anti_dan
13d ago
I think you are right, but also I don't think hollywood wants to portray healthy, heterosexual relationships. That thing is basically culture war poison for them. And they would probably love to sneak homosexual and trans things into everything, but you still have to have a product that sells, and that stuff just does not.
anti_dan
13d ago
There are so many varieties of non-romantic relationships that go underexplored on screen because the writers have to make space for an obligatory romance arc.
I dont watch much superhero stuff anymore but I am fairly certain this is not happening either. We aren't getting Frodo and Sam 2.0. Instead the often poorly written romances are just replaced with nothing.
anti_dan
14d ago
Suddenly? Acknowledging that it is a dangerous disease spreading subculture has been part of the anti-woke right from the beginning.
anti_dan
16d ago
Let me put a finer point on my line of commentary:
Which plausible 2028 candidate would be shaking in their boots if the moderators pulled out this book and started quoting from it?
anti_dan
17d ago
A scathing account of someone who the Democrat Party is currently scapegoating for their loss of power by transcribing for those doing the scapegoating is not "good journalism".
anti_dan
18d ago
I'm reading Original Sin right now,
Just so you are aware. This indicates to anyone right of center that you are basically a bot or an idiot. That Biden was infirm and incapable of the job was evident throughout the campaign and his presidency. In fact, both of the authors of that book were active co-conspirators in the cover up.
All the indications I have of are the book is not that it is a mea culpa by Tapper et al, rather it is portrayed as some heroic work of journalism, which it is not. He simply has a new set of power brokers he is transcribing for.
anti_dan
18d ago
Do you exclusively get your news and information from Fox or some other right of center source? If not, how are you sure you are not conflating the overtness of Trump's corruption with the reporting frequency and tenor of the news sources from what you derive your feelings about what is happening?
While I don't think corruption is the most compelling example of this, I think immigration enforcement is (most of what has been reported on as unprecedented under Trump happened sometime under Biden or Obama and just no one noticed or cared to). But it is still an example. If there are thousands of reporters trying to report a thing, vs. two in the news sources your consume, your view is going to be skewed.
I actually think most people on the motte "Know" this, but far fewer act in accordance with their knowledge.
anti_dan
19d ago
I worked in a hard science engineering lab for most of my time in undergrad. The people work incredibly hard as Ph.D candidates and post docs, but so much of it is dedicated to grant writing, only a small bit of the work is working on the projects those grants are for. It seemed a lot like (frankly) college admissions. You have to apply to a dozen schools to get into one, and its not really clear why you got into that one instead of the others.
anti_dan
19d ago
Having worked in a lab with Ph.D candidates, I am pretty skeptical that we benefit from that system over just letting them free into the world to be employed.
anti_dan
20d ago
The "friend-enemy distinction" people lack a theory of politics for that. Harvard is the enemy, Carl Schmitt, blah blah blah. Never occurs to them that their job fight involve literal or figurative pothole-filling rather than zero-sum political warfare. As Pinker said:
What is the pothole in this scenario? Harvard is the avatar of a parasitic system which is higher ed. People have been tinkering at the edges for a long while now. Some people like Mitch Daniels have had some local success at keeping costs down while not allowing overt politicization of the campus. Others like Rufo have had to take a scorched earth view to get anything accomplished at all.
anti_dan
21d ago
Its the opposite of what your gut instinct was. International students are the "rich and mediocre" type, overwhelmingly. And there is a surplus of brilliant, nonrich, Americans, not just for Harvard, but for the Ivy League.
anti_dan
21d ago
They failed? How so? If someone watches the NFL and whatever comes after the NFL would one not be persuaded in the direction that Rittenhouse is a murderer and J6 was an insurrection and the worst political act since the Civil War?
Read Groseclose. These people are still powerful even if they are not all powerful. The results of an election with a fair press would be Trump losing to his challenger from the right.
anti_dan
21d ago
If America gets to "let's stay out of it" Israel is doomed.
How so? Israel is at the point it can kick all of its neighbors asses in perpetuity so long as America is not hostile to it. If we are merely willing to sell them goods at market prices, they can win forever. The only risk for them is if we treat them like Apartheid SA (along with Europe doing the same, which would, given current trends precede the US).
If we merely treated the conflict like an African conflict, Israel could be killing babies intentionally, on video, every day, and no one would care.
Israel's material support from the US is offset by our caring, probably to such an extent that they would be better off if we treated the region like a black box.
anti_dan
22d ago
What are these non government groups that have demonstrated this ability? Everybody seems pretty bad at this role.
anti_dan
24d ago
You do realize the wall in that rant is metaphorical? And that said officer was upset about shitty performance by a person whos performance was akin to the Capitol police officers' performance on Jan 6?
anti_dan
24d ago
Admittedly, had there been appropriately massive deployment of lawful authority to maintain a perimeter, there would not have been a breach and perhaps no fatalities -- but that is not what was happening.
It didnt have to be that large at all. There are only a few doors into the building. It is basically a fort on a hill. Against the crowd of what we know to be unarmed people with no real organization, 50 armed men would be more than enough if they did their jobs well.
anti_dan
24d ago
I find your response seems to lack some understanding of what actually happened, and what actually goes around a person's mind in such a situation, so I will start with some context.
First, bordering on zero people in the crowd on that day agreed to participate in a riot, they were absorbed by a riot. This was not day 3 in a series of riots. Zero people brought incendiary devices to my knowledge. Same with firearms. Few had weapons, and even fewer appeared to have brought them as something outside of what they normally carry (few of the choice weapons of rioters were found like bricks, it was more utility knives and the like). This were all people there to engage in a protest, and that protest escalated into a riot.
Second, when it is a spontaneous riot, law enforcement actually is the main driver of what happens. If they build a wall, enforce it, and hold it, there is no riot. If they are weak, an opportunity for a riot to emerge exists. This is what happened. If lawful orders were issued and enforced with force no one even gets within 50 feet of the building.
Third, when a person gets mixed signals INDIVIDUALLY from law enforcement, that is usually the fault of LE, not that person. If one officer says hands up, and the other says dont move, this is a problem. And it is exactly what is depicted in the Babit video. Some are nonverbally communicating to her that her conduct is fine, and another guy shoots her.
Going to more specific points of yours:
Participating in a riot directed at country's legislative ...
As I said, no one thought they were doing so. They were protesting an illegitimate seizure of power via a stolen election. Most fully intended to comply with any clear orders given by...
and Powers That Be have called the armed police present?
Those armed police. Which are expected and always present whether you are allowed into the building or not.
Not only the armed police are present, they have barricaded a door?
This is a very charitable description of the door. Recall, Babit was just let through another door by officers doing nothing. At best this is a hastily assembled barricade. More realistically it is a mess that could have been caused by a very active toddler.
A century ago, any sane government would have had troops shooting indiscriminately until everyone is either dead or in custody.
We are not a century ago. The people who were there had just seen the police forces in the same city let people burn whole buildings and steal millions of merchandise with no resistance. Precedence matters.
It would have been correct and just, too. Insurrection (to prevent legal transfer of power) is not a thing that you can kinda maybe have or kinda maybe defend against.
Again, they don't think they were engaging in said act. Describing it as so is question begging in this context.
If they would have acted like peaceful protestors, there would have been no need for barricades at all.
Maybe is this was a PERFECTLY peaceful protest like the March For Life often is (or was before the counterprotests started), where the city somehow is magically cleaned of trash by thousands of outsiders silently carrying signs. But in reality, most protests get a little chirpy. The answer to this is good law enforcement that sets boundaries and enforces them. This is basic stuff, and it was all failed by Capitol Police on Jan 6. And heck, they didn't even really set barricades. They didn't lock the goddam doors of the building.
The US is too scared to oppose extra-legal politics, and consequently the society suffers for lack of respect for the law and its rightful authorities.
I mean, I agree. I think anyone on a sidewalk doing a "hey hey ho ho" chant should get 30 days in the stockades the second they bump into a citizen who's walk to work they impeded. But we don't live in that world. Police need to convey messages to people so those people know what norms they are actually operating under, and the failure to do so is, fundamentally, the real story of the Jan 6 riot.
anti_dan
24d ago
I've heard a theory that this was the problem: if even modern wheels are of dubious quality and capability, how much worse would they have been a hundred years ago? I'm not sure that makes sense, though. The invention of wheeled luggage is at roughly the same time the transition of roller skates from all-metal wheels to hard polymer wheels (which were lighter and smoother-rolling and less expensive), but all-metal wheels aren't that much worse in utility and they were probably better for durability. The most important invention for small wheels is ball bearing support, and that's more like 100-150 years old (at various levels of quality and expense).
Ball Bearings have been around for a long time, but they have been improving all of that time in size, quality, reliability, and price. Just taking your example of rollerblades is pretty illustrative. I had a very good pair in high school that were pretty top of the line at the time. I played outdoor hockey all the time, blading was a pretty common date in my small town with few other places to congregate, etc. If I go to Wal Mart and try on a pair, they roll even better than those ones used to. Same with the skateboard bearings, they are cheaper and better now. By a lot.
Considering that luggage wheels have to be small to be practical, the timeline makes sense to me.
anti_dan
24d ago
There is a sliding scale of "adequate". All the members of congress were unharmed and successfully certified the election despite a riot. Minimum viable standard, but still successful. Why would it be the responsibility of the Capitol police to handle an unprecedented riot better than the rioters themselves.
Riots happen, or rather they can happen. Why they happen is based on a confluence of factors, but the police deployment and response is always an important factor. People rarely riot when law enforcement is well deployed and competently managed. This riot was not unprecedented in any way other than it was comprised of Republicans. The failings of the police force is basically the only interesting part about what happened.
conspiracy
Its not a conspiracy. We generally know what happened. The chief of the Capitol Police has testified to this many times. His deputy (who was promoted to chief after he was let go) was briefed about an increase in the expected crowd size and an increase in potential agitators in the crowd. She did not give him that information. Regardless, he requested additional troops including overtime and National Guard. Those requests were denied by leadership (Pelosi and McConnel's offices), possibly because he did not have the additional credible threat information, possibly just optics. Then as the riot developed he requested National Guard again, and this time both offices took about 5-6 hours to give him a response.
And in any case, conspiracy or not, who benefited from Jan 6 clearly the Democratic party and anti-Trump Republicans, so we don't need epicycles, just knowledge of how media coverage works and insight into the minds of Capitol leadership, which is not hard to divine.
The fact that Trump had given orders to protect the rioters and thus National Guard was not in vicinity of Capitol puts a bit of evidence towards the first kind of conspiracy than the second kind.
Here is an actually conspiratorial idea, which is directly contradicted by tons of public evidence, but you seem to think its worth talking about.
anti_dan
25d ago
"Barricaded doors" is doing too much work here. The fact of the Capitol riot is that the police were intentionally undermanned, and also engaged in basic incompetence at nearly every phase of the event. The long and short of it is that they never actually barricaded anything. The Capitol is essentially a medieval fort, and over a hundred armed men let it get sacked by a bunch of unorganized people essentially engaging in Brownian motion in the general vicinity of said fort. The fact that the whole force wasn't fired is...questionable. The fact that all of leadership wasn't is conspiratorial.
What was the defensive setup? Well, most of the police were deployed behind small lines of these things which are used for directing orderly lines of humans into an entrance, they are not appropriate for riot control. These are not barricades.
Because the forces were isolated and far from the building, they immediately began panicking and ran to the door. The doors were never closed or locked. Hardly a barricade. Again, the slow pushing mass of unarmed people overcame this "defense". Then we had some chaotically strewn furniture in hallways. Not really what we'd call a barricade either.
In the end, Jan 6 is the answer to a very specific question: What would happen if an understaffed, poorly trained, and even more poorly managed police force faced a crowd composed of people who could easily kill them all, but had absolutely no intention of actually doing so? Is Babbit's payout comically high? Yes. But that always is the case with these cases. She certainly has a pretty good case compared to the average rioter case. If she wanted that officer dead, he would be. She was, by all accounts, a competent combatant when armed, which she was intentionally not.
anti_dan
27d ago
Before getting to the stealing, I'm more stuck on my aesthetic distaste to the vignette of a man on an early date telling the woman he's cold, and her giving him an article of clothing to comfort him (among the more feminine articles to boot). It's too perfectly set up as a subverted cliche, that I am 50-50 (edit on reflection, 70:30) that it's made up. I suspect many if not most of the people defending it are doing so on those very aesthetic grounds, and it's not remotely about agency, morals, or consequentialism. This is basically a manic pixie dream girl scene that crossed with light 'gender swapped' tittilation.
I also am struggling to get past the cold man part of the story.
anti_dan
28d ago
Power lines are all kinda important for those other things you mentioned. Maybe we should keep some cool people there.
People are still trying to make "woke right" happen? Give it up Gretchen.
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