institutions are just different tentacles of the same monster, and it has was always that been that way in all recorded history.
Persevere enough, and you will see yourself swiftly moving from right bottom corner to left bottom corner of political compass, you will be throwing away black-gold flags and portraits of Ayn Rand and replacing them black-red banners and pictures of more imposing Russians
Eetan
5d ago
The Western mode of directly or indirectly conquering the world because you experience moral outrage at the suffering of the poor and oppressed masses
This is applicable, if at all, only to late 19th century (mostly unprofitable) colonialism, justified, along national honor, by civilizing the natives. For the rest four centuries, the sales pitch was "Make Money Fast!".
Eetan
5d ago
The correct response is also obviously impractical and self-defeating. It notes that the video's content may be illegal, but it is impossible to tell that sight-unseen, and a policy of refusing to watch or share any video because it might be illegal is, plainly, a policy of refusing to engage with any online video at all. If Charlie followed that rule, Charlie couldn't even read Pathways itself! You might precisify it to something like "only watch online videos from trusted sources", but in almost all circumstances that amounts to the same thing.
The correct winning response is to care only about gaming and do not be interested in any political content at all. Do not be for or against anything, just sit in your room and play.
This is textbook authoritarianism, ideal of modern Putinism. If we take this game as sign of changing course, it means that TPTB gave up their attempts to make citizens into ardent woke antiracist warriors and just want totally apathetic consumers.
Eetan
7d ago
Reality sure is a very interesting place these days!
Yes, reality is unrealistic.
AGENT: Tone it down. Really, tone it all down. You are writing near future gritty cyberpunk story, not slapstick comedy!
The mega billionaire character is so over the top it is not even funny, starting with this goofy name ... ELON? And the president, Dump or what is his name... this is not even parody, this is pure hallucinatory nonsense.
Eetan
8d ago
I don't think America has failed the most basic functions of a nation state
Country can be extremely internally violent and still be able to maintain state of the art air, space and nuclear forces and face other great power in open warfare.
Eetan
8d ago
Was Venezuela not exactly this fast operation? Were their troops not cowards who would lift a single MANPAD to resist our might?
We (for value of "we"=military history nerds) will know in decades, if ever, what exactly happened this fateful night, what, if any, subterfuges and backstage deals were involved.
But, according to reports that came through, Venezuelans and Cubans stood against science fictional death ray and died, something as far from cowardice as there could be.
Anyway, lessons from Venezuela for potential confrontation between US and European countries are limited (unless you believe them to be equally rotting and decrepit shitholes).
hordes of Islamists
As relevant to potential US-EU war scenario as American mass shootings and constant gang violence, this is not at all. For example, India and Pakistan are both full of internal unrest, and it does not stop them from warring with each other in the utmost seriousness.
but you will fight and die
This is decision for European leaders and their armed forces. Will the leader give orders to resist the invasion? Will the soldiers obey? Will they do so effectively enough to cause significant US casualties?
Look, I don't know or even care really why Trump wants Greenland.
Do not ask any questions, just trust the Great Leader. Nothing can be more American in spirit.
Eetan
8d ago
Uphold article five? With whom? With what? Didn't a poll just show that two thirds of Germans would "probably not" fight for Germany? What fraction of the remainder would fight for Greenland?
"This will be easy special operation, three days at most. They are cowards, they will not dare to resist our might."
Such words were said many times in history. Sometimes they were right, sometimes they were not. Now, if it turns not to be the case, what is your plan B? How many casualties will US accept to secure the sacred snow and ice of Greenland?
how cucked would you have to be to buy fighter jets from a country that's threatening to annex you?
How cucked (or blinded by greed) you have to be to sell weapons to country you intend to forcibly annex? Do you recall Russia selling armaments to Ukraine (after 2014)?
Eetan
8d ago
The simplest explanation is that Trump just wants Greenland, probably to strip mine it. Whether that makes economic sense, I am not sure.
The simplest explanation is that Trump just wants it, because it looks big on the map. 666D chess theory disproven again, Great Man theory proven again.
our submarines
So, after everything that happened, you still see Russian war machine as "yours". Well, you can take man out of great power, but you cannot take great power out of man.
Now, they aren't going out and committing mass shootings but they seem to have an open bloodthirst that seems very uncharacteristic. Anyone have any theories what is happening here?
Retvrn to ancient tradition of Germanic Screeching Women.
As another commenter pointed out, I'm not sure you really want a large portion of your population to be Haredim or Mennonites, given that they typically have extremely low productivity.
And, more importantly, they do not care about the state and regime, and are loyal only to their own community. Having such large and growing population is in no way a "win".
Eetan
12d ago
This minimizes deaths of Iranian people.
Rather big assumption that protecting lives and well being of Iranian (or any other) people is what it is all about.
Falsely telling the Iranian people that he'd help so they risk their lives and die only for Trump to later back out and allow the regime to continue would be an abject moral failure.
Well, this was US empire SOP at least since 1956 Hungarian revolt.
Real abject failure is when any literate person with basic awareness of 20/21st century history trusts US promises (and then faces another rugpull and backstab with sad Pikachu face).
Eetan
15d ago
Why are advertisements for so bad?
Because people who make them know nothing about X, and their measure of success is pleasing and impressing their bosses who know ever less about X.
Even at best scenario, it is very difficult to judge what, if any effect does marketing/advertising has. Are our burgers selling because or despite our brilliant campaign?
And, with political/regime propaganda, these problems compound. This is why people wonder "This is so lame and cringe! Why would anyone commission such crap?" The answer is: To you, disilusioned zoomer/millenial/Xer it looks cringe, to boomer boss on the other side of the world who ordered it, it looks cool, based and revolutionary.
Eetan
1mo ago
Imagine it is mid 2026 and you wake up to a final victory by one side or the other, say in the top 90% percentile plus of favourability, however you wish to define it.
Total Ukraine Victory or Total Russian Victory?
As you said, both options are unlikely, but one (TUV) is by several magnitudes more unlikely than the other. Realistic end of war, that could be predicted when the three day special operation failed (and was predicted by sharp observers), is permanent cease fire and permanent DMZ around the current front line.
Best solution for Earth, imagine 1500-2000 km long and 20-50 km wide ruined and abandoned zone that will revert to nature and becomes wildlife paradise.
Now, back to your question: TRV or TUV, what one should we prefer?
It depends how you feel about Global American Empire of Rules Based Order.
In TRV world, GAERBO is defeated and thoroughly humiliated. In TUV world, GAERBO is strenghtened and emboldened to do whatever it wants.
Whatever was the war about in the beginning, it is now whether GAERBO is still the biggest, strongest and sharpest shooting cowboy on the corral.
Eetan
1mo ago
In the end, it is turning into a debacle for Piers Morgan. As the dust settles, he comes across as the evil defender of a decrepit regime going after some dude’s dad. He was forced to pretend to not understand basic statistics, causing him to appear either stupid or malicious, depending on your gullibility. In many ways, he was the perfect heel employing dirty tactics to get an edge.
Yea, imagine some Soviet apparatchik in late stage of really existing socialism defending the system in open, unscripted debate with dissident, even crazy one (or just ordinary disgruntled citizen).
For long time, failures of the system were masked by fact that Western world was legitimately the only game on the planet, the best place to be despite all faults. If USSR liberated the workers of the whole world and imposed its system everywhere, it could also easily swat away any criticism "What are you complaining about? You live far better than medieval serfs!".
Not any more.
Now you can ask: "Why in Dubai or Shanghai people have the same wealth and comfort as in Western cities, and in addition complete safety, where they can walk the streets at any time unmolested and being stabbed or shot by deranged drug addict is as thinkable as being eaten by tiger. Why can't we have it too?" And the system has no answer than "But we have democracy and human rights!" (not much talk about "freedom" these days)
Eetan
1mo ago
And ancient grudge against Russia. The Great Game is over, fear the the bear will waltz down through the Khybert pass towards India is gone, but the grudge remains.
The alternative is enforcing existing laws against employers of undocumented immigrants in red states where they are concentrated the most. It is it not happening due to fear of backlash - if ICE was hauling away CEO's it would have 90% approval rate. But, instead, you have violent street circus to satisfy sadism and bloodlust of MAGA base. You really do not have to be tinfoil hat wearing conspiracy theorist to understand what is going on.
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