JTarrou
12hr ago
The steelman is that a 30-yo man having a normal, consensual relationship with a legal adult female age 24 is something that currently can fall under "pedophilia" in the national discourse. The issue isn't that "real" pedophilia has some redeeming quality (it doesn't), it's that because of that very evil, we will never be able to define it narrowly enough to stay pure evil. People will always be looking to smear that taint onto stuff that isn't quite, or even close to pedophilia.
And anyone who argues the minutia (e.g. "ephebophilia") just gets bulldozed as "pro-pedo".
JTarrou
2d ago
We're seeing a lot of caretaker governments by nonentities in Europe these days. They get these unstable coalitions to try to keep the "far right" (usually the center left actually) out of power, which are unpopular and constantly lose elections, but always staple together the ruling class to keep the troglodytes out. Meanwhile parties on the actual right are forming to outflank the relatively liberal (Reform, AFD, FN etc) opposition parties.
The opposition becomes steadily less controlled.
JTarrou
4d ago
I was speaking very generally. To staff their military, administrative posts and sensitive staff like harem guards, they used slaves who at least early on could not pass down property for one reason or another. Some were physically made eunuchs, Janissaries early on were forbidden to marry, etc. Over time these restrictions broke down as the slave class gained power. Point is, the Ottomans had a pipeline of carefully selected, above average slaves directly owned by the Sultan and educated at great expense for personal loyalty and professional competence. That's the sort of selection process you need to staff an empire, but it isn't stable long term.
My point is that all these societies are trying to solve the same problem. You need competent and relatively low-corruption staff, preferably not from the existing elites and preferably not that can pass on anything they do accumulate to any family. How you get there is any combination of sterilization, religion, legal restriction etc. It often changes over time, as everyone wants to make a little something to pass on to their kids, and no system is totalizing enough to prevent all offspring. It just needs to be a high enough rate of churn in this administrative class to keep it from becoming its own political entity. Of course, this never works long term, and isn't in our case or that of the Ottomans.
But it is a problem that has to be solved to even have an empire past the lifetime of one great man. This is what Alexander and Ghengis Khan lacked. The jump from feudally-organized personal loyalty of military commanders to ability-selected and specially trained professional bureaucrats. This is why Rome, Egypt and China created lasting civilizations, while Alexander and Ghengis changed out the CEO for a generation. There was no underlying structure loyal to the state itself.
JTarrou
6d ago
That's more precise than anything we get out of Ukraine and Gaza. Good enough for government work, I believe is the phrase.
JTarrou
6d ago
Yeah, Adam never really worked in hollywood again after that, and Jimmy got a late night slot. Adam was a very early podcaster, I believe, and has always been conservative in a centrist blue collar way.
I rewatched the first episode of the Man Show recently, which is why I posted this. What surprised me in retrospect was how not-skimpy most of the trampoline outfits were. Some were in bikinis, and there were plenty of panty shots, but the actual clothing was stuff that you could see in church, more or less. Schoolgirl outfits with knee-length skirts. Long-sleeve sweater combos. It seems like a very old concept of "skimpy".
Deranged internet leftists have never been able to stampede major institutions into implementing their demands? It's all online screeching until the DOJ mandates the screeching.
So yeah, I'm gonna stay in the pocket on this one too.
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