So when I heard about this, I personally did not even feel a need to watch the video, nor was I shocked. I did eventually watch the video just to see if it was possibly something more than I would have thought. It was exactly what I expected. A communist/socialist wanting to re-educate or violently remove people against such a regime is just how the mentality goes. I do not believe Bernie Sanders supports the actual action, but I do think that type of speech as rhetoric or motivation would be tactically used to gain support or push the campaign farther.
The idea of actually attacking someone or re-educating them because of wrong think is weird. The book 1984 was a cautionary tale, not a guide. It has the same air as the "Ministry of Love" from the book. Add that with the way news today operates compared to the "Ministry of Truth," things start to get a little scary. At least for now we do not have a "Ministry of Plenty" parallel. There is also a "Ministry of Peace" from the book responsible for perpetual war, but that is a little more blurry of a parallel since we are never at a loss for wars going on.
Talk like this is not going to subside. If it is pointed out or hidden, it will continue to grow. Violent speech will rise on both sides. As people pull to extremes, people in the middle get pushed or pulled to one side or the other. There is talk of civil war over gun rights, attacking "nazis" and the like, people praising what communist regimes do, all sorts of stuff.
Right now as it stands, Bernie Sanders' campaign is a low hanging fruit. The more his support grows, the more crazies like this it will attract and eventually eat itself alive. There have already been people both defending and attacking what was said.
As time goes on, there will most likely be more. What may or may not evolve from this is hard to say. People now talk a lot. Small groups of extreme actors are also taking it literally. It is all crazy, but nothing unexpected.
Showing posts with label war. Show all posts
Showing posts with label war. Show all posts
January 15, 2020
January 6, 2020
Soleimani Killed and Everything Going on in Iran
Everything going on in the news has been a little crazy. There are fears of a World War III, being drafted, retaliation, and so on. I wanted to hold off saying anything until giving some things time to unfold. The problem I see is that it seems all of a sudden, people are acting like experts in foreign affairs and politics of the middle east. I'll clarify one thing first, I am not an expert in foreign affairs and I probably couldn't even list off half the countries of the middle east, let alone tell you anything about their politics. As a result, I was unsure of what to expect.
Things are fairly confusing with all the propaganda being considered truth making its way through the information chains via celebrities and over-eager news outlets. It is hard to decide which sources are actually true, which is why I think most Americans need to pull back on their opinions. It's a little scary to see how easily people can jump aboard narratives and throw out common sense. I'll add a twitter thread I came across on Reddit that made a lot of sense to me.
Currently the US media is trying to blow this up like the biggest story ever. Sure it is high profile, but it is not anything new to our general relations with this area. Why we even have so many troops there seems a bit of a mystery to most. While many would claim this is all Bush's fault or something along those lines, a simple check online shows that we have been involved with Iran since World War II. So back in the 1940's we have had dealings with them and it does not look like at any point could we really consider relations good.
In the current times, relations appear very tense. As with everything we do over there, the US is met with both cheers and jeers. This is the nature of even appearing to pick sides. It is still unclear what will result, but I personally doubt the possibility of a new World War. Tensions seem to always be high in that area and due to how unstable the region as a whole seems, the unexpected could possibly happen.
While I do not think this was the right form of intervention, I also do not think that the US should just roll over when pushed. I would prefer we pulled all of our troops from every country with such strained relations and let it be dealt with locally. I do not think it is America's place to be the global police nor do I think it is worth sinking billions of dollars to manipulate foreign affairs. This money goes either through the military funding or "Emergency Aid" which is really just a quick way to fund "our guy." Our lack of understanding of the people and all the nuances almost always guarantees we will cause more problems in the long run. If we stop interfering, the people with the right knowledge and the adequate amount of power may actually stand a chance at fixing something. Alternatively things could get way worse, but then at least there may be an actual reason for us to go back there and fight.
Just for the sake of completeness if my assumptions are wrong, what would happen if WWIII happened? When I was watching a video by Tim Pool, he made a good point I did not consider. Warfare has changed a lot. Wars are fought with technology. We have a never ending cyber war with governments and companies. In the IT world these are called APT (Advanced Persistent Threat). We also have drones, smart bombs, missiles with lots of capabilities, and so on. So the battlefield has changed drastically and there is no telling exactly where the major face of it would be waged. I also think it is a fair assumption to say that there may be many sides to it with constant challenging and retaliation as groups try to sneak in their own motives to work towards. I think there could even be an argument made that we have already been at WWIII for a while and it just has an ever changing landscape with no real sides to it.
Regardless of what happens, I still think we should work towards just getting our troops out of the area and as far out of the middle east as possible. It is my opinion that our interference has destabilized things and our continued interference makes it worse. I also think that when we pull out, things will get far worse in the immediate future but much better in the long run. It is unavoidable for things to fix themselves without some tragedy.
Things are fairly confusing with all the propaganda being considered truth making its way through the information chains via celebrities and over-eager news outlets. It is hard to decide which sources are actually true, which is why I think most Americans need to pull back on their opinions. It's a little scary to see how easily people can jump aboard narratives and throw out common sense. I'll add a twitter thread I came across on Reddit that made a lot of sense to me.
Currently the US media is trying to blow this up like the biggest story ever. Sure it is high profile, but it is not anything new to our general relations with this area. Why we even have so many troops there seems a bit of a mystery to most. While many would claim this is all Bush's fault or something along those lines, a simple check online shows that we have been involved with Iran since World War II. So back in the 1940's we have had dealings with them and it does not look like at any point could we really consider relations good.
In the current times, relations appear very tense. As with everything we do over there, the US is met with both cheers and jeers. This is the nature of even appearing to pick sides. It is still unclear what will result, but I personally doubt the possibility of a new World War. Tensions seem to always be high in that area and due to how unstable the region as a whole seems, the unexpected could possibly happen.
While I do not think this was the right form of intervention, I also do not think that the US should just roll over when pushed. I would prefer we pulled all of our troops from every country with such strained relations and let it be dealt with locally. I do not think it is America's place to be the global police nor do I think it is worth sinking billions of dollars to manipulate foreign affairs. This money goes either through the military funding or "Emergency Aid" which is really just a quick way to fund "our guy." Our lack of understanding of the people and all the nuances almost always guarantees we will cause more problems in the long run. If we stop interfering, the people with the right knowledge and the adequate amount of power may actually stand a chance at fixing something. Alternatively things could get way worse, but then at least there may be an actual reason for us to go back there and fight.
Just for the sake of completeness if my assumptions are wrong, what would happen if WWIII happened? When I was watching a video by Tim Pool, he made a good point I did not consider. Warfare has changed a lot. Wars are fought with technology. We have a never ending cyber war with governments and companies. In the IT world these are called APT (Advanced Persistent Threat). We also have drones, smart bombs, missiles with lots of capabilities, and so on. So the battlefield has changed drastically and there is no telling exactly where the major face of it would be waged. I also think it is a fair assumption to say that there may be many sides to it with constant challenging and retaliation as groups try to sneak in their own motives to work towards. I think there could even be an argument made that we have already been at WWIII for a while and it just has an ever changing landscape with no real sides to it.
Regardless of what happens, I still think we should work towards just getting our troops out of the area and as far out of the middle east as possible. It is my opinion that our interference has destabilized things and our continued interference makes it worse. I also think that when we pull out, things will get far worse in the immediate future but much better in the long run. It is unavoidable for things to fix themselves without some tragedy.
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