Mantergeistmann
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User ID: 323
Mantergeistmann
4mo ago
Israel has dropped white phosphorus on Gaza. Yes, but it's not unique. White phosphorous is too useful to not drop; everybody be dropping white phosphorous. If it lands on you you will die one of the worst deaths imaginable; but armies generally don't directly try to land it on people.
My understanding of WP is that the "warcrimeness" is based entirely on if its being used (nominally) for smokescreens/illumination/whatnot, or if its being used as an offensive burning weapon against enemy forces in a civilian area - the latter being Bad and the former being Eh, Fine Enough.
Mantergeistmann
4mo ago
Man, the confederate flag has really taken a nosedive in terms of cultural... something.... over the past decade or two, hasn't it?
Mantergeistmann
4mo ago
The only exception is when the argument for legality is frivolous, which this one was not, given that the final vote in the Supreme Court was 6-3.
The obvious counter-argument there is a claim that partisan justices gonna' partisan, and the breakdown has no bearing on frivolity as opposed to politics.
Mantergeistmann
4mo ago
I'm reminded of Shamus Young's old post about Twitter:
Twitter is like owning a television that only shows me scandals by the Yellows, and acts of virtue by Purple. I no longer have to go to the trouble of fooling myself. We’ve invented software to automate and industrialize the process, and then added a scoring system so that the masses will constantly bring it fresh fuel. It’s a system of rules with the emergent property of creating a continuous flow of crowd-sourced propaganda. We’ve gameified tribal bigotry.
Mantergeistmann
4mo ago
I tend to go more for "amusing" than "annoying", but it's a matter of taste, I know.
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
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
5mo ago
(Isn't the problem that there is no power for their incubators, not that they didn't have enough incubators? How are these new IDF incubators meant to be powered? Or delivered?)
I heard these incubators had their own power (or at least didn't require being plugged in) and so could also function to move the infants if necessary, but that was a single article that I can't recall the source of.
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
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
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?
Mantergeistmann
5mo ago
You mean like the work permit program that was going on and growing prior to the attack?
Mantergeistmann
5mo 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
I suggest you remember the maine instead.
The spontaneous coal combustion?
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
6mo ago
Mantergeistmann
6mo ago
The SoS dissent memo?
SoS dissent memo? I tried various searches but couldn't figure out what you're referring to.
Mantergeistmann
6mo ago
There's a difference between "deliberately targeting civilians" and "collateral damage in urban combat".
Mantergeistmann
6mo ago
I really wish right wingers ever got this kind of charitable takes.
As do I! I wish everyone received charitable takes, and I'm damned well going to fight for everyone to receive charitable takes (other than possibly in a "I know you didn’t mean this, but now maybe you are a bit more empathetic to what it's like to be on the receiving end of this sort of thing, and how stupid it all is.")
Mantergeistmann
6mo ago
That was the only weird part to me as well. Why on earth would someone have left it in the photo? But this makes a lot of sense.
Mantergeistmann
6mo ago
This is exactly the sort of thing I'd hate when it was used by the Left against the Right, and turns out... I still hate it. A pox on whoever first decided that "dogwhistles" were a thing. You might as well say she's pro-corporate-monopolies.
Mantergeistmann
6mo ago
Shame about his passing this year. He was good at what he did.
What I wouldn't give for him to have been here for the System Shock remake and BG3.
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
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.
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.
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