Random Rant Thread

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Everyone is dunking on this assistant professor, but this seems like a typical case of finding a few unhinged examples to criticize/make fun of a larger group that they belong in. It goes without saying that an overwhelming majority of feminists wouldn't go anywhere near this level.

And she's not as unhinged as those dunking on her are saying. Obviously she doesn't believe that women can beat men in boxing, basketball etc. at an elite level. It's just that her argument is very, very incoherent to the point where it's just basically nonsense, and her examples are no more than exceptions that prove the rule. 

Mind you, I'm saying that while believing that even a 900-th ranked male tennis player would *never* lose to the Williams sisters in a serious match, and the 2-5 scoreline between the US Women's National Team vs. FC Dallas U-15 in a friendly game actually flatters the former. It could've been easily 1-8 or something, but the boys basically chose not to let that happen. Well, I just know that for a fact. That's indeed the reality of the gender gap in most sports.

But this is really a grotesque case of beating a dead horse to overhype the Danger of Wokeness.

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When you are defending a city, overpowered and overmatched by the attackers, you do not voluntarily move into an open field so that your enemies can play the world's easiest shooting game.

You draw them into the city, preferably an area with a lot of building. You make it a lot harder for your enemies to kill you, and easier for you to kill them. You are defending the city, remember, and that way you could actually beat the enemies with shiny APCs and tanks.

And unfortunately that usually involves civilian casualties unless you completely evacuated the place beforehand.

It's not really about ethics; It's just one horrible reality of war. I'm not saying anything unique or original here, but people tend to be delusional about war.

And pray tell, how many times have I posted a rant identical to this one in this thread? 4? 5? The futility of all.

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I don't speak a word of Hindi or Urdu, but Google Translate is indeed a friend. Doesn't have to be super accurate.

You take a look at some of the non-English language mainstream media in India and Pakistan, and you'll see the discourses on the war in Ukraine are markedly different from the West's and Japan's.

Russia isn't quite "isolated".

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I don't know, man, beats me too.

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Covid hasn't been "seasonal" at all as its pace of come and go is so rapid as to make it basically a year-round disease, with the dramatically higher transmissibility and dramatically higher reinfection rates than influenza's, and various well-documented post-viral symptoms/syndromes. And both the infection-induced immunity and vaccine-induced one wane.

We're never going back to "normal", not the 2019 normal anyhow. Everyone should have that as the basic premise.

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As I feared a while ago, the word "Mariupol" has come into the global public consciousness over the last several days. But it's telling that people keep making the Aleppo comparison despite the fact that it's a lot more appropriate to compare it to Raqqa.

See, Raqqa was attacked by the US forces, and the defenders were mostly ISIS. Tens of thousands of civilians were killed/maimed, with 80%(!) of the city completely destroyed, but that was Good USA vs. Evil ISIS, so it's all down the memory hole.

I'm saying that these things are pretty arbitrary.

Mariupol isn't likely to get as bad as Raqqa, but that wouldn't make anyone feel relieved given how absolutely godawful Raqqa was.

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As some of you know, I said quite a few times that the "West" grossly overestimated Russia's military capabilities, for all kinds of largely self-serving reasons. I think it's safe to say that the first phase of the war in Ukraine vindicated my view, but the thing is, I'm pretty sure that they will start underestimating Russia next, and I will have to recalibrate my stance.

These things go round and round, like Nietzsche's Eternal Return.

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This is different from those "Covid causes brain cancer?" kind of scare headlines that end with a question mark (the answer is usually 'NO'). I took a look at the original paper, and its conclusion is pretty ominous.

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Invasion is hard, and no one likes invaders. This war is just yet another example.

Russia still seems like they don't know what they are doing, and Ukraine has been holding up a hell of a lot better than most experts predicted (in no small part thanks to the Western supplies, sure, but that was baked in to their predictions).

But invasion really is fucking hard, and Russia was never capable of pulling it efficiently and quickly, against a country of Ukraine's size no less. They could've bought a clue or two, and would still be struggling pretty much as badly.

And no one likes invaders. No one. It can turn your fans into your enemies instantly.

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I agree with everything that Adam says in that thread below.

But I noticed this a LONG TIME AGO. Therefore I stopped the NYT subscription a while ago.

That inane Cancel Culture freakout was entirely predictable, at least to me anyway.

The NYT editorial has been dead to me for years now.

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Exhibit A:



LOL, what is a "fundamental right"? Have I ever had that? Where can I buy one?

Jesus Christ, "the right to speak their minds and voice their opinions without fear of being shamed of shunned" is not a thing. It's just not a thing. If such a thing does exist somewhere, it most likely does rather in a totalitarian society.

If you say something in public, you'll get reactions, some possibly very negative. You might get booed, shamed, shunned indeed.

And that's called LIFE, dumbass.

And you wonder why I had to "cancel" the newspaper with such a shit editorial. You thought that was because I was "too left-wing", stupid.

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You indeed have a "fundamental right" to keep your dumbest, stupidest thoughts to yourself. I grant you that.

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JK Rowling is just a very stupid person. And yes, a very stupid person can write a popular fantasy novel. She's the proof.

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I'm glad she has been hook-line-and-sinker'd by the trans issue since that opened a whole can of stupid worms to reveal who she really was beyond that particular issue. And I can say a similar thing about a few other British celebrities.

It's hilarious what kind of people she's been making friends with through her crusade against The Woke World. I love seeing stupid people get exposed. Incredibly satisfying, to be honest.

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Er, "Compact Magazine"? Really?

(LOL@Zizek in such a wonderful company. Hilarious.)

Are they aware of, um, this far-right beauty in Germany?

You should buy a copy especially when you are in East Germany, pretty inspiring stuff. I bought an issue in Potsdam, and it was a great (Neo-Nazi) read.