Mantergeistmann
No bio...
User ID: 323
Mantergeistmann
6mo ago
Underdog analysis can also be complicated by questions of scope--are we talking about Israel vs. Hamas, Israel vs. Hamas + the wider Islamic world that funds them, or Israel + its supporters in the US vs. Hamas + the wider Islamic world?
That's one of the interesting things about power... local power can be a massively different beast than total power, or even future local power.
"My garden may be smaller than your Rome, but my pilum is harder than your sternum", and all that.
Mantergeistmann
4mo ago
Hiding behind one to advance another, however, is deceitful.
How so? Isn't it just tailoring your argument for your audience? Does it matter how or why or for what reasons someone agrees to your end goal, so long as they do? If your goal is prohibition, of course you're not going to use the same argument on the baptists as you are on the bootleggers.
Mantergeistmann
2mo ago
she's anti-Semitic, the goblin bankers* are Jewish caricatures!
I think that argument has been quietly dropped since Oct 7. Its very difficult to argue that *she's * dog-whistling by setting the goblin uprising during a year when something bad happened to a Jewish community elsewhere in Europe, but that chanting a slogan used by an openly genocidal group isn't an anti-semitic dogwhistle.
It will, of course, still be vaguely remembered on the internet that of course she's been proven to be anti-semitic and that the details don't matter, but that's just the way things always work. (And, as an aside, that sort of thing really pisses me off in a general way - that the accusations are bunk, but get forgotten and stick regardless)
Mantergeistmann
7mo ago
TF2. 24/7 Insta-Respawn 2Fort only.
Mantergeistmann
5mo ago
Will Al-Shifa be the turning point, one way or another? Or will nothing change? If the IDF takes the hospital, and there are tunnels there, will anyone change their tune, or will it be "Well, the IDF was telling the truth this one time, but they still shouldn't have killed babies"? If there are no tunnels, will Israel back off and end their campaign in shame (their own and the US intelligence community's), or will they try to brazen it out and assume no real net change in total hatred for them? If Hamas blows the tunnels and collapses the area to avoid giving Israel evidence, will anyone accept that it wasn't an Israeli bomb?
Or am I overestimating the importance of this one battle and the massive accompanying news coverage?
Mantergeistmann
8mo ago
Money and muscle, that’s what I want; to be able to do any damned thing I want and get away with it. Money won’t do that altogether, because if a man is a weakling, all the money in the world won’t enable him to soak an enemy himself; on the other hand, unless he has money he may not be able to get away with it.
- Robert E. Howard
Mantergeistmann
1yr ago
My understanding is that men are still allowed to attend such things. However, i have no doubts that an equivalent event advertising itself specifically for men (but still allowing women) would either draw the wrath of Title IX, or else be overwhelmed with women showing up in protest.
edit: What Voxel said below.
Mantergeistmann
4mo ago
I'm considering getting an induction hotplate for work (I checked - it's allowed, either at the kitchen, or at my own desk, which is vaguely horrifying to me). What's the most eccentric thing I can cook/make that won't take too much time out of the day?
Mantergeistmann
6mo ago
The usuals amongst my friends are already talking about how it's a war crime to shut off the water (that Israel desalinates...), so I don't expect this to change the moral responsibility assessment in most people.
Mantergeistmann
7mo ago
The reporting there is fascinating. I appreciate how long it takes for them to actually name the hand gesture in question. Uncharitably, because they know their readers would take it less seriously if they used the phrase "OK sign".
Mantergeistmann
7mo ago
I'm pretty sure it will just be interpreted as "here's yet more proof that Israel is a colonialist/apartheid state, they don't even allow the Palestinians to control their own basic human needs like food and water!"
Mantergeistmann
9mo ago
Wasn't Macedonia's change a result of international politics rather than internal? I.e. Greece took issue with it?
Mantergeistmann
5mo ago
will actively and persuasively lie instead of saying something along the lines "I didn't see shit and if I did it would be unsafe to tell you."
I think that's the big concern, but it's also difficult to ask them to not lie if Hamas is demanding it. Other than journalists (and NGO headquarters) getting wise to the fact that they can't, in theory, trust anyone on the ground to not be making statements that are under duress, I don't think this problem (them acting as mouthpieces for Hama propaganda) can be solved.
Especially if it's the exact same statement they'd make if the hospital were empty, and they were filled with righteous indignation and a war crime.
Mantergeistmann
10mo ago
I have a bit of a weird stance on vigilantism. I think it's morally justified... as long as the vigilante immediately turns themselves in, pleads guilty, and accepts the punishment meted out by the court. That allows for redress of extreme injustice by someone with sufficient conviction to accept the result of their actions, but prevents an endless cycle of retaliatory extrajudicial violence.
In theory, at least. I'm sure it's a terrible idea in real life.
Mantergeistmann
6mo ago
A bar owner is a powerful and scary enough wizard to scare away one of the main villains of the game, while the entire Hogwarts staff, and government of magical England is just kind of an afterthought that the evil wizard isn't worried about at all?
I will admit, i do love the classic D&D trope of "the bartender is a retired level 18 fighter" and wish more media would lean into that. The evil overlord *isn't * afraid of the king, a level 7 noble, or his guards, a bunch of level 5 warriors (at best). But the old dude who wrecked 15 dragons and seven demon lords, and has his old +5 hackmaster hanging above the fireplace (crossed with a decorative useless sword), and the dusty suit of armor holding the menu is his mithral full plate of speed? Now *that's * who the overlord worries about, plans for, and tries to keep out of the fight.
Mantergeistmann
5mo ago
You're quite right. None of the news sources I've read has said anything about what's stopping Israel from just walking up to the reception desk with a bunch of fuel cans and spare generators, and having a look around for tunnels while they're there. The assumption has to be that either it's defended by Hamas, or that Israel is kayfabing that it's defended by Hamas, but no news outlets seem to want to say anything beyond "the doctors say there's no Hamas, but we as reporters didn't bother to ask the IDF commander why they don't just walk inside."
It's really, really weird to read.
Mantergeistmann
7mo ago
There was something something pressure and corruption and scandals and such, or possible two such incidents that I'm conflating (Burisma, Hunter Biden, corrupt prosecutors, military aid being blocked?), such that the left was generally "Ukraine establishment good" and the right was generally "Ukraine establishment corrupt". That and the fact that once Biden was Pro- arming them, the Right had to swing against him, and then the Left had to get in line.
Mantergeistmann
4mo ago
I tend to go more for "amusing" than "annoying", but it's a matter of taste, I know.
Mantergeistmann
11mo ago
The most popular women's sport by far is tennis, but even there, a quick perusal of the world rankings reveals no household names.
I mean, isn't that more that the very well known Williams sisters didn't really have any obvious successors for the public eye?
Mantergeistmann
10mo ago
Didn't something recently happen with the mods of /r/Battletech being replaced, and people rejoicing over there because it was The Wrong Sort of people getting kicked out?
Mantergeistmann
6mo ago
Wasnt there that white kid who was also kneeled on, died, and then the cops were aquitted? Had an alliterative name, i think.
Mantergeistmann
10mo ago
There's been something weird about writing in media (and gaming) for a while now, and i wonder how much of it has to do with graphics and effects. As they become more and more of a budget, and the writer therefore becomes a smaller percentage, people start thinking that the writing doesn't matter (rather than seeing it as a high return place to spend your money, since doubling the salary and getting a better writer would be a small percentage of the overall cost).
Mantergeistmann
8mo ago
I'm reminded of my favorite counter-factual: suppose that the BLM-adjacent riot at the White House that one night in summer (which resulted in dozens of injuries to the Secret Service) had succeeded in breaking down the doors. Would that have been an insurrection? I feel like the current battle lines would, for the most part, swap entirely.
Mantergeistmann
5mo ago
the audio recording is on their page here if you scroll down. Do you think this is legitimate or AI-generated?
Speaking of, whatever came of the various audio logs the IDF claim to have intercepted? Was there ever any good analysis done on those?
You mean like the work permit program that was going on and growing prior to the attack?
More options
Context Copy link