PugJesus @ PugJesus @lemmy.world

Cripple. History Major. Irritable and in constant pain. Vaguely Left-Wing.

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2 yr. ago

Using former Nazis wasn't because there was a shortage of educated people in general in the US after WW2. The vast majority of Nazi scientists who made major contributions to US progress (or Soviet progress, for that matter), were in rocketry, which the Nazis put disproportionate effort and funding into.

People want easy solutions, like "Have more people be born smart" instead of hard, complex, realistic ones like "Put time, effort, and resources into robust education of the population in stable familial and social environments to develop higher averages of generally recognized metrics of intelligence in the general population"

God, no. Even tabloids are generally written at an 8th grade+ level.

I remember in the very early days not getting the full 'hype' of "MUSK IS SO SMART", but I enjoyed him as a "This is what happens when some ordinary dweeb becomes incredibly wealthy - he wants to throw money at space and technology. That's neat."

His PR guys must've done a good job at keeping the worst of his tendencies behind closed doors - or at least further than most casual observers would look. Around the time of the 'pedo guy' incident it began to unravel for me. Curious that a social media addiction undid all the work of his PR team.

All was OK when he served blue MAGA.

what

Now see this is my pet peeve, how can you roll high before the DM can object?

With fast hands.

If DM’ing, I wouldn’t have even called for one. I’d just have said you successfully punt the cat and everyone hears it scream in agony. Good luck talking your way out and staying at the party. 🤷

If a cat screams in the hedge maze and no one is around to see my foot connect with its little furry torso... who's to say I was the culprit? Perhaps it was harassed by some vengeful hawk or raven. Look at my beady little rat eyes. Would they lie???

I mean I wouldn't call it a beacon of democracy, but all things are relative. I picked one of the more reasonable polities in MENA with a mostly-functioning multiparty system. The alternative would've been saying I hoped for Turkiye, but, uh, considering Erdogan's behavior, I wasn't sure I wanted to make that comparison as a positive.

My point is simply that there is still hope for Syria to improve into something better than it was - and certainly better than some immensely calcified repressive regime like Iran or the Saudis, and that this... immensely distasteful conservative dreck does not necessarily sink that hope.

We look for Syria to take a step forward, not to become Sweden in a decade (though that would, obviously, also be immensely welcome; just less likely). Institutions are built a year at a time, a battle at a time, not all once.

LAPD doesn't want to add any new responsibilities to their extant list of responsibilities.

But brutalizing protesters is already on the list, so...

It was never going to be a liberal government. The rule is conservative dreck, make no mistake, but the norm was already for burkinis and other such swimsuits to be worn. It's not a radical departure from extant behavior.

My concern, going forward, is more towards whether the government will resolve itself in a reasonably democratic way.

I'm not holding out hopes for a Tunisia, but a Jordan or Lebanon might be reasonable to cross one's fingers for.

Traitors love traitors, nothing new to see here.

A bit, you might say. Since rats and cats don't get along, I had it in mind that I was going to have a little fun being afraid and/or malicious towards any cats or cat-like creatures during the dinner party, especially since we were just doing a one-shot and I wasn't going to get another chance. About halfway through the adventure, I realized that there probably wasn't going to be an organic opportunity, so while we were out in the gardens, plotting our next move to steal the expensive painting, with few NPC party guests around, I decided I would... prod the DM a little to give me an opportunity.

For the most part I was a good player during the adventure! I had my mannerisms down, obsessively 'preening' my 'whiskers' (read: facial hair), twitchy-but-social and generally non-malicious, generally inclined towards subterfuge and flattery over violence. Everyone agreed, DM included, that I made a great ratman.

But I CRAVED an opportunity to be a little ratty towards a little catty!

You should have seen how defeated and confounded my DM was when it happened. Especially since I rolled before he could object, and I rolled high (I think it was an 18 or something, where he would've had trouble saying I failed something simple like rolling to punt a cat).

The whole table was in an uproar too, so he had no choice but to acquiesce. I swear I see that thousand-yard stare in his eyes every time the story comes up. XD

One of several reasons why the 'heavy man' variant of the dilemma is rarely used in comparison to the switch.

It's a combination of two common 'trolley problem' moral dilemmas.

Do you pull the switch to kill fewer people, even though that would actively involve you in the decision to kill people?

AND

There is a trolley coming - you are with a heavy man on a bridge. Do you push the man off the bridge, knowing his body is substantial enough to gum up the trolley and stop it - to save a greater number of people?

In this scenario, by combining the two, pulling the lever will make the moral dilemma harder - because the fellow on the bridge must decide the life of 1 person vs. the life of 2. On the other hand, refusing to pull the lever will make the decision easier, if still not clear cut - as the fellow on the bridge must decide the life of 1 person vs. the life of 5.

Because I was a ratman!

No clue what that is, this is a story that happened at my table (it was me, I punted the cat over a noble's hedge maze)

Without their support it would be a different one, maybe get better at reading or something

Without US support, Israel would be genociding... who, exactly? What 'different' genocide would it be, if not the genocide that's been going on since 1948, long before US aid was a major factor?

They would certainly be trying, but it’s a lot harder to exterminate a captive population when you aren’t getting supplied a whole arsenal to do so.

Yes, I'm sure that captive populations aren't regularly exterminated without the backing of major MICs.

"Trump is actually playing 4D Chess!"

Press X to doubt.

Got me, I'm afraid!