Shakes
1mo ago
I gotta add though thanks for starting an argument about Brett Devereaux because I feel like I've been holding in some opinions about him for years without the proper forum for venting about it
Shakes
1mo ago
Yeah Devereaux's analysis on why the books are logistically realistic in a way the movies are not is one of his best analyses. It might redeem the rest of his blogging career.
Shakes
1mo ago
The Spartans themselves were clear that they didn't even try to not suck off the battlefield.
If you want to judge the Spartans as "they suck" because you don't agree with them, you're not really engaging with the spirit of history. Your assessment of the Spartans doesn't tell us anything about Sparta, it tells us about your particular modern ideas. You might as well as not be doing history, you're not doing history, your assessment of the Spartans was pre-determined from your moral priors. What about this strikes you as worth doing? You already know what you think.
just how much suckitude
If you think Spartans are cool, then you are wrong.
a fun place to laugh at bad movie military history
to build badassitude
A lot of former world leaders who were gay for Leonidas looked at the British
Look I don't want to be mean but this style of writing codes to me as so decidedly unserious that I'm not actually sure what you think you're doing. It conjures up to me a whole stereotype of ironic millennials can't say what they mean because the style is more important than the substance. This attitude often exists in a discourse where arguments are not even considered as arguments but as exercises in taste, you're not just wrong if you don't like Obama or Vietnamese food or Black Lives Matter, you're a bad person. Maybe that's just me projecting something onto you of which you are totally unrelated. But I feel the need to explain this because, again, it's hard for me to otherwise model the mental universe of someone professing to discuss history seriously while using concepts like "suckitude" and "badassitude".
Shakes
1mo ago
The thing is, there is no Motte! Or rather, there is no interesting Motte. Empires rising and falling because {many reasons} is the boring yet correct explanation.
If you have an argument about why empires rise and fall you believe is indisputable, you should write it. You would solve one of the most hotly-contested controversies in all historical scholarship. Spengler Tainter Gibbons Ibn Khaldun Toynbee Diamond Montesquieu Burckhardt Mommsen Braudel Wallerstein Marx etc etc
"There is no interesting Motte"? This sounds so absurd to me I have to assume you're describing twitter reply guys and not the broader scholastic field of studying imperial collapse, where there are absolutely a million mottes. Which is the exact problem with Devereaux: he turns all his historical training on random internet anons to fight a culture war, probably because his historical chops are not strong enough to actually make a dent in the field of study.
Shakes
1mo ago
Devereaux runs a moderately successful old-style blog where he wrote a somewhat famous series of essays outlining his position on Sparta. I read them several times and found them very exhaustively researched. In a way that makes it difficult to rebut his position without going to a lot of work. But, ultimately, I thought that his theory of Sparta started with a base incredulity. He can't believe that there was ever anything about Sparta that anyone ever found admirable. So all his research is just exhaustive fact-checking to prove that whatever you the reader or other ancient Greeks liked about Sparta, well, those reasons are pants-on-fire false. A lot of historians play this game where they "prove" their moral judgments because their historical judgments are so exhaustive. (This is also how a lot of people treat Robert Caro.)
Shakes
1mo ago
At the end of the day, the only political idea Trump truly believes from the bottom of his heart is that he should be president.
If you really believe this there's not much productive discussion we can have because we will keep running into endless disagreements over basic facts about Trump. Is it even possible to prove that Trump does have consistent beliefs and has often suffered consequences for them? Not if we assert, a priori, that Trump just had those positions because they were convenient, so there must be some explanation of how those consequences were convenient. Now we can predict anything Trump ever does with a theory that can never be wrong.
the decision to pull the DHS forces out of Minneapolis was already made
There are still DHS forces in Minneapolis.
Shakes
1mo ago
Bad Bunny had a billboard up at the top of the stadium proclaiming "THE ONLY THING MORE POWERFUL THAN HATE IS LOVE". Therefore, Bad Bunny's halftime show was about a message of love and if you didn't like it it's because you're full of hate.
(I don't even remember seeing this billboard at all during the show itself, it primarily showed up online during social media discussion afterwards.)
Shakes
1mo ago
Seems like this judge might have just invented a multi-billion dollar market in legal LLMs run by your lawyer and covered under attorney-client privilege. Have your lawyer spin up an LLM in a box that’s specifically between you and your lawyer. At least, if my lawyer sends me an email that’s covered so there must be some workaround equivalent.
Shakes
1mo ago
Or, we can accept this schizophrenic definition of evidence, where any accusation or implication made by anybody anywhere is evidence, and maybe we can agree on the following:
- There is evidence that Donald Trump raped and murdered a little girl
- There is evidence that Ted Lieu raped and murdered a little girl
- There is a LOT of evidence that the 2020 election was stolen
- There is evidence that the moon landing was faked by Stanley Kubrick
- There is evidence that the Corona plandemic slash scamdemic was a Chinese plot by Anthony Fauci to poison us with mRNA technologies
- There is evidence that a satanic pedophile cabal is running the Democratic Party and wants to install Hillary Clinton as president
Heck, I’ve even heard accounts in my lifetime that the aliens want to conquer earth for our stable supply of quartz, and you can tell which politicians are controlled by the demons by the shapes of their ears. It’s all in the book of OASPIE
There’s evidence for everything in the world! That’s what “evidence” means
Shakes
1mo ago
Nobody really thinks an anonymous random or motivated accusation constitutes evidence. There is no evidence Trump raped and murdered a little girl. I think you’re committed to defending this ridiculous definition of evidence because the alternative is admitting that Bondi did not commit some kind of perjury, and you were wrong.
Shakes
1mo ago
I was promised a pedophile sex cult new world, not elite insider trading. I don’t know I guess I don’t know much about this specifically, maybe you should elaborate. Because this sounds like the kind of scandal that’s happening everywhere all the time, except this involves Jeffrey Epstein, who we know is the new Hitler, which means it must be really bad.
I think it’s bad Bill Gates cheated on his wife then gave her an STD risk and wanted to sneak her antibiotics, but I’m not sure what public good is advanced by these files being exposed.
Shakes
1mo ago
They lied to get us into the Iraq War. This exact attitude is why we got Trump. So in a way you deserve it.
Shakes
1mo ago
Look it’s one thing if Congress becomes a dysfunctional clown show that does nothing but produce clippets for TikTok but let’s not here dignify that by workshopping all the ways those clowns could have better pandered their quips for our sensibilities
Shakes
1mo ago
“u/magicalkittycat participated in a child sacrifice cannibal ritual on Mount Clinton. What, that’s a solid accusation, that makes it evidence, you have to refute this now, there’s evidence!”
We all understand what “no evidence” actually means. It assumes implicitly that some claims are so low-effort that they don’t merit rebutting. When you call random anonymous tip line accusations about child rape “evidence” you’re implicitly asserting that they’re credible. Otherwise, what kind of gotcha language game is this?
The falsehood happens when Ted Lieu treats total bullshit as worth anyone’s time. Then, when Bondi dismisses this out of hand, he gets to act offended. That’s what this all is, it’s an obvious political stunt. It’s manipulative and it’s not in good faith. Unless you want to argue that “Donald Trump raped and killed a child” is credible, then it’s obvious that the distinction between “no evidence” and “no credible evidence” collapses. Or what, is Pam Bondi getting angry at obvious bullshit supposed to be a crime now because Ted technically rigged the question? This isn’t subtle and everyone knows exactly what’s meant here.
Shakes
1mo ago
Why the head of the FBI chose to treat that hearing as a defensive MAGA brawl, drawing more attention to it, than just matter-of-factly answering the questions as if there are serious people working on serious matters, is something I will never understand. Ted Lieu's presentation of uncorroborated tip line craziness
Doesn't this answer itself? Ted Lieu repeated accusations that Trump raped a child and killed it, this isn't a serious matter, these aren't serious people. Maybe Placid Bondi would have been a better media strategy. But given that senior Democrats are now arguing we have a pedophile president coverup, I'm not convinced any other Bondi media strategy would have received less criticism. Bondi could have been totally calm and relaxed and people would be saying, "The head of the FBI doesn't care about crimes, she's drawing more attention to the coverup!"
Shakes
1mo ago
Arthur Miller's interpretation of the Salem Witch Trials as sexual hysteria looks better and better every year.
Shakes
1mo ago
There's a very simple mechanism for the Trump admin to use that they refuse to, release the Epstein files as required by law
The Trump administration is currently releasing the files. You can argue that they're being forced to so it doesn't really get them any credit. But in that case, nothing that's been revealed so far seems to justify all the hullabaloo.
they still had tons of time to prepare as it was being drafted and passed.
I think you dramatically underestimate the work involved in releasing sensitive materials. Dozens of bored overworked lawyers combing through millions of files by hand navigating an impossible mandate to release everything, all at once, now, but also nothing that violates national security.
Shakes
1mo ago
But ok sure, let's assume it really is just a nothingburger. Well that's what they get for spending years apparently lying to the public and courting the "conspiracy theorists" with bold claims. You can't just keep talking about the elite pedo rings you're gonna drain the swamp of, get into power and then say "nothing here".
Well, whether it's true or not, the important thing is you've found a way to blame MAGA either way.
If there's nothing substantial to be gleaned, why is there still so much being actively hidden? Does the Trump admin just engage in coverups for the fun of it? This strategy of drawing it out for seemingly no reason has been nothing but egg on their face over and over, why do they insist on slow walking it and hiding so much of the files?
Congress passed a law demanding 200 pizzas for the high school football team's championship game half an hour before closing and is shocked that all 200 pizzas aren't out piping hot and ready by the time the call is done. As in, what exactly do you think it looks like to process and release documents? There's just a big button Trump is refusing to push?
That's still bad that he would have been running a fancy prostitute esque service for the elites, even if it's at least not a pedo ring.
What objection would you have with Epstein in this scenario?
Shakes
1mo ago
I think this is the real answer. The Winter Olympics are fun; skiing and skating and sledding are fun, even transcendent events. But the Summer Olympics has football, running, swimming, gymnastics, fighting, wrestling, is synonymous with sport itself. The Winter Olympics are the off-year minor cycle.
Shakes
1mo ago
Are Québécois Canadian?
"Canadian" as an identity was forged specifically to include the Quebecois, although one could argue that mainline "Canada" is Anglo and the Quebecois are outside of it.
If you removed Puerto Rico from America tomorrow America would barely notice. Maybe Puerto Rico itself would be deeply upset, although I imagine it would be a fairly mixed bag overall. The "Puerto Rican" identity would continue to develop, on its own lines, more or less as it already has.
Shakes
1mo ago
That doesn't really answer the question as I asked it but answers a different question entirely
Shakes
1mo ago
I actually liked the halftime show, I enjoy bright lights and catchy music. I like the parts where the singers dance and wear costumes. I think it's fun when the team scores a touchdown and everybody cheers or boos. And the commercials are so much fun.
I also think nobody will be talking about this in about 24 hours, maybe 48, maybe 36, at best. I'm just going to keep scrolling. Maybe tomorrow we can talk about how Clavicular just got brutally frame-mogged by a frat leader at ASU.
There have been several "based" defenses of Bad Bunny's halftime show. They seem to rely on an association with the Donroe Doctrine. My contrarian defense is different: The logic of the show accepts, implicitly, that to be an American is the highest good. We aren't tearing America down with how it's an evil slavery plantation black murder genocide colonial settler great Satan. No, America is great. I'm Bad Bunny, I'm American, I'm the country of Guatemala, I'm American too. Everybody wants to be America. The cheerleaders are all shaking their fat asses because they love being American. The sugar canes and empanadas and Puerto Rican flag are all American, it's very important you see us as American, we have to be American. America, America.
And within the logic of friend-enemy obviously this is all some sort of reconquista anti-anglo anti-conservative pro-Spanish inverse morality play, and Trump and MAGA are right to perceive this as an attack. But the attack actually says "we're American too, maybe more American than you are," which is a response to MAGA, because MAGA is running the conversation now. Trump is the most important thing in the world, we have to defeat MAGA, we have to reclaim America, we have to RESPOND.
And then, also, it's just a silly dance routine where celebrities dress up in costumes and nobody will even remember this after about five o'clock and it's dinner time and it smells like meatloaf and mashed potatoes again. Kendrick Lamar, oh yeah I remember that, yeah that's what the show was last year right?Hey did you see that Mark Carney just got brutally frame-mogged by a Trump leader at G7?
This is like if I said there are lots of theories of death, and you said, well, death is complicated and caused by lots of things, so there can’t be a theory. But there are lots of such theories.
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