Pigeon
coo coo
No bio...
User ID: 237
Pigeon
coo coo
2d ago
I don't understand. It doesn't seem to me that german economy was any more dependent on slave labor than any other european country, arguably less since they didn't have any colonies. The countries they conquered during WW2 they had for a handful of year, all of which spent at war.
It's difficult to defend Nazi Germany as having used slave labour pre-WW2 (as they didn't), other issues with the economy aside. That said, for post-war planning, one can look at Generalplan Ost...
Pigeon
coo coo
2d ago
Really? I would've thought that the women in the Jiangnan area (e.g. Suzhou) and maybe Sichuan (at least in the modern era) were more stereotyped as pretty.
Pigeon
coo coo
4d ago
Rarely there can be forced intercourse at gunpoint. I believe there were cases of this in Nanjing during WW2.
Pigeon
coo coo
5d ago
Maybe this is where the right and the left end up agreeing, but I do believe ALL men are rapists. I have rape fantasies. Though they’re mostly like being an explorer and having captured tribal girls - Columbus had an account of giving one to his buddy. No rape fantasy of raping within my tribe.
Well, at the very least here’s a n=1 disproof with myself as someone who hasn’t had anything remotely like that and who finds rape porn less arousing than consensual. (Rape porn with real actors is actively a turnoff.)
More generally the vibe I get is that men on the whole really don’t get off to rape.
But surely this response to one day of no-masking in the venue is absurd? I feel like you're picking out the physical non-absurd bit (literally chances of respiratory infection are lower if everyone wears N95s religiously for obvious reasons, also ignoring that most common infections are spread through physical contact) and intentionally ignoring the actually insane bit like the claims that this is a "mass disabling event" or that this is "[killing] disabled people in the name of [their] own leisure and convenience" or that this is eugenicist or that they should be firebombed?
Like how can this be justifiable as "not that crazy"???
Pigeon
coo coo
12d ago
Most of this is not that crazy if you accept
some basic tenets of progressivismphysics
What exactly would be crazy according to you?
but I have come across public spaces with this kind of vibe before: inclusive yet pleasant to be in
Pleasant to be in??!
Pigeon
coo coo
19d ago
I'm the main cook of the household, and I have to deal with the "eating the same thing is boring" issue as my partner dislikes having the same meal frequently. I cook anywhere from a few times a week to once a week; previously I might've cooked every other day or more (but work commitments made this unfeasible in the long term). I tend to cook various southern Chinese regional cuisines as my partner prefers Chinese, but historically I would've made modern Japanese, French, Italian, etc. food as well.
I echo the idea of making big batches of freezable meals that you can rotate around or pick out in a pinch. This doesn't even necessarily mean that you have to make the complete meal freezable -- one of my go-to freezer options is a classic Bolognese sauce; on a busy day I might cook the tagliatelle on the day and use a few frozen blocks of frozen Bolognese for the sauce. Just check that the things you're making actually do freeze well.
Additionally, if you can spare the space and you're willing to make a large amount of freezable meals, I strongly recommend getting a dedicated freezer. It makes the planning for freezer space (and elimination of wastage) much simpler -- like, you can pretty reasonably store 10+ different sorts of meals all in batches in a chest freezer -- and you can find space for other things as well, like storing bones trimmed from cooking something else or frozen blended fruits for easy smoothies. Chest freezers in particular are a bit more energy efficient than upright ones and tend to have more storage for the same size of freezer.
The understanding of why certain recipes work is useful, of course. Watching videos and reading guides helps, but it also helps to experiment, as well as -- after you have a basic sense for cooking -- comparing different recipes for similar/same dishes and trying to figure out why the changes were made, why the commonalities matter, etc. After a while you learn to modify recipes for yourself as well.
It also helps if you can find something fun to do with cooking. My current "project" is trying to recreate a specific taste and texture from adjusting the seasoning in sushi rice, as well as adapting that for a "modernised" version of an old Chinese dish.
Pigeon
coo coo
19d ago
They're definitely pretentious (especially the film), and the political points in SAC2 just show the shallowness of the political setting despite some effort in fleshing it out.
Regardless, it's good fun.
Pigeon
coo coo
20d ago
The Problem of China isn't any less fawning of the Chinese compared to those essays (I suppose you were recalling the [Eastern and Western] Ideals of Happiness), but I think this is informed in large part by Russell's anti-imperialism and syndicalism/anarchism.
See again in The Problem of China:
The corruption and anarchy in Chinese politics do much less harm than one would be inclined to expect. But for the predatory desires of the Great Powers—especially Japan—the harm would be much less than is done by our own "efficient" Governments. Nine-tenths of the activities of a modern Government are harmful; therefore the worse they are performed, the better. In China, where the Government is lazy, corrupt, and stupid, there is a degree of individual liberty which has been wholly lost in the rest of the world.
I would hardly call that a glowing endorsement politically!
Pigeon
coo coo
21d ago
I recall Bertrand Russell still gushing over China's rational and virtuous political system in the 1920s...
Historical political organisation with the imperial examinations, which he compares favourably with other premodern political systems -- it isn't unreasonable to see some merit in the qualified Mandate of Heaven compared to the less-qualified divine right of kings, and even a flawed meritocracy compared to none at all. In comparison to earlier sinophiles, his support appears to be more muted.
[...] no doubt, as a modern system, the "Eight Legs" deserve all the hard things that he says about them. But in the fourteenth century, when one considers the practicable alternatives, one can see that there was probably much to be said for such a plan. At any rate, for good or evil, the examination system profoundly affected the civilization of China. Among its good effects were: A widely-diffused respect for learning; the possibility of doing without a hereditary aristocracy; the selection of administrators who must at least have been capable of industry; and the preservation of Chinese civilization in spite of barbarian conquest. But, like so much else in traditional China, it has had to be swept away to meet modern needs...
He also recognised the terrible corruption in Chinese politics in the 1920s, though he uses this kind of as a mirror to criticise European imperialism and some parts of modernisation. In any case, I don't think he was under the impression that the anarchy in the late-Qing and Republican eras was good for Chinese society.
I find that in his writings on China he tends to be more generous (arguably excessively so) towards Chinese society rather than its political systems, though; and in his private letters you can see some of his frustrations while living and teaching in China.
I resent this derogatory mention of my species! I’ll have you know that we pigeons pass the mirror test and can recognise words!
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