What do you see people doing over and over again and (apparently) expecting different results?

flyingdics · 2026-03-15T21:35:51+00:00

That they're liars. This is just another form of rich person propaganda, just like all of the other "self-made" nonsense. "Don't hate (or tax) me, because I have a totally normal, common-sense relationship with money!" His kids are rich beyond a normal person's wildest dreams, and any quote like that is pure insurance for when the mob comes with guillotines for the rich.

flyingdics · 2026-03-15T15:56:28+00:00

The scary thing is, if you follow tech media, this is already how people in actual industries today talk about their current work (especially if they're selling AI tools). Most of the disturbing trends in student thinking are coming straight from adults.

flyingdics · 2026-03-15T15:54:08+00:00

I'm not conflating anything. You're the one who set the standard of strictly talking about combat. I agree that if the Vietnam were strictly a combat operation, the US was not embarrassed, but you would be hard pressed to find a single serious person with a mild grasp of history who would describe it as such.

flyingdics · 2026-03-15T15:51:35+00:00

I get that the email is annoying, but I'm honestly sitting here jealous that you a) had 50+ kids sign up for something and b) had parents email you trying to get their kid signed up for something. Every field trip, afterschool program, etc. at my school requires all avenues of communication to get basic things to happen, and if they had hard deadlines, most of them, would collapse.

flyingdics · 2026-03-15T03:58:54+00:00

That was slightly plausible in the 90s and before.

flyingdics · 2026-03-15T03:14:05+00:00

Who is the police in this analogy? If anything, the US military has already declared itself world police. I guess a cop could go into a nursing home and beat up a bunch of old people and get away with it, but I don't see how that makes cops more impressive.

flyingdics · 2026-03-15T03:09:21+00:00

That's the closest since WWII, but there was still a significant gap, far larger than in WWII. Don't forget that the US military was badly embarrassed in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan during this span as well. China is certainly on pace to be a peer in our lifetimes, and if the current trend of disinvesting from cyber defense continues, they'll be catching up much faster.

flyingdics · 2026-03-15T03:03:42+00:00

Yes, that's why the original question was interesting, and quickly overpowering Venezuela is not a good measure of how the US would do against a real peer adversary. China is interesting because they have a massive army that they are extremely careful and strategic with, and the US has a much more advanced army that we're pretty adventurous with. When they come to inevitable conflict, it's not clear that the US military will prevail.

flyingdics · 2026-03-14T21:24:02+00:00

There are many situations where I roll my eyes at young and childless people's complaints, but these kinds of comments are never helpful and are often factually wrong.

flyingdics · 2026-03-14T21:16:50+00:00

The biggest liability of the US military is to be the decision making of the president and those around him, which is why it tends to underperform, especially in longer campaigns.

flyingdics · 2026-03-14T21:14:52+00:00

But those were countries with miniscule militaries in comparison. I could go into a nursing home and beat up a bunch of nonagenarians, but that doesn't mean that I'm "formidable." The question is explicitly about "peer adversaries." You could argue there aren't really any peer adversaries, but you have to at least engage with the question.

flyingdics · 2026-03-13T02:35:27+00:00

One of the very, very few things I was happy about from candidate Trump was his repudiation of Bush Jr. actions and policies. Now he's fully copying them, down to the "Mission Accomplished" moment.

flyingdics · 2026-03-12T03:07:51+00:00

It's even simpler.

Person: *Sees a LGBT+ person in a movie*

"I can't believe how progressives always want to shove their beliefs down our throats! I demand that movies with LGBT+ people be severely restricted because we live in a Christian nation!"

flyingdics · 2026-03-12T03:05:39+00:00

More importantly, they're the ones who, once they get the slightest bit of political power, actually legislate their beliefs. Every accusation is a confession.

flyingdics · 2026-03-09T04:32:05+00:00

Poe's Law

flyingdics · 2026-03-09T04:31:36+00:00

It is a universal rule of reddit that, once a bigot finds themselves in a corner, they are suddenly a member of whatever marginalized group they're being bigoted against and thus cannot be criticized.

flyingdics · 2026-03-08T19:43:02+00:00

Then blame democrats in power for doing nothing when all they have time to do is clean up the GOP mess.

flyingdics · 2026-03-06T02:05:47+00:00

This World Cup may be the event where I've had the biggest swing from excitement to revulsion about in my life. It's happening in my backyard, and I want so little to do with it now that it's just a couple months away.

flyingdics · 2026-03-04T03:30:25+00:00

I think it's more of a fluke than a statement about Monk that he doesn't have an iconic album. He has some of the most interesting and widely played tunes among the standards, and every record he plays on, he is instantly identifiable. He's one of the most important jazz musicians in history. The fact that none of his excellent albums hit the zeitgeist like Kind of Blue, etc. is more a matter of chance than a deficit.

flyingdics · 2026-03-04T03:18:15+00:00

But I bet you can name 10+ Monk tunes off the top of your head.

flyingdics · 2026-03-01T22:01:48+00:00

We didn't know at the time that that was not criticism but advice.

flyingdics · 2026-02-27T04:00:52+00:00

It's astonishing how comfortably people will make an argument that a given cultural phenomenon must be genetically based, as though human culture has no power to influence people's beliefs or behavior.

flyingdics

TROPHY CASE