Eetan
4mo ago
For maximally cynical, conspiratory and blackpilling take, seek, as usual Rolo Slavski.
Eetan
4mo ago
This sacrifice was, of course, quite ephemeral
as he then became an ultra-powerful warlord with multiple wives and an army of devotees.
Yes, Mo made it big, unlike 99,9999% self proclaimed prophets in history. Their stories usually end with "murdered" "executed" "died in prison" "died in poverty". Mo knew it, but never gave up, because he meant it, he was certain that his message true revelation from God.
Yeah wow, poor guy, his life sure must have been hard.
Would you openly stand for your beliefs for ten years, while your town hates and despises you, would you persevere while your neighbors regularly spit at you and smear your house with camel dung?
Eetan
4mo ago
In your opinion, should the mullahs try harder? Should they do more?
Assuming they could try harder - remember that Iran is country with massively disaffected populace, with regular riots and urprisings with death toll in the hundreds. Country more like Tsarist Russia than Stalin's one.
Eetan
4mo ago
This isn't true. In western society that remark is hyperbole and we all know it, because nobody here is forcing tradition and religion down people's throats at gunpoint.
This subthread is not about Western society, it is about Iran.
He asked what a more traditional solution sounded like. Well, I gave him one. Current trends and demographics seem to be making the case that the latter is the more attractive long-term option.
Iran - society with all drawbacks of modernity and none of its benefits - is not attractive at all.
If your solution is Iranian one, it is unsatisfactory.
Eetan
4mo ago
Iran has a TFR of 1.7, is regularly roiled by massive anti-regime protests, and religious affiliation is sharply declining among the nation's youth. Not much of a start.
Okay. And? That's unrelated to what you originally asked for. I don't know what this response is supposed to make me think in light of what I quoted.
This response is supposed to make you grasp that the most thorough effort in current times to force tradition and religion at gun point failed as thoroughly as it could fail.
Where did ayatollahs go wrong? Were they too soft, were they too concerned about human rights, should they imprison, torture and kill more?
"Unable"? The shells would be there in 24 hours if the order was given by Biden to get them there. If something different happens, it's not the lack of ability, it's the lack of willingness to do that.
No, he cannot, because the industry necessary to provide them does not exist in NATO countries, and nothing had been done to build up this capacity since 2022.
Well, US promises to increase production to 100,000 shells per month ... by 2025.
By world war standards, it is one big unfunny joke.
I'd like to see a proof of any factory producing anything reminding modern artillery ammunition
Nothing "modern" about artillery shell production.
created from an empty field in 20 days. I also assume the metal, chemicals, machinery, trained workers and supply lines for both incoming materials and the product will have to come from the empty field in the same 20 days?
metal, chemicals, machinery
Modern world industrial production and logistical capacity is at least by magnitude higher than during WW2 time, all these things can be ordered online (from China, through intermediaries if you do not want to raise suspicion) unlike in these times.
trained workers
We are talking about classical industrial mass production, that could operate with minimaly skilled workers freshly arriving from farms and villages.
supply lines
Enough places near sea port or rail line, no need for WWII style heroic building achievements
in the same 20 days?
This is not even slight exaggeration of things that were routinely done in the past.
edit: links fixed
Eetan
8mo ago
Their methods and their numbers are good enough for Pentagon, the unfortunate leaks showed that Pentagon uses Oryx data.
Belllingcat and Oryx are anything but "random internet people".
Eetan
8mo ago
The military's logistical pipelines become an order of magnitude less complex
With collapse of US (and world) economy, logistical pipelines become nonexistant.
Do not imagine masses of shiny wunderwaffen crushing the rebels, imagine Second Civil War as two (at minimum) African style armies with pickup trucks and jerry rigged armored vehicles duking it out in Mad Max apocalypse land.
Eetan
8mo ago
There is no communal ritual in wokeism where the adherents focus on the absolute good, what they are striving towards. No woke church. Just virtue through signaling and destruction of enemies.
Lack of colorful rituals and celebrations is the least problem with woke faith.
Better criticism of wokeism is that wokes do not breed, that full woke society would die off.
Christians of first centuries had similar problem - they refused to kill.
Pagan Romans saw it as absurd - every empire is built on oceans of blood and pyramids of skulls, every empire needs professional soldiers, torturers and executioners. If the empire was Christian only, it would collapse in a fortnight.
Well, Christians took over Roman empire, and quickly reconsidered this part of their teaching, quickly discovered that shedding blood in the name of Christian Empire is holy and glorious.
No reason why woke religion cannot manage similar plot twist.
Eetan
8mo ago
I don't call it preaching to say that non-Christians go to Hell when you're making points about Christianity, in a context where argument is welcome.
Threatening someone with hell would be seen by most people as hostile act, but the original Xeet that started it all was not agressive fire and brimstone sermon, it was talking about hope, not about eternal fire.
Civilization is creeping in, so you probably only have 5-10 years left, but the ruling class are keenly aware that preserving a certain charming pastiche backwardness (while also being very safe, clean and welcoming) is the future of the economy, and they act accordingly. It’s also a lot of fun to be in a Buddhist country that hasn’t yet been turned into a strip mall like the more developed parts of the rest of Southeast Asia.
The rulers also decided that cryptocurrency is the future, and heavily invested in crypto mining.
Quietly, but infrastructure of such magnitude is not something that can be hidden. Something for people who worry how easily you can get away with AI development in coming Katechon Pact world.
Eetan
4mo ago
It is accepted now that America before Columbus was no pristine wilderness, but densely populated and higly developed land. "High counters" are more vindicated every day.
More evidence that being hit by epidemic with 95% death rate is not good for civilization and progress. As Gregory Cochran pointed, it was just matter of dumb luck that nothing worse that syphilis (and possibly typhus) came back to Old World (and early syphilis was very bad).
Obviously, we need to fund science of virology much more generously and speed up gain of function research to be safe!
Eetan
4mo ago
He must be taken as a prime example of why introvert smart guys
??? Karlin is extrovert extraordinaire, of the hustler/preacher subtype. Introvert would not chose life of digital nomad, introvert would not relocate to the other side of the world on a whim, introvert would definitely not volunteer to evangelize his (exteme and unpopular) political ideology (or ideologies).
Karlin was always transhumanist, he supported Russia because he believed it is beginning of new supertechnological supercivilization. Once it was obvious that Russia is not aspiring Atomic Space Empire, but another Eastern European shithole, he dropped it like hot potato.
It was never about any Russian historical legacy or care of actual Russian people (remember how he was gloating how elderly vatniks and sovoks from the villages refused to be vaxed and died of COVID.)
As someone with UK passport, US green card and big stash of crypto, AK was one of these people who genuinely could be what they want to be and he picked "Russian" identity for a while.
Now AK is safely out of Russia, he is back to his previous self.
For someone like AK, it was never anything than game.
Imagine new, long awaited and bigly hyped game comes out. You download it and start playing.
You start playing as Orc, because orcs are cool.
First you notice that orcs and whole orc land are hideously ugly. Then you find that gameplay is unbalanced and story line makes no sense at all. Finally, when you turn things and start winning, and the stupid orcs start fighting each other once again, you give up and begin new game.
Start again as Elf. At the beginning, you pick your gender from 72 options and eagerly start playing. It couldn't be worse than Orc game!
Is Iran forcing women to have sex at gunpoint? They've done that no more than Japan, Russia, China or the west has.
Iran is enforcing all the online trad wish list - no porn, no homosexuality, no fornication, no adultery, no no-fault divorce (on woman side), no indecent clothing, no women's (or men's) rights in general. We were told it would result in happy wonderland full of big happy families. Somehow, it happened otherwise.
Eetan
5mo ago
As Chesterton says, Christianity has died at least five times and rose again stronger from the tomb. It's almost as if there's a theme somewhere in the Gospels...
You probably mean Hillaire Belloc, writer even more prolific than Chesterton and one half of "Chesterbelloc" inseparable duo.
In The Great Heresies he boasts how the Church survived attacks of Arianism, Islam, Cathars, Reformation and modern unbelief and ends in rather optimistic tone.
Of this new tendency to sympathize with Catholicism--and in the case of strong characters to take the risk, to accept the Faith, and proclaim themselves the defenders of it--there can be no doubt. Even in England, where the traditional feeling against Catholicism is so universal and so strong, and where the whole life of the nation is bound up with hostility to the Faith, the conversions which strike the public eye are continually the conversions of men who lead in thought; and note that for one who openly admits conversion there are ten at least who turn their faces toward the Catholic way, who prefer the Catholic philosophy and its fruit to any others, but who shrink from accepting the heavy sacrifices involved in a public avowal.
...
Even the most misguided or the most ignorant of men, talking vaguely of "Churches," are now using a language that rings hollow. The last generation could talk, in Protestant countries at least, of "the Churches." The present generation cannot. There are not many churches; there is one, it is the Catholic Church on the one side and its mortal enemy on the other. The lists are set.
Thus are we now in the presence of the most momentous question that has yet been presented to the mind of man. Thus are we placed at a dividing of the ways, upon which the whole future of our race will turn.
The book was written in 1938 and, sadly for Catholic Church, Belloc's optimism turned out to be badly misplaced.
Catholic church rejected everything that would make it Catholic in Bellloc's eyes and is not looking very well.
Protestant churches are still there, and the churches that are thriving and growing are churches that would drive Belloc into rage and total despair, if he saw them.
As great sage said, "It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future."
I really don't care about the ethnic make-up or the future of Israel as a country.
You should. If Israel fails, Israelis will flee and settle in your country. I presume you are not very fond of Jews and are not eager to welcome Jewish refugees.
Israel doesn't seem to mind taking American money from non-Jews
Some Israelis do mind a lot.
so why would the would-be settlers need to be converts?
Because it would nullify the whole point of Israel (national home and place of refuge for Jews)
No, I think limiting the offers to people within a certain measure of competence would do roughly the same job. There are also plenty of low-quality White people that they probably would not want on their side.
People with "measure of competence" (living in developed countries OFC) have more options and opportunities than ever before. What could Israel offer them? Why would competent person want to live in trailer in the desert among people who really do not want him there?
Anyway, Israel is not lacking people with guns, Israel is not afraid of being overrun by mighty Arab armies.
Israel is afraid of being declared racist, fascist and white supremacist country and sanctioned like old South Africa. To avoid this, Israel needs to gain hearts and minds of people (elite human capital OFC, the masses will follow) in the Western countries and needs advocates, propagandists and tiktok influencers.
edit: more links added
Eetan
6mo ago
Let these Israelis figure out a way to survive without begging, without running intense propaganda campaigns on Westerners. Get creative for once. Idk, offer some training, weapons and land to disillusioned Western youth similarly to ISIS?
It is happening. The dirty secret is that many West Bank settlers are people with minimal Jewish ancestry or just plain converts, often from unexpected places.
It is not official policy, but you want to make it one, you want Israeli government official outreach program to promote and evangelize Judaism and offer Israeli citizenship (with free sand and rock) to prospective converts?
Program racially limited to whites (I presume that by "Western" you mean White) to avoid recruits like this?
Well, if you want to make Middle Eastern situation more heated and volatile, this will work.
Eetan
8mo ago
...That would be a start, anyhow.
And that would be also an end, end of Christianity. This long effortpost was the perfect illustration of my point.
You do not say "Christianity is good because it is true. God is real, the Bible is true word of God, Jesus is true son of God who died for your sins and rose from the dead. Follow him as the only way to save your soul from eternal fire that awaits you for your sins."
You say: "Christianity is good because Christian society is better than "materialist" one, because it delivers 0,46% higher GDP growth, 7,91% lower crime rate and scientific papers that replicate at 6.38% better rate. Go dilligently to church every week, it will somehow make everything better."
I hate to sound like a broken record on incompetence=evil, but the difference is that confessional Christian regimes tend not to kill millions of people on accident, and when they do it’s a result of empowering ruthless people with vague mandates rather than something inherent in the system.
If good system somehow keeps empowering "ruthless people" who kill millions of people, what exactly makes it good?
Doctrinaire Marxist regimes have a much worse record.
Well, this is hotly debated. Limiting ourselves to modern times, do you consider British Empire to be "confessional Christian regime"?
Anyway, there is no comparison.
Marxism does not claim to be religion based on faith, Marxism claims to be science, describing objective laws governing history, Marx wanted to be someone who explains evolution of human society just like Darwin explained evolution of life.
It is appropriate to judge Marxism by scientific standards (Prager university tier takes "Marx was sleeping with his maid, therefore Marxism is BS" are embarrassment).
It is appropriate to ask whether Marxist predictions - tendency of the rate of profit to fall, immiseration of the proletariat etc... came true. It is appropriate to ask whether Marxists got ever close to delivering what they promised.
I mean there’s also that believing Christians tend to be much better citizens than committed marxists.
Citizens of what? Citizens of bourgeois and feudal states certainly not, committed Marxists were undermining them as hard as committed Christians were undermining pagan states.
Citizens of Marxist state? All achievements of USSR - victory in civil war against overwhelming odds, breakneck speed industrialization and development and then victory in greatest war in history, were due to sacrifice of tens of millions of true believing Marxists.
Yes, when the true believers who really believed they were building better world died off, the later generations lost their faith and sold everything for blue jeans and chewing gum. And they lost their faith, because the great promises never came true, and they knew thay are not coming true, because they were supposed to happen here on Earth, not in heaven after death.
Eetan
9mo ago
Tough, stereotypically maximally manly men, often unironical veterans of gorilla warfare with hundreds of confirmed kills who in advanced age suddenly find they were, deep inside, little girls all the time, are small percentage of transgender population.
They are, as Steve Sailer noted, the public faces and enforcers of the movement, but they hadn't started it and are not leading it.
Shame that Christianity that sees Jews as "Christkillers" is dead and Christianity that sees Jews as "beloved elder brothers" and "forever Chosen people" is growing by leaps and bounds world wide.
Eetan
4mo ago
And now some news from Ukraine: Gonzalo Lira is dead.
More details about his demise in Ukrainian prison.
You probably heard about him. Former pickup artist guru who turned into journalist/propagandist lambasting Ukraine and Zelensky - from Ukraine in war time. Whatever you think about him and his opinions, this tooks serious guts (and GL was well aware of the risks).
English Wikipedia finds him not enough notable and deleted him at 4th attempt, but, strangely enough, simple English Wikipedia keeps his article.
Now, he is notable enough to be noticed by Tucker Carlson and notable enough make it to Twitter worldwide trends (as for now), notable enough to be added as another reason for Red tribe to oppose supporting Ukraine.
Not smart move from Ukrainian government. You gained a little bit of sadistic revenge and even smaller bit of intimidation of people inside Ukraine (who already know well what will happen to them if they open their mouth too much). You lost rather bigger piece of credibility with people whose support you desperately need.
RIP Coach Red Pill. Whatever you were in your life, now you are symbol and martyr.
Eetan
9mo ago
The Washington Post reports: Florida schools drop AP Psychology after state says it violates the law
If only.
Dateline 1723: Gazette de France reports: Venerable University of Utrecht drops medical classes after state finds it violates the law against heresy.
What tragedy! Where will now Dutch students study the four humors science, where will they learn the proper methods and proper astrological signs for bloodletting and applying leeches?
Even by standards of modern sciences, psychology stands out as complete fraud.
Not all of it - there is one part of psychological science - one involving IQ and racial differences in IQ - that reliably replicates and stands to scrutiny. Something tells me that Florida psychology courses do not cover this.
One can only wish that DeSatanis got his pitchfork out for real and cleaned this nest of superstition Khmer Rouge style. One can dream.
Eetan
6mo ago
If you hadn't noticed, Israel is the strong one there compared to the Palestinians, so that's not inconsistent in the slightest.
Compared to the Palestinians, yes. Compared to the whole Arab and Muslim world, this is not so clear.
Moldbug believes that Israelis are master race, that America is keeping Israel down and in absence of American influence, Israel would easily roll over all land between Nile and Euphrates.
This is debatable, but if things went the other way and Israelis were to be driven to the sea, would Moldbug say: "Vae victis, winners keepers, losers weepers"? I have my doubts.
"Great Patriotic War" is considered sacred only in Russia, much more so in recent post-Soviet times than during USSR.
In the West, modern academic consensus is now that WW2 (at least the 90% of it that happened in the East) was fight between 100% evil and 99,9% evil.
Ernst Nolte was cancelled in his time, but his thesis won, to the dismay of remaining old time leftists.
And this trend will accelerate, both due to WW2 receding in historical memory and current events in Eastern Europe and Middle East.
No one is going to build any memorials to Nazi Germans any time soon, but Soviet monuments are going down everywhere outside Putin country.
Looks like mission accomplished, and without any questioning of "gas chamber story."
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