Ben

for those of us for whom the build-up to Iraq was politically formative, one of the most disturbing lessons from this war seems to be that in fact if you don't bother to spend months building consent it actually goes down *better* with the public. you can just start blasting and nobody will care.

*extremely* stupid for the US press to fall into this trap. what would you have learned from this fuckhead's press conferences anyway? he'll just say what he likes, the questions are irrelevant. now they've got you back in the building under their new rules

since ancient Athens, philosophers have asked

fair play, it's quite a funny bit to get all the war nerds going "uhhhhh, well, of course, we've always known that the Sri Lankan front would be pivotal in this conflict. Sri Lanka, as I'm sure you know [sound of typing] is an island country in South Asia. It is located in the Indian Ocean, southw--

"quick! find him a picture of a big jet going zoooooooom in the sky!" - Keir Starmer, to the foreign office

lmao

friends fear his chessposting is even more alienating than his countrymusicposting

the reason GothamChess is so popular is that science has not yet developed a voice more enjoyable to listen to than New York Russian Jewish

the case that has to be made is that this war is meaningless slaughter of people from afar, and that that's *bad*. because it is, in fact, fairly easy for the US and its client states to do with relative impunity.

this war is obviously stupid, terrifying and evil, but this kind of stuff is reaching. so far, massive bombardment in return for very few losses is obviously fairly "successful" (considering the goals are, again, stupid, terrifying and evil). this kind of stuff doesn't make the case against the war.

acceptable runners-up include:

lotta good albums on here, but only of of them is in contention for the greatest album of all time. vote accordingly

so is it time for ao4 or something

what was Jesus but an earlly christian preacher

Green and Lib Dems cackling to themselves in No 10, going "ok, no, but, seriously, shall we let Labour in the coalition... if they ask in a really squeaky voice? can we get some helium?"

blocked

and [deep sigh] is lowkey antisemitic?

nobody hates Netanyahu more than me but the emergent "Netanyahu manipulated Trump into going for it" narrative lets Trump off the hook

truly what the fuck is with these people

lmao. the total lack of details about the three US soldiers killed yesterday has also led me to assume that their deaths were also friendly fire, right?

ok but this is all just "Not bad, but could go further" which still qualifies as a miracle from the current govt

middle eastern conflagration ended as world's musicians unite to record 'We're Sending Our Love Down The Well' in Arabic

the prime minister will be launching a full and fair enquiry to ensure this kind of thing does not happen again

yeah this is the next thing i was getting on to, the sheer complexity of this process and how astonishingly ancient it is (or, complexity of the overall process once you all get to weaving etc)

truly baffled as to how this labour party has allowed this to happen

something something modern man totally divorced from the basic material conditions of production something something

i have asked the question that bluesky is most equipped to answer

ohhhhhh seeing this and thinking about twist helps immensely, yes that makes sense now

so the process of spinning is jsut the process of making sure it entangles only in one direction, basically?

i think i get it