Eetan
2mo ago
If you take conspiracy theories seriously, there is nothing "enjoyable" there. Who is supposed to enjoy that they (whoever "they" are) are deceiving the mankind for decades and centuries with no end in sight for nefarious gains and getting away with it?
World where conspiracy theorists are right is nightmare fuel.
(Exceptions might be various "forbidden technology" conspiracies, claiming that free energy is kept secret by Big Oil and miracle cures for all diseases are suppressed by Big Pharma. This universe, if real, would be awesome - just break into these secret vaults and Star Trek utopia is here.)
This explains the temporary success of Qanon - this was rare conspiracy that claimed that good guys are out there fighting the good fight.
Eetan
2mo ago
What is the significance of October 6, 1973?
Eetan
2mo ago
Depends on definition of "golden age". Time of peace? Time of prosperity for average person? Time of great scientific/literary/art creative genius?
Eetan
2mo ago
Who cares what Hanania thinks about human excellence? He has (generously) 1/1000th of Elon's following, maybe 1/100,000 of his wealth. Is Hanania running a viable AGI program? Is Hanania building huge rockets? Are Hanania's opinions relevant in world affairs, does he control key communications infrastructure used by armies? Is he doing anything of importance whatsoever?
No one shall care about Hanania, but you should care, if you care about world's affairs at all, if man who does all these things, destroys his brain with drugs and gets all his information from xitter and 4chan shitposters.
Eetan
2mo ago
Just checking again, and Mr Kaufmann declares himself "Zionist" and "Christian nationalist" simultaneously.
It is unclear what he means by "Christian nation".
Nation that is overwhelmingly Christian? Many such cases worldwide. Excluding Vatican and tiny island countries, most significant is probably 98% Christian Romania.
Nation where Christianity is established by law and non-Christians are persecuted? No idea if there is such place today, and no idea either how will creating such place make the world more free.
Eetan
2mo ago
Continuing my alt hist scenario- epistemic status, considering moving over to an alternate history forum, open to recommendations.
Online oldest and biggest AH place is here but beware. It is extremely PC, woke long before wokeness was a thing, space. Expect to be banned for the slightest infraction (mere mention of HBDIQ concepts, taken for granted here or other rationalist and post rationalist spaces is sufficient). Enter at your risk.
Just one example: short althistorian career of famous Eric S. Raymond
Others- few old time forums and bulletin boards exist.
Only I can think about is Axis History Forum unsurprisingly dedicated to WWII history with lively alt-his subforum. It is nerd paradise, highly technical discussion backed by proper citations is expected (and it is normie place, nothing resembling Nazi apologia and Holocaust revisionism is tolerated).
Even stronger case could be made that no matter how weak is traditional European feudal system, it is excellent in suppressing peasant rebellions. There is no case in recorded European history of peasant revolt even slightly endangering TPTP (unlike China).
See the ease how even the most extensive revolts were put down. And they were, by Chinese standards, not very revolting at all.
edit: links linked properly
Eetan
3mo ago
"Guess which people are more conformist and which are more bold and daring?"
Descendants of serfs who were subjugated to their lords for millenia with little protest, or descendants of peasants who were continuously revolting for all recorded history? Hard guess.
Eetan
3mo ago
No, this is a code for: "we want traditional European urbanism without traditional European rule of law"
Eetan
3mo ago
In particular, I used to have the naive anti-conspiracy view that it's almost impossible to keep an important one going due to a single defection blowing everything up, even if smaller and/or more specific ones may happen.
As spook world "standard candle" we can always use one well proven evil conspiracy, the infamous MKULTRA (and adjacent projects).
For 20+ years, in peace time, thousands, possibly tens of thousands of professionals engaged in Nazi/Imperial Japan style extremely unethical human experimentation. And it was all successfully kept secret (until handful of files who escaped destruction were discovered by accident).
All commonly proposed mechanisms to uncover and stop such nefarious activity failed.
No one talked (or if someone talked, no one listened to him)
No investigative journalists uncovered this scandal.
No elected representative of the people did anything.
No conspiracy theorist found what is going on, when MKULTRA was revving up, tinfoil hat crowd debated whether Eisenhower is willing Communist agent or naive Communist dupe.
One exception was this book from 1967, describes mind conditioning methods similar used by MKULTRA
If course, in the book the perpetrators are nasty South American Nahzees who want to manipulate stock market and get rich, not American patriots bravely fighting communism (and the book was, anyway, just drop that vanished in ocean of conspiracy/parapolitic writing at the time).
Eetan
3mo ago
Yes, it is all contextual. "Charismatic" colonels are few, most officers are cogs in the machine (just like most CEO's). Analogically, you can say that popular and well connected investigative reporter is rather powerful, but how many of these are in NYT of today?
Eetan
3mo ago
Rome succeded in Romanizing the people it ruled beyond the wildest expectation, Gauls and Hispanics speak Latin to this very day. Goths, Vandals, Saxons etc were never ruled by Rome.
Eetan
3mo ago
In related news, coronavirus research in Wuhan lab goes on.
No need to be worried, plebes. Trust USG, trust CCP, trust the experts.
Eetan
3mo ago
Why are NTY journalists who are literally on less than subsistence pay higher on the totem pole than your average chemical industry executive? Power. They can ruin that executive and make him kill himself if they round up enough of their colleagues. You can't buy that. Billionaires have tried and failed.
This is like saying that cop is more powerful than CEO, because cop can arrest the CEO not the other way around.
NYT can indeed "ruin" even otherwise rich and powerful people, but the decision to "ruin" someone is not made in any democratic way (by "rounding up" friends) and is made far above any "subsistence pay" regular journalist.
Eetan
3mo ago
In this clip, Sam basically fails to articulate a single moral principle beyond "Well, that's just what our society had decided is right and wrong" and when dude says society can change it's mind over time, Sam's only meek response is "Please don't".
Pitiable performance indeed, and the fact that we still have such debates is even more pitiable.
Morality based on divine command is, historically, extremely late development (and it is debatable how effective it was). 2000+ years ago, if someone asked: "Why shouldn't I rob, rape and kill my fellow citizens of my city?" the answer was not "Zeus forbids it" or "After you die, Zeus will torture you forever in Tartarus".
The answer was, TL;DR: "Because good person does not do such things, and you want to be heckin' good person" and "If you are caught, you will be crucified/impaled/skinned alive/fed to wild beasts".
Eetan
3mo ago
I interpret the question as deliberate shitposting and trolling in bad faith to rev up outrage and gain more clicks, as does nearly everyone replying to it.
Just like whole "New Hampshire Libertarian Party".
Eetan
3mo ago
Looked up the first person, Jeremy Kaufmann. More recent xeets:
Today I will be doing my duty to help save the word libertarian
Regardless what you think about Ukraine war, this perfect representation of Greedy American stereotype is not the best way to win hearts and minds for cause of libertarianism.
Most generous thing to say is that Mr. Kaufmann should concentrate on New Hampshire gasoline tax and leave world politics to others.
Eetan
3mo ago
In practice, nuclear weapons have some tactical uses,
In practice, no one knows.
On both sides of iron curtain, thousands of books were written about tactics and strategy of nuclear warfare, but it is all, so far, only theory. It would not be surprising if real WWIII proves all of it as useful as was pre-1914 military science shown useful in WWI.
Eetan
3mo ago
Jewish orgs are already drafting lists of specific students they want to see deported
Exactly the kind of Jewish orgs you would expect.
Eetan
3mo ago
If The Donald wrecks the economy enough to ensure blue landslide, then nothing of this would matter.
Eetan
3mo ago
From Red perspective, this makes sense. Not many foreigners or green card holders are involved in Red protests and activities, even if the Blues gained the upper hand again and wanted to use this precedent.
Eetan
3mo ago
Why is LGBTQ so important for liberals in terms of foreign policy?
Good question.
To steelman it in proper hardcore IR realist style, it is about (Blue)American Empire acquiring permanent class of supporters, collaborators and fifth columnists world wide.
What were German minorities for Third Reich, what were Communist sympathizers for Soviet Union, LGBTQ+ are for Global Rule Based Order. And unlike these, they are permanent presence. You can get rid of ethnic minority, you can get rid even of ideological/religious minority if you are willing to get dirty, but LGBTQ+ are born every day. Even most hard core regimes would balk at gulaging/executing 5% of population in every generation, for forever.
Yes, this sucks if you are LGBTQ+ (or suspected to be one) in unfriendly territory, but it rocks if you are GAE.
Eetan
3mo ago
My experience has been that normie conservatives basically all hold that Hitler and Stalin were equally or near-equally bad, and that fascism and communism are equally bad.
Yes, normie cons always held this view, and now normie libs hold it too (even more so due to current events in Eastern Europe).
On the left people will absolutely argue that communism is good
"left" as online people with hammer and sickle (and often rainbow, trans and Palestine flags), not as anyone remotely close to respectability.
occasionally you get someone who will argue that Stalin, while very bad, wasn't as bad as Hitler
Yes, this is the other mainstream respectable academic view. The 50's are over, you will not any more find Stalin's admirers in the academia and respectable professions(excepting Grover Furr)
Including professed Marxists like Zizek, here is his take on difference between Stalinism and Nazism
(most people would see killer who forces you to bow before him and lick his boots before he kills you as not lesser evil than ordinary killer who just does the deed withou any ceremony, but YMMV)
Eetan
3mo ago
Yes. Great power should be able to easily overrun small shithole country in three day special operation (and then get bored by decades of guerilla warfare and go home).
The implications of late Eastern European events are:
Either Russia is shithole country too or Ukraine is Great Power too.
Tartaria is the perfect product of late Soviet and post-Soviet decay and disappointment.
"No, we are not decrepit shithole that is laughingstock of the world! We wuz khans, and tsars, and sultans, and pharaohs, the whole world once belonged to Great Russian Tartarian Horde!"
The fact it is, beyond all expectations, gaining fans in the West, is significant.
Nothing mysterious about self induced schizophrenia, and, seen from the outside, nothing particularly enjoyable either.
edit: link
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