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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   6124 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 13, 2025

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So...is there any reporting whatsoever on the giant explosion that killed at least sixteen at an explosives factory in Tennessee?

The latest I can find on it seems to be treating it as most likely an industrial accident, but secondarily a "criminal" matter. The company website appears to have been turned into a flat landing page about the accident.

The early-morning Friday explosion at Accurate Energetic Systems, a manufacturing plant for military and demolition explosives, was a “devastating blast,” Davis said, noting responders were able to secure the site by late morning. The detonation – which was so large that it registered as a 1.6 magnitude earthquake, according to data from U.S. Geological Survey – left charred debris and mangled vehicles across the area. The blast set off smaller explosions, local officials said, and shook homes as far as 15 miles away while scattering debris over half a square mile. Accurate Energetic Systems called the incident at its facility a “tragic accident,” in a Friday statement. Davis described the event as one of “the most devastating scenes” he has ever seen. “It’s hell,” Davis told reporters Friday evening. “It’s hell on us. It’s hell on everybody involved.”

The NYT is treating it as an accident, headlining their work "Detonation Underscores Inherent Dangers of Manufacturing Explosives." This appears to be back page news across the country. I saw it reported in the paper, and a passing mention on CNBC.

But what shocks me is that the right wing news organizations aren't looking into it! Quickly glancing at the websites of FoxNews, OANN, and Breitbart at noon today, I didn't see one of them mentioning it on their front page. Instead headlines were devoted to such pressing issues as some kind of drummed up urban conflict storyline, a state department employee who mishandled classified documents, and Charlie Kirk. Breitbart in particular has their top article: Exposed: The CCP’s United Front Network in America’s Heartland, Part III engaging in extensive conspiracy theories about CCP influence in the United States. But WHY AREN'T THEY TALKING ABOUT THE REALLY REALLY LIKELY RUSSIAN SABOTAGE THAT JUST HAPPENED IN TENNESSEE KILLING 16 AMERICAN CITIZENS AND DESTROYING AN INDUSTRIAL DEFENSE CONCERN?

It seems really bleedingly obvious to me. We have the facts: that Trump announced publicly that he would offer targeting help to Ukraine and is thinking about adding Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine's quiver. Then, not a few days later, a defense plant in Tennessee blows up. Is it not clear that the latter is likely to be a consequence of the former? Russia covertly blows up a defense plant, to tell the USA "we can touch you, don't think we can't."

I might be tinfoil-hatting here. But what's making me tinfoil hat is that nobody else is tinfoil hatting! Even the people who are normally tinfoil hatting! The New York Times and the TurboLib MSNBC contingent has been seeing Russia's wicked hand everywhere since 2016, and more than ever since the war in the Ukraine began. Why are they ignoring the likelihood that Russia killed 16 American citizens? OANN sees wicked foreigners behind every corner seeking to undermine America, why aren't they at least floating the possibility that a foreign saboteur just undermined America's industrial strength? Breitbart doesn't have high standards for proof when reporting on possible foreign conspiracies, and they aren't saying anything!

What's going on here? Am I crazy?

The only explanations I can come to are that it was the Russians, and that's why it isn't being speculated in the news that it was the Russians. Either that the government is shutting everyone up quietly to avoid panic. Or that it was the Russians and they have enough pull with Breitbart to keep them quiet. Because I genuinely can't believe I'm not seeing speculation about this. Talk me off the ledge here guys.

According to news sources, the plant manufacturered TNT, among other things.

TNT has several relevant attributes here: compared to most high explosives, it is considerably cheaper, which means it can be produced in comparatively large quantities. Compared to most high explosives, it is also very unstable and dangerous (C4 famously can be burned without detonation, other military-grade HEXs are similar). TNT is also very dirty to manufacture, and has been mostly been banned from production in the US, with defense concerns only recently restarting production (AES appears to be one of those concerns). As a result, there is limited current experience in the US with best practices for safety measures.

While I am not a certified demolitions and ordnance engineer, I've dealt with them in the past, and this whole thing reeks of: "small industrial producer trying to make many metric shit-tons of TNT without grizzled old guys missing fingers to pass on the important lessons, goes about how you expect." Like the amount of safety precautions we had to take for explosives in the double-digit grams was both immense and sadly very necessary (an improperly sodered inflator squib blew up in an inspectors face killing him, shit is hazardous).

So I guess my point here is this seems like the logic of hoofbeats and zebras- malicious intervention from a foreign power is a possibility, certainly, but it seems vastly more probable this was an industrial accident.

"small industrial producer trying to make many metric shit-tons of TNT without grizzled old guys missing fingers to pass on the important lessons, goes about how you expect."

Well, it was a Certified Women-Owned Small Business gaming the system for government contracts. Personally saw that shit all the time on contracts we were bidding for.

9 times out of 10 I assume it is "woman owned" because the owner gave 51% of ownership to his wife specifically for the purpose of gaming such contracts. My brother-in-law works at a factory where the owner did just that, and I have similar plans if I start a business.

It's never been entirely clear to me how much of that was actual "feminist interpretive dancer-turned-defense contractor exec" and how much was "well we'll put General So-and-So's son's wife down as the President of the LLC for compliance purposes, but everyone knows the General still calls the shots"

All of the above, and the more contracts get diverted to small, minority owned businesses, the sloppier it gets. I saw my share of Certified Women/Minority Owned Businesses that just bid on contracts, any contract, and then aggressively staff up with questionable contractors to meet the letter of the contract. More or less the only permanent employees they have are project managers. Everyone else is from temp firms, H1B, and maybe a few private contractors with actual experience for the lead roles.

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