A novel the CIA spent a fortune to suppress

Post by redeeman » Sat, May 27, 2023, 12:55 AM UTC

_kbh_ wrote: post #248

redeeman wrote: post #247

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i am not denying what bakhmut looks like, but are you suggesting they couldnt simply megabomb all major ukranian cities without any regard for what happens? I dont buy your motives for what russia is doing. Also, supposing you are in a war, REGARLDESS of reasons, good or bad, what would you suggest happen when there is an active conflict? Now sure, you can say(and im not arguing that this would be wrong): "russia can…

> i am not denying what bakhmut looks like, but are you suggesting they couldnt simply megabomb all major ukranian cities without any regard for what happens? Pretty much, Bakhmut is mostly due to artillery then anything else, I dont think they have enough missiles to reduce all cities in Ukraine to anything like that with missiles outside of using nukes, which instantly ends the Russian federation as a country itsel…

Post by redeeman » Sat, May 27, 2023, 12:28 PM UTC

_kbh_ wrote: post #252

redeeman wrote: post #251

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Post by redeeman » Sat, May 27, 2023, 5:54 PM UTC

_kbh_ wrote: post #254

redeeman wrote: post #253

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Post by dumpsterdiver » Sun, May 28, 2023, 5:50 AM UTC

pessimizer wrote: post #152

dumpsterdiver wrote: post #13

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To play devils advocate, I would posit that so-called "American values" don't actually matter much to real Americans (source: red-blooded American here). What matters is living in comfort, and wielding fiscal power. When you speak of our "values" then you start sounding like the propaganda that quite frankly, American's are tired of hearing about. We aren't all one-trick ponies here, just like any other place, we hav…

You're criticizing someone's use of the term "American values" when they both put scare quotes around it and said that the CIA was not interested in them. You're ignoring the actual comment and replying to the term "American values" in isolation with a response you've probably given many times before.

Post by throwaway290 » Tue, May 30, 2023, 1:18 PM UTC

mihaic wrote: post #49

Nevermark wrote: post #9

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That there is optimal corruption, in a static system, makes sense to me. Changing the system for the better (I.e. start requiring US Supreme Court justices to actually avoid conflicts of interest, or forbid coordinated out of state money for state’s senate races) could incrementally reduce the corruption stable point. — What strikes me as a missed opportunity, is that democracies haven’t institutionalized a response…

Corruption is a pretty fuzzy concept, and most people aren't very good to handle gray areas. I think it's an issue of there not being incentives for any successful group to keep corruption as primary topic in the Overton window, since it's equivalent to marking yourself as an outsider to the political class. From time to time you'd have waves of populism that can be ridden, and outsiders can get in power, but those n…