FCfromSSC
Nuclear levels of sour
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User ID: 675
FCfromSSC
Nuclear levels of sour
9d ago
Biden has been enlisting the Kennedy family to disavow one of their own and prop up himself as the ultimate and only possible candidate for Democrats recently, to the point where Bobby Jr.’s own brother has rejected him and has said on record that he will to the best of his ability attempt to persuade his sibling to drop out of the race.
...Why is this news?
Family ties aren't all that strong anywhere, and they certainly aren't that strong in any political dynasty anywhere on either side of the aisle. RFK Jr. is a pretty fringe dude, he has a roughly zero percent chance of actually winning the presidency, and a much higher percent chance of acting as a spoiler against the Democrats.
There is no concievable world where his own family don't prefer Biden to him.
Also, how does "black irish" apply to either biden or the kennedy family?
FCfromSSC
Nuclear levels of sour
9d ago
yeah, I'd be about the inverse. It's entirely possible that it's just sheer incompetence. Stranger things have happened.
FCfromSSC
Nuclear levels of sour
9d ago
I would take the other side of that bet. What makes it different than Oblivion's potato faces is that they already had good art, and replaced it with bad art. The difference is not subtle, so a lot of people knew in advance that the new art was bad, which would obviously undermine any plausible benefits to the change. Nor is there any serious technical challenge to hide behind; these are low-fi models and textures implementing what is probably the single best-understood and simplest-to-implement 3d art style there is. There's a DEI entity being paid by the company to propose CW changes to the game, and this matches quite well to a DEI change. Having been involved in the sausage-making for DEI-mandated changes to video game art in the past, that's what this looks like to me.
If what you say about locked accessories is true, this was probably seen as the cheapest way to double the number of custom options available to each player.
I'm sure that's roughly accurate to how they sold it to management. From experience, my guess would be that the artists got their marching-orders from management, decided it wasn't worth fighting, and did exactly what they were told with full knowledge that they were making trash, given that the alternative would involve a direct threat to their employment for a ~zero-percent chance of achieving anything. Your boss paid money for the bad advice because it's the bad advice he wanted. Having paid for the bad advice, he's not interested in you telling him that it's bad. Shut up and push the buttons, art monkey.
FCfromSSC
Nuclear levels of sour
9d ago
I would argue you almost certainly don't need the submarine, and probably don't need 45 of the men.
People do not appreciate how delicate the modern world is, which is why they also do not appreciate how dangerous the culture war is.
FCfromSSC
Nuclear levels of sour
11d ago
It’s making a slightly larger fraction of GDP go towards geopolitical goals. I think we’re still getting a decent return on investment.
What is that return, exactly? I will grant you that in terms of direct costs to America, this scenario allows us to purchase dead Russians and destroyed Russian value at an astonishingly cheap price. Why are dead Russians and destroyed Russian value something you want? What is the end-result you believe we are investing in?
Is it regime change? And then what? Do you think a Russian liberal democracy is a likely outcome if only Putin would go away? If so, I think you should explain why this particular democracy-export project is going to end different than the last several. And if not liberal democracy, then what? A different strong-man? A friendlier strongman? When has that worked before? If you were fine with a strongman, why not just accept Putin?
Is it a failed Russian state? And then what? Who gets the nukes? Who gets the arms? Who cleans up the mess? How confident are you that such a mess can be cleaned up?
Is it a Russian state that remains barely functional, but with minimal capacity for power projection? Why would this be a more desirable end-state than a functional Russia that we left alone to dominate Ukraine? Is it the better outcome for Ukraine? Why is gutting a large country preferable to allowing a small country to be stunted?
What is the actual logic? What is the long-term benefit to treating Russia as an enemy, rather than simply leaving them alone?
But how much of the culpability falls on us rather than on the conscriptors, let alone the invaders?
This war was the predicted outcome of our explicit foreign policy choices. The standard rejoinder is that this assessment assumes that only America has agency, but that appears to me to be a thought-terminating cliche. "Provocation" is a coherent concept within international politics, and it doesn't magically lose its coherence when it becomes inconvenient for supporters of American foreign policy. It was predictable, and was in fact predicted, that meddling on Russia's borders would lead to this war in particular. That meddling had no upside that I've ever been able to see. What was the point, and why was it worth it when this was the predictable outcome?
I would take your “Mistakes were Made” bet, because I don’t expect this to escalate in the ways you’re thinking.
My expectation is that Ukraine loses at some point in the next couple years, leaving Russia with a pyrrhic victory, a poorer and less-stable country, and cemented as an explicit enemy of the US for the next few decades at least. Why is this a desirable outcome? What value was secured by doing things this way?
FCfromSSC
Nuclear levels of sour
11d ago
Putin just woke up one morning and decided he wanted an invasion, and the rest is history.
I watched people predict this war at roughly this time well over a decade ago, so no, I'm pretty sure Putin didn't just wake up one morning and decide he wanted an invasion.
FCfromSSC
Nuclear levels of sour
11d ago
You left out the part where once the obvious disaster becomes visible, we clearly recognize that shit is fucked up, but we need to keep sinking resources into the problem because otherwise The Bad Guys Win. Sure, all our efforts up to this point have been squandered when they weren't actively counterproductive, but you don't want to lose, do you? That's quitter talk!
...I appreciate that this, and the post it's replying to, sounds uncharitable, but at some point on the intersection of human failure, incompetence, and hubris, the charity simply runs out. I watched corpses flap in the slipstream of evacuating US aircraft when Afghanistan collapsed, after TWENTY FUCKING YEARS of this bullshit. We've got the documents now that lay out how there never was a plan, how no one involved who mattered in any way was even attempting to win in any meaningful sense, at any point, ever. At some point, you need some basic level of confidence that the people you're talking to are capable of basic pattern recognition.
Calling people who support Ukraine aid "too stupid to vote" is just "boo outgroup", and if the valence was flipped it would probably be considered banworthy.
I would like to argue that "supporting Ukraine" and "writing blank checks to the American foreign policy apparatus" are not equivalent. For an example, the people who argue that we are and should be supplying just enough material to Ukraine to prolong the conflict indefinitely, as this will maximize the death and destruction inflicted upon Russia, with the maximization of death and destruction inflicted upon the Ukrainians being a price they're willing to pay, are not writing a blank check, but rather making a straightforward, coherent cost-benefit analysis. My objection to this latter group is not that they're stupid, but rather that they're straightforwardly, appallingly evil.
There's also the people who aim for total victory through unrestrained escalation with a rival nuclear power, and think we should roll American tanks and aircraft into direct combat with Russia. These people are not stupid like the first group, and not evil like the second group, but rather crazy. I object to these people the least, as their craziness seems likely to be self-punishing in a way the stupidity and evil of the first two groups lack.
Presumably, there's in theory a group that can argue coherently the reasons why our current engagement is going to secure our Sacred Values where the previous several did not, while threading the needle between pointlessly-destructive large-scale attrition as an end unto itself or the threat of a disastrous escalation spiral. I haven't actually seen these people, but I'm ready believe they exist. I think such people would be wrong, given the available evidence, but am open to their arguments should anyone wish to present them.
I disagree that this is "boo outgroup". We are talking about a set of geopolitical actors that have burned down four countries, are currently directly involved in burning down a fifth, and bear considerable responsibility for millions of deaths. At some point, some degree of moral responsibility for all that destruction, death and misery must intrude. Maybe I'm wrong in my assessments, but I don't think so, and at some point people must make their bets and take their chances. This is mine: this shit will not end well, and ten to twenty years from now it will be generally accepted that Mistakes Were Made. I am going to hammer the point because I am confident I am correct. If I'm wrong, I want to learn from it. If I'm right, I don't want the people I'm arguing against to be able to forget it. I think many of the people who discuss this issue are being unbelievably, unacceptably casual about the lives of millions of other humans. I hate them for it, and I find that this hatred cannot be suppressed or masked to any great degree.
If that earns me a ban, so be it, and I'll attempt to modify my behavior in the future.
I don't think this is surprising. A lot of Ukraine's ability to resist was predicated on US assistance, which has become increasingly rare due to resistance from House Republican leadership.
Maybe don't promise things you can't deliver? I never supported Ukraine, I have no interest in supporting Ukraine, and I'm not interested in voting for people who support Ukraine. If more people thought like me, it's entirely possible that this war would not have happened. Given that this war has happened, I'm not going to change my mind because "you broke it, you bought it". I didn't buy shit, and I think anyone who's still on-board with writing blank checks to the American foreign policy apparatus is too stupid to be allowed to vote. If the last twenty-four years of disasters wasn't enough to drive the lesson home, they're simply incapable of learning.
This is so bizarre to me. Ukrainian women are... people? They are not the property of Ukrainian men.
This would be a better argument if those Ukrainian men weren't faced with forced conscription into indefinite service in a meatgrinder war of attrition. They are also people, no? But naturally, when it's the men, it's honor and duty, and when it's the women, it's human rights and individualism. Women have, after all, always been the greatest victims of war.
I do not think "maintaining the territorial integrity of Ukraine" is an "abstract geopolitical goal of NATO."
Then I submit that you are not very good at assessing what is and is not an abstract geopolitical goal of NATO.
FCfromSSC
Nuclear levels of sour
12d ago
The later appears to me to be a mainstream position, not "the absolute vilest possible relevant thing you could say."
FCfromSSC
Nuclear levels of sour
12d ago
Which seems more vile to you?
"We should maximize the devastation of the war to get more women outside the war zone"
or
"we should maximize the devastation of the war to maximize the number of Russians killed and Russian wealth destroyed"
...Like, where is the "vileness" supposed to be coming from? We're well past the point where people here make straightforward arguments in support of maximizing the misery of others because it provides benefits for ourselves.
FCfromSSC
Nuclear levels of sour
13d ago
FCfromSSC
Nuclear levels of sour
16d ago
Versus your standard that every court action involving a person of interest to the Americans is inherently corrupt?
Say rather, inherently suspect. Appeals to process require faith in the process being appealed to. The feds observably warp process to satisfy their interests, so naked appeals to process in cases where their interests are in play should not be given the benefit of the doubt.
It seems like you want it both ways.
No, I just want it my way, which is quite distinct from Kulak's way. I think large scale violence is likely, and preferable to other likely scenarios. That does not mean it is a first-draft pick, but rather that the situation is quite bad and getting worse. There are plausible scenarios by which violence is avoided without too many compromises with straightforward evil; those are obviously preferable. There are also scenarios where compromise with other forms of straightforward evil increases the apparent likelihood of "victory", and yet such scenarios remain unacceptable.
You say you don't endorse this kind of thing, but in the same post you say a violent revolution is the best way forward.
The best way forward is for our society to peacefully transition to more meaningful forms of federalism, for the current trends of ideological, social and cultural sortition to continue to their logical conclusions, and for people possessed of mutually-intolerable values to find a way to leave each other alone.
You do kind of like this sort of thing, anything that brings the revolution closer eh?
With the caveat that I have no precise idea what you mean by "this sort of thing", no, I do not like any of the possible referents at all, and no, not anything that brings "the revolution" closer is good. In fact, most things that bring "the revolution" closer are straightforwardly evil. If we are as unfortunate as we appear to be, "the revolution" will get here in its own good time, despite our efforts to the contrary. We should seek neither to hasten it, nor to unduly forestall it. We should instead attempt to do what is right, and let the cards fall where they may.
FCfromSSC
Nuclear levels of sour
16d ago
Your grammar is fine. I'm objecting to the use of past-tense; I do not believe our current society is legitimate and think large-scale violent conflict is both likely in the near-term and preferable to other likely scenarios.
I think it is beneath the dignity of such an august body to have that kind of dreck populating the front page.
I think a lot of things that are posted here are beneath the dignity of this "august body". The mods are committed to not imposing their aesthetic standards on the forum, though. This is actually what HlynkaCG got banned for: he found the presence of many objectionable people here too repugnant to tolerate.
In regards to the boogaloo reference, I just figured your race ideals were in line with the video, maybe I am wrong.
You are wrong. I don't endorse HBD, much less whatever you want to call... that whole mess. I've spent a fair amount of time arguing against Kulak in the past, when his extremism was less race-based than it seems to be now, and our views are not converging.
FCfromSSC
Nuclear levels of sour
16d ago
It has a thumbnail of a haunting dead person on it, it makes the front page of themotte look like a gore site.
I'm pretty sure everyone here has seen worse. I'm pretty sure ~95% of people here or visiting here has literally paid money to see worse in movies, games, shows, etc.
I know you don't care that much, weren't you literally a boogaloo boy?
..."weren't"? More generally, I have no idea what the chain of logic you're pointing to here is.
I didn't watch the video because I don't find the premise interesting or edifying enough to be worth discussing. The question remains: what's your proposed solution, and why is it better than "don't touch the bait"?
FCfromSSC
Nuclear levels of sour
16d ago
I watched that whole horrible india video
I didn't.
I'm surprised you guys are letting that pure putrid propaganda piece just moulder on the front page like that.
As opposed to... what?
FCfromSSC
Nuclear levels of sour
16d ago
Straw purchases are a routine way by which criminals, including Black criminals, obtain firearms. The authorities routinely decline to prosecute the overwhelming majority of straw purchases, which are in fact committed by family and intimate partners of the criminals. I think the facts are against you here.
FCfromSSC
Nuclear levels of sour
22d ago
To your mind, is there no difference between the various flavors of social democracy and communism?
Would a difference between the two be that social democracy doesn't see capitalism as "the problem", and communism does?
FCfromSSC
Nuclear levels of sour
22d ago
You really shouldn't try to time the stock market, especially if you're persuadable by political trends.
In this case, it was acting on the advice of a super-famous economist.
...I don't really believe in economists any more.
FCfromSSC
Nuclear levels of sour
22d ago
Your version might be correct; I don't know, and I'm generally suspicious of all narratives about presidential responsability for economic outcomes.
What I do know is that when Trump was elected, I declined to invest my money in the stock market because I believed mainstream predictions that his election was clearly going to tank the economy, and then distinctly recall watching in some frustration as the stock market boomed and continued to boom.
FCfromSSC
Nuclear levels of sour
23d ago
he had a bunch of posts in the filter. I've approved them.
FCfromSSC
Nuclear levels of sour
23d ago
One group defending itself from another group trying to "flip the table", even with guns, does not necessitate genocide. You can shoot the attackers until they stop attacking, and then stop shooting.
This thread might be of interest to you. I'd be happy to elaborate if you have further questions.
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