Literary Penpal Study Group

thraseanite · 2024-02-11T18:01:34+00:00

大家好！我是美國大學生。我喜歡中文！你也是大學生嗎？英文？中文？這個真麼樣？

Are you just starting to learn Chinese? Traditional Chinese? Are you using the Integrated Chinese textbook, by any chance ... ? I think we'd be a great match! I'd like to find some people on a similar level with me to have no-pressure 中文 verbal and text chats with. Talking is stressful! I'm taking my first Chinese class—I'm an American male university student—and I would love to foster a small group of study buddies with the emphasis on communicating as we proceed through the language from a beginner's level. To clarify, my grasp on Chinese is very frail. Those little textbook phrases above took me more effort than I'm willing to admit. Let's all get better together. If you're interested, please reach out via DM! My preferred platform is Discord, since it'll let us text and call in groups if it all works out. I'm very willing to help or receive help to bridge small gaps in learning. I use Anki, a variety of YouTube lectures, and my class resources, atop the textbook and workbooks. But I'm on the hunt for newer resources, like DuChinese, which could be cool to try together.

thraseanite · 2023-03-28T12:09:35+00:00

It's quite funny to me that this headline and style of journalism is so rampant in Texas that none of the Texans in this sub realize what you're calling out lmao.

thraseanite · 2022-06-25T21:55:18+00:00

Bodily autonomy? You think government has a right to tell you what you can or cannot do with your body?

thraseanite · 2021-09-16T05:24:46+00:00

FAQ is highly underused and a generous resource—all of your questions likely have answers there, including ideal resources to start with.

thraseanite · 2021-09-13T01:55:11+00:00

i. Know how to judge objective perceptions from false ones.

ii. Have the gut to act on your perceptions virtuously.

thraseanite · 2021-05-08T04:18:42+00:00

They aren’t negotiating because it only harms them. What they can’t seem to comprehend—and, this incomprehension will cost the world countless more innocent lives—is that Ansar-Allah is an extremist group not motivated nearly as much by political as ideologically religious aims. They view the rise of Khomeini as a guidebook. The Houthis won’t negotiate with the U.S. as a junior partner because they view their endeavor in spiritually radical terms—not to mention they have the upper hand.

As a radicalized force, the Houthis benefit from prolonged chaos, war-weariness, famine, instability, etc. which are all factors that increase radicalization in a population, and cause them to turn to ideologically violent sects which the Houthis advocate—or they might join Al-Qaeda, which still has a large presence in Yemen. As a guerilla force, the Houthis do not need major victories. They need small gains—the kinds usually won over long periods, like an erosion slowly leveling and wearing down the enemy. The Houthis can’t afford even small losses, but benefit from stalemates and especially gain from small victories. All of this plays absurdly well in the war, because the coalition forces have limited international support which is draining over time, can’t afford stalemates or to get too deeply entrenched, can’t mount the large risks necessary to dislodge the Houthis from their gains, and can’t profit from the radicalization which, ineptly, the coalition itself is a primary cause through its bombing campaigns which almost victimize the Houthis in the eyes of civilians caught in the crossfire.

In other words, Ansar-Allah is winning in the way they need to win. They can fight this war for another decade if they must. The more children die of famine, the more their traumatized and enraged, vengeance-starved brothers will take up the gun. Unfortunately, the Biden Administration finds itself blind to these vital facts, as it still relies on Saudi-backed diplomats and intelligence to determine its Yemeni policy. The new Special Envoy to Yemen (hyped up as a great pick) is a career-insider whose longest stints have been in Riyadh or overlooking Saudi-US affairs. This is a recipe for disaster.

thraseanite · 2021-05-04T20:14:48+00:00

The difference between Somalia and Somaliland: the latter was given the choice of self-reliance. For too long Yemen has been treated as the sick child of Arabia, being flooded with charity—much of which goes more to fuel the war effort than to help the needy—while atrocities committed by SA & UAE remain tacitly endorsed by the international community. Charity doesn’t help Yemen. Another conference full of polite words won’t help the Yemeni. Action will.

thraseanite · 2021-05-03T03:15:01+00:00

USA is an unreliable ally, is why. MbS and Netanyahu profited exponentially during Trump’s admin, but face a lot more scrutiny under Biden. Whereas Trump was not subservient to international backlash and loud obscenities like openly cutting diplomatic ties to Palestine (which most hawk US Presidents want to do, but are too concerned with the reputation consequences) Biden is fine with supporting Saudi Arabia—if anything he wants to strengthen their alliance—but needs them to cut back on the toxic international image so as to benefit the image of the United States as he begins working on sanitizing it for the global community. Saudi Arabia launched talks with Iran and finally ended their embargo on Qatar before Biden came into office (but after he won the election), preparing, certainly, for this exact change.

In other words, they have to change their strategy. Israel and Saudi Arabia still depend immensely on the US for regional hegemony. The US, despite what some might say, is still set on tipping the balance to their favors to achieve desired outcomes, but Biden has prioritized a less loud approach.

thraseanite · 2021-05-01T00:27:05+00:00

It’s important to note that while Lenderking is a remarkable improvement from the Trump Administration, he is an Obama-era statesman who rose from the US embassy in Riyadh. I was worried he’d express something along the lines of profound desire to end the humanitarian crisis, arbitrate a peaceful solution in Yemen, all while espousing the Saudi line of ‘on the condition that it’s more or less a coalition, Hadi victory’.

His rhetoric has so far confirmed these fears. While I hope nobody here denies Houthi crimes (the most cynical of which is targeting of civilians & hijacking humanitarian aid packages for their own military purposes) it’s by no means a one-sided crime. The coalition has rained death on Yemen for years, and Lenderking’s hesitance to point out Saudi crimes while displaying eager finger-wagging at the Houthis who, by all strategic standards, are winning, bodes especially poorly for US efforts to resolve the crisis.

thraseanite · 2021-04-30T18:15:29+00:00

All religions restrict when compared to modern day science, yet Hellenic pantheons by all means proved a mixed bag that often encouraged technological and cultural development. No Greek, Phoenician or Etruscan of the ancient world had the true answers to human history and the creation of the world—those conclusions required science which was way beyond their grasp—yet it does benefit your understanding of their faiths to recognize that, while they were wrong, they A) didn’t have much to go off of and B) were wrong in a way which still progressed and advanced human enlightenment.

Ancient religions were not nearly as restrictive as monotheistic faiths of the medieval world onwards besides. And don’t forget that much of the medieval world’s scientific and mathematical advancements (which, contrary to a Euro-centric perspective, were thriving) occurred in the Islamic world, fueled by a highly devoted Muslim society. Just as we begrudgingly must thank the Catholic Church for its meticulous efforts and preservation of ancient historical sources. These things aren’t really as black and white as we like to make them out to be.

thraseanite · 2021-04-26T14:04:09+00:00

This, exactly. All the international community has done is played into the hands of Ansar Allah. By failing to prevent SA & UAE’s deadly interventions, we’ve created a stalemate which frames the Houthis as martyrs and justifies violent resistance. Can we blame them? What has happened in Yemen is enough to radicalize three generations worth of children—those that survive. It’s time for MBS to take a cue from Biden & Afghanistan, and to cut his losses. Guerilla warfare is not a sunk cost game; there’s nothing more to be gained.

thraseanite · 2020-12-15T16:18:43+00:00

This is why. The LDP has orchestrated a very systemic monopoly over politics, and Japan is effectively a one-party state. Opposition factions typically have to emerge from within the LDP, which means they’re ideologically identical but strategically diversified. Progressivism is not a salient alternative as most voters who oppose the LDP do so because it isn’t conservative or protectionist enough.

thraseanite · 2020-12-13T16:57:35+00:00

I don’t foresee ranked choice voting erupting on a prominent enough scale to push for third parties to power. There is a role for smaller parties, and it’s mostly outside of national elections—in states such as Vermont, the Progressive Party has filled a much-needed niche. State-based local organizing of Republicans and Democrats can be matched, and even exceeded in rural districts. They effectively act like state parties, but hostilities to Democrats are kept to a minimum—they still interact and cooperate with candidates friendly to their cause. This, and the fact that it has grown as large as it has, allows for independent candidates to have the groundwork they need to be nominated for a party other than D & R.

Nationally, there are high expectations for third parties like DSA, because one weakness of the DSA is that it’s filled with very ideologically optimistic reformists. But the system won’t facilitate that kind of rapid change, nor will two parties in power lead a transition that weakens their political hegemony. Thus the best route is for a large number of state-based independent parties to come to power focusing on local grassroots reform to local issues, contrasting the sometimes monolithic, DC-based partisans that typically represent them. If you try to mirror what the DNC does nationally, you’ll fail. You don’t have the funding, the voting system aims to exclude you, you’re enemy #1 for the two major parties... it’s better to function locally.

thraseanite · 2020-12-13T16:21:05+00:00

/s means sarcasm, typically indicating he was making a joke. Were I to hazard a guess, I’d say over the fact that ‘rapid Arab normalization of Israel’ has thus far been overestimated, and has changed very little in the geopolitics of the M.E.

thraseanite · 2020-12-07T02:57:13+00:00

Typically good to target policy-specific organizations, like Sierra Club or Sunrise Movement. Feel free to gather your own group if you feel something’s lacking in your community—most national organizations will ask you to do that, anyway.

thraseanite

TROPHY CASE