Gambling / FOMO. The more informed people at least realized they were gambling. The less informed thought they were missing out on a big money-making scheme and that everybody else was getting rich except them.
- Posts
- 10
- Comments
- 3686
- Joined
- 3 yr. ago
- Posts
- 10
- Comments
- 3686
- Joined
- 3 yr. ago
The two aren't even remotely comparable. A timeshare may not be as valuable as you thought it was, but it exists and you can use it. An NFT is basically an entry in a star registry, but the people think (or at least thought) they actually own the stars.
Those matter to normal humans, but not his MAGA base. If an American soldier had been killed in this operation, they would have been against it. But, because the only people killed were Venezuelans, they probably support what he did.
- JumpRemoved Locked
Trump announces annexation of Venezuela
I get the cynicism, but there was something to the "Rules Based International Order". In the past, the US trade representative might have strong-armed countries into certain deals, but when the deals were signed, they were generally honoured. When Germany and Mexico had a dispute over tariffs or something, it was accepted that the way to resolve it was with communication, mediation, and maybe courts. It wasn't to use violence, bribes, extra-judicial killing, espionage, etc.
The change under Trump just shows how much of the system was taken for granted. Now, the world is having to adjust to the fact that treaties signed by the US are meaningless, and that we're back to a world of bribes and military force.
- JumpRemoved Locked
Trump announces annexation of Venezuela
The FIFA thing is so strange. They have such a long history of obvious corruption that I don't think anybody has a positive impression of them. If they actually gave a real award to an actually deserving group, I think most people would wonder what the catch was.
So, when a massively corrupt organization like FIFA gives an award for peace to a warmongering autocrat, who exactly do they think they're fooling? Why do they even bother going through the motions? Are there people out there that think "Wow, FIFA is a credible organization, and they specialize in peace, so this must indicate that Trump is a force for peace in the world!" It doesn't even work with the MAGA faithful, because they have no idea what FIFA is.
Have you ever seen someone pull a trailer using bungee cords, or use a bare wire in an electrical socket, or use a power tool without any safety gear? It's frustrating if they get away with it, and as a result learn that what they did was a good idea.
What's really awful about this Venezuela operation is that the initial phase of it actually went just fine. No American soldiers were killed, Maduro was captured alive and uninjured, and so on. It was an incredibly stupid and reckless thing to do. But, for the moment, everything went as well as the Department of War could hope. It will probably have bad long-term diplomatic consequences, but those aren't visible yet. If there's a phase 2 of this "war", it's probably going to have unseen issues. For the moment though, they got away with it.
If ever there was a case where the exception proves the rule, this is it. The only reason the Sentinelese are an exception is that they're on a remote island in the middle of nowhere. The land isn't of any real value to anyone. And, far from trying to take the land, the Indian government is now using the navy to protect the Sentinelese from outsiders.
Or to be in such a remote place that nobody ever comes within spear-chucking distance. AFAIK there are still uncontracted tribes in Brazil's amazon jungle.
That makes me wonder about the hunter-gatherer lifestyle in areas that became the centres for farming, like the fertile crescent.
When they do find one of these primitive groups of people who are still living a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, they're always going to be in some remote, inaccessible area. That's the only way that they could still be doing hunting and gathering without the modern world catching up to them. But, that means that a whole lot of the world's best land is unavailable to them because it's where modern civilization exists.
So, what would a hunter-gatherer lifestyle have been like in the Fertile Crescent? Would it have been significantly easier than a hunter-gatherer lifestyle deep in the jungle in Indonesia or in the Amazon? It would have to have been easier than the hunter-gatherers who still hunt and gather in the Kalahari Desert, for example.
Whenever there are those anthropology shows where someone takes a camera into some place deep in the jungle where people still live some version of a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, there do seem to be some good points. They work hard, but there's also a lot of relaxing. They can't do much at night, so there's often singing and dancing when the sun goes down. OTOH, there's a lot of death. Child mortality is high, injuries that would be easily treated in a modern city are death sentences. And, there's not much room for experimentation, following a different path, etc. Gender roles are rigid. Boys do what their father did. Girls do what their mother did. Life has been essentially unchanged as far back as anybody can remember, so you better accept that because as soon as you're born your path is set.
It probably has a lot more to do with farming supporting more people, which results in being able to support non-farmers who are either "nobility" of some kind, and/or warriors who will defend the farming territory and/or fight for better farming territory. In addition, I get the impression that once farming becomes possible, the "nobility" / "warrior" types stop forbidding hunting and gathering because hunter-gatherers are nomadic and they can't easily be controlled and taxed. Some hunter-gatherers still exist on the fringes of society, but it's normally not an option for most people. And, when the hunter-gatherers have one of those periods where they're not able to successfully hunt or gather, in desperation I would bet that they often become raiders, raiding the farmers. So, it's not like individual people are choosing between being hunter-gatherers or farmers. It's that there's a breakthrough in the ability to farm, and everybody nearby is converted into farmers.
Pop: I have a crush on a boy. World broken? Sorry, um... I don't follow the news.
Gangsta Rap: I'm the king of this 'hood, and don't give a shit about anything happening outside of it.
Country: My truck is my whole world, and the world is broken.
Classical: I will describe the great forces at play that are breaking the world using music.
we should teach them these things directly, instead of relying on science classes
Ok, so by "these things" you mean logic, argument analysis, media literacy, critical thinking, etc.
Yes, I had classes like that, and I think they're much more important than science and math classes. You can learn science and math on your own from YouTube videos, but you need the media literacy to know which YouTube videos you can trust.
Decades of propaganda saying that the US was responsible for defeating the Germans. Finally when enough historians and other scholars have weighed in and said, "really though, it was the USSR that did the most to defeat Germany", now people say "well, it was a collective effort and no single country should be claiming credit."
It sounds like they lost you in 3 months, not immediately.
Against your ridiculous claims that Global is equivalent to Fox News in some way.
Global isn't Canada's answer to Fox News. Canada doesn't have a Fox News.
Also, did it actually air on Global? From what I heard it was available on their app. That's more plausible because it's a different pathway. Instead of just simultaneously airing what's being aired in the US, they have to break it up into different segments which they load up on some CDN.
The Soviets deserve even more credit for being able to defeat the Nazis after they supplied the Nazi war machine for a couple of years. Whether or not the USSR should be admired for everything they did in WWII is another matter.
Yes, but it's why the "Biden Crime Family" rhetoric started. It didn't arise out of thin air.
You Should Know: The "Cartel de las Soles" isn't actually a real cartel.
See, the Venezuelan military uses a sun insignia for generals, where the US military uses a star. A journalist invented the term in 1993 to talk about corruption in the Venezuelan military. Get it? All the members of this "cartel" wear suns. But, it's not a real cartel. Not everybody who wears a sun (i.e. is a general) is necessarily involved in crimes, and those that are aren't necessarily working together.