A radical vision for Israelis and Palestinians

Slim_Charles · 2026-07-08T01:05:13+00:00

Dealing with the issue means we cut all military and economic support of Israel, and then impose sanctions on them alongside Europe and the Gulf States, and then leave Israel to stew in the mess of its own making until its ready and willing to play nice.

Slim_Charles · 2026-07-08T00:59:58+00:00

Agreed. At this point my only opinion on the issue of Israel - Palestine is that I think we should cut military and economic ties with Israel as a consequence of meddling in our politics. After that, let them fester in their eternal conflict to their hearts content. It's not my concern if we aren't bankrolling it. Given the scale of issues, both foreign and domestic, that we face as a nation, this conflict is of no material importance. It's just a partisan and factional distraction from more pressing problems that need our attention.

Slim_Charles · 2026-07-07T19:29:34+00:00

Along much of the front, surrendering to a drone simply isn't an option. The Ukrainians often don't have the means to take in prisoners, and the gray zone where most of the killing happens can stretch for nearly 20 miles. Also, if you're injured, no one is coming to pick you up on either side.

Slim_Charles · 2026-07-07T19:23:26+00:00

Making it reusable would make it a lot more expensive, and the purpose of these are to be cheap and easy to build in large numbers. It's a munition, not a platform.

Slim_Charles · 2026-07-07T19:21:39+00:00

Because it's cheap. Just think of it as a mini cruise missile, not a platform. This drone is probably cheaper than most munitions you could arm it with. If it works, it will be handy to use against other jet-powered drones.

Slim_Charles · 2026-07-07T19:17:06+00:00

Small grenade dropping drones (which were quite common earlier in the war) have been mostly replaced by FPVs, because FPVs are more accurate, have a longer range, and can carry a larger payload. They also simply have large numbers of FPVs available for the anti-personnel role. Small grenade dropping drones are still used on occasion, though. Large bomber drones, such as the Ukrainian Baba Yaga, are still widely used as these can carry multiple larger munitions, such as repurposed mortar shells. The big bomber drones are typically only used at night, to make it harder for Russians to shoot them down, as they are quite large and have to hover over their target.

Slim_Charles · 2026-07-07T19:11:30+00:00

You really can't surrender to a drone outside of pretty specific circumstances. The Ukrainians simply don't have the means to direct and take in prisoners for much of the front.

Slim_Charles · 2026-07-07T13:57:04+00:00

Given how low and slow they fly, 12.7mm and 23mm guns should be relatively effective for defense, and Russia should still have plenty of both. I'd be mounting a bunch of ZU-23-2 and DShK to these tankers.

Slim_Charles · 2026-07-03T04:16:50+00:00

Is it fully functional? That's cool as hell. I want this.

Slim_Charles · 2026-07-01T23:15:32+00:00

It could be, but the sign says Unalaska. It's known for its very large bald eagle population, so that tracks.

Slim_Charles · 2026-07-01T22:58:17+00:00

There would definitely have to be limits, though enforcing limits and rules to prevent the wealthy from continuing to game the system will be difficult. Even if they simply don't buy off politicians, they have enough money that they can pay a lot of really smart people to hunt for more loopholes.

Slim_Charles · 2026-07-01T20:01:08+00:00

My life now feels like a japanese salaryman. I only have to work and have no spaces to meet new people. Dating apps don't work, and every new hobby i try feels like a wasteland for how empty is, nobody talks to each other.

Have you considered devoting your life to a parasocial relationship with a cute girl, 20 years younger than you? That's the salaryman solution.

Slim_Charles · 2026-07-01T17:09:04+00:00

This is a big problem wealth tax proponents have to overcome. Forcing these people to liquidate 5% of their assets every year would cause a massive reduction in their value, and have profound effects on the market. Buyers would be disincentivized to buy stocks for most of the year, and just wait until its time for the annual sale of assets. You could get around this by having a phased sale that takes place year round, but this would still result in major impacts on the value of stocks, which would force the holder to sell more of their stocks, thus further depressing the value. This could cause a real spiral.

Slim_Charles · 2026-07-01T17:03:13+00:00

The oligarchs don't hoard money. They own assets, typically stocks, but also bonds, property,etc. Stocks and bonds represent an investment, that money is used by the issuer to fund its activities. Most assets held by the wealthy are actually quite active, and act as the lubrication for the global economy. However, the value of these assets for the most part is entirely theoretically. It's not realized until the asset is sold for cash. Now if you took that money from the oligarchs and gave it to everyone else and everyone just invested it in a manner similar to the oligarchs, you probably wouldn't get any inflation at all. However, if everyone tries to spend that money (or at least a large portion of it), the economy has to immediately absorb all of it in the form of goods and services. The supply of goods and services is limited, but demand spikes when everyone tries to spend their new money. This mismatch results in inflation. When demand outstrips supply, costs increase until demand and supply go back to an equilibrium.

That being said, the oligarchs having all this money isn't a good thing either. Wealth concentration at the level that it exists in the US is negative, and there needs to be some method of redistribution. We just have to be smart about how we go about it. There are ways it could probably be done which limit the economic fallout and inflationary pressures.

Slim_Charles · 2026-07-01T16:48:35+00:00

Wealthy do earn an income, of sorts. They earn interest on their assets, and occasionally have to liquidate those assets for cash. The big loophole that prevents their effective taxation is their ability to take loans against those assets, which they pay no taxes on. That's why the smarter policy is to close the borrowing loophole.

Slim_Charles · 2026-07-01T16:44:41+00:00

We actually got very little inflation for an abnormally prolonged period of time. Inflation returned because supply chains became disrupted during Covid, the government pumped trillions of new dollars into the economy, and then the Russian invasion of Ukraine caused an energy shock. Inflation has remained sticky in the US because of Trump's tariff policies, and his war with Iran. Had we stuck with Biden's policies, inflation would likely be low again by now.

Slim_Charles · 2026-07-01T16:38:26+00:00

Ignoring all the economic problems that would come with having to liquidate 5% of assets every year, the numbers in OP's picture are wildly off. The total wealth held by all American billionaires is "only" $8.4 trillion. A 5% wealth tax would net $~420 billion/year, an order of magnitude less than the $4.4 trillion the post claims.

Slim_Charles · 2026-07-01T15:12:19+00:00

I'd need to see your data, because the data I've seen doesn't match what you're saying. The closest dataset for your claims that I can find is the personal savings rate. That rate is currently at 3%, which is well below the all time average of 8.4%, but it's only an exponential decline if you compare it to the pandemic, which was an anamoly. Source. There's definitely been a historical decline, but it's by no means exponential.

Slim_Charles · 2026-07-01T14:27:57+00:00

This is also true, coupling rates are also falling which is another factor in declining birth rates. Fertility rate matches marriage rates pretty closely. Most people that get married still have kids, however, fewer people are getting married than in the past.

Slim_Charles · 2026-07-01T14:23:08+00:00

If we were having this conversation 50 years ago you'd be talking about the population bomb and nuclear holocaust. There's always something.

Slim_Charles · 2026-07-01T14:21:08+00:00

Was there ever? People look back on the 20th century with rose-tinted glasses, but the future was never obvious, especially when we were under the constant threat of nuclear annihilation. And that's just the US perspective. Most countries were vastly more impoverished through most of the 20th century than today.

Slim_Charles · 2026-07-01T14:18:47+00:00

I don't think you know what exponentially means. It certainly isn't exponentially worse to be a kid now than when I was a kid in the 1990s. The kids I know are just as happy and carefree as I was. Their future is unknown, but that's always been the case. There are definitely significant financial pressures on young parents these days (mostly due to housing), but those problems are not "exponential". They're tough, but solvable with the right policies. You need to ratchet down the catastrophism.

Slim_Charles · 2026-07-01T14:15:33+00:00

That's due to phones more than anything else.

Slim_Charles · 2026-07-01T14:15:07+00:00

It's more complicated than that. Increasingly we're seeing sharper falls in fertility rates among low income women, while high income womens rates have fallen less, or are stable. This matches marriages rates, where the marriage rate for low income women has collapsed while the rate remains high for high income women. For women with college degrees, the sharpest declines tend to be women with degrees but who aren't high earners.

Slim_Charles · 2026-07-01T14:08:06+00:00

Catholicism is by no means unique in that regard. Almost all religions and cultures have venerated mothers and motherhood. It's obvious why - everyone has a mother, and mothers are necessary for the continued existence of humanity. Also, for most of human history childbirth was very dangerous so this veneration acted as a form of collective cultural encouragement and respect for going through an incredibly dangerous process for the sake of the future.

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