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  1. Last 7 days
  2. Apr 2024
    1. “Fundamentally, this story is about something having gone horribly awry in our school community,” said Rhea Mokund-Beck, a parent who supports Mr. Sanchez. “There has been such a breakdown of trust. Such a breakdown of good will. Such a breakdown of even understanding what public education is for. And then one layers that with all of the dynamics of race and class, and, you know, this is about a real maelstrom that we’ve made for ourselves.”

      real life divisions ...

    1. Not only does this criticism vastly overrate the power of the written word or the moving image, but it looks past the real forces sending the United States toward ever-deeper division: inequality; a hyperpartisan duopoly; and an antiquated and increasingly dysfunctional Constitution.

      Yes ... and no mention of roots of division in cultural conflicts between paradigms.

  3. Mar 2024
    1. Silent weapons for quiet wars<br /> Operations Research Technical Manual<br /> TW-SW7905.1

      Welcome Aboard

      This publication marks the 25th anniversary of the Third World War, called the "Quiet War", being conducted using subjective biological warfare, fought with "silent weapons".<br /> This book contains an introductory description of this war, its strategies, and its weaponry.<br /> May 1979 #74-1120

      Security

      It is patently impossible to discuss social engineering or the automation of a society, i.e., the engineering of social automation systems (silent weapons) on a national or worldwide scale without implying extensive objectives of social control and destruction of human life, i.e., slavery and genocide.<br /> This manual is in itself an analog declaration of intent. Such a writing must be secured from public scrutiny. Otherwise, it might be recognized as a technically formal declaration of domestic war. Furthermore, whenever any person or group of persons in a position of great power and without full knowledge and consent of the public, uses such knowledge and methodologies for economic conquest - it must be understood that a state of domestic warfare exists between said person or group of persons and the public.<br /> The solution of today's problems requires an approach which is ruthlessly candid, with no agonizing over religious, moral or cultural values.<br /> You have qualified for this project because of your ability to look at human society with cold objectivity, and yet analyze and discuss your observations and conclusions with others of similar intellectual capacity without the loss of discretion or humility. Such virtues are exercised in your own best interest. Do not deviate from them.

      https://ia802300.us.archive.org/10/items/silent-weapons-for-quiet-wars_202110/Silent%20Weapons%20for%20Quiet%20Wars.pdf

    1. yeah. but the actual problem is pacifism and overpopulation.<br /> all other problems, including world wars, are only symptoms of pacifism and overpopulation.<br /> this is just another intelligence test, and again, most people fail, most people are idiots

  4. Feb 2024
    1. Commentarii de Bello Gallico (.mw-parser-output .IPA-label-small{font-size:85%}.mw-parser-output .references .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .infobox .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .navbox .IPA-label-small{font-size:100%}Classical Latin: [kɔm.mɛnˈtaː.ɾi.iː deː ˈbɛl.loː ˈɡal.lɪ.koː]; English: Commentaries on the Gallic War), also Bellum Gallicum (English: Gallic War), is Julius Caesar's firsthand account of the Gallic Wars, written as a third-person narrative
  5. Jan 2024
    1. also remember "non-conventional" wars like "weapons of mass migration", targetting north america and western europe. the young white males in america and europe will be drafted for "already lost wars" against russia/hamas/ethiopia (suicide mission), and the young black males (migrant invaders) will finally conquer the young white females, creating the "brown race" of slaves for the global elite (the same elite that is preaching the "racism is bad" gospel)

    1. What all of these issues had in common was that the left, especially the academic left, had pushed far enough to trigger a backlash. And more than any other politician, Mr. DeSantis was the conservative politician who rose with that backlash against “woke” and coronavirus restrictions. The broad range of anti-woke and anti-pandemic politics meant that there were many moderates and conservatives who thought they agreed with Mr. DeSantis. They imagined him as a politician much like themselves, much in the same way that both antiwar progressives and centrist Democrats saw themselves in Mr. Obama in 2008.

      This syncs with the the twitter thread i recently wrote.

  6. Dec 2023
    1. One could easily replace World War I and idea of war here with social media/media and the essay broadly reads well today.

  7. Oct 2023
    1. But sometimes Alter’s comments seem exactly wrong. Alter calls Proverbs 29:2 “no more than a formulation in verse of a platitude,” but Daniel L. Dreisbach’s Reading the Bible with the Founding Fathers devotes an entire chapter to that single verse, much loved at the time of the American Founding: “When the righteous are many, a people rejoices, / but when the wicked man rules, a people groans.” Early Americans “widely, if not universally,” embraced the notion that—as one political sermon proclaimed—“The character of a nation is justly decided by the character of their rulers, especially in a free and elective government.” Dreisbach writes, “They believed it was essential that the American people be reminded of this biblical maxim and select their civil magistrates accordingly.” Annual election sermons and other political sermons often had Proverbs 29:2 as “the primary text.” Far from being a platitude, this single verse may contain a cure to the contagion that is contemporary American political life.

      Ungenerous to take Alter to task for context which he might not have the background to comment upon.

      Does Alter call it a "platitude" from it's historical context, or with respect to the modern context of Donald J. Trump and a wide variety of Republican Party members who are anything but Christian?

    1. Dixon’s standards were variable: he was happy for Murray to include ‘cunt’ but drew the line at ‘cundum ... a contrivance used by fornicators, to save themselves from a well-deserved clap; also by others who wish to enjoy copulation without the possibility of impregnation’.
    1. Thank you. Steve, for raising the alarm on this catastrophe! One minor comment. It should be QC'ed, not QA'ed. Quality control is done first. Quality Assurance (QA) comes after QC. QA is basically checking the calculations and the test results in the batch records. I worked in QC and QA for big pharma for decades. I tried to warn people in early 2021 that there's no way the quality control testing could be done at warp speed. Nobody listened to me despite my decades of experience in big pharma!

      "warp speed" sounds fancy, plus "its an emergency, we have no time"...

      it really was just an intelligence test, a global-scale exploit of trust in authorities. (and lets be honest, stupid people deserve to die.)

      problem is, they (elites, military, industry) seem to go for actual forced vaccinations, which would be an escalation from psychological warfare to actual warfare against the 95% "useless eaters".

      personally, i would prefer if they would globally legalize serial murder and assault rifles, then "we the people" would solve the overpopulation. (because: serial murder is the only alternative to mass murder.) but they are scared that we would also kill the wrong people (their servants because they are evil or stupid). (anyone crying about depopulation should suggest better solutions. denying overpopulation is just another failed intelligence test.)

    1. they're fleeing Russia they're fleeing Ukraine because of the war there they go to Israel and then wom this whole attack that happened on 00:05:38 Saturday that nobody expected and it's um it it's shocking everybody
      • for: Samara - one war to another, polycrisis - multiple wars

      • comment

        • as the polycrisis deepens, we will jump from the frying pan into the fire
    1. If it requires too many words, you have not seen theunity but a multiplicity.

      How are they defining "multiplicity" here? There seems to be a tacit definition with respect to being in opposition to "unity" (of a work), but not an explicit one. It also seems to be a shaded meaning with respect to the more common one.

      unity: essence, core, coherence, oneness

      They use the word "multiplicity" in the usual sense of large number or multitude on p55: "The multiplicity of the rules indicates the complexity of the one habit to be formed, not a plurality of distinct habits."

      They also revisit it in the upcoming section: "Mastering the Multiplicity: The Art of Outlining a Book" on p88

      Perhaps its just me but there's a linguistic "softness" of the uses of unity and multiplicity here with respect to 2023. Though these two opposites fit the dictionary definitions of their words, is it possible that this softness is the result of a sort of historical linguistic shift I'm feeling in these words? I can't quite put my finger on it, but perhaps it's the relationship of unity to religion? Neither seem to be frequently used these days.

      The Ngram Viewer shows peaks for the use of unity in 1660 and 1960 of almost 75% higher usage compared to a broader historical average. It is generally waning since. Multiplicity has about 1/4 the use of unity and has remained flat over time. What caused the peaks in the use of "unity" during these periods? This 1972 use was on the downslope of the 1960s peak. Was it used in the 1940 version?

      The 20th century increase in the use of unity begins around 1914 and may have been related to political shades of meaning going into WWI with another marked rise in the lead up to WW2.

    1. He used the chance to declare “cultural war” for the “soul of America,” against an enemy of radicals “cross-dressing” as moderate Democrats, who were preaching “abortion on demand” and “radical feminism” while working-class Americans watched their jobs disappear and a “mob”—the Rodney King riots—looted and burned Los Angeles. The liberal columnist Molly Ivins memorably wrote that the speech “probably sounded better in the original German,” but its themes would form the founding document of today’s Republican Party. Indeed, when I mentioned the speech to a former Trump Administration official, he immediately recited several lines by heart.

      Pat Buchanan ran for the Republican nomination in 1992 and in a prime-time speech at the Republican convention that summer he declared a "cultural war" for the "soul of America".

  8. Sep 2023
    1. 10:00 hero’s journey as non-deterministic, growing possibility of horizons for individuals

      seeing day as potential horizons, facing the dragons of the day

      see in Hobbit, Harry Potter, Star Wars

  9. Aug 2023
    1. Star Trek when there was no other Star Trek.

      I love when folks are snarky in their professional writing. Makes reading so much more enjoyable.

  10. May 2023
    1. Is there potentially a worry amongst Republicans that by losing the "culture wars" that they'll somehow lose control of society and the capitalist order which funds their party and helps to keep them in control?

      Link to Gramsci's idea about cultural hegemony: https://hypothes.is/a/pRnPLPTtEe2_pyt2-Z7pwg

    2. Cultural hegemony is therefore used to maintain consent to the capitalist order, rather than the use of force to maintain order.
  11. Mar 2023
  12. Nov 2022
    1. Meme wars are culture wars, the authors write — “accelerated and intensified because of the infrastructure and incentives of the internet, which trades outrage and extremity as currency, rewards speed and scale, and flatten the experience of the world into a never-ending scroll of images and words.”
  13. Oct 2022
    1. His topics include the rhetoric and impact of culture wars in American political life and the relationship between politics and culture in the United States.
  14. Aug 2022
  15. Jun 2022
    1. Short-lived victories, however, came at a long-term cost. Evangelical leaders set something in motion decades ago that pastors today can no longer control. Not only were Christians conditioned to understand their struggle as one against flesh and blood, fixated on earthly concerns, a fight for a kingdom of this world—all of which runs directly counter to the commands of scripture—they were indoctrinated with a belief that because the stakes were getting so high, any means was justified.
  16. May 2022
  17. Apr 2022
  18. Mar 2022
    1. I think another very important thing is what has been dividing the West over the several years now, it’s what people term the “culture war”. The culture war between left and right, between conservatives and liberals. And I think this war can be an opportunity to end the culture war within the West, to make peace in the culture war. 00:15:59 First of all, because you suddenly realize we are all in this together. There are much bigger things in the world than these arguments between left and right within the Western democracies. And it's a reminder that we need to stand united to protect Western liberal democracies. But it's deeper than that. 00:16:22 Much of the argument between left and right seemed to be in terms of a contradiction between liberalism and nationalism. Like, you need to choose. And the right goes with nationalism, and the left goes more liberalism. And Ukraine is a reminder that no, the two actually go together. Historically, nationalism and liberalism are not opposites. 00:16:47 They are not enemies. They are friends, they go together. They meet around the central value of freedom, of liberty. And to see a nation fighting for its survival, fighting for its freedom, you see it on Fox News or you see it in CNN. And yes, they tell the story a little differently, but they suddenly see the same reality. 00:17:14 And they find common ground. And the common ground is to understand that nationalism is not about hating minorities or hating foreigners, it's about loving your compatriots, and reaching a peaceful agreement about how we want to run our country together. And I hope that seeing what is happening would help to end the culture war in the West.

      Harari makes a very astute observation here. This is an opportunity to reflect on the divisiveness of the culture wars. The acceleration of the culture wars is, in fact no accident, but directly related to Putin's information warfare on the West, especially the election and support of Trump in the US and Johnson in the UK.

  19. Nov 2021
    1. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/10/evangelical-trump-christians-politics/620469/

      Evangelical Christians have been held together more by political orientation and sociology than they have by a common theology. This has set them up for a schism which has been exacerbated by Donald J. Trump, COVID-19, and social changes.

      Similar to Kurt's quote, "We go to church to see and be seen", too many churches are focused on entertainment and being an ongoing institution that they aren't focusing on their core mission. This is causing problems in their overall identity.

      Time at church and in religious study is limited, but cable news, social media, and other distractions are always on and end up winning out.

      People are more likely to change their church because of politics than to change their politics because of church.

      The dichotomy of maleness and femaleness compound the cultural issues of the evangelical church.

      Southernization of the Church

      Pastors leaving the profession due to issues with a hostile work environment. Some leaving because parishioners are organizing and demanding they be fired.

      Peter Wehner looks at the rifts that are appearing in the Christian evangelical movement in America, some are issues that have been building for a while, while others are exaggerated by Donald J. Trump, the coronavirus, the culture wars, political news, political beliefs, and and hypocrisy.

    2. it isn’t simply the case that much of what is distinctive about American evangelicalism is not essential to Christianity; it is that now, in important respects, much of what is distinctive about American evangelicalism has become antithetical to authentic Christianity. What we’re dealing with—not in all cases, of course, but in far too many— is political identity and cultural anxieties, anti-intellectualism and ethnic nationalism, resentments and grievances, all dressed up as Christianity.
  20. Sep 2021
  21. Jul 2021
    1. The historian Peter Turchin coined the phrase elite overproduction to describe this phenomenon. He found that a constant source of instability and violence in previous eras of history, such as the late Roman empire and the French Wars of Religion, was the frustration of social elites for whom there were not enough jobs. Turchin expects this country to undergo a similar breakdown in the coming decade.
  22. Oct 2020
    1. Meme creators and posters have been sued for using people’s images without permission, especially those who were not already public figures. In 2003, the parents of the unwilling star of the “Star Wars Kid” video sued their son’s classmates for posting the video online. Though the suit was settled, the video did not disappear, and the Star Wars Kid learned to deal with his fame.

      It is interesting to see examples of simple actions that can have dire consequences with the law.

  23. Sep 2020
    1. the science wars,” a fierce contest between theoretical physicists and the humanists they felt were making much ado about insuf-ficiently understood advances in science,

      Les science wars (littéralement guerres de la science) réfèrent à une série d'échanges entre des tenants du réalisme scientifique et du postmodernisme concernant la nature de la méthode scientifique. Ces échanges se sont grandement tenus lors des années 1990 dans des publications académiques et populaires américaines. [...] Les réalistes ont critiqué les approches de disciplines telles les Cultural Studies, l'anthropologie culturelle, les études féministes, la littérature comparée, la sociologie des médias et les études des sciences et technologies. Ils ont également affirmé que les critiques postmodernistes ne savent pas de quoi ils parlent (Wikipédia, « Science wars », consulté le 23 septembre 2020).

    1. loss of Silesia

      Conquered from Maria Theresa during the War of Austrian Succession in violation of the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713, to which Frederick was a signatory.

      In many ways, this is seen as an example of Realpolitik, in which a nation's strategic strength is the determining factor in how it conducts policy (rather than promises or a sense of honour). This is a concept that will become increasingly important in Prussian policy into the 19th century, under Bismarck.

  24. Oct 2018
    1. But Twain understood what modern storytellers seem to have forgotten-a compelling sequel offers consumers a new perspective on the characters, rather than just more of the same.

      In terms of polar opposites think Star Wars and some (not all) of its sequels and spin offs. Many prefer "Empire Strikes Back" to "A New Hope" few would admit to liking the prequels ("Phantom Menace" et al). Sadly there are too many examples of bad sequels. For this author, each installment of "The Matrix" progressively disappointed, so much so that I couldn't bother with the games, graphic novels or animated series.

  25. Feb 2018
    1. We also see glimpses of other actors, like Woody Harrelson's Star Wars universe debut as Tobias Beckett and Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) as Qi'Ra.

      Curious that Han Solo never really got his own theme music...

  26. Jul 2017
    1. When it comes to Star Wars and Disney's theme parks, though, Disney CEO Bob Iger has made it clear that he sees a bright future for augmented reality, which uses a headset to superimpose computer-generated images onto a real-world view.

      Also Augmented Reality!

    2. In addition to putting the next wave of visual technology to work on the big screen, Disney and Lucasfilm, the division that produces Star Wars, are also hard at work developing virtual reality and augmented reality products that can let the film's fans feel like they're inside the world of the movies, even if they're at home (or, maybe, at a Disney theme park).

      Star Wars comes to life in virtual reality!

    1. I created a spoof manuscript about “midi-chlorians” – the fictional entities which live inside cells and give Jedi their powers in Star Wars.

      Great topic!

  27. Jun 2017
    1. When David Limp thinks about the future of Alexa, the AI assistant he oversees at Amazon, he imagines a world not unlike Star Trek—a future in which you could be anywhere, asking anything, and an ambient computer would be there to fulfill your every need.

      We've all been waiting for that for a long time!

  28. Apr 2017
    1. It features side-by-side portraits of Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), bisected by the beam of a lightsaber, whose glow goes from blue to red. It's held up by Rey (Daisy Ridley), who appears in miniscule form but prominently, front and center, in a powerful warrior stance.

      Interesting.

  29. Mar 2017
  30. Feb 2017
    1. Some fans of both fantasy and science fiction will cite the 2004 Best Picture win for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King as the compensation for Star Wars not winning in 1978 since Hobbits fighting off a dark lord is the closest thing to Jedi Knights and Darth Vader.

      Nah. Not the same thing at all....

    2. n 1978, the indisputably most popular science fiction movie of all time — Star Wars — was nominated for Best Picture at the 50th Academy Awards, but it lost to Annie Hall.

      Booo!

    1. While Industrial Light & Magic was started to generate special effects for “Star Wars,” the visual effects studio is now the largest in the motion picture industry, working not only with Lucasfilm but also with studios across the globe.)

      The largest, wow!

    2. So she was stunned when she began work at the studio and found herself surrounded by women, particularly in leadership

      Surprising!

    3. the women onscreen are only now catching up with those working behind the scenes at Industrial Light & Magic, the special-effects studio founded by George Lucas.

      This is good to know1

    4. Jyn Erso is not a princess or a Jedi. She is, however, the second female character with a lead role in a “Star Wars” movie in the last two years.

      A rarity!

  31. May 2016