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Orwell being so right about governments using the constant threat of a virtual enemy has got to be one of the all time top on the money predictions ever. Up there with gravity and shit. I wish we could do something with this information, but alas, knowledge isnt power. Cersei Lannister: Power is power.
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I am hijacking your comment in the hope that you and others will read the link I post here from a military historian whose articles end up regularly on the front page of HN. It adresses the question of US foreign adventurism and why the situation is different today. I.e why Iraq and Ukraine is not the same. It also give you a framework to think about international order. Hope this will open your mind a bit ant that you will stop blindly repeating ready-made ideas pundits keep hammering on:
https://acoup.blog/2023/07/07/collections-the-status-quo-coa...
Orwell being so right about governments using the constant threat of a virtual enemy has got to be one of the all time top on the money predictions ever. Up there with gravity and shit. I wish we could do something with this information, but alas, knowledge isnt power. Cersei Lannister: Power is power.
It's not a prediction when it's history. That has been going on at least as long as the Roman Empire, yet people are still surprised it's happening today. Modern regimes didn't invent these schemes, they're reusing tried and tested methods because they're known to work because human psychology and behavioral instinct is vulnerable to the same exploits which probably will never get patched anytime soon.
It's a very brief news article but this caught my eye: "He has also been dismissing calls for independent investigations into scandals involving his wife and top officials" Well, there's a standard motive. And, if there's two things that seems constant in conservative politics, it's that they don't want anything to change (by defintion of 'conservative'), and they do seem to be forever embroiled in accusations of cor…
The above should not be confused with values. Many people abusing power really have values against what they are doing. They have just figuring out how to convince themselves the alternatives are worse. Having values does make it somewhat easier to suppress your tendency to abuse those values, but only somewhat.
Transparent coup d'etat attempt rumored to happen for months. The only option when the mouse is cornered. Approval rating in the <10% range, Japan whispering in his ear and pulling the puppet strings, crazy selfish wife abusing state resources, it is almost comically predictable if not for how serious it is. North Korea is always the convenient excuse... only hope Westerners don't get fooled by the rhetoric. Guy digg…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are the army likely to back him?
Unclear if it’s better if they do or they don’t. On one hand it’s clearly against the interests of the country to support him, on the other hand democracies absolutely don’t want the military taking any domestic political role
Of course, the military could refuse. In the abstract, I think that might be ideal. (I don't know enough to say whether that would be ideal in this situation.)
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True, it wasn’t all that long ago there was a coordinated campaign from the Republicans to paint Democratic leadership as colluding with Russia. Including a fabricated dossier, and the intelligence community unanimously and falsely declaring that Trump’s son’s laptop was a Russian misinformation plot and using that declaration to have tech giants and the media censor the story. No wait, I think I have that backwards…