new cold war?

[Clinamenic]

Could be wrong though, of course.

 

[Clinamenic]

It's worth bearing in mind that I occupationally, nay vocationally, traffic through the zenith zone of the unevenly distributed future, and I'm starting to take things for granted that most will not become aware of for some amount of time on the order of years, maybe low decades.

 

[Clinamenic]

Even within this milieu, including those with greater technical literacy than have I, there is a certain relative parochiality in terms of grokking the sheer scope of what is being undertaken, and beyond that the marvelous complexity of the situation of conscious matter.

 

[wild greens]

Have you ever lived outside of America

 

[Mr. Tea]

From my perspective, any far-left equivalent (in terms of distance from center) of the far-right MAGA crowd is far less dangerous. But then again, if I subscribed to the channels that demonize whatever para-academic Antifa crowd, my perspective may reflect such.

And re: communism, I don't know of any mainstream US politician that gets anywhere near my conception of actual communism. I think its mainly a scare word for the liberty-loving, in order to galvanize partisan right-wing support.

"Communism" is a bit of a nonsense word, really. OT1H it's used as an insult by the Republicans, especially at the MAGA end of things, for more or less anything they don't like, but especially for the Democrats, who are no less pro-capitalist than they are, but who at least pay lip service to social justice, or try to avoid being overtly racist and misogynist. OTO, you've got Ash Sarkar (prominent left-wing UK 'journo-activist', if you didn't know) calling herself "literally a communist", while supporting Jeremy Corbyn, whose domestic economic policies placed him firmly in the social-democracy camp, in fact barely even left-of-centre from the perspective of most European countries.

 

[Mr. Tea]

It's also what edgy hipster fascists on Twitter cosplay as while stanning for any far-right regime or movement that's also anti-USA/anti-Israel, of course.

 

[Clinamenic]

Have you ever lived outside of America

No, I've never left the continent. Been to Canada couple times.

 

[wild greens]

I would highly recommend it

 

[Clinamenic]

I would highly recommend it

I'd like to, seeing as I can work remotely anywhere. Maybe Switzerland?

 

[wild greens]

Pretty dull but good chocolate

 

[Leo]

zenith zone of the unevenly distributed future

One of the better early Yes albums.

 

[Mr. Tea]

I'd like to, seeing as I can work remotely anywhere. Maybe Switzerland?

Stunning scenery and some beautiful old cities (which is what you get when you tacitly cooperate with Nazi Germany, so they don't bomb you and invade you, while remaining officially neutral, so the USAF/RAF can't target you, either).

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

In that light, it makes sense to me why wealthy libertarian capitalists are able to appeal to poor libertarian workers, despite it being "against their own interests" from a rational perspective. Must just be enough of a subset of workers who place certain cultural values above rational economic judgements, and it makes sense to me. I disagree of course, but it makes sense.

you say that as if it simply happens, like there hasn't been a decades-long, coordinated effort by a handful of impossibly wealthy families - Koch, DeVos, Coors, Bradley, etc - to promote their interests through their foundations and the think tanks, policy groups (i.e. ALEC), and so on that those foundations fund, in addition to massive direct funding of political campaigns and initiatives. Jane Mayer wrote a pretty good book about it called Dark Money.

and GOP strategists aren't stupid. they know that more tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy - which in any case they already accomplished, during Bush II - aren't going to turn out the base. they've been focusing on dog-whistle cultural issues for half a century. school busing, welfare queens, illegal immigration, Muslims, gay marriage, trans people literally just existing.

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

I do however agree about that epistemic rift between "knowing" a truth and "understanding" facts

 

[Leo]

Conservative interests in this country play the long game, overturning Roe has been a work in progress for decades. Progressives don't -- or can't -- focus efforts the same way.

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

Conservative interests in this country play the long game, overturning Roe has been a work in progress for decades. Progressives don't -- or can't -- focus efforts the same way.

the progressive coalition, being by nature much broader and more diverse, is much unwieldier

there are other reasons but that's an important one

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

Stunning scenery and some beautiful old cities (which is what you get when you tacitly cooperate with Nazi Germany, so they don't bomb you and invade you, while remaining officially neutral, so the USAF/RAF can't target you, either).

lmao

 

[Clinamenic]

the progressive coalition, being by nature much broader and more diverse, is much unwieldier

there are other reasons but that's an important one

Yeah I was gonna say, I’d imagine we progressives are almost definitively more heterogenous, along the lines of how differentiated cells are more heterogeneous than undifferentiated cells. With differentiation here being the critical reflection and interrogation of one’s native, immediate culture, and any departure therefrom.

 

[Clinamenic]

Of course one can make such ventures and then still return near enough to where one started, a sort of ideological boomerang.

 

[version]

NATO reaches back to Cold War past with first major defense plans

NATO will step back to the future at its Vilnius summit in July, with leaders set to approve thousands of pages of secret military plans.

www.reuters.com