Gas Bandit's Political Thread V: The Vampire Likes Bats

Why hold opinions if you're not sure of them? What would even be the point?
I feel like asking what the point of opinions are is one of those philosophical traps that end in just talking in circles for hours. But if you want an honest answer as to why I'm less firm on my opinions than you are, it's because my opinions change. Hopefully they evolve as my understanding of the situation involves. Maybe they lead down a wrong path and have to backtrack back out, but any time I become absolutely certain on something I have to then assume I'm probably wrong.

Certainty certainly feels better. I assume this is why so many people take comfort in faiths of various kinds, why I can't convince my aunt she's being scammed by internet scammers, or why Qanon exists.

This guy is very certain of his opinions.



Anyway, philosophy time over. Especially since the true irony is I can't be certain that uncertainty is key.
 
I feel like asking what the point of opinions are is one of those philosophical traps that end in just talking in circles for hours. But if you want an honest answer as to why I'm less firm on my opinions than you are, it's because my opinions change. Hopefully they evolve as my understanding of the situation involves. Maybe they lead down a wrong path and have to backtrack back out, but any time I become absolutely certain on something I have to then assume I'm probably wrong.
You ever heard the saying that intelligence is strong opinions held loosely? I can be proven wrong and have changed my opinions when that happens. I just don't see why that means I shouldn't believe in my own logic. Which isn't how I choose to live my life.
 
I can be proven wrong and have changed my opinions when that happens. I just don't see why that means I shouldn't believe in my own logic.
I don't think that's it. You're perfectly entitled to believe your own logic. It's even better to be open to the possibility of being wrong and better still to then modify your assumptions/logic accordingly. Train that neural net for the best outcome(s), that's what it's for!
But the wording and tone you are using make it sound like you are unhappy and possibly even upset/angry that everyone else does not immediately want to join you up there on your high horse.

--Patrick
 
You ever heard the saying that intelligence is strong opinions held loosely? I can be proven wrong and have changed my opinions when that happens. I just don't see why that means I shouldn't believe in my own logic. Which isn't how I choose to live my life.
Well, my ultimate goal wasn't actually to debate the nature of knowledge with you. It was to let you know you're acting like an asshole. But if that was your intent and/or you don't care, then feel free to disregard that observation.
 
I don't think that's it. You're perfectly entitled to believe your own logic. It's even better to be open to the possibility of being wrong and better still to then modify your assumptions/logic accordingly. Train that neural net for the best outcome(s), that's what it's for!
I don't really understand how somebody can read the words "I can be proven wrong" and think the person isn't open to the possibility that he is wrong.

But the wording and tone you are using make it sound like you are unhappy and possibly even upset/angry that everyone else does not immediately want to join you up there on your high horse.

--Patrick
Yes I argue on the internet what of it?

Well, my ultimate goal wasn't actually to debate the nature of knowledge with you. It was to let you know you're acting like an asshole. But if that was your intent and/or you don't care, then feel free to disregard that observation.
Ah okay. Could've fooled me with the long post.
 
I don't really understand how somebody can read the words "I can be proven wrong" and think the person isn't open to the possibility that he is wrong.
My statement of "it's even better to be..." is a compliment, not a condemnation. I am cheering you for being open to change. The criticism does not start until the "But the wording..."

--Patrick
 
"I can be proven wrong but I'll believe in my own logic, thanks" reads remarkable similar to "I'm not a racist, but I just don't want my daughter to marry a dark
Because every problem with leaving Afghanistan wouldn't have been fixed in a day or a year or even another decade. The only options were leaving poorly now or leaving poorly later
Six months of securing facilities, evacuating civilian perosnnel, removing critical infrastructure would have halved the human and military cost of what is happening right now.

For which you've provided 0 reasons as to why another 15-20 years would provide any improvement over the last 20 or any reason why you wouldn't just shift the goalposts to "I think another 30-40 years would be reasonable "
Frankly, every specialist on reforming countries and communities will tell you you need at least a full born generation to reach maturity for lasting change. See: integrating Eastern Germany into Western Europe, we're 30 years on and not quite completely there; re-integrating white and black in South Africa which, twenty years on, is still very much a process often sliding backwards; the current situation in Iraq which is still being shaped and supportend and very fragile; the feuds heating back up in Northern Ireland 20 years after the Good Friday Accords because the old guard is still around to start trouble again and poison minds, etc.

Also check out Frank's I don't have a solution but you can't leave post cause that's pretty clearly arguing for an indefinite stay in Afghanistan.
I'm not responsible for Frank's opinions or statements. Also, while I'm personally of the opinion that the USA should never have invaded and has handled large parts of the situation in the worst possible way, I'm willing to admit that a controlled pull out may be preferable from an American point of view to remaining to keep the region stable for another 20 years. I hold a different opinion, but I'm not trying to convince you the USA should stay for 20 more years - I'm trying to convince you that "leaving ASAP today and fuck everything else" was a dumb shit brick idiot thing to do and yes, even 6 months would/could have made a difference.

Indeed cause I see no other way of getting out of Afghanistan. If we stayed another 2 decades it still would have been last chopper out of Saigon that's unavoidable.
It is not. Again, there are plenty of other countries that have been invaded, political and societal changes made, and then left to fend for themselves. Most of Eastern Europe, Yugoslavia, etc. Or, compare to Korea; There's still a large military US presence there, but they're not actively at war and fighting the North. it's geopolitically important for the US to be there. Something similar could have worked in Afghanistan.

Considering how leaving a sizable military is the exact opposite of leaving Afghanistan I think we can conclusively say that this isn't what I'm arguing for.
It is not. There's still a big US military presence in Iraq, there's still a big US military presence in South-Korea, there's still a US military presence in Germany, there's still a US military presence in Turkey. Keeping a number of bases in a (weak) allied state in a volatile region to provide reassurance and deterrence is a proven tactic. I don't know why you're willfully ignoring that. Would it have worked in Afghanistan easily and quickly, would Afghanistan have suddenly and peacefully transitioned into South-Korea? No, it'd have taken time, diplomacy, money, strength, and learning to deal with (yet) another culture.

If leaving slowly meant taking people and materiel I would be 100% for it. But there is exactly zero reason to believe that leaving slowly would have done anything of the sort. All going slowly would have done is make the situation worse.
[citation needed]
 
"I can be proven wrong but I'll believe in my own logic, thanks" reads remarkable similar to "I'm not a racist, but I just don't want my daughter to marry a dark
It's not but good work with the strawman.

Six months of securing facilities, evacuating civilian perosnnel, removing critical infrastructure would have halved the human and military cost of what is happening right now.
You realize that we already did the six month extension and this was the outcome?

Frankly, every specialist on reforming countries and communities will tell you you need at least a full born generation to reach maturity for lasting change. See: integrating Eastern Germany into Western Europe, we're 30 years on and not quite completely there; re-integrating white and black in South Africa which, twenty years on, is still very much a process often sliding backwards; the current situation in Iraq which is still being shaped and supportend and very fragile; the feuds heating back up in Northern Ireland 20 years after the Good Friday Accords because the old guard is still around to start trouble again and poison minds, etc.
Reforming a country is a weird euphemism for a hot war in which the US dropped the biggest nonnuclear bomb less than 4 years ago. Also do the experts say how long that would take being imposed by another country? Cause right now you've listed 3 countries solving their own terrible problems and 0 in which it was imposed on their countries against their will.

I'm not responsible for Frank's opinions or statements.
But you are for your lie that was "Nobody is arguing for the US to stay indefinitely." Which is a lie cause Frank unequivocally was.

Also, while I'm personally of the opinion that the USA should never have invaded and has handled large parts of the situation in the worst possible way, I'm willing to admit that a controlled pull out may be preferable from an American point of view to remaining to keep the region stable for another 20 years. I hold a different opinion, but I'm not trying to convince you the USA should stay for 20 more years - I'm trying to convince you that "leaving ASAP today and fuck everything else" was a dumb shit brick idiot thing to do and yes, even 6 months would/could have made a difference.
We already got the 6 month extension we still fucked up so bad men died trying to hang onto US cargo planes.

It is not. Again, there are plenty of other countries that have been invaded, political and societal changes made, and then left to fend for themselves. Most of Eastern Europe, Yugoslavia, etc. Or, compare to Korea; There's still a large military US presence there, but they're not actively at war and fighting the North. it's geopolitically important for the US to be there. Something similar could have worked in Afghanistan.
You do know that we were still actively fighting the Taliban? That for the last 4 years the US has relaxed rules about airstrikes and started killing 3 times as many civilians as we were before 2017?

In 2019 US and Afghan security forces killed 8,000 civilians. More than the Taliban in the same period of time.

The situation wasn't improving and was actively deteriorating.

It is not. There's still a big US military presence in Iraq,
We shouldn't be in Iraq either. We returned after the Iraqi military collapsed against ISIS.

there's still a big US military presence in South-Korea, there's still a US military presence in Germany, there's still a US military presence in Turkey. Keeping a number of bases in a (weak) allied state in a volatile region to provide reassurance and deterrence is a proven tactic. I don't know why you're willfully ignoring that. Would it have worked in Afghanistan easily and quickly, would Afghanistan have suddenly and peacefully transitioned into South-Korea? No, it'd have taken time, diplomacy, money, strength, and learning to deal with (yet) another culture.
Afghanistan was never going to be South Korea. We weren't actively killing thousands of civilians in South Korea 20 years after the Korean War. But we sure as fucking hell were in Afghanistan. You seem to be under some weird impression that Afghanistan was basically fine under American occupation. And it largely was for the last handful of years for Americans. But it wasn't for the Afghanis who died by the hundreds to participate in their democracy that was completely fraudulent anyway.

[citation needed]
Last 20 years of actively fighting in Afghanistan not enough for you? We have leaks from the Obama administration saying that Afghanistan was going poorly and was never going to have a happy ending.
 
Colorado's starting to hit its water capacity ceiling, due to massive population growth. Towns are starting to turn to creative accounting and swiping water from each other.

The people in that article saying "why would they ever use unsafe water? They live here too" really need to go have a chat with the people from Flint.
The people who think it won't be the main source of potable water soon are blind.
The people who think the aquifer will be enough "for generations" need to look at how we did with other limited resources. Every oil field found, every coal layer found, etc etc was enough for "generations" too.

The world is changing, it's hard to predict where exactly things will fall, but droughts, floods, hurricanes, tsunamis, frosts, heat waves, are all going to increase and get worse long, long before they get better.
 
The people in that article saying "why would they ever use unsafe water? They live here too" really need to go have a chat with the people from Flint.
The Flint water crisis was caused by unelected "managers" imposed on Flint by the Governor of Michigan. It wasn't caused by any Flint official.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
I get more "Erin Brockovich" vibes out of this one. To this day, that scene where the dude watches with increasing anxiety as his family and children noisily guzzle down tap water at dinner sticks with me.
 
Guy threatens to detonate a car bomb outside of the US Capitol while ranting on Facebook about how evil the government is. Thankfully police took him into custody without anyone getting hurt.

But don't worry, Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama (a close Trump supporter) is here with sympathy for the would-be terrorist.
 
 
"And what did we stand for? What flourished on our watch? Cronyism, rampant corruption, a Ponzi scheme disguised as a banking system, designed by U.S. finance specialists during the very years that other U.S. finance specialists were incubating the crash of 2008. A government system where billionaires get to write the rules.


Is that American democracy?"

Yeah, it really, really is.
 
"And what did we stand for? What flourished on our watch? Cronyism, rampant corruption, a Ponzi scheme disguised as a banking system, designed by U.S. finance specialists during the very years that other U.S. finance specialists were incubating the crash of 2008. A government system where billionaires get to write the rules.


Is that American democracy?"

Yeah, it really, really is.
And sadly, while most EU countries aren't quite there yet, it's very visible and obvious in all countries where I know anything about politics that they're moving in the same direction.
Democracy all over the world is, either slowly or not so slowly, being hollowed out by too much money being used, legally or illegally, to influence decisions.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Huh. Graham Linehan - vocal Trump critic, Brexit opposer, Abortion rights activist, socialized medicine advocate.... is apparently an extremely vocal anti-transgenderism activist. Did not know that.

And The IT Crowd is one of my favorite things :/
 
Huh. Graham Linehan - vocal Trump critic, Brexit opposer, Abortion rights activist, socialized medicine advocate.... is apparently an extremely vocal anti-transgenderism activist. Did not know that.

And The IT Crowd is one of my favorite things :/
I am genuinely amazed you’re on the internet as much as you are and didn’t know this until today.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
I am genuinely amazed you’re on the internet as much as you are and didn’t know this until today.
Me too! I guess there haven't been many memes about it.

That and I stay the fuck off Twitter because it's a toxic cesspool of absolutely no value whatsoever.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
All right, I'm probably going to regret asking, but: what exactly is the trans scandal this guy is talking about?
Near as I can figure out from what little I read of him, he thinks the there's no such thing as transgenderism, and the "scandal" is the societal coddling of the mentally ill, and the persecution of anyone who doesn't play ball.
 
The very dangerous people they've 'INVESTIGATED' at Kiwi Farms was probably some 19 year old UK trans girl that called him a name on Twitter, the true oppression.
 
US political climate is favoring Republicans

It's just a shame that a lot of good people will suffer along and that your country's slow and steady demise will most likely literally take the whole human world with it, but at this point a certain "they fucking deserve it" is starting to set in. "the Titanic is sinking! I know what we need, more air holes below the water line!"

If the general population was in any way educated or smart or even out for their own damn interests the election might be close between progressive and moderate candidates, but instead somehow the fascist, violent, anti-democratic anti-freedom, pro-corporatism, pro-slavery, anti-women, anti-future, anti-science ignorant dipshits and their billionaire sponsors are gaining ground. Why not dress up your proxy-feudal nepotistic oligarchy a a democracy where everyone gets their say, bread and circuses keep the little man occupied and there's no circus as efficient as Washington DC.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
The midterms always go against whoever won the presidency in the most recent presidential election. That's pretty much always been the case.

And that's why I (and many others) said back in November - the Democrats have 2 years to get their agenda enacted before it becomes impossible.

And they've been moving so much slower than even we feared, one could almost call the time squandered.
 
It's not surprising that the Republicans are gaining ground when every major, life changing proposal even attempted by actual progressives (like student debt reduction/cancellation or an infrastructure bill that actually DID something) gets fucked over by the lifer moderate Democrats that are afraid to lose their jobs. They haven't even convicted any major players in the fucking insurrection attempt. You can't energize an electorate with threats against their very existence forever; people will burn out and stop participating.
 
Honestly even with Trump out for now, I still might just try real hard to go total social media / politically dark. The anxiety all this brings me is terrible and at this point I feel powerless to actually change anything. All I can do is vote, but the news cycle slamming me with so much negativity has destroyed my mental health from day in an out saturation. Part of me does not want to just be the ignorant dude, but part of me knows I soak all this shit in and hold in deep in my gut where I can't get rid of it. I feel like I am dying every day.
 
Some of the worst of it passes me by as a non-American, but so much of global stability is contingent on a powerful USA protecting their own and the "Free world"'s interests, and yeah...Completely powerless.
Of course, local politics here aren't any better, just even more provincial. And the EU is so deep in transglobal company's pockets it might as well be relabeled the European Corporation.

Following politics... I dunno, it makes me wonder if the world was always this broken and we just didn't see all of it, or if it's just really bad right now.
 
Honestly even with Trump out for now, I still might just try real hard to go total social media / politically dark. The anxiety all this brings me is terrible and at this point I feel powerless to actually change anything. All I can do is vote, but the news cycle slamming me with so much negativity has destroyed my mental health from day in an out saturation. Part of me does not want to just be the ignorant dude, but part of me knows I soak all this shit in and hold in deep in my gut where I can't get rid of it. I feel like I am dying every day.
Maybe it would make it worse, but have thought about volunteering locally? I’m sure they need people to help with registrations or helping people get to voting locations.

If nothing else, it may give you some sort of feeling that you were at least able to help other people have their voice heard that otherwise wouldn’t.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Another thing to consider is there's a number of republican voters that temporarily swung Biden to get rid of Trump, but they only considered Trump to be SLIGHTLY more of a threat to America than the democrat party. Now that Trump is out, their thought process is "Ok, I held my nose and did what I had to do to help get rid of Trump, but now its time to act fast to make sure that democrats can't ruin the country, we need 'regular' republicans back in power" and then they vote accordingly, not really grasping how much of the republican party has gone all-in on backing Trump.
 
Another thing to consider is there's a number of republican voters that temporarily swung Biden to get rid of Trump, but they only considered Trump to be SLIGHTLY more of a threat to America than the democrat party. Now that Trump is out, their thought process is "Ok, I held my nose and did what I had to do to help get rid of Trump, but now its time to act fast to make sure that democrats can't ruin the country, we need 'regular' republicans back in power" and then they vote accordingly, not really grasping how much of the republican party has gone all-in on backing Trump.
Policy wise and points wise, Republicans from back in the day are much closer to Biden or Hillary than to what now constitutes the Republican party.
 
All I can do is vote, but the news cycle slamming me with so much negativity has destroyed my mental health from day in an out saturation.
Don't forget that this IS part of the Trump strategy--to loudly, vocally, and endlessly interrupt dissent and proclaim victory (regardless of facts) in order to monopolize the public forum and prevent anybody from hearing (or even airing) any opposing viewpoints. The mental fatigue you're feeling is deliberately being inflicted basically in the hopes that you will become too cowed and depressed to fight back. They're literally trying to bully you into submission.

--Patrick
 
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