stiffly
1yr ago
My Dad's well-off, and he regularly drinks $100/bottle wine at restaurants. He was having dinner with another well-off man in a category above him who regularly drank $400/bottle wine. Dad asked him, what's the difference, really? Between $100 wine and $400 wine? The man held his thumb and finger together about an inch and a half apart.
Myself, I won't drink anything above $20/bottle. There is just too much good wine out there at below that price point. Wine has really entered a golden age, with science making winemaking better than it's ever been. A $11 bottle is better than what the kings of Europe drank 100 years ago. But it's also that I'm a commonseur and can't tell you if there are notes of berry, or oak, or strontium in wine. I just know what I like (anything with low tannins, basically). Merlot, Pinot Grigio, Malbec, Pinot Noir, all good. Cabernet Sauvignon gives me heartburn. But if I'm having a big steak, bring out the big cabs. They work together.
As far as Coke vs. Pepsi, Pepsi is sweeter and people will choose it in a head to head test because of the sweetness. But people like me don't like the cloying taste of Pepsi and actually prefer Coke's acid bite. There's also alcoholic beverage mixers - ever had a Jack and Pepsi? You haven't, because it's awful. Without the phosphoric acid kick, Coke doesn't work.
stiffly
1yr ago
Nah. If a woman isn't into it, it's her loss. Not yours!
Don't chase women. They love the attention and will knock you off the horse again and again just because they like to see you struggle. Don't play that game. It's abuse. YOU are the prize, men. Women need to chase you. If they don't, they blew it. Move on. Life is too short to play other people's bullshit games.
stiffly
1yr ago
The Japanese and German militaries both entered the war with a substantial advantage in technology and training over their opponents.
OK, stop there. The Japanese were a joke, technologically. They had a couple of goodies, like the Zero (which had 6 months of dominance before the Americans figured out how to fight it) but the rest of their military was terrible. They had no business declaring war. Their carriers were impressive right up until they took damage and blew up.
The Germans won their early victories with crappy Panzer I and II, and were heavily outclassed by French and British tanks of the era. What they did have were tactics, which the aristocratic Junkers of the Wehrmacht fought vociferously against. The likes of Guderian and von Rundstedt were saved only by the personal intervention of the autodidact Hitler.
utterly lacking in warrior spirit/tradition armies of the Aglosphere
The Americans conquered an entire continent, and the British the world. But sure, they were lacking in warrior spirit.
proved far more capable of cooperation, innovation, and stacking enemy dead like corde-wood
You have accidentally stumbled on the correct answer: attrition. That's how the war was won. The Allies simply had more steel, more coal, and especially the banks were utterly dedicated to the cause (because the Germans weren't going to pay back all those loans made to Europe). When you have 1,000,000 men and the enemy has 500,000, and you force a battle where both of you lose half a million men, you win.
IJNS Yamato
The proper appellation is HIJMS Yamato.
stiffly
1yr ago
The gas was already turned off at the tap. Why would the Russians blow up their own pipeline?
Biden is on video saying that the pipeline would end. Why's it a surprise that he ordered it blown up?
stiffly
1yr ago
I was once in the business where I would need a photo to illustrate an article. Sure, Getty Images or Shutterstock. Sounds cool! Let me take a look...
And I saw the price and screamed and closed the window. Instead I bought a big wallet of CDs loaded with images and a book with small photos of them all. And I never went to either of those websites again.
stiffly
1yr ago
If she's mentally unwell, then she's deficiently in no shape to make life or death decisions.
stiffly
1yr ago
We already banned gain-of-function research.
Why do you think Fauci & Co. had to outsource it to China and Ukraine?
stiffly
1yr ago
It's pretty clear we didn't want this research to take place, but Fauci & Co. wanted it very much. So yeah, legalistic arguing over what the definition of "is" is is just the ticket.
It's also pretty clear that the unelected government does not view our laws as legitimate and will nullify them whenever it sees fit. Did anyone from the intelligence community go to prison for domestic spying after we passed a law against it? No. Just ask Martha Stewart, who went to prison for lying to FBI agents. The punishment for lying to us was to get hired by the mainstream media to amplify their voices.
stiffly
1yr ago
If the Japanese and German war efforts were so doomed, why were they stupid enough to throw themselves into a war they couldn't win?
Because it was a desperate, last-gasp gamble for both of them. Starting a war usually is (unless you're a neocon).
The Japanese knew they were engaging on a high-risk venture with little chance of success. But they had been forced into a corner by FDR's steel and oil embargos. It was either strike now, or be assassinated by the ultranationalists they had been egging on. We actually have the minutes from the last imperial council meeting where they made the final decision for war and they're quite clear on this.
Hitler considered that there were too many Germans and not enough food to feed them. The soil was giving out, and what would happen then? Germany must rely on imports, and hence become yet another slave of the western bankers. Hitler always felt himself racing against time, and needed to strike quickly. Imagine if he wasn't so hasty and had an army of Tiger tanks and V2 rockets to start with.
stiffly
1yr ago
One of the things that we always teach our kids is guilt by association.
Spongebob-jaw-drop.jpg
Lady, you're doing it wrong. Very, very wrong.
stiffly
1yr ago
It would have to be super depressing living somewhere and going to funerals all the time.
I remember hearing this interview with an older woman, and she was like, "I'm finished with men! I fall in love with them, and them with me, and then we get married, and then they die! I can't take it any more!"
stiffly
1yr ago
In Ian Fleming's novel You Only Live Twice, Bond was transferred into another branch and given the number 7777. All of the British spies have numbers. The 00 prefix is just used for those few special agents who are assassins.
stiffly
1yr ago
007 isn't some hereditary title that passes on. It's his agent number. They have numbers so that they aren't referred to by name in intelligence agency documents, so they can't be betrayed. Post-WWII (and pre-WWII) Britain's secret service was full of communist traitors who could and did give away operations to the enemy.
stiffly
1yr ago
Yeah. After reading the unfiltered internet for years, and seeing people pour out their problems on the page, things I have never experienced, the more I am convinced that simple life hygiene is what is wrong with so many of them. They cause so many of their own problems. Moreover I think that so many of these problems are left over from when we lived in tribes. We stopped doing that a long time ago, and yet we still have all these neuroses because we don't make our own food or weave our own baskets any more. Especially not living in extended families, that one was a punch in the gut to humanity.
Heck I don't say this as some exemplar of a shining true life, either. I used to think I was depressed. Turns out, there was no brain chemical imbalance at all, it was just that I had a shitty life and that was because I was doing it wrong.
stiffly
1yr ago
Nuland is the one that engineered the 2014 coup. We have a leaked phone call from her where she is discussing arranging Ukraine's government without asking them, instead of the democratic process of the Ukrainians doing it. She's not a good person. When she says we're going to end it, she means a state-sponsored terrorist attack.
I'm curious, where did you get the idea about this decertifying it? Mind reading? That's not something that's under America's control. Germany is the enemy here, and the US must not allow them to resume supplies of Russian gas. As they start freezing and deindustrializing this winter, it's going to become an attractive option. Now it's off the table.
stiffly
1yr ago
They just want to get rid of Libs of Tiktok so very badly. She's exposing the trans agenda in public schools and boy, that kind of thing can't succeed if there's a spotlight shining on it. The whole idea is to do it by stealth, without informing parents. Thus "stochastic terrorism" is the way to silence her.
stiffly
1yr ago
I remember the best tequila producers in Mexico saying that there's no way a bottle of tequila should cost more than $40. But - the market was demanding super overpriced tequilas. So, they shrugged their shoulders and marked up the price to $200, and people loved it.
stiffly
1yr ago
Diversity for thee but not for me. The ADL, the organization which advocates for mass immigration changes tone when it comes to Israel.
stiffly
1yr ago
Overall, it is white progressives, not right-wingers, who constitute the most intolerant group in America, and who are also far more likely to eschew contacts with political opponents than any group.
stiffly
1yr ago
there’s a strong tendency on the left to underestimate the power of nationalism.
I’m not sure why this tendency exists or how it developed.
Well, that's easy. When it's for them, they're in favor of it, but if it doesn't work for their side, then nationalist is a synonym for fascist. Orwell had a lot to say about this.
British nationalists: fascists. Ukrainian nationalists: heroes. American nationalists: fascists. South African nationalists: heroes. Now you try!
Hospitals and doctors around the country are facing harassment and even death threats over the medical care they offer to transgender kids. In many cases, they have been the subject of posts by a Twitter account called Libs of TikTok, as well as stories in conservative media outlets casting gender-affirming care as child abuse and mutilation.
Which raises the question: where should social networks draw the line with accounts promoting narratives that spark harassment campaigns on their platforms and beyond?
They're doing elective pediatric double mastectomies on minors, and that's not a problem. The problem here is that Libs of Tiktok is shining a light on it and letting the world know. Fucked up, eh?
stiffly
1yr ago
If they’re from a western country they may consider themselves (and others like them) an expat instead of an immigrant, but it all amounts to the same thing.
Expatriates are foreign workers. They go to another country to work there, but will return home. An immigrant goes to stay.
It kind of sucks they have no language requirement. You should speak a country's language. No matter how many people speak English, you're still stuck in the English bubble. I know people who have lived in other countries for over a decade and still don't speak the language. It's sad, honestly.
The term you are looking for is "fan-baiting".
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1568182048564875265.html
“Fan-baiting” is a form of marketing used by producers, film studios, and actors, with the intent of exciting artificial controversy, garnering publicity, and explaining away the negative reviews of a new and often highly anticipated production.
Fan-baiting emerged as a marketing strategy in 2016/17, after fans of beloved franchises such as Ghostbusters and Star Wars objected to what they saw as poor writing choices, sloppy scripts, and cheap alterations to plot lines and characters for the sake of shock value.
Along side these critics, there was a small group of bigoted but vociferous commentators who objected to the inclusion of black and female actors in roles traditionally held by white male actors. Some of these individuals began publicly harassing actors.
Bigots have always attacked diversity on screen, but in a highly polarized political climate, instances of harassment on garnered disproportionately massive media coverage, which provided production studios with both free publicity and a new defence against actual critics.
Studios seized the opportunity to discredit criticism of poor writing & acting, insinuating that these, too, were motivated by bigotry. What used to be accepted as standard critiques were increasingly dismissed as part of the ignorant commentary of a “toxic fandom.”
Soon, it became standard practice before release to issue announcements specifying diverse casting choices, coupled with pre-emptive declarations of solidarity with the cast whom they now counted on to receive disparaging and harassing comments.
Actors who are women and/or BIPOC became props & shields for craven corporate laziness and opportunism. The studios save money both by avoiding expensive veteran writers as well as by offloading publicity to news outlets and social media covering the artificial controversy.
“Fan-baiting” works. It brings in a new sympathetic audience whose endorsement is more about taking a public stance against prejudice than any real interest in the art. “Fan-baiting” also permits studios to cultivate public skepticism over the legitimacy of poor reviews.
“Fan-baiting” also compels reviewers to temper their criticism, for fear of becoming associated with the “toxic fandom” and losing their professional credibly, resulting in telling discrepancies between critic and audience review scores.
The true nature of “fan-baiting” is never so clear as when a script is well-crafted and audience reviews are accordingly positive, exposing the announcements, declarations of solidarity, & grooming of skepticism for what they really are: cynical corporate marketing tactics.
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