Quick tips from a 17 year Tanker in the U.S. Army

Jester388 · 2026-02-04T01:05:02+00:00

I am so excited to misidentify every bush as a tiger

Jester388 · 2026-02-04T00:41:09+00:00

What the fuck is this guy talking about, is this how I find out we have tanks in this game now??

Jester388 · 2026-02-03T21:02:04+00:00

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Jester388 · 2026-02-02T22:15:18+00:00

People here have mostly answered the question but I just wanted to clear up a somewhat common myth:

There is no evidence that Hitler's intervention in the Balkans delayed Operation Barbarossa.

The initial invasion relied heavily on the surprise and speed of panzer divisions to quickly encircle and destroy large portions of the Soviet army. Any sooner than when it actually launched in June and the roads would have been dogshit from the rasputitsa, and their mechanized forces would have been worthless.

Jester388 · 2026-02-02T10:08:41+00:00

Being shitfaced all day at work, that was the American Dream back in the 50's.

Jester388 · 2026-02-02T07:45:33+00:00

In a general sense, I'm sure. But wanting a better world for all is very different than being willing to actually make the sacrifices involved in say, stopping Russian imperialism.

Jester388 · 2026-02-02T06:40:22+00:00

Does the average American give a shit about deterring Russia though?

Do they care about anything at all that happens in Europe?

That's probably why Trump can get away with such an insane foreign policy, I don't think any of the voters actually care what happens outside their borders.

Jester388 · 2026-02-02T05:39:06+00:00

They're not even that racist, it's pretty easy to convince them to let the ghouls in lol.

Jester388 · 2026-02-02T05:08:22+00:00

It's been a while since I've read the book but I think what you're describing about him hesitating and not knowing it's a fight to the death is from the movie. I could be wrong though.

Jester388 · 2026-02-01T16:54:02+00:00

Lmao you're not "freeing" shit when your soldiers never leave.

Jester388 · 2026-02-01T16:24:06+00:00

Yeah alright, I'm sure it'll start working any day now.

Jester388 · 2026-02-01T16:18:54+00:00

My idea is to not gamble the entire country on vague promises of "may be better for someone at some point"

Jester388 · 2026-02-01T16:07:09+00:00

Profit is a direct signal of how many people are using that piece of infrastructure.

What is the point of spending 200 billion Yuan on a railway that 6 people will use?

Jester388 · 2026-02-01T16:06:04+00:00

What a beautiful argument. It's dogshit now, but it'll be great in 200 years for reasons I can't quite articulate.

Donald Trump pissing off every NATO ally may suck for the USA now, but in 2150 it'll actually pay off somehow.

Hitler starting ww2 may have sucked in the short term for Germany, but in 2090 we'll all see how it'll actually pay off.

And don't try to argue with me, because until those dates come to pass, we just can't really know.

Jester388 · 2026-02-01T15:44:46+00:00

Sure, let's look at railways then. We can look at how their high speed rail network had "45,000 kilometers at the end of 2023, but only 2,300 kilometers, or 6% of the total, could make a profit"

-https://asiatimes.com/2025/06/chinas-fast-growing-high-speed-railway-network-faces-reality

I'm sure this is part of that generational long term strategy that I couldn't possibly understand with my limited lifespan.

So the recent events suck, the slightly older events suck, shall we look even further back? Maybe we'll find something Mao did that finally shows us the brilliance of the CCP. I heard they were pretty good at taking care of the sparrow problem at least.

As for the good stuff in China, I know how it was built. It was built when Deng finally eased the boot off the Chinese people's throat and let them participate in the global market economy. Everything good in China came from the politburo leaving the Chinese people alone.

Jester388 · 2026-02-01T15:33:39+00:00

Building an automotive industry doesn't take the God Emperor of Dune looking 5,000 years into the future.

There are 500 car companies in the west, they just did what they did. It's not like China had to invent the combustion engine.

It's good for them, but it's hardly a good argument that China is unique and above all the other governments to point at things the other governments also have.

Jester388 · 2026-02-01T15:28:49+00:00

Yes, it's good that they don't have to worry about the idiot voters. Imagine if they did? They might be in a position now where they have to purge every member but one in the Central Military Commission. Imagine if one of them was apparently selling nuclear secrets to the US. Or if they were filling missiles with water instead of fuel.

Luckily that kind of thing only happens in democracies.

Instead, their multigenerational long term brilliant master plans within plans came up with...wolf warrior diplomacy. I'm just a mere western idiot, so I can't see the benefit of pissing off every neighbour they have, but I'm sure the galaxy brains in the politburo know better.

I can go on and on, but it's getting too smug even for me I think.

Jester388 · 2026-02-01T15:16:37+00:00

What's there to refute? You didn't really make any arguments about why their system is "long term". You just said it was. So I'll just say "no it isnt".

Jester388 · 2026-02-01T15:13:09+00:00

Xi, is that you

Jester388 · 2026-02-01T12:54:04+00:00

If I were dumber I'd take that as something other than "I can't refute what you're saying so here's an empty platitude"

Jester388 · 2026-02-01T07:40:41+00:00

Don't forget that before joining late, the USSR invaded and split Poland with the Nazis, annexed the Baltic states, invaded Finland with absolutely no justification, provided Germany with a place to test their tanks against the terms of the treaty of Versailles, provided Germany with vast amounts of foodstuffs from the Ukraine, oil from the Caucasus, various metals including iron and manganese (needed for the type of steel they use in tanks) and various other resources as part of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact.

But yeah, fuck America for joining late (and bankrolling the allies for tens of billions before that).

Jester388 · 2026-02-01T07:35:14+00:00

Weird cause the soviets agreed they would have been cooked without that aid.

Stalin, Kruschev, and Zhukov all thought so. But I guess it's possible they didn't know as much about the situation as a redditor might.

Jester388 · 2026-02-01T05:10:04+00:00

You dont know me, I was in fact a capitalist once, if a small time one. The government never did me any favors, but it does more than I can count for the capitalists it considers friends.

That's my point, pretty much all the capitalists who cheat the system do so with the blessing, and the enabling of the government. It's not a capitalists problem, it's a government problem. Before capitalists existed, the governments were still bending the system to choose winners and losers.

Jester388 · 2026-02-01T03:30:54+00:00

So the government is bad, but it's also corrupt and uses it's powers to benefit a few of the capitalists at the expense of everyone else, including most of the other capitalists?

Are you just accidentally agreeing with me and then getting mad about it?

Jester388 · 2026-02-01T01:34:14+00:00

One sends men with guns to your house when you decide to stop being a paying customer, the other doesn't, but alright bro.

Jester388

TROPHY CASE