Benjamin Smith

3.5K posts

Benjamin Smith

Benjamin Smith

@BenjaminSmith13

Se unió Aralık 2011
37 Siguiendo20 Seguidores
Benjamin Smith
Benjamin Smith@BenjaminSmith13·
@maverick_oi @dilanesper They *could*, anything is possible. But it is still curious that they did not. And two can push the line of alternate history. Imagine negotiations with an Iran that has just had its network of proxies substantially degraded.
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Yair
Yair@maverick_oi·
@BenjaminSmith13 @dilanesper Though the significant sunsets started in late 2025, and may well have tried to violate early. Imagine this war with a much stronger Iran, Assad in power, etc.
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Dilan Esper
Dilan Esper@dilanesper·
As promised, here's some analysis of what Netanyahu has been doing and how it led to the situation in the US so many Israel supporters now decry, with the Democrats turning against Israel and even centrist Jewish Dems like Matt Yglesias calling for a more anti-Israel stance.
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neggy
neggy@_Neggy__·
@BenjaminSmith13 @maverick_oi @dilanesper what's weird is you people not realizing that it is insane for a big country to make it a reason of state to destroy a tiny country a thousand miles away
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Benjamin Smith
Benjamin Smith@BenjaminSmith13·
@bigdgramps46079 @sentdefender That isn't a little further. It's in a completely different book, Matthew. The bit you quoted from Luke 22 does not have this passage. In any case Jesus commands that we take up our own cross and follow in his ways. As John reminds us, the servant is not greater than the master.
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bigdgramps
bigdgramps@bigdgramps46079·
you do understand that he had to give his life. If you read further... Just a little bit further... I'll give you the whole thing: Put your sword back in its place... for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?"
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OSINTdefender
OSINTdefender@sentdefender·
“(Jesus) did not arm himself, or defend himself, or fight any war,” Pope Leo said. “He revealed the gentle face of God, who always rejects violence. Rather than saving himself, he allowed himself to be nailed to the cross.”
OSINTdefender@sentdefender

While addressing tens of thousands in St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City on Palm Sunday, the start of the Holy Week leading to Easter, Pope Leo XIV said that God rejects the prayers of leaders who start wars and have “hands full of blood,” clearly directed at the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. “This is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war,” Pope Leo said. sunshine. “(Jesus) does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying: Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood,” he added citing the Bible.

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Benjamin Smith
Benjamin Smith@BenjaminSmith13·
@maverick_oi @dilanesper in Israel but also in Iran have convinced themselves that no matter what it's Israel and Iran in a fight to the death. And so no matter the circumstances, everything is an argument for war. Israel is strong? War to weaken it. Iran is weak? Strike now while you can. Etc. etc. etc
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Benjamin Smith
Benjamin Smith@BenjaminSmith13·
@maverick_oi @dilanesper The idea that the JCPOA made an Iranian nuke inevitable seems non-sensical to me given that they did not, in fact, get a nuke while it was in force and continued to not get a nuke even after it was abrogated. The fundamental impasse seems to be that many leaders and voters
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Benjamin Smith
Benjamin Smith@BenjaminSmith13·
@humng392546 @OlaWikander It helps that in the NT you have a date range of only about 100 years and most of the books are written by the same guy (even putting aside the Pauline pseudepigrapha). Meanwhile the HB took like 600+ years.
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Ben
Ben@humng392546·
@OlaWikander Henotheism? Speaking as an interested non-professional, New Testament scholarship seems way easier to understand than Hebrew Bible scholarship.
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Benjamin Smith
Benjamin Smith@BenjaminSmith13·
@bigdgramps46079 @sentdefender Lol, way to cut the story off in the middle. Not 10 or 15 verses later, the disciples ask Jesus if they should use the swords and he rebukes them saying, "No more of this!"
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bigdgramps
bigdgramps@bigdgramps46079·
5 And he {Jesus} said to them, “When I sent you out with no moneybag or knapsack or sandals, did you lack anything?” They said, “Nothing.” 36 He said to them, “But now let the one who has a moneybag take it, and likewise a knapsack. And let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one. 37 For I tell you that this Scripture must be fulfilled in me: And he was numbered with the transgressors.’ For what is written about me has its fulfillment.” 38 And they said, “Look, Lord, here are two swords.” And he said to them, “It is enough.” Luke 22:35-38
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Benjamin Smith
Benjamin Smith@BenjaminSmith13·
@Bobb_Dobbs @sentdefender This is literally the entire point. One of the most famous verses in history proclaims that who so ever believes in him will not perish but will have everlasting life!
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Bobb Dobbs
Bobb Dobbs@Bobb_Dobbs·
@sentdefender Accepting the tenets of the Christian religion, Jesus didn't actually permanently die -- it's what they say on Easter -- "He lives!" So if I can be also guaranteed to live again after a foreign military kills me, yeah, an army would be kind of pointless. Until then ...
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Benjamin Smith
Benjamin Smith@BenjaminSmith13·
@DiracDeltaFunk @So8res But the reason all the light rays are nearly co-linear, despite the fact that the Sun is massive and each point on the surface roughly emits light in all directions is that..... it has very small angular size because its quite far away compared to its diameter.
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Benjamin Smith
Benjamin Smith@BenjaminSmith13·
@DiracDeltaFunk @So8res Yeah I don't get what is supposed to be profound here. It is true that if the light entering your eye from an object is all nearly co-linear, then it will appear small. That's how lenses work. Parallel rays are focused to a point at the focal length.
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Nate Soares ⏹️
Nate Soares ⏹️@So8res·
When you face the sun, it extends for many miles to your left and right. Why, then, does it appear like a tiny disk? "Because it's far away"? What does that have to do with anything? 🧵
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Benjamin Smith
Benjamin Smith@BenjaminSmith13·
@Zerphym I mean each person has a slightly different view of the sun and you do perceive it as in a slightly different position relative to the background stars. But the Sun is really far away compared to the size of the Earth so the variation is so tiny that its unnoticeable.
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Zerphym
Zerphym@Zerphym·
@So8res If the sun extended "for many miles to your left and right", wouldn't each person perceive the sun at different positions in the firmament? Why do we all see it as one tiny disk in the same position?
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Benjamin Smith
Benjamin Smith@BenjaminSmith13·
@So8res @Mihonarium But the Sun is not a laser wall. Each point on its surface emits (roughly) in a spherical sector. The sun looks small because the angle subtended by light rays from different points on the surface that still pass through your pupil is small...... because the Sun is far away.
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Nate Soares ⏹️
Nate Soares ⏹️@So8res·
@Mihonarium Angular size doesn't matter for laser walls; it only matters when light is reflecting in ~every direction off of ~every point. I was missing this building block before I thought it through, and it helps motivate "angular size" in the first place.
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Benjamin Smith
Benjamin Smith@BenjaminSmith13·
@RestrictedDaily Apparently I'm the only one who also guessed Columbia. I thought of Olympia, but figured Mt. Olympus is real. Didn't consider Providence. Christopher Columbus was also real, but Columbia the personification of the US/colonies is an abstraction so.....
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Restricted Daily
Restricted Daily@RestrictedDaily·
You said the last ones were too easy… so let’s fix that. Final Jeopardy. No hints. Just you and your brain. What’s your answer?
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Sonny Bobiche
Sonny Bobiche@SonnyBobiche·
@RestrictedDaily As abstractions, Philadelphia and Santa Fe qualify as much as Providence but it's the street names that count for the correct answer.
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Benjamin Smith
Benjamin Smith@BenjaminSmith13·
@constans I would almost say the opposite. Like 20-30% of people do find radical overthrow of institutions compelling and organize around it. But we call that MAGA and the replacement they want is a Herrenvolk "democracy"
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Benjamin Smith
Benjamin Smith@BenjaminSmith13·
@BeanOfTheWorld @number_pizza111 @nikicaga There are only 2 facts that explain contemporary Yglesias posting: 1) A bunch of lefties have been pretty mean to him and it pisses him off. 2) He really does think MAGA/Trumpism is a fascist threat and he wants to win 70/30, not 55/45.
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Libertarian for state violence
Libertarian for state violence@BeanOfTheWorld·
@number_pizza111 @nikicaga If the right wing in the US are fascists who will attempt coups if they lose and pursue policies that will result in millions of deaths, then it does make sense to pursue electability.
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Pizza
Pizza@number_pizza111·
In the right-wing of the center-left punditsphere, “electability“ is something they bring up because they’re moderate and want the Democratic Party to be like them. Yglesias is different. He starts with electability, and concludes Dems need to shamelessly pivot.
Nikolaj🇺🇦🇵🇸@nikicaga

People will bundle MattY with all stupid pro-Israel centrists but he really isn't like that He'd support nuking Tel Aviv if the right NYT swing voter focus group was in favor

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Benjamin Smith
Benjamin Smith@BenjaminSmith13·
@micaelavision @hecubian_devil .... well I don't know what else I want to say right now except point out that there has been some kind of shift. The popular argument for things like the "race/class narrative" seems less robust now than a few years ago.
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Benjamin Smith
Benjamin Smith@BenjaminSmith13·
@micaelavision @hecubian_devil It is a bit off to me that some folks are upset about this now, but the exact same tactic was *the central thesis* of Heather McGhee's The Sum of Us not 5 years ago. I get some people are upset because they're tired of feeling like they're not equally respected. But this has
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Cassie Pritchard
Cassie Pritchard@hecubian_devil·
Seeing people mad at this from a pro-trans perspective but sorry this is part of building solidarity—you do actually have to explain to people what “connected struggle” means! You have to explain how your oppression can hurt them, too! This is just politics!
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Benjamin Smith
Benjamin Smith@BenjaminSmith13·
@Berniewatson @PanasonicDX4500 Way more of the country agrees with them than with you. If it comes down to any kind of physical or metaphorical fight, we need a lot of people who love "good cops" and "deporting criminals" on our side of the barricades. Otherwise we just lose to the fascists.
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🧑🏻‍🦽erin🦕
🧑🏻‍🦽erin🦕@Berniewatson·
@PanasonicDX4500 The group closest to me thinks it’s very important to celebrate the “good cops” and their most commonly repeated complaint about ICE is that they wear masks. I would not ever trust them.
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one dozen rats at a keyboard
one dozen rats at a keyboard@PanasonicDX4500·
Again, familiarizing people with the concept of "If you ever need to rapidly mobilize a protest, here's the local spot to meet up; if you see a friend or a neighbor today, that's someone you'd reach out to" outweighs whatever other criticism you can have with the No Kings stuff.
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Benjamin Smith
Benjamin Smith@BenjaminSmith13·
@BenedickUSA @agraybee But there's not really any evidence that lab was doing gain-of-function on anything particularly similar to SARS-CoV-2. The evidence we have says they worked on viruses very similar to SARS-CoV-1 (95%+ genetic similarity) but they're much more distantly related to SARS-CoV-2.
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Benedick Came Here To Do Two Things
Benedick Came Here To Do Two Things@BenedickUSA·
@agraybee Yeah. Definitely had nothing to do with the coronavirus research facility with the shitty safety protocols where they were doing gain-of-function research. Just iffy bat meat I guess.
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@maverick_oi @dilanesper @_Neggy__ @bigdgramps46079 @sentdefender @humng392546 @OlaWikander @Bobb_Dobbs