BANNED USER: terrible poster who never improves
sliders1234
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User ID: 685
Banned by: @Amadan
Russian invaders Can value their own lives they are NOT my concern. And Ukranians are adults who can make their own decisions too.
Regardless on the “next leader” the current leader has always found a new and bigger country to invade.
And nuclear power doesn’t mean anything.
These arguments are always dumb though because anything Ukraine is just a repeat of yesterday because nothing has changed. Russia goes nowhere. Ukraine doesn’t go gain much.
The only thing that remains true is Russia hasn’t offerered terms any different than the terms we’ve offered to Japan in WW2. There is no deal on the table of “just the Russian areas”.
I have zero problem with a ceasefire today that came with security guarantees with teeth - nukes for Ukraine or NATO troops as peacekeepers.
It’s likely cheaper for the west to fund Ukraine. While you might say Putin won’t go for more that’s not a guarantee and against a lot of his history.
The EU and the US would need to tie up significant resources in the area as a counterweight to Russia. Or they can just fund Ukraine today.
Every Russian leader for centuries has expanded Russian borders thru military conflict since the founding of Moscow. There is no guarantee that Moscow suddenly modernized and acts within the international order with their next leaders and every cultural indicator that the next guy would probably be like the last guy.
But there is nothing new here. The imminent demise of Ukraine has been predicted weekly in some communities since the start (looking at you Davis Sacks). You are right the west is slowing down on armaments which they should not be doing. They should be increasing them. Perhaps even sending in western troops to just end this thing.
sliders1234
1yr ago
Whole Foods cola. I’m not sure I’ve ever had a worse no label product in my life.
Some no name products are better and some are worse.
I generally limit name brand stuff because most of those brands seem overloaded with sugar.
sliders1234
1yr ago
You are missing the filter. The average female lead is much younger than a male lead. The filter isn’t at the point where the magazine is picking which 38 year old actor is hottest - the filter is in becoming a star actor. All the personality traits etc men develop over time also make them a better actor. All the I’m young and hot things are selected for in actress and hence they are young and hot.
sliders1234
1yr ago
Ya he knows they were unarmed at Capitol but hides behind some hour long read I won’t read
sliders1234
1yr ago
And you can’t give me a summary or copy paste the key point?
Like if every time I replied to a message board post I got a 50 page doc to review well nothing would get accomplished.
sliders1234
1yr ago
“Destabilize the Middle East” is doing a lot here and unfounded. As far as I can tell no one in the ME likes Palestine and a lot of them do like Israel.
sliders1234
1yr ago
A 50 page document without a citation for what you think disagrees is a bit bad faith. No one is reading for an hour to respond to figure out what you mean.
sliders1234
1yr ago
On the latter part I think he does both. “The fine people” thing seemed to me that he was actually trying to be nuanced. The proud boy thing seemed more like a scissor statement and as is it was weird he was asked to condemn an org as white supremacists who had a black man as their president. The Russian stuff maybe a scissor statement.
By any definition that people like me get accused of being white supremacists, fascists, pick your label, etc - these schools are far past the line I’m judged by on their antisemitism.
I think being pro-Palestine after what they did is very very tough line to draw before your antisemitic. You Can asks for mercy from Israel and things like that but what happened was really bad.
I’ve seen a lot of reports that most young people saying “river to the sea” don’t actually know what that term means and change their view when they realize it means Jewish genocide. But Harvard students aren’t some stupid kid at a directional state school. They know geography and what that means.
And I disagree with you that Israel isn’t strategically important to the US. 30-50% of scientific output comes from the Jewish population (nobels so boundary pushers not the grinders pushing others ideas to implementation). The US having a technological edge on China etc completely depends on the Jews. Nukes were invented by Jews. AI led by Altman (a Jew) is the next big military tech. The Jews matter as allies.
For every Bill Gates and Elon Musks there is a Mark Zuckerberg and Sergei Brin/Larry Page.
sliders1234
1yr ago
I feel like sometimes I’m good at this where you say something in a scissor statement way. I usually do it in a playful way. Trumps good at this. His comments here can come off how you say but also outrage the left. He did it with the Proud Boys in the debates with his stand back and stand by. He did it with Russia and hacking. It’s a fun way to communicate where your meaning has a very mild and what you mean meaning but people can see a way to get offended by it.
sliders1234
1yr ago
They did extra legal things to harm the Trumps administration ability to do anything. General Flynn having to answer Logan Act violation issues is a big deal to me since no one has ever been prosecuted under the Logan Act so the fbi attacking him for it was extremely extra-legal.
sliders1234
1yr ago
If Jan 6 was a coup then where are the weapons? That is the huge issue for anyone describing it as a coup.
sliders1234
1yr ago
I have a different opinion on “he incited a riot”. I view the riot as justified. I loved Jan 6. The 2020 election was illegitimate in my opinion. Far too many Democratic norms were violated. I also think elites deserved a riot on their land as they spent 2020 inciting riots across the US. The anger that caused the riot on Jan 6 was caused by the left not Trump.
By the standard you are using for Trump isn’t Kamala guilty for Jan 6? She was a primary leader of all the justified grievances that blew up on Jan 6. Sure Trump gathered people there on Jan 6 and led a protest but all the anger that really incited the riot I believe came from Kamela’s words and actions.
sliders1234
1yr ago
It has nothing to do with cowardice. Pragmatism is a real thing. We all sacrifice a little of our true beliefs every day. Let’s say he really does hate Trump and shifted some beliefs for his audience.
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He tries to be a hero. Every word out of his mouth is the absolute truth. He loses his audience and influence. He hurts conservative causes. Biden wins the next election.
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He tilts his message more pro-Trump. His audience loves it. He pumps up more people to vote. Trump wins the next election. He personally makes millions of dollars.
2 is obviously the better play for his personal beliefs. If you want to be intellectually honest then go enter a seminary. If you want to get things done in the real world your going to have allies you don’t love especially in coalition politics.
sliders1234
1yr ago
When did Trump incite a riot? I listened to his speech that day. At no point did he call for violence. Anything he said is 100% protected free speech. If Trumps guilty then Biden, Kamala, every member of congress, and every Senator is guilty.
To me the only real case is the one in Georgia where he may have crossed some lines. He is also probably guilty of some things with classified documents but since Biden, Pence, Hillary have similar issues that feels a lot like lawfare and should be thrown out because the law hasn’t been equally applied.
sliders1234
1yr ago
I think you are right on that sorry combined them for simplicity.
I believe it said 30% aren’t sure if it’s a myth if I’m reading it right so that still gets a combined 50% between myth and don’t know.
sliders1234
1yr ago
I would note polling shows Holocaust denial doesn’t exists over 65 and very small over 45 so even most of the older black community doesn’t believe it. And I think they rightfully believed that urban blacks weren’t a political threat to them.
I don’t want to start another antisemitism thread and this will do but an interesting survey came out recently on Holocaust denial.
43% of the under 29 age group believe the Holocaust is a myth or heavily exaggerated.
Personally I thought Holocaust denial on TheMotte was a fringe group representing some 1-3% of the overall population and largely alt-right. Turns out it’s rapidly becoming the dominant view of college students and a normie belief for the next generation.
My understanding of popular opinion on the issue was completely off and one of my worst beliefs. It’s probably a sign I am just not up to date with the young kids. I can take comforting in being completely wrong because it is a fringe belief in older age groups.
My gut would say places like ADL completely missed this too. One could right off all the right wing bashing as a pivot to justify their existence because existential antisemitism was gone and everyone agreed with it in the last generation. Will be interesting to see if they pivot back to their primary purpose and start approaching Ackman types for cash to attack Holocaust denialism.
I think this falls under the old meme of “why we can’t have nice things”. I would take the deal you offer but it’s not a winning position.
Hanania I believe gets it correct. We aren’t going to get some free speech movement. But we can use victimology and in my view the current people in charge awful views on antisemitism to kick out the old guard and replace them with people who will allow more speech on things I think should be in the Overton window.
It’s easier to just do a power play and in my view kick the bad people out than try to get everyone to agree to free speech.
https://twitter.com/richardhanania/status/1734628629211168821?s=46&t=aQ6ajj220jubjU7-o3SuWQ
I don’t care about supporting people who want to support Hamas free speech rights but getting rid of the pro-Hamas people is good for me.
If I went all free speechy and was like I support Ms. Gay right to her beliefs and help her keep her job I have zero faith she would be my ally when the mob comes for me.
sliders1234
1yr ago
The other reply is correct. They haven’t held these standards in the past that it’s something something free speech absolutism which since free speech applies only when it’s talking about genociding Jews it does make it just antisemitism.
So that’s a strong form and probably closest to my actual opinion of the situation.
A weaker form is she very easily could have said free speech without specific threats is fine but then brought down the hammer in condemning the students actions.
You could just say “Even extremely vile speech such as advocating for genocide of Jews which we have seen on Harvards campus does not violate our Honor Code as harassment if it is not directed at a specific person”
sliders1234
1yr ago
Ackman seems like the mob leader. He says they haven’t fired her because he’s making too much noise.
The obvious issue with her and her plagiarizing is affirmative action. Like that’s the best you can find for Harvard? She appears well below the average Motte posters ability. And atleast a few of us probably wouldn’t mind the position.
The second thing I’ve been thinking about is whether anyone is going to NOT attend Harvard. Where would you even going? MIT seems in the same boat here which at one point would have just been the pragmatic engineering school. All the Ivy’s are the same. Perhaps University of Chicago, Notre Dame, and Cal-Tech, after that whats out there flagship state schools? Yeshiva?
sliders1234
1yr ago
I don’t think the desire to suppress Jewish success is coming from modern wokism. I think it’s a legitimate fear that when you are 2-3% of population but 30-40% of elites it leaves you extremely exposed to becoming a scapegoat if something bad happens. I believe that is sort of what happened after WW1 Germany. Jews had a lot of people in elite positions in Germany so when they lost WW1 it was easy to pin the loss on them.
sliders1234
1yr ago
Jews basically got it declared that talking about Jewish success is antisemitic.
I’ll note Jewish success as an acknowledgement of their success but it’s also done by some right wing antisemitism.
They get 40% of Nobels, at one point 30-40% of Ivy league spots (now lower due to affirmative action), I would guess 25-30% of US billionaires.
Their success is suppressed in the media but when things like this happen they definitely have the ability to hit back.
Some of that is Republican blocking arms. Though I do think we have a lot of arms we could bring to the fight that are abandoned still. We have a lot of tanks, AFV, old F-18 etc that are being abandoned. Some things like artillery we do seem low on.
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