Eric Rosenberg

I think that is the best advertisement I’ve ever seen.

It would be a mistake to dismiss this motivation as not "cost[ing] them on a personal level". Feeling "morally superior" by acting in the interests of humanity as a whole versus what they perceive as tribal and so base interests has the power to lead such people to great personal sacrifice. This is where the true danger lies.

A lot of it comes down to what Gad Saad calls "suicidal empathy" but also suicidal altruism. A lot of people believe that by betraying their own country that they are demonstrating a higher loyalty to humanity as a whole. "I'm such a good person that I'm willing to harm my own tribe for the greater good of the whole world" kind of thing. Under this mindset, not caring about Americans being killed or America being weakened and attacked actually reinforces their own sense of selflessness. It's a form of self-sacrifice only they're sacrificing their own country or tribe, and it doesn't cost them on a personal level.

What is the point of “American” journalists lying blatantly during a fight where their own country is a belligerent? What’s the angle? Give the enemy intel? Cause commanders to lose their nerve after they’ve been committed to the breach? Embolden the enemy? Cause outrage and distractions to try to get senior leaders fired? Are they hell bent on causing ripple effects down the chain to where Americans get killed? Do they understand that’s a risk? Do they even care? Whose side are they on? This is no way for a person in a free country to act. Where’s the honor? The shame? Where is the decency? Or even a minor dedication to the truth? What’s happening right now in the media is objectively insane by any reasonable standards. The manufactured outrage fueled by lies is something I’ve never seen before. I never saw this much media outrage over Abbey Gate. Certainly never this many calls for firings. Just congressional inquiries at most. The hypocrisy is stunning. And we see you for what you are. Especially you @CNN What you’re doing is mind bogglingly sinister. Media should be able to report in a free society, and they are. But lying this much is a disgusting distortion that can’t be ignored.

Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the "connectedness" of everything (truly, everything). It can be paralyzing. But the antonym, seeing everything as disconnected, distinct events seems even worse (but, probably, easier to psychologically maintain). We all live in a web where pulling a thread will, inevitably, result in unexpected repercussions. As it has always been so as it will always be.

Russian ground operations in the Ukraine have reportedly slowed, halted or been pushed back across a wide front. It is unclear whether this is significant or merely momentary. My comment: as the throttling of the Straits of Hormuz and the Red Sea show everything is connected. The neutralization of Iran, the spike in oil prices, the loss of drone production, the southward movement of European forces are all linked together. This is the risk of the Global World. understandingwar.org/research/russi…

Perhaps due to my propensity to literalism, I often have a difficult time with abstract poetry. But these two lines from T.S. Eliot’s “The Hollow Men” resonated with my sense of the world at large. Shape without form, shade without colour, Paralysed force, gesture without motion

@justalexoki Made me smile. Humour truly is the best medicine 😄

international women's day only being 23 hours is objectively funny

We're all Mr Jones, aren't we?

I love history deadlanguagesociety.com/p/how-far-back…

@jdcmedlock Now that's clever and funny 😄

I'll bet anyone $1 million dollars that the US does not enter hyperinflation

My Creed by Edgar Guest To live as gently as I can; To be, no matter where, a man; To take what comes of good or ill And cling to faith and honor still; To do my best, and let that stand The record of my brain and hand; And then, should failure come to me, Still work and hope for victory. To have no secret place wherein I stoop unseen to shame or sin; To be the same when I'm alone As when my every deed is known; To live undaunted, unafraid Of any step that I have made; To be without pretense or sham Exactly what men think I am. To leave some simple mark behind To keep my having lived in mind; If enmity to aught I show, To be an honest, generous foe, To play my little part, nor whine That greater honors are not mine. This, I believe, is all I need For my philosophy and creed.

@realerikjanthes @VChristianus @CynicalPublius 34 years later, my two years in the Peace Corps (Namibia) living in a small, rural village in a mud hut for 2 years still affects me deeply and daily.

@VChristianus @CynicalPublius Peace Corps has many similar reactions that the military does. Just, different missions.

Late, late, LATE last night I posted some lyrics from a favorite song of mine (below, along with comment links to the song itself). (The "Wall of Death" that is the subject of this song is a very dangerous carnival ride of long ago.) "Wall of Death" was written about a romantic relationship that was falling apart, with the act of showing that love one last time being the "Wall of Death" ride. But the song means so much more, as a metaphor for living life to its fullest. But there is an other way to see this song, and I know it's not what the songwriters intended, but it still applies quite strongly. I think this song also speaks to veterans who never (before or since) quite felt so alive as when they faced possible death from an implacable enemy, and survived. That rush? Nothing is quite like it. But it's also horrific and horrible to perceive. This is, I think, a huge part of the appeal of the famous supermarket scene from "The Hurt Locker." I remember coming home from Iraq into normal life, and I felt like I was landing on another planet. For some veterans, this can become unhealthy as they seek to rekindle that rush. Let me ride on the Wall of Death one more time.

There's been much discussion about the plunging birthrates worldwide, with varying levels of concern expressed (put me on the "very concerned" end of the distribution). The comments usually focus on the expense of having children. I think this badly misses the mark. Imagine giving an unattached young adult $100,000 to be held in trust and only used to support any children he or she may have in the future. I don't believe this would increase the probability of that person actually having children. Something deeper is going on.

Population collapse has been underway for many years

"Having kids means you will do anything to ensure that they live and are happy, for you love them more than your own life a thousand times over." 一 Elon Musk

Why is it that I can buy something online and payment is immediate, processing begins right away, and the product will often be shipped that same day. But when I unsubscribe from a marketing email list I'm told it will take "7 to 10 days"?? @StaplesStores

@CalumDouglas1 Please do! Young people in particular need more exposure to the often circuitous route to success in the real world.

No I have not written any kind of document at all on my career. Apparently its of interest to some people, is anyone actually interested in such a thing ? If there is evidence of a significant non-zero number of interested people I could write one.

@stevenfhayward The absurdity of this thought experiment along with its trenchant illumination of current political and social dynamics made me smile. Smiling is good; thanks!

Thought experiment: How would the radical left react if Trump suddenly declared—al la Molotov-Ribbentrop—a surprise alliance between Iran and the U.S. against Israel? Cognitive dissonance anyone? We'd quickly find who the left hates more, though it would be a tough call for them

@AJamesMcCarthy What a great idea! I run a group of restaurants/bars at a ski resort and hadn't thought of this. Timing will be paramount, but if we get lucky I'm definitely going to do this!

A plea to restaurant/bar owners: Treat the Artemis II launch like a sporting event. Put it on all your tvs. Let patrons celebrate the brave crew as they return to the moon for the first time in 54 years. This is a shared human success and should be experienced as such.

If the Milky Way was the size of North America, the Sun would be:

@wretchardthecat Hmmm. I read your post as equating the mass of the public as a proxy for God (reality). For what is more real than God? Interesting perspective. Does "the public" manifest God or does God manifest in the Public?

Perhaps all philosophy divides on the question of whether reality is a book encoded with vital information, or as some argue, just random bits "full of sound and fury signifying nothing" that we can ignore. If the former we can hold converse with reality as we would a person, listening closely because it matters. If the latter we might as well replace the noise with a blank page and write what we will on it. If objective reality exists one cannot go on indefinitely asserting that one identifies as plural or a lampshade or that we can all be comfortable without energy because it would be lie. We cannot just assert as Shaw did that "some say why, I say why not?" because some things aren't true, and it is our task to discover which are and which aren't. The consequence of being in dialogue with reality is that rulers cannot make the public do whatever they want. The public, as a proxy for reality, will inevitably balk at nonsense. The public may not be God, but statistically it is a proxy for Him (if you don't mind my putting it that way), which rulers would be wise to heed.

I think the most neutral definition of the public is the statistical reaction of a population to events. They are the feedback loop of governance. Their reactions may be deliberate, as in 1776, or they may be purely animalistic as in starving crowds looting to avert starvation. How they compute is hard to describe; suffice it to know that they do. The most perceptive princes realize the "public" exists objectively, externally and ultimately must be reckoned with. Then there are those who imagine the "public" is infinitely elastic and that human nature is their slave until suddenly it isn't.

"Suffice it to say"... suffice for what? Not sufficient for the Prince to decide upon the best course of action. Necessary, but not sufficient. For that he needs to both appreciate that "the public" computes AND the end state of that computation. There's the rub. There are very few who successfully do so.

@jamiekwil @infantrydort Fun, true fun, is divine. And I mean that in the deep meaning of Devine.

@EAR68 @infantrydort And he had FUN. I think that's my favorite part of Mr. Franklin.

Just a reminder that Benjamin Franklin was a teenage anon sh*tposter cosplaying as a woman. Before lightning, bifocals, or founding a country, Benjamin Franklin was a 16 year old printer’s apprentice sneaking essays under a door at night. Signed by a fake middle aged widow named Silence Dogood. Boston’s elites absolutely loved her. The clergy f*****g quoted her. Harvard men nodded along. It was ridiculous. They had no idea they were being lectured by a kid punching well above his weight. Franklin wasn’t doing it for laughs. He was doing it because if the wrong people knew who was writing, they’d ruin him, or worse. So he hid, and kind of cross dressed on paper lol. And it worked! That’s the part modern critics miss when they sneer at anonymous posters online. This isn’t new. It’s foundational American behavior. Anonymity isn’t cowardice. It’s a force multiplier. Can you not see why? Look around you. Nothing’s changed. When power can’t find a face to punish, it has to argue with the words. And power hates that. So when you see an anon with a sharp pen and a fake name rattling the comfortable and exposing the ridiculous, just take a second and remember: America was effectively “midwifed” by a kid in disguise, pretending to be a widow, mocking elites, and hiding from men who wished him harm. Different century. Same mischief. Exact same panic from authority. The wig is digital now, but the game sure as hell hasn’t changed.