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FirmWeird

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joined 2022 September 05 23:38:51 UTC 

				
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FirmWeird


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
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					joined 2022 September 05 23:38:51 UTC
				


				
					

					
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User ID: 757


					
					
					
				

			


					

						
					



		

	

 











			
			

			
			

			




	


		

			
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				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I believe at this point the Iranian people are very much opposed to the Israeli government after what happened to that girl's school, which they resolutely do not blame their own government for. I also believe that they can see what's happening in Gaza, Syria and Lebanon - and that's an incredibly compelling argument for making sure that Israel has no ability to do the same to them. The recent protests are impossible to really evaluate - I haven't seen any real evidence that they murdered 40k of their own citizens, and I have a distinct lack of trust for any protest movement that is tightly bound to and working with a foreign intelligence service (see the multiple comments about the involvement of the Mossad and the US government).


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Yes, I have no real opinion on the UN. I don't think it is particularly fit for purpose - it has largely failed to achieve the goals originally set for it, and it doesn't seem like that will change any time soon. Sometimes I agree with the conclusions of various subordinate bodies, but that's about it.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I agree, but this doesn't really have anything to do with inequality.




My opinion is that the increased immigration flows and financial pressure on housing and cost of living have much more to do with the collapse in fertility rates than being free and educated. That said, the topic is so complicated that it could be a thread by itself - so I'll just say that I think the increase in relative costs of living is a direct result of policies solely pursued due to that inequality and that is what is decreasing fertility.




I agree that a lot of the aesthetics of the modern wealthy are off-putting, but as I mentioned earlier, "powerful people act in upsetting ways" is not a solvable problem as long as the fundamental ability to concentrate power through technology exists at all.




First of all, this is not just "the aesthetics" of the modern wealthy. What Schwartz did directly harmed society in exchange for personally enriching him, and this isn't some isolated case. Look through the list of pardons that Trump has handed out and you can see countless cases of this kind of banal and venal corruption. On top of that, look at people like Rick Scott, who defrauded the government and then used his ill-gotten wealth to get elected. There's no law of the universe which says that people need to put up with this odious nonsense, and this flagrant looting of the nation is prime tinder for a nasty political blowback. What kind of vision of the future are you offering when you say that things are going to be terrible forever and rich criminals will never face justice?


Moreover, the idea that this isn't a solvable problem is just completely false. Hell, all of those pardons could be fixed by the simple expedient of not allowing the president to pardon people in exchange for personal financial gain. It doesn't have to be like this and there are numerous governments throughout history and the world that have prevented this kind of behavior and stopped it.




Nobody remembers the man that Luigi killed and nothing changed whatsoever.




Actually, the recent wave of warehouse burnings was directly inspired by his shooting.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Extension du domaine de la lutte. The progressive ideal of re-distributing wealth is at least logically possible, but it's fundamentally impossible to re-distribute everyone a big house in the best locations and a high status mate. If being better than others is essential to happiness, then perhaps that is humanity's punishment for eating the forbidden fruit.




There is a vast gulf between "viable access to family formation" and "elite mansion with access to the most desirable partner". It isn't really arguable that modern society is failing to provide the former to a far larger portion of the population than it did in the past. The fact that "absolute living standards" means that we now have far more convenient and easy to use sports betting applications and larger flatscreen TVs doesn't really address the serious material concerns that a lot of people are facing.


At the same time, a lot of the visible concentrations of wealth in modern society are nakedly and undeniably antisocial. Take a look at some of President Trump's recent pardons - several of them have gone to people who defrauded the government or the greater populace. When people get angry at Joseph Schwartz, they're not envious that he's so much richer and better than him - they're furious that he cut costs in a way that lead to the death of their relatives while simultaneously avoiding paying tax. His wealth was explicitly gained in a way that harmed the rest of society, and yet our current system ensured he largely escaped consequences while the people who sued him and won in court received no compensation. While that's just one of the more prominent examples from recent news, you don't have to look particularly hard to find all sorts of examples of people profiting by dumping negative externalities on the public.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I think the real signal that is being pointed to by this kind of comment is that women find being subordinate in male dominance hierarchies to be an unattractive trait in a potential mate. At the same time, men will often say that being overweight is an unattractive trait in a potential mate - but overweight women still get laid. Men prefer virgins, but non-virginal women get married all the time and there are plenty of virgins who are virgins simply because no men would want to be with them for other reasons. Living off roadkill while living in a shack is a much bigger hit to a man's desirability than having a boss, and that's a trade most women are willing to make - but if you're a woman who believes you deserve only the absolute best of men, you're going to want a man who does not have to adopt a submissive position in a dominance hierarchy while also being a wealthy provider.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


This is an absurd position. Israel has had nukes for ~30 years. Tehran still exists and Israeli nukes have never been used.




The consequences Israel would face for nuking Tehran are worse than the costs imposed by having Iran continue to exist. The optimal strategy for Israel would be to trick some other country into invading Iran for them, and I think the Israelis agree with me on that front.




There was also no conflict between Israel and Iran under the shah. The entire reason this conflict exists is because the Iranian regime wants to kill all the Jews.




The shah who ran an incredibly authoritarian and repressive police state so that western powers could continue to extract Iranian oil without having to share the profits equitably with the Iranians? That shah? The Iranians have a lot of extremely valid reasons to oppose the state of Israel, and collapsing it down to "they just want to kill all the jews" is lazy thinking that gives you a worse and less-clear picture of the world.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Do you believe that Israel is the worst country in the world in terms of being oppressive, trampling on human rights, etc.?




I don't make any special claims on that front - there's probably some truly terrible microstate out there which is worse. The gulf monarchies are probably pretty nasty to their imported workers too - but I will say that Israel is the worst country in the world that is subsidised by my tax dollars and power structures in western countries. That ethnicity-exclusive death penalty law is particularly horrifying.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


the holocaust




Nazis killed a lot of jews and other people they considered undesirable (homosexuals, gypsies, etc).




10/7




Hamas attacked Israel and took a number of hostages in an attempt by Yahya Sinwar to provoke a broader conflict which would destroy Israel's image in the rest of the world and force them into a fight with numerous other powers which they weren't quite ready for.




Usually this is a good way to examine the split between the two.




Actually, the best way to examine the split between the two is to just ask me. On that note, I will cop to being an antisemite according to the definitions adopted by my current government - I believe apartheid is bad and that destroying villages in other countries to settle the ruins is akin to the nazi Lebensraum policy. Along with my opposition to apartheid and race-exclusive death penalty laws, I and the majority of other left-wing people qualify as antisemites under the IHRA definition. I just don't think that definition is particularly useful.


Moreover, if I was actually an antisemite I wouldn't need to hide it here - you can be an open antisemite and still post here, after all. I don't accuse people of being secret racists because they believe that IQ has a heritable component, and I believe that principle should apply to most other discussions and topics on here. As I've said, my opposition to Israel is in no way due to the Jewishness of Israel - if you simply raceswapped every single Israeli jew with Jamaican Rastas my feelings would be identical.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


It's not particularly difficult to simply strap a short-range weapons system onto a ship.




This story is from 2019 - if it was so easy to defeat the Shaheds, why isn't the Strait full of US navy ships easily taking those drones out of the sky and securing freedom of navigation?




This remains to be seen!




True - I actually agree with you here, though doubtless for different reasons.




You'll have to forgive me for believing that it is a viable answer to Shahed drones when I have seen footage of Shahed drones being shot down by guns in a conflict happening right now.




And what happened to the US embassy after that? I'm not claiming that systems like the C-RAM can't destroy those drones, but that they aren't an economically sustainable way to do so. Yes, you can shoot down a bunch of shaheds - but if there are enough of them they will get through, and the cost of making enough of them is lower than the cost of the defensive weapon system. At the same time, they can provide extra targets for the kind of expensive defensive system required to deal with nastier missiles.


If the US has robust and cost-effective anti-Shahed defence systems, why are their troops working from home in hotels? Why have they abandoned so many of their military bases in the region? Why isn't the US navy proudly sailing through the strait, drones defeated? Why is petroleum infrastructure in the gulf region blowing up so frequently? If what you're claiming is true the world would look very different today.




No defense is 100% effective, and I am not claiming that. I am claiming the general idea that there is no way to counter Shaheds is overblown. The Ukrainians do it on the cheap all the time.




The main issue is not that Shaheds cannot be stopped - the issue is that they cannot be stopped in an economically viable fashion. The cost of anti-Shahed deterrence weapons is significantly higher than the cost of simply making more shaheds. As for Ukraine, I'm uncertain - I don't trust much of the information coming out of that warzone, and Russia has been making a lot of alterations and changes to their Gerans (did you see that new Jet Geran they announced recently?). If there's compelling and verifiable evidence that the Ukrainians are managing to deal with Russian drone warfare, I'll believe it - but that evidence is probably going to have to come in the form of them retaking all the territory they've lost so far.




The US transited two destroyers through the strait, so...if the drones were so scary, why did that happen?




Did they? I've heard conflicting reports about that incident, and the last I heard they ran away.




Based on the Houthis' experience, it seems pretty clear that torpedoes ("suicide drones"), ballistic missiles, and conventional missiles are a greater threat to shipping.




I agree with this. I'm sorry if I gave the impression I was advocating for some kind of Shahed-exclusive force - I've always been thinking about them in the context of a broader military package which includes the things you've just mentioned.




while to my knowledge China hasn't produced any Shaheds.




They're selling them on Alibaba - if you've got a spare 50k lying around you could buy one right now. They're advertised as ideal for spraying pesticides or taking photos for land surveying (not sure if they actively advertise them as suicide attack drones).


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Oh, then kindly identify two hospitals which (1) Israel blew up; and (2) were NOT being used for offensive purposes against Israel. Please provide cites and links for your claims.




Wikipedia actually has a giant list of them - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attacks_on_health_facilities_during_the_Gaza_war


While it is actually extremely difficult to prove a negative, there's no real verifiable evidence that these hospitals were actually secret terror bases. Wikipedia covers these allegations as well, and for the majority of allegations the evidence provided is "classified Israeli military intelligence that cannot be made public" - i.e. completely worthless, because if they did have that evidence they would doubtless release it.


Similarly, we can actually point at a very consistent Israeli pattern of attacking medical and aid workers - are you familiar with the murder of Hind Rajab? You're more than welcome to make the argument that the five year old girl was actually a secret Hamas military asset, but I don't think that'll get you very far.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I cannot imagine hating jews so




You might want to work on your cognitive flexibility then - I can imagine hating jews that much pretty easily, it isn't particularly hard. More importantly, I actually have to imagine it - I get along just fine with the torah jews and other antizionist Jews. When I object to the murder of Hind Rajab, the ethnicity of the people doing the shooting of young girls doesn't really enter into the calculus. If they were Japanese Shinto practitioners, I'd feel just as strongly about what they did! Israel is singled out not because it is the Jewish State consisting of Jews practicing Judaism, but because it is in large part funded by western power structures and has a direct negative impact on people.




I cannot imagine hating the jews so much that you support adversaries that want you and your way of life to end and die




I don't believe the Iranians are adversaries that want me and my way of life to end, and I've gotten along just fine with Shia Iranian coworkers in the past. There's been far more hostility to my way of life as a result of the countless wars in the Middle East that have been fought for Israeli interests.




And perhaps most importantly, I don't understand why all the anti-Jew posters can't just hate Israel and want Iran to lose at the same time.




You really should work on that - it isn't hard at all to understand why people who don't like Israel would want Israel's chief regional competitor to remain strong and capable of causing problems for them. The only reason Iran is a problem for people in the West is that our governments are helplessly tied to Israel - the Strait of Hormuz was free for everyone to transit until Israel forced the US into this war (as per the claims of notorious anti-semites Marco Rubio, J.D. Vance and Donald Trump).


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Gish Gallop,




This isn't reddit anymore buddy. You have to actually make an argument if you want to convince anyone - come back when you're capable of participating in an adult conversation.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Defensive. Stance.




Of the two approaches referred to as the Samson option (threatening europe and asia for failing to defend them or just simply nuking the entire region if they were about to fall) none of them qualify as defensive. They serve solely to make the rest of the world suffer if the Israeli regime falls. That's not defensive, just spiteful - and further evidence that Israel needs to be disarmed for the sake of the entire world.




Iran has been engaged in terrorist attacks against Israel for literally decades. Now also engaging in terrorist attacks on other non-Israel neighbors.




Israel has been responsible for far more terror attacks than Iran. How much white phosphorus has Iran used against civilian populations?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Samson is a defensive stance,




lol, lmao




Fundamentally Iran is a nation that is running around punching people in the face.




I'm surprised, I thought you would have kept up with news from the Middle East if you're going to talk about it with that level of confidence. This may come as a shock, but Israel is currently invading Lebanon, deploying white phosphorus on civilians, demolishing homes, blowing up hospitals and now moving settlers in to build houses on their newly acquired living space. They are in fact punching people in the face, right now! They have been punching people in the face for several years, and they launched the first strike on Iran.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


After they closed the strait, the many nations of the world made it clear that there was no such custom, so Trump closing the strait is perfectly in line with precedent.




Wasn't the precedent already set by the US in Cuba and Venezuela?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I don’t see why else they’d have such a fixation on nuclear power in the most oil rich region of the world and while being sanctioned for having nuclear energy.




I'm not a supporter of nuclear power but this is actually extremely easy to answer - oil does not replenish itself on a timescale relevant to human life. If I have a gigantic pile of savings but no income, it would actually make a lot of sense for me to try and find a way to support myself before that gigantic pile of savings runs out.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Iran is far more likely to use it, sell it, or cause problems than any current nuclear actor and the inability to recognize this is simply horrifying.




I don't think this is true - ever heard of the Samson option? I'd trust the Iranians with a nuke far more than Israel.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


If you're going to discuss this stuff with me on here, please do me the courtesy of reading what I write




I did read your post, and I explicitly said I was contradicting your view. I am not unaware of the contents of your post, I just disagree with it. To wit:




Shahed drones are very vulnerable to gunfire, which is cheap. (I assure you the US military has lots of guns).




The kind of guns which are capable of shooting down Shaheds are not going to be standard issue for commercial shipping vessels. How, exactly, are you going to outfit the commercial shipping fleet with all the guns and rockets required to shoot down these drones while simultaneously engaging in an active fight with the Chinese navy on the other side of the country? And if it is the US intervening, remember that the US navy is going to be tied down in Iran and the Middle East as well. All that these drones need to do to finish their mission in this specific case is make commercial traffic unviable, which your proposed solution doesn't actually prevent.


Moreover, we actually have an example of a weapons system used to shoot down shahed drones in the field - the C-RAM system used to protect the US Embassy in Baghdad. The US Embassy in Baghdad has been abandoned, and the C-RAM system failed to provide adequate protection - I'm not sure due to the difficulty of getting footage, but I believe it was actually destroyed by a drone. You'll have to forgive me for not believing this was a viable answer to shahed drones when I have seen footage of it failing to defend against shahed drones in a conflict happening right now.




The US military has now acquired and used very cheap laser-guided rockets, which are within the ballpark range of the cost of a Shahed, specifically for using against drones like the Shahed.




Ok, so how many vessels are transiting the strait right now? If the US has an economic and worthwhile answer to these drones, why haven't they used them to open the Strait of Hormuz? We have a perfect, real-life test case for this technology and what we actually see is the US navy giving up, unable to prevent the Iranians from interdicting or destroying commercial traffic. Furthermore, what are the actual economics of these cheap, laser-guided rockets? Do they rely on components or parts that have to be shipped from China? Is there a manufacturing base capable of supplying enough of them to outpace Iran, China and Russia's production of Shahed/Shahed derivatives?