zoink
3d ago
Assassinations can be effective, but the type of person willing to assassinate someone is probably not the best at identifying who to target. There is probably also random walk elements to it, never can predict who will step up, or tear everything apart in their attempt to step up.
I guess I consider it to be more of a conspiracy theory because it's been on my radar since my Sundance days:
When Lennon Lacy is found hanging from a swing set in rural North Carolina, his mother's search for justice begins while the trauma of more than a century of lynching African Americans bleeds into the present.
zoink
3d ago
One of the most famous democratic politicians posted on x yesterday:
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
This year, there have already been 10 reported hangings of Black people in the U.S.
I’m proud to have signed onto @RepPressley‘s letter to address these widespread modern-day lynchings and put a stop to this racial terror.
zoink
21d ago
I think the vast majority of "great" stories are embellished from a little to a lot. Which isn't a big deal when it's a small audience, but become problematic when millions believe it. After a few retailing the teller can begin to believe it.
zoink
21d ago
Spoilers for the movie Saltburn
Especially after we found out Oliver lied about being, it completely flushed any little narrative they had going on down the toilet.
That reveal was actually pivotal to the narrative. I think this isn't translating well across the Atlantic because most wealthy American families tend to be "new money," but people like Felix are descended from people like Mr. Darcy in Pride & Prejudice. They're called the owning class because they own vast swathes of land that have been handed down for generations and they can just live off the rent and never have to work. It's a very different kind of wealth from, say, Donald Trump or Jeffrey Bezos.
There's a big contrast between the owning class and middle class people like Oliver (who come from comfortable, privileged backgrounds but ultimately are still expected to work for a living), and there's another big contrast between the middle class and the working class. Especially at universities where students are a long way from home, you get a lot of middle class people pretending to be working class and exaggerating about how "poor" they are, because being working class carries some social capital whereas being middle class is just boring.
Correct, I first heard Abagnale's story on Focus on the Family when I was a child. I saw him speak in person in my early 20's. While I didn't peg him as a fabulist back then it took zero convincing that he was a fraud within a fraud when I first heard the allegations.
zoink
21d ago
Who are some people that you strongly suspect to be fabulists that the general populace has not identified?
I made a comment in the context of Jason Arday about fabulists and I used Jordan Belfort, Marcus Luttrell, Chris Kyle, Greg Mortenson, Frank Abagnale, Jr. as examples. I called out or was suspicious of all of them other than Abagnale and I chalk that up to me hearing his story as a child and then not thinking about it. Took 0 convincing.
The surprising thing is that Petra De Sutter hired him in the first place and seemed to defend the initial hiring.
I'm not trying to brag - maybe I am - but it was very clear to me while reading Lone Survivor that Luttrell was at best exaggerating. I called BS on the voting immediately.
I did some searches to see if I documented my disbelief of Luttrell. Looks like I asked a friend who was going to an event Luttrell was speaking at if he'd call Luttrell a liar. In another conversation I commented "now not like lone survivor where they're doing summersalts down a cliff dropping guys right and left"
I guess having myself careened down a mountain at 13,000 feet desperately trying to regain control of my ice axe made me skeptical...
I think many to most were not fully cognoscente of the likely outcomes. They desperately wanted to believe him. Just as demand for racism outstrips supply and people believe crazy made up racial attacks.
Taking it beyond culture war millions of people believe fabulists that in retrospect should have been glaringly obvious from the get go. E.G. Jordan Belfort, Marcus Luttrell, Chris Kyle, Greg Mortenson, Frank Abagnale, Jr.
I'm a drone skeptic, in that I think they are a major advancement but not as big a deal to an S-tier military. The USSR/Russia has been a C-tier meant B-tier military since at least the mid-80s, and while lessons are important, they are not decisive. Drone dynamics are very different against air supremacy. The test case here will be around Israel in the coming years. Who I would put at S-Tear for air-force and electronic warfare within it's immediate vicinity.
The US should have pretty extreme electronic warfare (EW) capabilities. EA-18 Growlers, destroyer based system should offer almost complete suppression of remote drone operation.
AWACS should be able to spot drones almost immediately upon launch. Drone launch should be at a minimum of 30 miles away, and I would think quite a bit more because the US should have fairly thorough counter-suppression within a few miles off the coast. If you want to live after you launch the drone, you better be pretty far inland. This should also limit the ability for fiber-optic flying; if you have to fly the thing for 30 miles, you're dead before it gets there. Hence why I think I have not heard of fiber piloted drones happening.
My impression of the drone hits on US bases is that these are known fixed targets, so the drones are flying completely autonomously. This is a temporary issue, in that military bases should be able to be hardened against such threats. Put everything important behind reinforced concrete and nets, turns drone sophistication into more like planes, and thus makes suicide capabilities much less economical or you're just launching cruise missiles, which does not seem to be economical for Iran.
Thus, it feels like it should be doable with AWACS, EW from aircraft and ships coupled with loitering mentions over the UAE for very effective suppression long-term.
zoink
27d ago
It's minor but my biggest annoyance
zoink
27d ago
Expanse was my go to example of how you can do diversity and even girl power (not quite as consistent as they should have been but that was probably asking too much) in a way that makes since in contrast to the forced diversity in Wheel of Time which had some built plot to actually explore diversity if they show runners were just patient.
Finished Ivan and Phoebe which I kind of stalled out on. The ending, last two pages annoyed me. It was fine up until that point, maybe even would recommend it for my wife's reading group as it could have some interesting "feminist" incites but that ending...
Asked an LLM to pitch me something super fun and it suggested Kings of the Wyld. And I am reading it at a good pace (for me), but I'm 30% of the way through and it's kind of meh. I was told it was funny, but the humor just isn't landing for me. It's got progressive stuff but not too progressive... Like one of the band is gay, but there are no women and no they/them (screw you American Hippo - one of the very few books I haven't finished).
Minor spoiler:
While 9/11 is the "I remember exactly where I was at" thing in my life I've been thinking this week about how little I now care. It just doesn't feel culturally relevant. That may be because the ways it altered culture are so pervasive and encompassing. I'm sure someone can drum up a narrative of why it wasn't a complete waist of time but that's what it feels like - like the US would have been better off just to shrug and done nothing internationally.
More options
Context Copy link