netstack
Texas is freedom land
No bio...
User ID: 647
netstack
Texas is freedom land
12hr ago
I’ve seen plenty of them, but I don’t actually know how it got started.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
12hr ago
Nah, it’s been around. It only shows up if we ban from the comment’s context menu, though. If we go through the user page (say, to compare recent comments), I don’t think it shows up.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
12hr ago
I, uh, don’t think that’s a very good model.
First: the historical limit on an empire wasn’t ambition. It was logistics. You sprawled out until you hit a natural barrier (steppe, jungle, ocean) that was wider than your baggage trains could handle. Or until you made eye contact with a neighbor strong enough to stake out its own borders. Transport tech changes that first limit; military and economic tech pushes the second.
Second: it’s not like having those phases ever taught any nation anything! Look at 19th century France. Look at the interwar period. Look at today’s Russia. If the logistics and industrial fundamentals aren’t present, the best you’re gonna get is one generation. Then the revanchists will wrangle enough support for another round.
Third: what do you mean, a smaller library of experiences? There’s no Dune-style genetic memory. Institutional inertia is a joke and a political liability. Our President has more information available than anyone in history, and this is what he chose to do with it.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
18hr ago
Look, I've been complaining about shit like this for a decade. I've bitched about Trump's strongman act and his allergy to existing policy and all sorts of who-whom. I complained about our little warm-up exercise. At times like these, I'm not sure I've ever convinced a single person. Some might call this "tiresome."
I can check in to the motte, clean out the queue, ban a couple people for failing to maintain the normal level of decorum. Some people still have to follow rules, after all.
Maybe I can add a comment emphasizing my disappointment. Maybe I can snark about how many users were ride-or-die for American exceptionalism (courtesy of El Presidente) until they got the chance to blame Jews.
Or I can go back to my fucking job selling fucking munitions to fuckers who will surely use them wisely. Or at least lethally. Then I can go home, play another round of Slay the Spire, and try not to think about it.
Okay, that’s enough name-calling for one day.
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