The reason that, for example, RAF terrorism in West Germany was ineffective and counter-productive, is that it didn’t align with the values of society. The RAF thought the people would support them when the inevitable government crackdown came, but people supported the state increasing its own powers to oppose terrorism. By contrast, Luigi’s action has a level of support that a resistance group to a foreign occupier might expect. People can talk shit about his personal politics all they want, but it was a perfect choice of target.
Yeah the fact that elite underground pedo churches might exist is disconcerting. I guess the question is are they sitting around planning 911 or are they just like ‘next week would be a great time to sell those stocks’. Who knows…
Can anyone explain what is the deal with Isis, AQ and HTS relationship to each other? Why do Isis and AQ oppose each other when their ideology seems the same? How does Isis even still exist out in the desert with apparently everyone against them? why do they hold out instead of just going with other groups like Jolani did?
No wonder Americans are conspiracy theorists, absolutely nothing can happen in that country without a mass of dodgy secretive weird shit just below the surface. Actually it often makes me less inclined to believe conspiracy theories because America is just like that, if you dig below you will inevitably find evil and corruption, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s connected in any grand plans
True, but people will always judge themselves relative to their surroundings. And it is hard in the wealthy West to be poor without feeling (and actually being) ‘outside’ of society, which most people will respond to by feeling ashamed. In so far as self-hatred exists I think that’s the primary source of it.
Whereas it sounds like Vonnegut is saying the poor could love themselves except they have some kind of moral need to blame themselves for their condition, which (in my opinion) is not entirely accurate to what’s happening
Vonnegut is kind of right here, but the emphasis is wrong. It’s not that people ‘blame themselves’ for being poor exactly (in a moral sense), but rather the material condition of poverty strips one of dignity and self-worth, particularly in a society that is oriented around the petite-bourgeois middle class and relegates those below to a kind of wasteland devoid of opportunities for community and self-development
If he’s mentally ill he might’ve just fixated on his plan for the ceo without thinking about how to live life on the run afterwards. Although carrying around his manifesto suggests he expected to be caught. It is a bit weird.
Like with any collapse, i imagine a critical mass of people decided a corrupt, disintegrating status quo just wasn’t worth trying to save anymore, even despite the alternative. Doesn’t necessarily mean Syria will be a new Afghanistan. Although Afghanistan is an interesting example, because the Taliban did not arise out of the Mujahideen, rather they swept into power once the Mujahideen disintegrated into infighting and warlordism. Probably one of the reasons for this disintegration was that the foreign powers supporting the anti-Soviet fighters ceased to give any fucks about Afghanistan once the Soviets were kicked out. But I dont know enough about Syria to guess what its future will look like, or if theyll be any appetite for continued fighting.
Honestly it's really hard to work out whether this is an 'elites experimenting with new policies in a backwoods client state' thing, or the Aus govt are just idiots who can't imagine addressing social problems in a more complex way than 'fuck it just make it illegal'
Israel unfortunately showed resolve, its willing to take casualties and economic hits to achieve its ends. Trump is coming into power surrounded by Zionist psychopaths who would probably love to expand the war even to Iran. Most of the Muslim govt’s showed themselves to be US pawns and even if the people of countries like Jordan and Egypt are discontent with that, there’s no sign of it translating into power anymore than there is in the West. Hamas is all but dismantled. So the situation became one where Hezbollah could not hope to achieve its strategic aims, even though they were having military success. At least that’s how I think they see it.
My guess - Iran is unwilling to continue escalation when they lack nukes and Trump is coming in to power, and Hzb leadership is unwilling to fight on without Iranian backing.
I keep telling people that in ten years average Joe is gonna be looking at China and asking why he doesn’t have that, and they think I’m crazy. The problem isn’t just that the West is fucked but that there isn’t any feasible way back within the confines of our politics. Right now the big political vibe is pretending that somehow it can all be turned around, but soon enough people will have to confront the fact that what their parents had is not waiting around the corner for them.
why do you guys have to be so weird. there are plenty of ways to make the site ‘safe’ without public humiliations and Stasi mod teams. This sort of nonsense is why I usually never read outside of the news thread nowdays
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The reason that, for example, RAF terrorism in West Germany was ineffective and counter-productive, is that it didn’t align with the values of society. The RAF thought the people would support them when the inevitable government crackdown came, but people supported the state increasing its own powers to oppose terrorism. By contrast, Luigi’s action has a level of support that a resistance group to a foreign occupier might expect. People can talk shit about his personal politics all they want, but it was a perfect choice of target.