I understand that… But imagine you have all these star wars fans who love dressing up like storm troopers and doing crackdowns. They’re even in government, screaming “for the empire!” as they bomb random people in the middle east

And obviously, a lot of people are going to think Star wars is evil

But reading the Bible without commentary is like a vaccine for the mind virus. Especially the gospels, they’re short and based as hell

The mental gymnastics required to replace mutual aid with magic is truly extraordinary. That’s why they explain the Bible to kids, sentence by sentence, to make sure they don’t accidentally understand it

It’s literally a curse against their enemies. Like it’s that simple

Psalms are prayers to God, it’s all just a book of poetry. They’re not laws, they’re not divine commands, they’re literally just feelings in flowery words

Well… Yeah, that’s just how empires collapse. Anti intellectualism isn’t normal, but it comes up historically

They’re really not values… It’s history. The old testament is a story of people becoming better over generations, and the ebb and flow of it

China hasn’t said shit. They’re very busy trying to avoid interrupting Trump

All China has to do is not collapse for a few years, and they get to be the global superpower. And the trade war has helped unify them while also making stronger ties to US allies

They’ve been handed everything they want on a silver platter, they’re not giving up the Chinese century for Iran

What a healthy conversation. I’m not used to it, it’s making me uncomfortable.

Fuck you no reason in particular!

Hey, friend, take a breath. Listen… This isn’t how we all die. Unless you live in Iran I guess, and then maybe, depending how it plays out - but even that is not at all a sure thing. I know this is pretty bad, but you can’t burn yourself out on this one

This isn’t world war III. It’s just another bad thing. China has signaled nothing on this and Russia is in no position to do anything. Europe has been quiet, the other Gulf states have been quiet… This could turn into another forever war, but this isn’t going to spark a powder keg.

But yeah, Iran has clearly been trying to return to the fold for years now, and netanyahu has started a second conflict to hold into power. It’s very obvious who the aggressors are

And yes, if you use targeted means to hit civilians and their family, obviously that’s a war crime.

But war crimes don’t cancel out. There’s no place for whataboutism when real human lives are being snuffed out in their homes. We make a list, and hopefully soon the fascists will fall and all the war criminals will stand trial

It is funny that you can buy an ice jacket on Amazon… I’ve considered getting one to conspicuously leave in my car, just in case

According to some scholars, the emperor Aurelian instituted in AD 274 the festival Dies Natalis Solis Invicti (‘birthday of the Invincible Sun’) on 25 December,[53] the date of the winter solstice in the Roman calendar.[54]

Funny how Constantine moved the Sabbath to Sunday at the same time he founded the Roman Catholic Church, and a lot of what Jesus taught seems to have been totally reinterpreted very conveniently

But that’s it exactly - cluster bombs just fling granades all over a city block at random. It’s basically just collateral damage in the hopes of hitting a soft target

I mean, fuck palantir and I really don’t like this tech in general, but blowing up a room or a house is way more precise. You’re hitting just what you mean to hit

And that’s what a lot of war crimes come down to - certain weapons are unacceptably imprecise. Which gets into the first rule of war crimes - you’re not supposed to attack noncombatants

Let’s not defend cluster bombs just because Israel is going to use this for justification…

Because of course they will, this whole thing started by blowing up the Iranian negotiator, they’re obviously not going to start acting in good faith now

The argument being cluster bombs are a dirty move, but using simultaneous AI powered assassin drones to strike while people are sleeping makes you the good guys?

I mean… That is how this works. Cluster bombs are bad because they’re less precise and cause more collateral damage. So weapons that target individuals with high precision are better

But like… Presumably, you’re not just individually killing a bunch of civilians precisely

I agree with the sentiment, but I wasn’t joking. I can draw individual eyes pretty well, I can do textures, but I can’t maintain the same perspective between two things

I’m plenty creative and good with my hands, hell I’m great with Photoshop…I just can’t draw. Probably because I can’t see it before it’s on the page

Yeah, seems that way…

What happens when you practice a skill for decades and can only draw eyes? Not matching eyes, mind you… Just eyes

Sorry to disappoint, I meant I learned the story behind the myth of vaccines causing autism. They seemed to be pretty good parents, before they moved away their kid was often outside on his bike… He seemed happy and healthy to me.

We had a significant age gap so we never interacted, but he was on the sidewalk frequently and never in the street when I was driving… Take from that what you will

Oh, that would fit in my model perfectly. Because it’s another world… Obviously. My model isn’t disproven if I wake up in another world, my model is just physically removed from my new world. Universal things still apply until they don’t, but there’s no conflict

If global warming hits 2.5C then flips around to an ice age…I don’t understand it, but it’s happened. My old observations aren’t disproven, new ones disprove the theories around them

Squaring that circle would take effort, but if it’s true it’s true, and truth sometimes takes time to understand

Hide your wife, hide your kids, and hide your husband too because they’re raping everybody out there

Sure. If it fills a gap in my model, I don’t need any proof at all. Why would I? It just makes sense. Of course I’m going to tentatively fit it in

And if a study convincingly disproves it, I’ll just as quickly discard the tentative idea. Why wouldn’t I? It made sense, but it didn’t math out.

But this is all in the context of my model. It’s a big web of corroboration

You can’t convince me global warming isn’t happening, because I’m watching it in real time. No amount of studies are doing to do more than inform the facts of my lived experience… I’m the primary source, I was there

No? I don’t care if the whole world is wrong, some evidence is strong enough to convince me forever, even if it’s subjective

Quality is all that matters. One incontrovertible fact I can poke and prod myself means more than millions of subjective accounts. Or even all of science - I’ll rearrange my entire model around a new fact if it’s compelling enough

Honestly… Yeah, Iran is working towards a nuke, primarily because that would make decapitating their government infeasible (by current standards)

Iran are not the good guys. The Iranian people seem pretty alright TBH, but their government sucks

They are a state that sponsors terrorism for geopolitical objectives

But they’re also the party trying to deescalate. Consistently, for several years now. Israel is not. And that’s so incredibly shameful