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Everything posted by Larry of the Lawn
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US Politics: Losing Appeals
Larry of the Lawn replied to A Horse Named Stranger's topic in General Chatter
Not saying Trump isn't making appeals to violence and all, but those blood bath comments do appear to be to hyperbolic and metaphorical language about China vs the US in the auto market. Not clear if the "no more elections" is about China or something domestic, and I'm sure there is a dogwhistle element to it, but at least read the entire article LR linked. -
US politics - Yes country for old men
Larry of the Lawn replied to IheartIheartTesla's topic in General Chatter
What is an adversary when it can change every 4 years? -
The Small Stuff That Doesn't Need a Thread. #8
Larry of the Lawn replied to LongRider's topic in General Chatter
I'm gonna apologize in advance for even sharing this and cursing you all for being exposed to it, but the prime number talk has put it in my mind all afternoon. This involves a guy trying to use prime numbers get beg for sex. *Apparently this became an important point that was argued about by the entire barroom after several of the women the guy had attempted to seduce began chatting about the way the math would work out. -
US politics - Yes country for old men
Larry of the Lawn replied to IheartIheartTesla's topic in General Chatter
Well, yes. I suppose there's more of a case to be made for the aspects of it that Liff mentioned, but I'm not convinced that my designation of something as brainrot is sufficient for it to be banned, particularly when it's the only thing of its kind targeted. The security concerns are a separate conversation and concern, but yes, the brainrot aspect of this conversation absolutely has Satanic panic, Tipper Gore coming for you vibes. -
US politics - Yes country for old men
Larry of the Lawn replied to IheartIheartTesla's topic in General Chatter
Yeah, that's awful. Nothing that horrific, but my little brother is 17 and it's been a nightmare trying to get him to unlearn a bunch of the shit pouring out of the right wing toxic masculinity Andrew Tate aligned crowd that he's come across through gaming and gaming discord. I'd be negligent if I didn't point out though, that it's tiktok that's being targeted by the ban. Not any of the apps or services mentioned in the linked Wapo piece. -
US politics - Yes country for old men
Larry of the Lawn replied to IheartIheartTesla's topic in General Chatter
I think tiktok rots brains, and I know the Dems are never going to do anything but scorn the under 30 vote, but fucking hell, if Biden is equivocating on let's just say, a very lopsided violent conflict because he doesn't want to lose votes, why the fuck are they coming after tiktok in an election year? Edit: and by that "they" in the last sentence, I mean any Dems or part of the administration that thinks a bill banning tiktok would be something Biden should sign. -
US politics - Yes country for old men
Larry of the Lawn replied to IheartIheartTesla's topic in General Chatter
Thank you for saying the quiet part out loud that the pundit class never wants to talk about. -
US politics - Yes country for old men
Larry of the Lawn replied to IheartIheartTesla's topic in General Chatter
How do we do the second part? Congress can't get 60 senate votes for anything other than beefing up the Pentagon. Were probably never going to have another constitutional amendment. What's the actual plan? Getting rid of first past the post might help. How does that realistically happen? -
US politics - Yes country for old men
Larry of the Lawn replied to IheartIheartTesla's topic in General Chatter
This is all true. Im interested in hearing, after the election I guess, how we are going to ever have an election that's any different? Because what seems like it's going to happen is, best case scenario, the Dems get the presidency and both houses (lol) and spend 8 months making very minor tweaks to one or two of the many escalating problems. They'll slow the growth of increasing medical costs, but not actually be able to reduce them. Or they'll get some kind of temporary tax cut for people who have 2 or more kids, make $48-49k a year or less than $6 or more than $390000, but its only good for two years and you have to reapply every 4 months. They'll try to make a national law legalizing abortion but it's going to fail because we really need The New Joe Manchin Punching Bag to get elected next time around They're going to talk about wanting to do more, but there's going to be some obstacles, a Parliamentarian or the Exchequer of Doom or the Whitehouse Sewer Gorgon or some such shit, and all the establishment Dem legislators are going to wring their hands and get real emotional about how they just wish the people in charge could do something. And then in two years one of the houses is going to flip and nothing's going to happen except giving the Pentagon more money than they ask for and a new campaign. And then someone is going to say "damn, I wish we could get out of this cycle." And they're going to be told to shut up until after the next election, and that they're entitled and they should be grateful for what they have, or that if they abstain from voting or vote [third] party they are effectively cannibalizing orphans. Yes, this is a dramatic and hyperbolic description. But let's be honest, the Dems and their biggest supporters have absolutely no fucking clue on how to fix this shit cycle*. It's a race to the bottom, and we're going to be having this same conversation every single time. Edit:* in fact they have an active interest in not fixing it. -
US politics - Yes country for old men
Larry of the Lawn replied to IheartIheartTesla's topic in General Chatter
That actually depends quite a bit on where you vote. -
US politics - Yes country for old men
Larry of the Lawn replied to IheartIheartTesla's topic in General Chatter
Huh. I wonder what the hivemind here would think about that. What does it mean to be a pro Israel Dem voter,? Im pro Israel in that I support their right to exist. If you want to take that cynical view, do your really think that Dem voters who are more pro Israel are going to vote for the guy who has no problem criminalizing abortion, putting the Bible in schools, etc? As far as saying "genocide", my bad if I missed some directive from the mods? I'm happy to keep the conversation within whatever boundaries are set. -
US politics - Yes country for old men
Larry of the Lawn replied to IheartIheartTesla's topic in General Chatter
Have Schumer introduce a bill to make all material support to Israel contingent on a ceasefire, or have Biden invite Tlaib and Bowman etc I to the WH to address concerns. Use the Minnesota and Michigan primary "uncommitteds" as evidence that Biden needs to move on this or risk losing votes. Has he done this behind the scenes? Maybe, but I doubt it. There's a lot of room between the status quo and actually cutting aid. I'm not seeing much attempt to explore it. Edit: if the issue actually comes down to a cynical "what costs the most votes" and it's a coin toss, why not err on the side of not supporting genocide? -
Dune part 2: the spoilers must flow (Spoilers for the movies)
Larry of the Lawn replied to Kalbear's topic in Entertainment
Yeah, I think it was probably the most efficient way to get some of Paul's interiority into the film, always an issue with adaptations where the source material is so weighted with a main character's internal thoughts. -
US politics - Yes country for old men
Larry of the Lawn replied to IheartIheartTesla's topic in General Chatter
Support for Israel is popular, so is support for a ceasefire. -
US politics - Yes country for old men
Larry of the Lawn replied to IheartIheartTesla's topic in General Chatter
I'm gonna go ahead and say there isn't any responsibility on you there, but agree to disagree I suppose. -
US politics - Yes country for old men
Larry of the Lawn replied to IheartIheartTesla's topic in General Chatter
Thanks for the link. If you're willing to dig into it a bit, I'm curious about your thoughts on the first Lukes' article [in] the second pdf criticizing Chomsky and taking him to task for doubting the first hand reports of genocide by refugees. Lukes argues (or at least I think that's a reasonable interpretation)that the US is responsible for turning Cambodia into a wasteland of disease and warfare. You don't have to say, or answer any of these questions, but I'm going to go ahead and ask anyway: You're not that much older than me, so I'm guessing you're between 50-55? In the mid 80's were you even voting? Curious about how you consider yourself complicit. If you're complicit in the US's later support of the Khmer Rouge, what about the US's role in the genesis of that conflict? This goes back to wondering about whether the actions of one random person with no power are somehow The Problem rather than the decisions made by governments to execute violence and war. -
US politics - Yes country for old men
Larry of the Lawn replied to IheartIheartTesla's topic in General Chatter
And committed what may be the world's largest genocide in history, against the indigenous population, and developed into the nation most capable of projecting violence across the globe, and home to the world's largest carceral system. -
US politics - Yes country for old men
Larry of the Lawn replied to IheartIheartTesla's topic in General Chatter
Certainly the case with US. -
US politics - Yes country for old men
Larry of the Lawn replied to IheartIheartTesla's topic in General Chatter
Why don't you tell me? What did Chomsky say that was apologia for Pol Pot and when did he say it, and when did he change his mind? Again, I think it's pretty interesting that we're targeting the claims of people who have zero to very little actual political power, and so incredibly reticent to criticize the people who actually make decisions. -
US politics - Yes country for old men
Larry of the Lawn replied to IheartIheartTesla's topic in General Chatter
It can be! It certainly was in the Balkans. With southeast asia I think saying "he defended a genocide" is on par with saying the you and me are defending a genocide when we vote for Joe Biden this fall. Chomsky questioned whether or not the initial reports of atrocities were being created or exaggerated by the US government. As more information came out from other sources he walked that back. I think given the US's track record his initial skepticism was well warranted. -
US politics - Yes country for old men
Larry of the Lawn replied to IheartIheartTesla's topic in General Chatter
I don't think anyone was trying to lionize this guy. I'm certainly not. I think the focus on his darkest thoughts instead of what he was trying to draw attention to is pretty weird. -
US politics - Yes country for old men
Larry of the Lawn replied to IheartIheartTesla's topic in General Chatter
I too am not a fan of the more aggressive use of the Socratic method, but I think I was pretty clear in my questioning and didn't make any assumptions or ascribe any intent to your statement. I was asking because I'm not sure there's a linear progression from anti-colonialism to supporting shitty groups, or questioning how bad the groups fighting colonial powers really are. I think for people who are skeptical about the intentions of governments and corporations that anti-colonialism and doubting government propaganda are two natural positions, but I don't think that anti-colonialism causes people to cling to shitty causes. I think it's easy to assume (wrongly so) that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, so there might be something to the connection you're making, I just question the nature of that link. I don't think there's zero connection. I also think that it's absolutely idiotic to uncritically believe anything that comes front he US government related to international affairs. So as an individual person, I am going to be extremely skeptical hearing that so and so is a terrorist, or this group is committing war crimes without some other kind of confirmation or at least information. There is too long of a track record of the US government fucking with democratically elected governments. Now, with that as a prior, I suppose I can see how if someone gets lazy with that they could start just grabbing at any straw that supports that mentality. In the case of the self-immolation, yeah, I think he made some statements (if they were actually his) that are pretty bad. And I have no issue admitting that I am sympathetic and in full agreement with a lot of the other stuff he said. I think the reason that people are seeing pushback in this front from the left is that there is a ridiculous and obvious power differential at work that so many ignore. We had people who were so quick to point out that the act was "violent", as of the situation he was calling attention to isn't violent? What sense is there in that? I think there's also an obvious degree of complicity by the guy in the actions he's so disturbed by. Ignoring the undercurrent of guilt there is bizarre to me. (Not saying you did that, but look at how people pounced on Simon). What I think is really weird though (and I want to be clear this is not directed at you personally) that there is such a rush to point to a couple of troubling and gross views that could be reasonably interpreted from one guy who lit himself on fire to call attention to a genocide, while simultaneously arguing that anything but unwavering support for the US president who's continuing to fund and support that genocide is somehow an abhorrent or foolish thing to do. To paraphrase Bob Dylan, "to live outside the law you must be honest". I think that's good advice for people living inside it too. In that vein, it's a good thing not to uncritically jump to conclusions that support your initial inclinations or priors. Personally, I think the implication that anti-colonialism is some kind of pipeline to violent extremism is bonkers. It's a response to massive violence on international scale. I'd be shocked if a little violence didn't slip out once in awhile, and you can call it whataboutism, but I'm not worried about the worst thoughts that one guy might have had, im worried about the larger conflict and larger violence.* Not zeroing in on the worst thoughts of one guy. Especially when I'm the end he burned himself alive. I'm more concerned with the ongoing violence how that gets stopped. -
US politics - Yes country for old men
Larry of the Lawn replied to IheartIheartTesla's topic in General Chatter
How is it a path? How do you know that anti-colonialism is the culprit? Eta: also, might be helpful to name some names. There are plenty of artists and writers and intellectuals who had staunch anti-colonial views and managed to not do that. -
US politics - Yes country for old men
Larry of the Lawn replied to IheartIheartTesla's topic in General Chatter
The nuance is what gets obscured. There's nothing nuanced about hearing A, which is two logical leaps away from B, and upon hearing A crying "that's B apologia!" It actually frustrates the ability to have a discussion about how they are different. Particularly when B is something pretty bad. Particularly when it's done in the format of leading questions that ascribe B to someone you're trying to have discussion with. -
US politics - Yes country for old men
Larry of the Lawn replied to IheartIheartTesla's topic in General Chatter
No that's not all you said. You said this: That what's people are responding to. Some of us don't think that "putting their lives in the line" is anything special, or at least nothing to romanticize. And some of us just use the word "apologia" any chance we can get. By the way, great thread title