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Culture War Roundup for the week of December 9, 2024

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Given that he's smart and tech savvy, I'm rather surprised he didn't use a kamikaze drone. Using a drone for a political assassination in the US would have been a lot more game changing.

Seems complicated and pretty likely to fail. The logistics are also questionable; he'd have to hide away somewhere in the middle of the city with his gear, and then either keep the drone in the air as he waited (which will get noticed), or launching it when the victim was approaching (which takes time and requires you to rush positioning etc). Much easier to hang around with a gun in your pocket.

Also if your intent is to cause terror you'd want to show that anybody could be a potential terrorist. Very few people could construct a viable kamikaze drone, while a lot of people can buy a gun and stand on a street corner.

Thinking about this for one minute: you can have an accomplice. One person watches for the target to show up and gives the signal. The other launches the drone from a hotel room window. Escape with nobody having any clue what either of you looks like.

Also if your intent is to cause terror you'd want to show that anybody could be a potential terrorist.

I think having the VIP's head blow up and the only advance warning was a buzzing sound for one second beforehand would cause a lot of terror. Every security detail is woefully unprepared for this.

Escape with nobody having any clue what either of you looks like.

Drones have serial numbers, and their components have serial numbers. There's probably a dozen different identifiers baked into flight controller board.

So maybe no face information, but all the interactions involved in the purchase of the drone would be available. Maybe if you stole the drone, but even that would give away a fair amount of information about who you are. Or if you recovered the drone post assassination, but that's adding yet another possible failure point.

mmm, got it, kamikazee quadcopters: when you want the enemy to know it was you

Quadcopters: for that personal touch