Chana [none/use name]

  • 0 Posts
  • 328 Comments
Joined 2 months ago
cake
Cake day: May 17th, 2025

help-circle






  • Of course, though Kissinger mostly operated at the level of thinking like, “hey we should bring China into our orbit to isolate the USSR”. But even then it looks like the Kissingers aren’t really in power anymore, it is the failsons of Kissingers that believe their parents’ cynical propaganda.

    Also consider that the enemy is not overly competent at individual gambits, they just have many opportunities to deploy them and react, as they have the levers of power. Capitalists generally do not coordinate and plan long term, capital just forces them to on occasion by shared interests. If they screw up enough to threaten overall domination and profit, they pull on every lever they can until restorative action is taken - bailouts, war, theft, etc.



  • It’s true that at the top they spend a ton of money for slight improvements. There’s even a big group that tries to copy them, as if a fifth placer in a local race would’ve won if only their bike was $5k of carbon fiber.

    But that is almost never necessary. When starting out, a $100 used (not stolen) bike will do you well for years. Nerds with $3k bikes and full lycra get passed by folks in shorts and a band t-shirt on old cheap mountain bikes. If a person gets competitive, getting a more appropriate bike (road bike for road riding, for example), it might jump up to a $500 used (not stolen) cost. Folks on 80s steel bikes still beat $3k bike nerds in local competitions.

    Plus just like in many other sports, there are all kinds of variations, including levels of competitiveness. Like with soccer, mentioned throughout this thread, most people are playing for fun and with pickup games. They have to buy a ball to get started ($10-$50). Once they start getting competitive or just more invested, now they need socks ($10), shin guards ($80), shorts ($15), and shoes ($100+). They’ll need that kit for pickup games that are slightly more competitive. Go up a level (on a team in a league) and now they want better shoes ($200) and new shinguards for their preference ($80) and they have to buy a jersey or shirt and maybe even new socks ($50-100). They have to get a gym bag for carrying their stuff to and from events and practice ($20). If they move up to better teams etc etc they will end up getting a whole new iteration of kit and get into personal optimization and travel expenses, etc etc.

    But a person can also just play pickup games or go back to them. Or play futsol for fun. Or juggle in their own yard or street. Most people that ride bikes, even those who want to go fast and occasionally race, are mostly just having fun rides of various kinds that don’t take any input outside of routine maintenance and wearing padded clothing for long rides.

    Cycling has a bigger opportunity for a person to obsess over an expensive material object for sure, though, no doubt. But most expensive bikes, for most people, are really about a consumption hobby more than the activity. Many of the expensive ones you’ll see in the street are in no way race-optimized. They are big hunks of steel or titanium with parts milled in the imperial core in batches of 10-20, purchased for aesthetics. They could have spent $300 on an older bike with better steel and fixed it up, but they are instead in a consumerist subculture where they got a brand new, lower quality frame for $800 on its own because it says “soma” on the side. A better new frame from China costs $200-300. And all of these bikes… they just look like normal bikes. Maybe one is orange and the other is blue. But a person with extra cash looking for a consumerist hobby will find options like thst $800 ho-hum frame and obsess over it.




  • I mean behind closed doors they are often like this, and have been since the beginning. The first guy was a Nazi. NATO / adjascent generals like McArthur were crude and genocidal.

    They just don’t have the respectability veneer cultivated by liberals. Crude behind the scenes, diplomatic and higj-minded in print or in front of cameras. Their subculture doesn’t care about that.

    I don’t think this is actually a worse thing in any way. Imperialists being worse at PR means we can discuss what is happening more easily and openly rathee than also having to teach liberals basic media criticism. Like how no, Biden was not actually fighting for a ceasefire, he is genocidal and should be tried and foind guilty for his crimes.


  • They were going to but the CIA agent responsible for installing the bomb on thr aircraft carrier bumped into the deep cover state department asset trying to smuggle drones onboard and they both fell overboard and drowned.

    Something vaguely as dumb as this is actually possible. Maybe Trump didn’t like their proposals and said to wait a week and he basically forgot about the whole thing. Maybe the ghouls that would try to do it anyways are in disarray because they’re Heritage Foundation dummies. Maybe one of them planned on buying the decommissioned carrier and making it a private museum.