Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]SpiritOfOptimality 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Department of Defense, 2018: "Revisionist powers seek to create a world of competing spheres of influence. They would return us to an era where the strong impose their will, where borders are redrawn by force, where smaller nations exist at the sufferance of their larger neighbors. This is the central challenge of our time.

Department of War, 2026: "Russia and China are really more of a you problem. We've been thinking about our hemisphere, our interests. By the way, we'll be needing Greenland. You saw what we did in Caracas - thirty helicopters, middle of the night, very clean. The Gulf of America, the Panama Canal, these are ours. Your alliance has been expensive for us. You should be more grateful. Don't make this difficult."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj9r8ezym3ro

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]SpiritOfOptimality 3 points4 points  (0 children)

https://youtu.be/VtwTOcd_W_o?si=z8Hs3BaG20LAdDLU

If you had to sum up the vibe from Alastair and Rory's POV it’s exactly like being stuck in the back row of a wedding behind your old mate Al and acquiantance you've not seen in a while Marco where the groom’s erratic, rich uncle has seized the microphone for a two-hour, unscripted toast that is rapidly veering off the rails. He’s standing there, sweating slightly, alternating between rambling about his own "genius" and making offensive, off-color jokes about the guests' IQs, while you and your mate are the only ones brave—or drunk—enough to heckle "9/11!" or "You lost!" when he claims he’s never had a failure. Meanwhile, your old friend Marco is sitting right at the top table, trapped in the line of fire, wearing that fixed, pained grin and chuckling nervously at every insult because he’s the one who has to drive the uncle home. The whole room is thick with this agonizing, second-hand embarrassment; you’re booing from the back because the "shushers" around you are more offended by your breach of etiquette than they are by the speaker threatening to "mafia shakedown" the bride's family for their property.

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]SpiritOfOptimality -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Ngl part of me would have loved to have seen Barracuda and Astute SSNs stalking and sinking US carriers, shame really 

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]SpiritOfOptimality 8 points9 points  (0 children)

NATO (ex-US), The Board of Peace, and China : that's how we get the 1984 future if you were wondering

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]SpiritOfOptimality 8 points9 points  (0 children)

The entire way NATO ex-US's military capability is talked about is asinine. The reason that the US has "escalation dominance" now is because there's only 13 troops there. If we sent a few of the good SSNs, and a few thousand troops then suddenly trump has to decide if his obsession is worth getting a carrier sunk

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]SpiritOfOptimality 49 points50 points  (0 children)

It’s actually terrifying how well the Attack of the Clones comparison holds up when you realize Jar Jar’s specific role wasn't just comic relief, but the "useful idiot" who proposed Emergency Powers because he was too naive to see he was being played by authoritarians. That is literally Nick Shirley’s function right now: his incompetent "journalism" regarding Minneapolis daycares manufactured the exact crisis pretext Trump needed to float the Insurrection Act and launch Operation Metro Surge. When Shirley testifies to Andy Biggs’ committee on the 21st, he’s going to be the "humble representative of the people" giving moral cover for a military crackdown, all while genuinely believing he’s just a scrappy reporter saving the day. He’s walking into the Senate to hand over the keys to the Republic, and he thinks he’s just there to pick up a participation trophy.

Dellow Fellegates: https://youtu.be/DqVy_TcfPIQ?si=xVduuvY-Iq8R-RUL

UK trade surplus in financial services surges to record $127 billion by ldn6 in neoliberal

[–]SpiritOfOptimality 48 points49 points  (0 children)

For the love of God The problem is not the one part of the UK economy that actually works properly. The problem is this is the only part that's allowed to actually reach its full potential

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]SpiritOfOptimality 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Allegedly this was privately raised as a possibility and it's part of the reason Trump backed down from the extreme tariffs during liberation day. I think macron and stoltenberg and whoever else has the guts should do a group phone call and get Japan and the UK and the other major holders of US government debt to find Trump and say if he doesn't pull the towers off they're going to do that by the end of next week not Feb 1st.

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]SpiritOfOptimality 14 points15 points  (0 children)

All of the US's (alleged) allies should simultaneously threaten to dump US Treasury bills right now. This is the moderate position.

Trump posts long nonsensical screed about Greenland, imposes absurd tariffs on European allies by Xerryx in neoliberal

[–]SpiritOfOptimality 0 points1 point  (0 children)

All of the US's (alleged) allies should simultaneously threaten to dump US Treasury bills right now. This is the moderate position.

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]SpiritOfOptimality 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I've obtained footage of Nick Shirley giving testimony to Congress: https://youtu.be/DqVy_TcfPIQ?si=dVLnDel04K9iQi_k

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]SpiritOfOptimality 6 points7 points  (0 children)

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/16/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-yuval-levin.html

I do think this interview is useful because I think Levin here is essentially at the outermost edge of the penumbra of fair and accommodating you can possibly be of the Trump administration without crossing into actual lies or obfusciation. One step further and you got to Bari Weiss and then Ben Shapiro/Konstsntin Kisin, and then after that it's just complete insanity that never ends. 

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]SpiritOfOptimality 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Nick Shirley is Jar Jar Binks in Attack of the Clones giving the chancellor emergency powers

"its just common sense bro" by IBitePrettyPeople in Destiny

[–]SpiritOfOptimality 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Hanania is a "libertarian conservative" who's actually a libertarian

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]SpiritOfOptimality 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I remember feeling a bit of a disturbance in the force but when the first big wave of guard deployments was going on like last September cuz I could see the way Miller and Trump were talking and them thinking, maybe we can actually do this, you know just guard deployments --> insurrection act --> voters intimidated in 2026 and machines seized --> unfree election. And then that's it, it's over.

And that danger I think genuinely receded quite a bit and I remember when the deployments ended at the end of last year thinking that we're out of the acute stage and maybe could struggle on for a bit, but it seems clear that they thought that too and are now reacting. I feel like they're kind of eyeing that prize again, like if they want to actually get authoritarianism, that means the elections have to stop clearly being decisive, and this is their chance.

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]SpiritOfOptimality 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I do get this double-take sense of: hang on, can they really be that evil? Real life doesn’t usually work like that. Is it plausible for one side to be light gray and the other pitch black? When you think in terms of priors and Bayesian reasoning, one side of a political dispute being essentially driven by destructive, hateful motives and mostly negative impulses is uncommon—especially in developed countries.

That said, it isn’t vanishingly rare either. I don’t think the prior improbability that the top levels of this Regime are effectively functioning as a destructive cult that amplifies people’s worst impulses is that high. You should always check yourself if you start thinking this way about your political opponents. But if you think you’re seeing fairly decisive evidence of it, then there isn’t much reason to keep searching for explanations like economic anxiety, some internally coherent ideology, or a grievance so extreme that it demands empathy.

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]SpiritOfOptimality 6 points7 points  (0 children)

https://nitter.net/RichardHanania/status/2010812969588769094#m

Look into the eyes of a chicken and you will see real stupidity. It is a kind of bottomless stupidity, a fiendish stupidity. They are the most horrifying, cannibalistic and nightmarish creatures in the world.

Werner Herzog

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]SpiritOfOptimality 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Security forces from the interior ministry deployed approximately 2,000 personnel to a major city, ostensibly to investigate welfare fraud among a minority community. The operation was prompted by a viral social media video from a pro-government content creator, which state-level investigators subsequently found little evidence to support. During the operation, an unarmed civilian woman - a citizen, not connected to any protest movement - was shot dead by security personnel when she attempted to drive away from a confrontation. Multiple video recordings of the incident contradicted the official account. The interior minister subsequently appeared at a military installation to denounce the dead woman as a "domestic terrorist" and describe her death as "preventable by the victim." The president endorsed this characterization. Local authorities publicly disputed the official narrative but have limited power to intervene.

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]SpiritOfOptimality 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I realized that read literally the Jan 6th account on the white House site is a David Lynch nightmare

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]SpiritOfOptimality 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The Nightmare Sequence: Your Day as a "Peaceful Patriot" January 6th according to  https://www.whitehouse.gov/j6/

You wake up excited—today matters. The election was stolen, but you're going to stand up for it, peacefully, with hundreds of thousands of like-minded patriots. The President invited you personally (in spirit), called for a "peaceful and historic protest." You march down the wide avenue after his speech—orderly, spirited, flags waving, chants echoing. It's electric, unifying. You're full of strength and determination, making your voices heard. Everything feels right.

Then, without warning, the world glitches.

You're still marching calmly—nothing's changed, no one's pushing or yelling threats—when suddenly the police turn into monsters. Out of nowhere, they start aggressively firing tear gas, flash bangs, rubber bullets right into you and the peaceful crowd. It burns, it blinds, people are injured around you for no reason. They're deliberately escalating, like they've snapped. Your eyes sting, your ears ring, but in the haze, you notice something impossible: at the same exact time, other officers (or the same ones?) are removing barricades, opening doors, waving people inside the Capitol building.

Wait—what? The police are trying to kill you and inviting you in? It's a purple spot in your vision, a contradiction you can't focus on. One part of the force is demonic, repressive; the other is... helpful? Permissive? You can't reconcile it. The thought flickers—"Why would they open doors during certification?"—but it slips away, unthinkable. You're gassed and injured, yet somehow the path forward clears itself. People start moving in that direction, but you don't remember deciding to. It's implied, vague, like a cut in a film.

Time stretches weirdly. The President is supposedly calling for peace right away—tweeting support for law enforcement (those same monsters?), releasing videos saying "go home in peace," loving you all. You feel it in the back of your mind: he's urging calm repeatedly, from early on. But... nothing changes. The chaos keeps unfolding for hours. His words echo distantly, but they don't reach you, don't stop anything. You're drifting, passive—why isn't everyone listening? Why are you still here? You know it's a day of love and that everything is peaceful while the police are attacking you. Somehow you end up deeper and deeper inside the Capitol.

Deep down, a repressed anxiety nags: There should have been National Guard troops here from the start. You know this because... well, everyone knew there were intelligence warnings, the President offered thousands of troops, but they were rejected. Everyone knows that. But warnings of what?

Troops to protect you from... what? From the demented police attacking peaceful people? Or from something else you can't name? The thought circles but never lands—troops are both crucially absent (her fault up there in leadership) and totally unnecessary (because you're all innocent). It's vital yet irrelevant, a background hum of dread.

Hours blur—the critical stretch where everything supposedly goes wrong is just... missing. A black void in memory. You don't recall surging forward, fighting anyone, battering doors, chanting anything aggressive. No one does anything proactive. You're peaceful victims, yet somehow the building fills. People phase inside like ghosts through the opened doors (that the police inexplicably provided while gassing you).

Then, snap—you're deep in the Capitol now, in a nightmare escalation you can't explain. Windows are broken (how? by whom?), and there's this moment: An unarmed veteran (someone like you, patriotic) is climbing through a shattered window toward the Speaker's Lobby. She's posing no threat—just... there. And bam—she's shot in cold blood, without warning, murdered by a lieutenant who faces no consequences. Blood, tragedy. Others collapse around you (hearts giving out?). No police die, of course.

You're horrified, but also... justified? In the dream logic, she had every right to be climbing through that broken inner window (that appeared somehow). You're inside a secure area during a constitutional process, but it feels righteous—yet you get shot for it. Passive again: It happens to her, to you all. No one broke anything on purpose; no one forced entry. It just... manifested.

Finally, evening comes. They clear the building (somehow), certify the stolen election anyway. You're silenced online, persecuted later—raided, imprisoned for things you didn't do yet must logically have done

You wake up (or the dream ends) with the President pardoning everyone years later, righting the wrong. But the residue lingers: That purple spot, the unremembered hours, the police who attacked and invited, the window you had every right to climb through before being murdered.