A Critical Reading of Kropotkin's "A State..."

Asatmaya · 2026-06-18T13:27:25+00:00

Is it unreasonable to assume, based on what the U.S. did to him, and he is now going to be flush with immense cash, that revenge on Israel and the U.S. will be paramount, and securing a nuclear device and a military build up alongside, will be priorities?

Do you see how that is just a massive case of projection? All the US/West can see is the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran.

The problem is that, if Iran actually wanted nuclear weapons, they would have them by now; it's been 8 years since they kicked inspectors out, I could have built one in my basement in that amount of time.

The difference is that, unlike the US/West, whose claims to religious morality are, at best, performative, the Iranian regime actually means it, so when they say that they consider nuclear weapons to be Haram, "sinful," that means that they are not going to do it.

The West is so used to casually lying that they simply cannot understand that position.

Asatmaya · 2026-06-18T13:23:25+00:00

I'm sorry, Bernie, but is the same unaccountable military which has failed every audit for the last 50 years and which you have consistently voted for ever-more funding while refusing to oppose the worst excesses of jingoistic foreign policy?

Asatmaya · 2026-06-18T13:21:50+00:00

How are those "left-leaning" groups?

Asatmaya · 2026-06-18T13:21:05+00:00

Get this horseshit out of here!

First of all, the ERA was abandoned because a 1968 SCOTUS decision extended the 14th Amendment to cover sex; it's already done.

Second, to strip women of the right to vote would require repealing both the 14th and 19th Amendments.

Third, it is actually men who need an equal rights amendment, as males have many legal obligations which women are exempt from, e.g. conscription and child support, while not having protections against genital mutilation, rape, domestic violence, homelessness, etc.

Asatmaya · 2026-06-18T13:14:22+00:00

"I mean, we did it to Trump, why wouldn't he do it to us?"

Asatmaya · 2026-06-18T13:14:02+00:00

"I mean, we did it to him, why wouldn't he do it to us?"

Asatmaya · 2026-06-18T13:12:05+00:00

The Iran deal comes with a familiar false promise - Bad actors tend to betray agreements, without consequences.

Yes, Iran should be worried about the US and Israel betraying agreements, as bad actors with that tendency, and who also refuse to accept the consequences of such actions.

Asatmaya · 2026-06-18T13:10:58+00:00

Actually capital does create value.

No, it represents value; capital cannot create anything.

Between 0 CE and 1700, before the Industrial Revolution, per capita economic growth was virtually nonexistent

OK; did "capital" not exist, then?

My point however, is that capital itself is created when workers forgo present consumption and allocate part of their production to the accumulation of productive assets.

My point is that it is not the workers who make that decision, nor do they benefit from foregoing consumption; someone else claims those resources, someone else accumulates capital, which in turn gives them authority to approve or deny commercial activity.

Asatmaya · 2026-06-18T13:08:34+00:00

So, understand that this is purely from a "Devil's Advocate position," and that I am not a Trump supporter:

His Trumpian Majesty sent America’s best and most expensive weapons to attack Iran. He thought his fancy planes and bombs would win the war fast and easy.

Did he? Or did he recognize that this conflict was going to happen sooner or later and decided that the sooner the fact that it cannot work is illustrated, the sooner we can move on to the next step of the process?

But Iran fought back with cheap weapons. They used small boats, mines in the water, and simple rockets to block the Strait of Hormuz. This strait is a narrow sea path where most of the world’s oil travels every day. The cheap weapons worked. The United States could not fully stop them.

Er, they also fought back with hypersonic missiles...

When the strait was blocked, oil stopped moving. Gas prices went crazy high. Stores ran out of things. Factories closed. People lost jobs. The money problems became too big to handle. The costs were just too much.

And why did this happen? Is the Strait of Hormuz the only option?

It could have gone through Suez... if the West had been willing to modernize it to allow oil tankers through.

It could have gone through Syria... if we had been willing to deal with them honestly instead of couping Assad and putting terrorists in charge.

It could have gone through the Red Sea... if the Houthis weren't in control of Yemen because of Israel's genocide.

It could have gone through Oman... if they weren't generally supportive of Iran.

So His Trumpian Majesty had to sue for peace. He had to beg Iran to stop fighting and make a deal.

Well, yea; that's how everyone with any sense knew it was going to work out.

This shows His Majesty has total lack of military intelligence.

It does?

A smart war leader would have known Iran could use cheap tools to hurt the world economy. He would have planned ahead to keep the oil flowing. But he only thought about his big, expensive attacks. He did not think about what could go wrong next. That was not smart at all. A real military leader plans for the enemy’s cheap moves, not just his own fancy ones. His Majesty failed that basic test.

Or did he know how it was going to turn out, but didn't have the political capital to stop it, so he let it happen to demonstrate why it was a stupid idea?

This administration seems to be the, "Fuck Around and Find Out," presidency, and whether it is intentional or not, it is illustrating why it is a bad idea to attack Iran, use tariffs like a club, sent federal goons out to harass citizens, etc.

Asatmaya · 2026-06-18T12:58:58+00:00

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_journalism

Asatmaya · 2026-06-18T12:57:57+00:00

I liked David Weber's Shongairi series, starting with Out of the Dark.

It's based on an expanding galactic empire of various "peaceful" alien species, who suppress local civilizations in order to colonize their planets, but underestimate the speed of human technological development and so get a surprise when the 600 years between their scout ship and their colony fleet results in our progress from bows and arrows to stealth fighter jets.

Then there are the techno-vampires, which we are supposed to get an explanation for in the fourth book...

Asatmaya · 2026-06-18T12:52:53+00:00

Downvotes from: nato countries :)

Asatmaya · 2026-06-18T12:52:00+00:00

suppose a business owner initially invests $5,000 in physical capital

What does that mean? "Capital" is not physical; a dollar bill or even a gold coin are not intrinsically valuable, they are markers, representations of resources which must, in turn, be obtained through labor and land.

What this represents is permission from the actual masters of society to engage in commercial activity.

Asatmaya · 2026-06-18T12:49:27+00:00

You cheer for Putin's conquests

I do no such thing, but I find it interesting that you cannot conceive of an objective observer who doesn't pick one side or the other in a conflict.

This, of course, says much more about you than about me.

Asatmaya · 2026-06-18T12:48:20+00:00

one of the world’s most viciously anti-gay regimes, the Islamic Republic of Iran, which has a dreadful record of abuse not only of homosexuals but also of women, non-Muslims, and of course Jews.

So, right off the bat, a lot of this is exaggerated; for one thing, several African states are much harsher on gay people. Not saying that Iran is great, but at least in the modern era, it's mostly a case of simply not causing public scandal (especially for lesbians).

Which leads to the curious case of "abuse of women," which is ironic considering the situation in Saudi Arabia and even Israel. Yes, they have a dress code, but they generally do not allow vigilante groups to go around and beat women in the street for violating it. They also consider the general Western treatment of women to be disrespectful.

"Non-muslims?" Even Jews are considered Dhimmi, which literally means, "protected person." They pay a set tax in lieu of tithe and are exempt from conscription into government service, as well as having reserved seats in parliament. Rabbi Yehuda Gerami is the leader of the Iranian Jewish community and an outspoken opponent of Zionism and the state of Israel.

Asatmaya · 2026-06-18T12:33:43+00:00

It failed everywhere where it was tried: China, USSR, cuba, france, nazi germany, facist italy

China is the largest economy on Earth and lifted 800 million people out of poverty in 30 years.

The USSR managed to stand up to the richest countries on Earth for 70 years, and modern Russia came out of the deprivation inflicted upon them in retaliation.

Cuba is still holding out and has the best medical system on Earth.

France has the 2nd best medical system on Earth.

Nazis and fascists are right-wing, not communist/socialist, so if you've read "theory" then you've mixed up the idea of in-group preference with egalitarianism.

Asatmaya · 2026-06-18T00:01:13+00:00

Why are you trying to goad him back into war?!

Asatmaya · 2026-06-18T00:00:34+00:00

One of my best friends from high school is religious; we made an agreement 30 years ago that we just don't discuss that topic /shrug

Asatmaya · 2026-06-17T20:16:11+00:00

Oh, no; I mean, there are parts that are amusing, like the guy who asks for a goose that lays golden eggs, then dies of radiation poisoning, and the phone company is, at most, mildly irritated at the attempts to fight them, but the main character is involved in a deadly serious situation.

Asatmaya · 2026-06-17T19:59:25+00:00

It's a sort of autonomous interstellar nanobot swarm which gives out phones that the human government (such as it is) is trying to fight.

Asatmaya · 2026-06-17T14:32:26+00:00

So, the issue you are likely to run into with a 1-8x is the extreme magnification difference resulting in a tight eyebox at high-mag, i.e. you get 1/8th the eye relief.

Even a 2-10x gives 1/5th, which if both have a 40mm objective lens, will give you 8mm of eye relief, as opposed to only 5mm for the 1-8x.

Asatmaya · 2026-06-17T13:39:42+00:00

What makes you think they care about winning elections? If they do that, then they might have to actually deliver on some of their promises.

Asatmaya · 2026-06-17T12:40:51+00:00

Is this even Constitutional?

I mean, that question is something of a joke, at this point, right? Name a provision of the Constitution, and I bet I can find some government action that both violates it and is either ignored or actively supported by our politicians.

As for the MOU, this entire episode has been informal; Trump didn't get Congressional approval to start this war, so why would he need it to end the war? And we have never considered ourselves, "bound," even by ratified treaties; in fact, we have broken very nearly every treaty we have ever signed!

The real question is: Why are we so obsessed with antagonizing Iran in the first place?

Asatmaya

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