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Culture War Roundup for the week of February 6, 2023

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This undermines the claim of the inability to track, as it shows that they were tracked, but not acted upon at the time,

So, the fact that US failed to act on what were likely spy blimps flying overhead for years undermines my claim that they'd be too incompetent to have a program that'd correlate flight radar data and actual radar data ?

Do I have it right ? The fact of demonstrated incompetence* undermines my claim of their incompetence?

*there's a statement by Mattis claiming they 'knew about the balloons' but didn't tell Trump because his reaction could've been 'too combative'. Honestly have no clue why airforce intercepting unmanned suspicious manmade objects would ever require presidential authorisation so it seems like bullshit.

Not like anyone's getting hurt, so why even ask ?

So, the fact that US failed to act on what were likely spy blimps flying overhead for years undermines my claim that they'd be too incompetent to have a program that'd correlate flight radar data and actual radar data ?

Yes. It's the difference between ability and willingness. The argument that no one would notice is based on inability, even as the pipeline provides a willingness.

Do I have it right ? The fact of demonstrated incompetence* undermines my claim of their incompetence?

Since you claimed a different sort of incomptence not implied by the first, yes.

*there's a statement by Mattis claiming they 'knew about the balloons' but didn't tell Trump because his reaction could've been 'too combative'. Honestly have no clue why airforce intercepting unmanned suspicious manmade objects would ever require presidential authorisation so it seems like bullshit.

If you have no clue it would probably not make sense, sure.

Not like anyone's getting hurt, so why even ask ?

Allegedly, a risk of hurting people from falling debris was the basis for shooting down the balloon over the east coast, and not over the mid-west.