domain:parrhesia.substack.com
functor
2hr ago
Have you really missed naval remote-controlled boats that resulted in Russia losing naval war to navy that has no active traditional surface vessels?
The Starlink ones developed by the US for the defence of Taiwan that are sent to targets located by US surveillance? The Ukrainian naval projects also have a strong British component.
Ukraine's main arms production is assembling Chinese drone components. This is mainly a cottage industry of building parts made to fit together into a small plastic drone. That is fairly far from large scale industry.
wayfarer
2hr ago
that has no arms production
this is simply a blatant lie or reveals you have zero knowledge of situation
Ukraine in fact produces weapons. Ranging from "lets zip grenade to civilian drone" through various boring but crucial stuff like ammo and ending on robots, drones and long-range missiles.
And some funky stuff, like what recently took out multiple Russian bombers in long range attacks. No matter how you call it, things that result in multiple burning bombers are weapons and AFAIK these special containers are neither produced by NATO nor orderable on Temu or provided to them by Mossad.
Have you really missed naval remote-controlled boats that resulted in Russia losing naval war to navy that has no active traditional surface vessels?
Please stop commenting on things where you lack basic knowledge. Or, if you are at al qualified in this area: please stop lying and trying to be propaganda repeater. At least find better propaganda materials or learn to add qualifiers so your claims are not obvious lies.
vorpa-glavo
2hr ago
Because, I don't think most traditional libertarians support the "men with guns forcing people not to act racist" part of the equation, and I think that is a central part of how the idealized form of modern American politics actually works in practice.
I still call myself a "state capacity libertarian" or "liberaltarian" because I want the lightest touch version of this in practice. I'm fuzzy on it, but I think I'd limit it to, say, public schools, employment, banking, and housing. Men with guns can force people to not discriminate in those domains, and then we can leave the people free to discriminate everywhere else in society.
I'm pretty sure that the forced integration of hospitals, hotels, gas stations and public schools that happened at gunpoint in the United States is the only realistic way that could have happened. I'm open to being proven wrong on this point. I would love to be pointed to real world historical examples of oppressed, othered minorities being successfully integrated into wider society without the state forcing the issue.
Also, I think the problem of petty tyrants is not limited to racism. It is just one of the easiest to describe examples. I think even something as simple as, "I'm the black sheep of my family, and the pariah of this small town" can be a case where petty tyranny makes living a happy, fulfilling life difficult. The anonymity of a corporation like McDonald's or Walmart makes us "exile-proof." Even if I reach my lowest point, if I become the most socially hated and cancelled person, the wonderful thing about Capitalist Liberalism is that it shapes us into interchangeable cogs, and I can still get a job at McDonald's or Walmart, and become a part of the background radiation of other people's lives.
jkf
2hr ago
It's just the no-fun brigade up to their usual tricks -- Peterson has been railing about this kind of mundane intervention to suck the enjoyment out of life for regular folks as incipient tyranny for some time, and I'm inclined to agree. See also health-justified alcohol taxes (now spreading to countries where people can't really afford them and could really use a drink, eg Mexico) and 20 mph speed limits in the UK.
wayfarer
2hr ago
When it was fighting somewhat competently last time?
WW II was won by them but it is debatable whether it counts as somewhat competently overall (lower-level generals were sometimes really good but Stalin's track record is hardly stellar as military leader and Russian approach in general was hard to me to describe as competent - with death toll so high it is hard to describe it as anything else than fuck-up). 1920 war against Poland was shitshow. Chechnya ended in victory but it was hard to describe as fighting somewhat competently. Afghanistan has not even ended in victory. Their recent adventures in Syria were extremely competent if you care about war crime high score or as provider of hilarious failures.
I guess that anti-guerilla pacifications in occupied Poland were competent militarily, but debatable whether outcome was overall good even if you care solely about Russia. Circassian genocide was AFAIK fairly competently done but it is debatable whether it really counts as fighting.
crushedoranges
2hr ago
But you see, if I evinced a personal desire to kill you, that would swiftly earn me a ban: because the law of the land and the policies on the internet are very much against personal threats of murder. Laundering it through the guise of collective action at least has the plausible deniability of turbulent priests.
But make no mistake in that I have both the altered state of mind and the required blood alcohol level to personally take responsibility in killing you, if the opportunity should arise in a hypothetical: and do my duty as a Roman to destroy an enemy of the republic, if I am able. What I lose in moral terpitude, I gain in strength of conviction - and perhaps your respect.
wayfarer
2hr ago
the equptment is NATO
Ukraine mostly fights with USSR leftovers and NATO spares. And unwilling Russian donations are in many areas comparable to what NATO supplied.
They are fighting an enemy in which every operation is run by NATO,
drop "every" absurdity and we can start to talk
thousands of NATO mercs are running things on the ground.
really? really?
They have effectively beaten NATO in a conventional land war.
They have problem beating one of the most corrupt and poorest countries in Europe. Yes, Ukraine has small-scale help from NATO countries that gave in the same comparable amount of money to Russia via energy supplies payment and some equipment, but nowhere at scale that should have been done.
If we would have Russia vs NATO in conventional land war, they would be stomped.
If you look for more balanced matchmaking, go for Russia vs Ukraine and Poland. Given how close Ukraine vs Russia is, that should have been far more hilarious.
GBRK
2hr ago
Are you seriously blind to the idea that paying people makes them more loyal to you? I guess i shouldn't have brought up the "roman" thing because everyone wants to focus on the specifics of that example instead of looking for broader commonalities throughout history. Like-- do you seriously think the democratic expansion of the administrative state wasn't buying the loyalty of the permanent bureaucracy? This is the exact same thing, except ICE is a literal army instead of a figurative one.
ArjinFerman
Tinfoil Gigachad
2hr ago
So why is the inability to solve bigotry running from top to bottom of the entire society a point against libertarianism, but not against the system you support?
wayfarer
2hr ago
wanting to reduce the enemy people to servitude or slavery is common
I think that this counts as genocidal
Iconochasm
2. Bootstrap the rest of the fucking omnipotence.
2hr ago
I don't know enough about what the names I see look like to tell in a general case. For the specific examples at play, my gut reaction is that the four example leftists all look less healthy and vigorous than my mental model of an average man, getting worse as you go left to right. Drug use, or malnourishment. Maybe a low-T correlation?
For comparison, I think "random Connecticut blue tribe middle class dad" looks healthier and more vigorous than any of them, so it's not just a politics thing.
The conservative examples look marginally better. I'd choose them as teammates in Survivor over the leftists, possible exempting Leftist 1, who looks like he might seriously outperform until the withdrawal kicks in. I'd probably pick a median dude in my community over any of them. Sort of relatedly, but I've heard women complain that dating in DC is a nightmare because so many of the men (all the Dems, but even most of the MAGA policy dorks) are so gay-coded.
But the online right also has it's bodybuilding contingent, and the online left has people like Hasan Piker, who whatever his other flaws, is in shape and good looking.
I do think there are certain types, especially among men, who heavily lean one way or another, and there's likely a biological basis for that, hormone loads affecting (dis)aggreability, independence, confidence, etc.
wayfarer
2hr ago
Yes, whether Ukraine and other parts of former USSR are actually really part of Russia is quite central to this conflict.
vorpa-glavo
2hr ago
I mean, I think we've already created a society where humans aren't "from top to bottom" racist.
Humans will always be tribal, but I think that different circumstances can turn the dial of how much that tribalism affects their behavior in practice. Having a food-rich, water-rich society is a great starting point for interracial harmony. Adding men with guns forcing people not to act racist, and a set of societal institutions that are designed to brainwash people to be even less racist, and I think you've got the "best" possible form of sanding that bit of human nature off.
You can't change human tribalism, but you can make it less salient depending on how you constitute society.
hydroacetylene
2hr ago
Meh. Where I live there are four days a year when it’s legal to shoot fireworks(two state independence days, fourth, and new years). There will be fireworks shot off the day before and after, of course, but not for months at a time. Not worth worrying about.
ArjinFerman
Tinfoil Gigachad
2hr ago
Okay... whatever our current system is, how would it solve the issue of everyone, from top to bottom, bring racist?
Bookmarking for a response later- TLDR is continuity with JPII, encouraging moves for the conservatives, but very mild disappointments for the liberals.
Leo has appointed mostly the bishops that an impartial observer would have expected a replacement level pope to appoint, in a way which points to the return of the influence of the nuncios over pope Francis' progressive cardinal friends. All eyes are on Chicago and New York- both Archdioceses which are highly political appointments and have bishops who've reached retirement age. One, Cardinal Dolan, is generally considered 'conservative' and the other, Cardinal Cupich, is extremely progressive. These, and the prefects of causes of the saints and of the causes of bishops(both cabinet level officials in the Vatican), will likely be the first major political appointments made by the new pope.
In the Vatican Curia(central administration), pope Leo has confirmed the figures in place under pope Francis. This is customary for new popes. He appointed a nun as secretary(#2) of the dicastery for religious life, but as pope Francis had left a nun as prefect to appoint a bishop as her number two would be a scandal on its own. There are no indications as to who will be appointed to fill his old seat as prefect of the dicastery for the causes of bishops, nor who will be appointed to replace the extremely aged Cardinal Semeraro as prefect of the dicastery for the causes of the saints. He has, however, made a schlew of appointments to the boards of dicasteries(cabinet-level departments) in the Vatican, which indicate a desire for a more conservative direction. Specifically worth highlighting are Cardinal Marengo, the youngest cardinal, who was appointed to a position requiring frequent travel to Rome from his apostolic assignment in Ulanbaatar(yes, Mongolia has a cardinal), allowing him to build an influence network before the next conclave(which, given the ages of cardinals and likely lifespan of the pope, would put him as a senior figure); and Archbishop Fischer of Sidney, who was considered sidelined under pope Francis for his conservative views and, appointed to the board overseeing interreligious dialogue, will be able to grow in influence ahead of his likely appointment as a cardinal. Also worth noting is the high percentage of African bishops appointed; these tend to caucus with the furthest-right faction of western bishops and if the trend continues, this forseeably gives traditionalists more power and influence.
His public facing actions are not particularly noteworthy; he is essentially emulating JPII.
TowardsPanna
3hr ago
A question for Catholics, I assume. I don't have a view on him at all.
Eupraxia
Shut up and quantify
3hr ago
I don't think the the concept of more or less recessive phenotypes is particularly valid in the first place. Sure, hair and eye color are pretty much Mendelian, and I've noticed a few other discrete traits that seem to be pretty dominant/recessive (Hapas always seem to have the epicanthic fold and Blasians usually have darker skin than the median of their parents), but most traits seem to average out. The American understanding of White features being "recessive", particularly to Black features, probably derives from the existing admixture in the Black population (thus creating a broader range of "Black" phenotypes) and general cultural norms of hypodescent (the "one drop rule").
Even if your neighbor's dog is barking a lot, barking utterly pales in comparison to fireworks in terms of how disruptive it is due to the massive difference in volume
I don't know where you live, but I hear barking on a daily basis much louder than any of the firecrackers that went off this weekend (at least accounting for distance; how loud a mortar is from equivalent distance is frankly irrelevant to me unless my neighbor is literally setting them off from his porch). At least with fireworks, it's one or two nights per year and confined to a predictable 6 hour span. The barking occurs on a daily basis, at random, and extends indefinitely. Here, people's dogs bark at any hour. I've been woken up by howling at 3-4 am on a work day multiple times. You could ask me to choose fireworks every Friday if it meant dogs were banned from residential areas and I'd take that in a heartbeat. Over the span of a full year, there really is no comparison when it comes to which is more disruptive to my life.
At least a dog is an independent creature you can't control ... fireworks people are deliberately choosing to be assholes disrupting their neighbors
People choose to own dogs. They choose to ignore properly training them. They choose to continue to keep them even when they are a persistent nuisance to their neighbors. This attitude that you can't just get rid of your personal vanity project is common among dog owners. If your neighbor has a car horn that goes off at random times for random durations, I think you would be right to say it should either be fixed or trashed.
Are you really trying to argue that fireworks are just desserts when they punish not only the irresponsible, but also the responsible owners and those who don't even have dogs?
Nowhere in my post did I support the use of fireworks past a certain hour. I explicitly said I find them annoying as well. I've found many dog owners and their allies have a tendency to get extremely defensive and treat the slightest pushback on even a subset of behaviors as an attack. I never said that I want fireworks in order to punish dog owners, but somehow by simply saying that my personal frustration with dog barking is greater than my frustration with fireworks you jumped to that conclusion.
SubstantialFrivolity
I'm not even supposed to be here today
3hr ago
I'm neither a veteran nor a dog owner, but I think we need to do something about fireworks because of the usual reason - jerks are ruining it for everyone. I would be perfectly okay with fireworks on July 4, stopping at a reasonable hour (say 10-11 pm) so as not to disturb those trying to sleep. Instead what we get is about 2 months of fireworks on either side of the holiday, frequently going past midnight.
I honestly don't know what to do - normally you might say "make it illegal", but the mortar fireworks are illegal in this state already. But since people can drive 4 hours to Wyoming to get fireworks there, the law doesn't accomplish anything. It's a shame, because I actually love fireworks and it would be really cool to have them in the neighborhood if people were responsible. And to be fair most people are. But as usual, the irresponsible minority is causing problems for everyone.
aceventura
3hr ago
This tweet was popular on my feed, but frankly I can't distinguish between the physiognomy he's criticizing and how he himself looks. If I didn't know who Dave Greene was already, I might guess he was one of the internet atheists he's mocking. I'll grant that the Antifa people look very odd, but a lot of the terminally online right-wing personalities don't look very different that the terminally online left-wing to me.
Are there differences in physical appearance between the online left and online right?
vorpa-glavo
3hr ago
After my reading on Renaissance humanism, I don't really think of the thing that makes our society work (to the extent that it does) as a "democracy", but as an attempt at an Aristotlean "politeia" or constitutional republic.
Many parts of this are tangled up in a system that also sells itself on everyone having a voice (the modern meaning of "democracy"), but I think the lynchpins that make things work are the fact that we brainwash most of the populace for 13 years via public schools and the media, and that we received the individualist-trending practices of Christian Europe (nuclear family, incest taboo, etc.)
It also doesn't hurt that we're the wealthiest, most technologically advanced and highest state capacity nation in history. Even if parts of your system rely on sanding off the rough edges of human nature, where you fail to do that, it is a nice consolation prize to have a system where almost no one is starving, dying of thirst, etc. People don't want to rebel against rulers that keep them materially comfortable, even if they can feel the friction of the society rubbing against their human instincts.
aceventura
3hr ago
Is this true though?
Remarkable considering you (I think?) live in a Hispanic neighborhood. In my heavily Hispanic neighborhood, I can expect to hear fireworks every night for many months around July 4.
More options
Context Copy link