Tacherus
3d ago
So hypothetically, if I think the President is giving illegal orders to the military, or might, it’s out of bounds to say that to soldiers?
The closest I can get to agreeing is seeing it as an escalation and playing with fire. Something like “a soldier’s duty to disobey illegal orders is extremely serious and can have extremely serious consequences don’t fuck around with it as part of your political posturing.” Is that accurate?
Tacherus
3d ago
You’re right and I’ve revised my view after watching the videos. Somehow what I was picturing from description alone was pretty different.
Tacherus
3d ago
You’re right and I’ve revised my view after watching the videos. Somehow what I was picturing from description alone was pretty different.
Tacherus
3d ago
You’re right and I’ve revised my view after watching the videos. Somehow what I was picturing from description alone was pretty different.
Tacherus
4d ago
I am also not a soldier but my understanding was we actually have a pretty strong tradition of relying on the judgment of ground troops as to whether or not an order is illegal.
Tacherus
4d ago
Has that been confirmed or you’re going off the video? It looks like it from the far away angle but I don’t feel certain from that alone.
Tacherus
4d ago
I didn't follow that one too closely but it seemed like what he said is just...true, isn't it? Was the issue the implication?
Tacherus
4d ago
You’re right the point that out—I’m being brief because I’m on my phone but my full complaint was it seems a bit chickenshit to make the game life or death and then appeal to fearing for your life. If you didn’t want your life at risk don’t step in front of the car.
Tacherus
4d ago
I think you’re conflating “made a bad choice” with “escalating.” She didn’t make the options life or death, though she evidently chose the latter (from watching it it’s not clear there was any intent to harm him).
He helped set the terms. I’m not saying it’s all on him but I’d be pretty surprised if he doesn’t regret stepping in front of that car.
Tacherus
4d ago
I made no mention of a right to escape. I’m just observing that it’s silly to unnecessarily make an escape attempt put your life at risk then hide behind fear for your life when an easy to anticipate behavior occurs.
I think it was dumb to run don’t get me wrong but I don’t see why we should accept “fear for my life” as some kind of blanket excuse.
The police officer changed the outcomes from { arrest, gets away } to { arrest, someone dies }
I agree she chose badly but I still think it was stupid to turn this into a situation where someone might die.
If he weren’t in front of the car and she’d fled would you endorse him shooting at the car to stop her?
Tacherus
4d ago
Because if he’s not in front of the car, her driving forward doesn’t put his life in danger?
He’s escalated it by making escape a threat to his life when it didn’t need to be.
Part of the bargain we make with the state is that the violence is structured, measured, constrained, fair, etc. right?
To play with the argument a bit, standing in front of the car feels like the officer is responsible for escalating the situation since now there’s a deadly weapon in play.
Presumably he stands in front of the car to make it less likely she’ll drive away, but the stakes are now higher than they probably needed to be, right?
Like imagine a police officer talking to someone ten feet away and throwing a knife on the ground in between them. The person then takes a step forward towards the officer and oh my god he’s going for the knife!
Edit: having actually watched the videos now I’m much more sympathetic to standing in front of the car—it seems like he’s walking over to the driver side to potentially help when the driver exits.
Tacherus
6d ago
I find this sort of thing to be rampant in my circles of tech and research especially--reframing an existing thing as though that in and of itself accomplishes something. I worked at a startup once that wanted to write their own data processing pipeline "using category theory," somehow. The only thing more heretical than asking them to say precisely what they meant was to ask why in god's name you'd do such a thing.
Tacherus
5mo ago
I totally believe the gallows humor aspect. What struck me was which topics didn’t get joked about. Being “unhoused” is Very Serious but not being a crack addict whose name sounds like crack.
Tacherus
5mo ago
The Pitt as a lagging culture war indicator
So I’ve been watching The Pitt with my wife lately.
The premise of the show is to follow doctors and nurses in an ER over a single 15-hour shift, much like the old show 24.
The show has been praised for its accuracy and I certainly find it intense at times.
That being said, I’m halfway through the Emmy-nominated season and while the medical drama part is solid, I’ve been repeatedly struck by the culture war aspects of the show.
According to Wikipedia, development began late 2023 after the writers strike and into 2024. The show premiered in early 2025 and has already been renewed.
It’s good and I’ve enjoyed watching it.
That being said….
There’s a bit of a culture war time capsule effect that shows up from time to time. It’s intermittent but fairly heavy-handed I think:
- a medical student is lectured on intent vs impact after offering the aid of a social work to a homeless mom
- a trans woman is treated for a cut and a med student draws attention to the “misgendering” of insurance records. We’re told it’s cool to have fixed this
- we’re shown the “correct” way to interact with an autistic patient. A sr resident has apparently never done this before and is in awe of a second year “neuro-divergent” resident who helps the patient
- a 17 year old girl is brought in for an abortion. The doctors commit fraud to make it happen and even talk the kids mom into it
It’s hard to convey from the descriptions but there are two themes I want to comment on.
The first is what is treated as something to joke about vs a Very Special Message. We get jokes about drug addicts with nicknames, jokes about frat boys in car wrecks, jokes about whether a medical student killed someone or just got unlucky. No joking around though when it comes to using terms like “unhoused.”
The other major theme that to me comes out strongly is a vibe of knowing the answers to all these political issues. There’s never any exploration or even acknowledgment of a controversy beyond as an obstacle to be dealt with.
For instance (mild spoilers) the girl coming in for an abortion evidently missed the 11 week deadline. No problem! Doctors will just lie. The mother of the patient isn’t on board but that’s ok the doctors will browbeat her into it and suggest the daughter will never speak to her again if it happens.
Sometimes even the doctors don’t know what to do like in the case of an incel with some violent journaling or a patient who’s been poisoned by his wife—she claims without evidence or corroboration that he’s molesting their daughter and we’re horrified to learn that she might be the one in trouble!
Overall though, the attitude is one of “we know the answers but sometimes society isn’t quite caught up yet.”
Will be curious to see how the tone of shows like this changes having now entered an era of “reckoning” and “post-mortems” of democratic hubris.
Tacherus
5mo ago
Most progress for women's causes came from what one would broadly call the left.
I think there might be some revision in this statement. My understanding is that as late as the 60s the feminist vote was kinda up for grabs between republicans and democrats.
Tacherus
5mo ago
I think this is a new definition and as you point out a bit of a futile goal. I thought most people learned as teenagers they can’t control how they’re perceived and develop an internal sense of self but this fallacy seems to run rampant these days.
Tacherus
5mo ago
If you were born with a female body, then you were gifted ownership of one of the most valuable possessions on planet earth. This is, again, both a blessing and a curse.
I was thinking the other day about how it might feel very similar to being the heir of a big company or empire or something where you’re forever living in the shadow of something you didn’t do or earn. Your so-and-so’s heir is the most important thing about you no matter what you do.
This obviously could be nice but also feel like a prison.
Then contrast with a street urchin analogy for guys where there is only what you do.
They both have their own kinda of freedom and own kinds of stifling. It makes sense for there to be some degree of envying the other.
Tacherus
6mo ago
I’m surprised there haven’t been climate change or other environmental lawsuits citing descendants as part of the class. Or maybe there have been?
Tacherus
7mo ago
Just this past week my wife and I have been discussing replacing a ten year old ICE car with an EV. The main motivations are simpler maintenance and charging from our solar panels.
Right that makes sense.
More options
Context Copy link