I have had the good fortune to have traveled extensively my whole life. I’ve driven through all but one of these united States (South Dakota), and a career in the military allowed me to see a good chunk of Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia, and beyond. A job working for an international company after the military took me as far as Australia and landed me in an apartment in mainland China on-and-off for 20 months. As a result, I became fascinated with the concept of culture. Early in life, I think our understanding of culture is a lot like that aphorism about the two young fish swimming past the older fish, who casually says, “How’s the water, boys?” The young fish swim on and then one young fish turns to the other and says, “What’s water?”
Culture is like that. It’s what we humans assimilate, largely unconsciously, from the time we’re born, with no real context for understanding it until we begin to identify individual aspects of our own culture and, if we’re lucky, we travel to and become immersed in other cultures. Ask an average four year old child why it’s wrong to lie and they’ll have no frigging clue about about existential questions of “truth,” or the finer points of ethical conduct – but they damn sure know they shouldn’t lie because mom and dad said so, or a teacher did, or because their friends say so – i.e. the culture generally condemns it. I had kids young (relatively speaking) for my generation. As a consequence, my peers tend to have younger children and I’ll occasionally get asked questions about raising the little knee-biters by friends because mine are all grown up and gone. It came to me after daughter number two or three that for the first eight or nine years of their lives, you’re teaching your kids the rules. For the next eight or nine, you’re explaining the exceptions. Hopefully in the last half is where you teach them ethics, that is, how to choose between occasionally competing moral obligations, but that’s a larger subject for another time.
Merriam Webster online has the simple definition for culture as “the beliefs, customs, arts, etc., of a particular society, group, place, or time.” I think the word “beliefs” is true enough for the definition, but I think there’s an even simpler formulation and I want to use it to make some points about culture. I define culture as “the totality of our collective values.“ Value itself is a loaded term, but I think the distinction from “beliefs” is important. People may or may not believe all kinds of silly shit in a given culture, but any particular belief, even one held by a majority of the populace, doesn’t really have any kind of impact until a culture gives it value. We had chia pets, for example, and pet rocks, but their cultural significance is a non-factor for my purposes. Until a significant enough portion of a given culture decides that a belief is worthy of preservation and/or emulation, it’s a fad and little more.
Many people think Saturday Night Live is funny; many others do not. Regardless of where you fall on that dividing line, it has done well enough to have become a kind of cultural touchstone in the United States, a veritable institution. Lorne Michaels has churned out a pretty impressive collection of talent: from Belushi, Murray, Akroyd et al., to Eddie Murphy, Dana Carvey, Christopher Guest, to Kristin Wiig, Will Ferrell, Jimmy Fallon, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and on and on. Somehow, despite everyone always complaining about how it isn’t anywhere near as funny as it used to be, it remains a staple of American culture. In sum, regardless of how any particular individual feels about SNL, or what we could measure beyond ratings, SNL remains very much a valued part of our culture – at least enough that it justifies its existence commercially. It is a successful business, so far as I can tell, and it apparently drew solid enough ratings to be able to garner advertising revenue sufficient to pay for itself – as well as launching an unprecedented array of cultural icons.
SNL is an example of a larger cultural phenomenon: the sketch comedy show. That idea had its origins long before SNL – and even television – going back to radio, and even Vaudeville before that. You could continue to broaden your scope in looking at SNL’s cultural origins to examine the cultural value placed on comedy and satire down through the ages. These concepts themselves are ancient ideas, passed down to us from long-deceased progenitors, but in other countries they don’t manifest in nearly the same way, or at all, in some cases. Chevy Chase, Dana Carvey, Darell Hammond, and Will Ferrell all made their bones mocking Presidents; there is no Chinese equivalent.
There are other interesting cultural aspects to SNL. In Living Colour was proof that the sketch comedy idea was culturally resonant for both blacks and whites, not that this should have been – or should be – a surprise. It’s just that in its earliest days, television catered to the audience that watched it – and that likely meant the audience that could afford to watch it – as in, those who could afford a television. Blacks, who were poorer in larger percentages than poor whites, probably didn’t own televisions in significant enough numbers for it to be resonant and advertisers weren’t trying to attract black consumers. Advertisers buy commercial time for particular audiences – the ones they think can be convinced to buy their products, which means they need people with disposable income who can (a) afford a television, and (b) afford the products they’re pitching. Hence the early “whitewashing” of television and the birth of “soap operas.”
I note these things without any judgment, but rather as historical incidences in evaluating and understanding culture as broadly as possible, particularly here in the United States.
Unlike the vast majority of the world, our Country has had, at the heart of its experiment, an allowance for different cultures to arise and flourish, without any need for government approval. The First Amendment is unlike almost any other founding government charter or constitution, anywhere else in the world. Even in England and on the Continent, from whence the Enlightenment ideas arose, there is not the kind of liberty of expression that exists here in the United States. Because of that simple fact, we enjoy a proliferation of different sub-cultures here within our own borders.
While my socialist friends always point to the Scandinavian countries as some kind of possible proof of “successful socialism,” I (first) ignore the temptation to point out that this is complete bullshit, but then, instead, simply accept the premise and then ask them what impact they think the near uniformity of the people there has on their claim? That is, do they believe the vastly different cultures, races, and languages that we have here render the claim by analogy perhaps ill-considered at all? I usually get a blank stare – or a handwaving gesture, as if I don’t know what I’m talking about and I’m making excuses in order not to concede the point. Iceland, as just one example, is a candidate for most homogeneous country on the planet. North Korea might possibly “win” out, depending upon what metrics one uses – ethnicity, language, religion, law, and politics (including issues of immigration), just to consider a few ways in which culture can be “fractured” or, on the flip side of the coin, deemed “homogeneous.” Most of the Scandinavian countries rank high in the homogeneity in these metrics: Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark are all places where there isn’t anything even remotely approaching the kind of free-market culturalism that exists here in the United States. And while this might seem to be a relatively trivial matter, it isn’t. Socialism is tribalism; that is the nature of the philosophy. It depends – and needs – a high-degree of uniformity that can exist only in very culturally uniform societies to work at all. (I’ll come back to the reasons why later on, but for now we can move past it).
These ideas about culture first began percolating to me when I joined one of the most well-preserved subcultures in the United States, existing before the birth of the Country itself: the United States Marine Corps (oo-fuckin’-rah!). The Marine Corps began in a tavern in Philadelphia in 1775. That EVERY SINGLE MARINE can tell you this two-hundred-forty years later should begin to paint a picture about the Marine Corps’ culture and its institutional preservation of it. History is the name we give to the transmission of culture through time. One of my favorite anecdotes about this comes from the Marine Officer’s Guide, a staple book that most Marine Officers buy as new Lieutenants – or even before – and read, cover-to-cover. It may be required reading at The Basic School, but I don’t remember for certain. As if to further illustrate my claim about the Marine Corps, I should point out that The Basic School (or TBS, as it is known) is the place where the Marine Corps sends every single officer, regardless of what Military Occupational Specialty they might eventually have, be it Supply Officer or Tanker or Pilot; everyone goes, male and female alike. It’s 26 weeks of basic infantry officer training, plus all of the indoctrination/brainwashing/propagandizing* that would make a Soviet TASS editor proud. There is an entire block of instruction called “Customs and Traditions” woven throughout those 6+ months.
*I joke, but look at something like this if you think the people who run the Marine Corps haven’t given some thought as to how to create and preserve its unique culture.
A brilliant look at this as a larger human phenomenon was done by PBS about thirty years ago, in a series called, simply, “WAR.” It was a television series narrated by Gwynne Dyer and had different sub-chaptered examinations – individual shows – dedicated to the overall discussion of the subject. The one I found most compelling was the piece entitled “Anybody’s Son Will Do” (and by the almighty miracle that is the Youtubez and the InterWebz, I can link right to it; never ceases to amaze me.) In the documentary, the PBS cameras follow a platoon of young high school kids who have just joined up and shipped off to Marine Corps boot camp. It starts with the camera right on the bus (about 1:40 into the clip linked above) and it follows these recruits from their arrival on Parris Island’s infamous yellow footprints all the way through their graduation from Marine Corps’ Recruit Training. Host Dyer’s commentary on the footage throughout is nothing less than brilliant in its examination of the nature of war, but particularly what it means about cultural transmission. At about one minute in, Dyer notes the following, as he stands near the changing of the guard at Lenin’s Tomb:
… But there are, on average, about twenty wars going on in the world at any given time, and they are all waged by men who learned to be soldiers away from the battlefield. All soldiers belong to the same profession and it makes them different from everybody else. They have to be different for their job is ultimately about killing and dying…And that doesn’t come natural to any human being. Yet all soldiers are born civilians. The method for turning young men into soldiers – people who kill other people – is basic training. It’s essentially the same all over the world and it always has been – because young men everywhere are pretty much alike. It doesn’t really matter where you’re coming from or what you’ve been doing before.
What Dyer is talking about is most kindly called acculturation. With immigrant populations we use the term assimilation – and given all of the discussion about immigration in the news lately, you’ve likely heard some downright idiocy on the topic. If you care a little more deeply about the issue, you might even have read something not completely useless on the subject. The issues are not insignificant and they call come back to this issue of culture – and its transmission. The internet managed to deliver this link, which appears to be almost a transcript of the piece of video I’ve linked above, but I believe it’s from a book. It might seem to some to be anti-war or denigrate the military – indeed, some of that sentiment comes through in the selection of value-laden words by Dyer – but his larger points about culture and its transmission are spot-on.
In peacetime, and in a free society like the United States and most western nations, the theory goes that the transmission of culture happens through mass media. Up until recently, some people questioned the vigor of the First Amendment and its underlying tenets from the Lockean notion of the “marketplace of ideas,” generally the same people who don’t believe in free markets. After all, the claim went, only the rich and powerful have access to a pulpit. Therefore, the Progressive screed continues, only the white, male, hegemony controls what the masses hear and they use it to perpetuate existing power structures. If you think I’m making this up, try reading this. The phrase “check your privilege” is now considered de riguer at what now passes for undergraduate universities, in classes that are now categorized as education, when they look – for all intents and purposes – like Marxist indoctrination, dressed up as part of the curriculum for most liberal arts degrees. The irony is amazing.
The Lockean notion of the “marketplace of ideas” is a concept that recognized that if one were literate, the ability to “publish” one’s ideas- in the sense of “make available to the public “- rested almost solely on the ability to read and write. Paper and pen or pencil were not economically so expensive that they were a barrier to anyone writing. (In another one of his little pearls of wisdom, my dear friend and mentor Greg Glassman pointed this out to me one day, in his inimitable style: “No one can complain that they couldn’t write the great American novel or paint their masterpiece because of barriers to entry. It’s not the cost of brushes and a paint set that prohibits it, nor is it the cost of a pen and paper that’s holding one back from sharing his amazingly brilliant piece of fiction. Bullshit. If you haven’t written it it’s because you fucking can’t, not because it’s too expensive to do it. The same is now largely true with photographs because of the improvements in technology.”) Of course, the marketplace of ideas doesn’t mean anyone is obligated to accept your bullshit, just as no one is obligated to give one whit of consideration to my ramblings. The internet, however, has rendered nugatory the claim that only the powerful have a voice. Everyone and anyone can publish now and it can be found by search engines for anyone who wants to look for it or a related topic. People can even increase their audience for pennies using a variety of SEO techniques. In short, the claim that the marketplace of ideas doesn’t exist – if it ever had any validity – has been OBT (overcome by technology).
Notwithstanding this freedom, it turns out the marketplace of ideas can be short-circuited. Our Founding Fathers probably hadn’t thought about it at the time, but when the Nation moved to mandatory public education – followed by the insistence in that same school system that further college education is an absolute necessity – we now have a fifteen-year long, only-mildly-interrupted-by-the-summer, acculturation process, being run by school boards, teachers’ unions, and both state and federal guidelines. I doubt that very many parents have any involvement at all in the selection of their kids educational content. This is not a good thing.
This fault line was just exposed and quickly went viral when Mike Rowe, popular television figure with a massive following on Facebook, responded to a tweet by Bernie Sanders. Sanders – an avowed and open “democratic socialist” (which is really a pretty funny term when you get right down to it) – of course believes that more college is the answer. So much so that he openly campaigned on the “free shit” platform: namely, free college. Rowe responded as noted above.
Great explanations. I see my own kids, growing up in a different world than the one I learned from and with a different cultural footing. My daughter is so much like her mother, a mother she scarcely knew, that its uncanny. Nature vs nurture? While my early life was sheltered racially I had to learn things along the way.
My son and I watched the early SNL together and then took a respite (it ain’t good anymore with out…) and I’m guessing the later generations say the same thing.
Thanks, OZY, very interesting.
My pleasure, Fourscore. This is really the setup for the second half, which I think is already on the calendar for next week.
Ask an average four year old child why it’s wrong to lie – it’s not though….
*keeps reading
“If a man loses anything and goes back and looks carefully for it, he will find it.” Sitting Bull
That’s where I am now but I’m not finding those things I’ve lost
Maybe you haven’t really lost those things, Fourscore. Maybe just looking in the wrong places.
You always find a thing in the last place you look. 😉
“In Living Colour was proof that the sketch comedy idea was culturally resonant for both blacks and whites,”
How soon we forget Flip Wilson.
Gotta disagree with you. TV comedy had a black guy or two for many years, but let’s try to remember that The Jeffersons was groundbreaking. There wasn’t something that catered to and was centered around the black cultural experience like “In Living Colour.” At least I can’t think of anything. There were great black comedians, of course (a separate subject of another post I’m working on) but there wasn’t the wherewithal in TV-land to make that happen. Sanford and Son was also considered “edgy” in its day, too, for the same reasons.
The 90s was a treasure trove of TV diversity.
TV racial* diversity
What about diversity of opinion.
/remembers far too many eco-message and ‘very special’ episodes…
I was in my 20s in the 90s, working and going to school, so I didn’t see a bunch of that stuff.
Also, the 90s was a decade full of kick-ass heroines without the SJW bullshit. See: Buffy and Witchblade and Aeon Flux.
I think most guys here would rather see Xena. 😉
It happened way earlier in music. Rumor has it that Sly took a lot of shit from the Black Panthers for having white dudes in the band.
I have a hypothesis as to why that is, but it’s too long to articulate in a comment and it would give away too much of something else I’m writing on a related subject. So I’ll just say I agree with you.
…and he was clean and articulate… before it was exceptible/necessary/politically operative?
He was funny, some days I youtube Geraldine and my day gets better.
Swedes tend to trust one another. Marines generally trust one another and in a good unit unreservedly trust each other with their lives. Americans do not trust each other. Rural whites, urban Jews, suburban whites. inner city blacks, newly arrived Latinos – none of them trust each other. AND politicians exploit the distrust for votes while expanding those divides.
Swedes tend to trust one another. – do they though in 2020?
Maybe the ones that look Scandinavian?
I doubt “Swedes” in Malmo do, but actual Swedes, sure.
Do Romanians trust each other? Other than, you know… those folks.
Hell no
It is definitely getting worse. The immigration population s they let in prior to 2000 was corralled into suburbs / ghettos that were decidedly un-Swedish in culture, with plenty of Turkish and Arab news , a ton of satellite dishes, and women covered up.
The university put its European foreign students in the university apartments in with the Swedes. I was put in with other nations that have a bachelor’s/master’s degree structure, so China, Middle East, the Americas (mostly south); this motley “brown” crew was sent to the aforementioned ghettos or cultural pockets.
I took matters into my own hands (long story, and an eye opener as to how racist Swedes are) and got my own place.
BTW: Swedish Government owns all rental housing. Some people wait their whole lives to get a lease; most just sub let or sub sub let. Where ethnic groups congregate in Sweden is not independent of government.
Sweden is on a collision course with its new wave not-so-tolerant immigrants.
As someone who works in international education, that is horrific.
I think that’s too broad a statement; Trust isn’t a binary. Even racists will still buy goods and services from (((others))) and “trust” that the goods haven’t been sabotaged (for example). People of varied races in this country still manage to do a whole LOT of commerce together.
And then look at sports. Eggles fans – black or white, will hug and cheer and scream together… and identify themselves by their hatred of Redskins fans, no matter their color. Ditto for Flyers-Pens fans, Yankees and Sox, Cubs and White Sox, etc.
Trust is a multi-faceted crystal, and very dependent on context.
I thought they identified themselves by their hatred of Santa Claus.
And love of battery-chucking.
Eggles
Iggles.
Not an Iggles fan, but I did attend a game once.
Sure – Every empire has ended up “multicultural” and it works just fine in good times. When things go bad, those become fault lines where things fracture.
“Letting the Goths in could only be to our advantage!”
CPRM – That really is a good lead-in to the next part of this (already written and queued up for next week: same bat time, same bat channel!). It’s the argument about assimilation/acculturation.
I’m not a Rome history nerd, but I believe Rome was successful – for a time, at least – at conquering and/or assimilating disparate groups. At some point, it all fell apart. I probably need to finally work my way through Gibbons and see what evidence I can find on that subject there.
I think the short story is, Rome ran out of money. They kept the people in Rome fat and happy, they paid anyone who came in to stay on the boarders and fight other people. The Goths sacked Rome because they got stiffed on their mercenary pay.
That was their stupid period – they ran out of Romans, leaders, and people who gave a crap first – then they ran out of money. Political maneuvering became more important than anything else (sound familiar?). A political faction killed their last decent general on the eve of the Goth invasion. Nobody cared all that much when the Goths took over.
Compare and contrast to the sack of Rome by the Gauls in 390 BC. The Romans lost the city for a while but never gave up.
i don’t think the average pleb was either fa or happy.
Toward the end, Rome kept everyone happy with free or cheap “bread and circuses” (entertainment).
Now our emperors are out of bread and have taken away our circuses. Not sure what is next.
Rome was successful – for a time, at least – at conquering and/or assimilating disparate groups. – yes but to what end?
That’s a very good question, Pie. Maybe the most crucial one for the long-term survival of any empire. To what end?
Establishing viniculture in Dacia
viniculture in Dacia quite preceded Romans
When they were on the ball, they would let in groups of Goths and Germans but split them into smaller groups and spread them around the Empire. Obviously for the purposes of assimilation and losing their tribal loyalties in a generation. When they screwed up, they would allow big groups across the frontier and let them stay together – which always caused problems.
After all, the claim went, only the rich and powerful have access to a pulpit. – and the hot and the athletic. Don’t forget those.
But, to be fair, it is a case no one can attack things lile patriarchy neoliberalism or trickle down economics in America without severe personal and professional damage
And of course, the pulpit-makers.
I note these things without any judgment, but rather as historical incidences in evaluating and understanding culture as broadly as possible, particularly here in the United States.
This (to me) completely self-evident and inoffensive statement would probably result in a firestorm of controversy on any college campus in America.
I had that thought, which is kinda why I wrote it, then took it out, then put it back in.
The fucking Progs get in your head, even when they’re not around.
Seth Godin refers to culture as “People like us, do things like this.” I always thought that was a helpful way to look at it.
Yes, is that in “Tribes?” I’ve only skimmed that quite a while ago because of the mention of CrossFit in it. Someone pointed it in my direction because of that reference and I occasionally stumble into some of stuff.
I really like his podcast. He says it a lot there.
Oh, and great article Ozy. It’s nice to read and think about things like this, without someone getting crazy with the politics.
I remember that Dyer bit – and I seem to recall the powers that be insisted it be labeled propaganda, coming from a subversive foreign (Canucki) source!
“Anybody’s Son Will Do” is absolutely genius. It’s brilliant on so many levels, but especially chilling is the part where they interview the drill instructors toward the end of boot camp and one of them (with a thick southern drawl) says: “If you give me a recruit in third phase and I tell him to jump off the third deck of the building… he gonna jump off the third deck.” Or something like that (I’m going from memory). It’s chilling because of its accuracy. I don’t think any organization – short of occasional small religious cults – comes close to doing what the Marine Corps does. And I’m not making any judgment about that at all – it can be a tool for good or evil – but the methodology is undeniably sound.
Yes! In a moment of candor at the end of second phase, one of our DI’s told us we were crazy and terrifying. Then he ordered the whole platoon to get into the janitor’s closet and we did.
I’m curious if you’ve seen Jack Webb’s The D.I.. It’s got the distinctive Jack Webb style that you can see from the 60s Dragnet all over it.
Was your sandgnat a male or a female sandgnat, recruit?
Some Sundays in Boot Camp, they would wheel in a TV for us to watch – it was always that fucking show. The damn thing in the world any of us wanted to watch.
I’ve seen some of it, but Jack Webb wasn’t Lee Ermey. For my generation, Webb is an actor doing a decent impression; Ermey was a DI that Kubrick let do what he does.
In fairness, Webb was acting.
“If you give me a recruit in third phase and I tell him to jump off the third deck of the building… he gonna jump off the third deck.”
This reminds me of a joke one of my uncles told me. He was in the Navy during Vietnam. He never talked about his time in Vietnam except about one thing he hinted at, but some family members said he spent some time with the Brown Water navy during Vietnam. He died too young (maybe ten years ago now of a heart attack) so I can’t ask him. I’m not sure he would have told me anyways given his reluctance to talk about Vietnam.
Anyways, the joke was, and I hope I remember the ranks correctly:
An Army sergeant, a Navy petty officer, and an Air Force staff sergeant are walking along debating which service has more balls.
The Air Force staff sergeant decides that he’s going to show the other two which branch has more balls. So he calls over an airman, and orders the airman up to the first story window of a nearby building. When the airman gets to the window, the staff sergeant says jump. The airman jumps, lands, and breaks one leg. The Air Force staff sergeant says, “See? Doesn’t that take balls?”
The Army sergeant calls a private over. “Go up to the second floor window on that building!” The private goes up to the second floor window. “Now JUMP!” The private jumps, lands, and breaks both legs. “See, ” yelled the Army sergeant, “That takes more balls!”
The Navy petty officer says, “That’s nothing. Watch this.” The petty officer orders a seaman to go up to the fourth floor window. The seaman goes up into the building to the fourth floor window. The petty officer yells, “NOW JUMP!” The seaman flips the petty officer off, and says, “FUCK YOU! NO FUCKING WAY!” The petty officer says to his Army and Air Force counterpart, “See? That takes the most balls.”
Solid. 7/10
“In peacetime, and in a free society like the United States and most western nations, the theory goes that the transmission of culture happens through mass media.”
It does, but most cultural transmission doesn’t happen through mass media. A good example is most material culture is transmitted by its utility.
Given culture permeates practically everything it is transmited in many ways
I agree, which is why I mention public education. I’m not saying mass media doesn’t have an effect either. Richard Smith calls mass media “the stereopticon” in his book “Ideas Have Consequences,” which is great on this subject, too. Music is a big part of culture, as is art, but you can devolve into a chicken and egg argument pretty quickly. I think that misses the point. I see all of that as ongoing, organic, evolutionary processes.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Your authorial voice is riveting.
Thank you, Moj. That’s very kind of you.
That documentary – might be the most accurate one I’ve seen at the psychological level. I had no idea how deep that conditioning went until a couple of years later when I’m panicking on a battlefield and my Drill Instructor started yelling at me in my head. Everything was fine after that.
Yep. The Marines turn ordinary human beings into steadfast killers with about a 99% confidence rate. They sure as fuck know what they are doing.
I had a knee-buckling fear of heights growing up; anyone who knew me from childhood could attest to it. It was bad – and I mean, really, really bad. But I also wanted to fly.
By the time I was commissioned, the Marine Corps had taught me how to overcome that fear (and a lot of others) and I became a helo pilot.
Overcoming fear is at the heart of what they do and they do it extraordinarily well.
When they are done, your greatest fears are letting down other Marines and not living up to the standards. Pain, injury, and death take a backseat.
Ayup.
So do I take it that USMC never bought into the SLA Marshall ‘analysis’ of infantry combat performance? If true, how is that was never raised as a counter-factual?
Context please?
The report that 75% of Army troops in WWII never fired a weapon?
I’m going to go with Drake and say Marshall didn’t look at Marines.
I’m being kinda funny, but I believe I had that same thought when I read Grossman’s “On Killing.” I think Grossman is likely (somewhat) correct, but the Army trains a mass of conscripted humanity to a minimum standard; Marines are volunteers. (Not anymore, but the difference in numbers matters).
Dyer even mentions in the opening to the piece I reference that the Marines might be an “extreme” example of the point he’s trying to make.
75% never fired at the enemy for the purpose of killing
I might accept that on the technicality. I remember seeing an Army Vet who was an infantry replacement in France. When they got into a fight, the Sergeant told him to just keep shooting at bunch of trees where they thought the Germans were. Meanwhile, the guys who knew what they were doing worked themselves closer for the actual kills. Fire and maneuver.
Wow! Did you read down to the “Legacy” section?
“Professor Roger J. Spiller (Deputy Director of the Combat Studies Institute, US Army Command and General Staff College) argues in his 1988 article, “S. L. A. Marshall and the Ratio of Fire” (RUSI Journal, Winter 1988, pages 63–71), that Marshall had not actually conducted the research upon which he based his ratio-of-fire theory. “The ‘systematic collection of data’ appears to have been an invention.”
Yep. SLAM gets repeated but his work after closer inspection appears to be a load of crap.
I’ve seen some of that controversy, but I haven’t dug in on the Marshall criticisms, though I respect enough of the contra folks to think there’s something to the criticisms. This might be another example of binary thinking hurting both sides. I’ve no doubt there were people in the Civil War who didn’t fire or fired up in the air, but that may be a unique case, given that it was in some cases cousins fighting each other. OTOH, I know that where tribal animosities predominate, you easily get genocide and pillaging by everyone involved.
Screw Gynne Dyer in the ear – he thinks there is no difference between someone who stood in the phalanx of the Greeks and some Russian conscript…he is pissant generalizing fool who has no conception of the difference in what makes someone join, fight or not.
I’m guessing that watching re-runs of “Gomer Pyle USMC” paint a distorted view of Marine culture? “Sgt. Bilko,” however, always got a “we had a sarge like that in our unit” from my WWII G.I. father.
Generation Kill is the accurate one.
I had not really articulated this in my head, but every so often, in meatspace I will say something which would be completely unremarkable in our little “island of broken toys” subculture and people look at me as if I have two heads.
It’s good to have a shared conceptual framework. If that’s not culture, what is?
That’s a great shorthand for culture, Brooksy. “A shared conceptual framework” – thank you.
It’s one thing to make a Great American Masterpiece, pimping it out so people actually see it is another; and sometimes the people that can do one can’t do the other. When one can do both, it succeeds; when two that can do the other collaborate, it succeeds. Mostly it just gathers dust.
Maybe everywhere there are only two kinds of people: authoritarians and freedom lovers.
I think back to my great grandfathers coming to this country and how different the cultures from where they came were. They thrived here and absolutely became immersed in a culture of freedom which, naturally leads to prosperity. And we’re managing to fuck that all up.
Great stuff as always, Ozy. Thanks for making me think. On a Friday.
Bastard.
You can give me a noogie for it at the Honey Harvest. 😉
Maybe everywhere there are only two kinds of people: authoritarians and freedom lovers. – binarism is passe, spectrums are all the rage with the kids these days
Human behavior has a deeply ingrained authoritarian instinct – both for those that lead and those that follow.
Our larger culture of freedom (let alone this little subculture dedicated to it) is always up against that prevalent tide.
“Hey Tundra! Why aren’t you involved with the LP of MN?”
*headdesk*
Whoops.
So, he’s retiring from congress then.
*yawns*
He lost the plot.
All right. I guess I have to inquire.
Other than ‘doesn’t like Trump’, what is Amash’s big sin? I wouldn’t vote for him because I’m a McAfee guy, but what is so objectionable in Amash’s platform that causes such derision?
I asked the same. Apparently he sided with the security apparatus and deep state in the Russia investigation.
Again, that is a very Trumpian lens in which to view things. The question remains, other than ‘doesn’t like Trump’, how is Amash not libertarian presidential timber?
that is a very Trumpian lens – no its not libtard
SHUT THE FUCK UP, GLIBTARD
My thought would be he is willing to pitch his liberarian ideals against the bad orange man.
But that just goes back to the libertarin purity test that all politicians fail.
Honestly, it was how oddly deranged he bacame and so quickly that turned him off for me.
Is Amash more deranged than Trump?
No, but that isn’t the choice is it?
I don’t think so, but it is hard to tell sometimes around here.
Hmm, I actually think that institutional level distrust of the deep state vs. disliking the fact that it went after Trump but otherwise worshiping it is at the core of the divide between libertarians and conservatives. Amash allowed his hatred for Trump to maneuver him into a position where he supported the deep state in its attempt to unseat Trump. You can dismiss that with “other than ‘doesn’t like Trump’, how is Amash not libertarian presidential timber?” But to my ear that is analogous to “Other than raping, killing and eating boys how is Jeffery Dahmer not a good person?”
Perhaps I am biased in this since I see the attempt by the bureaucracy to destroy Trump as a watershed moment in our slide into technocratic fascism, but that is a pretty big flaw for me to overlook.
I, too, see the Russiagate fiasco as a watershed moment. The more that trickles out, the more it confirms the worst fears of people who have been denigrated as “conspiracy theorists” by the media – and others who buy into that narrative. The DNC has long been co-opted by the Clintons. They used the national security apparatus to go after an opposing political candidate. Whatever you think of Trump, I can’t believe anyone here can’t see the implications of that going unchallenged. Any politician or public figure, including Amash, Rand Paul, Gandhi, or Mother Theresa, as far as I’m concerned, who supports that is no friend of Liberty for us, the little people.
But there were people who supported Nixon despite the break-in, too. There are some people for whom Trump is simply “the worst” and they’ll look the other way on what was done to him because he’s just too icky to contemplate as President, notwithstanding the shitstains we’ve had before him. Amash appears to be one of those guys, notwithstanding his record (and I don’t know it well enough to argue about it, so I’ll presume he’s been otherwise good on liberty).
1. McAfee has dropped out of the race.
2. Hornburger is also anti-Trump, but he does it from a libertarian principled base. And that is the problem with Amash — there are plenty of reasons for being anti-Trump, but his haven’t been.
And I notice you asked “platform”. I have no idea on it, I haven’t read his platform, I have just judged his actions. 4 years ago I would have happily voted for Amash. Probably 2 years ago even. Now, not so much.
Still writing-in McAfee and Joseph Joestar for President and VP.
This is what I’m asking. Please expand.
McAfee – the one true libertarian
Joseph Joestar – gay
This is what I’m asking. Please expand. – i got link when I asked but it was not a link you could click but one you had to build and I could not be arsed.
I was a fan of Amash generally, as well, but I found his actions during the impeachment to be… inexplicable. Anyone who can’t see that for what it was is missing something essential, IMO. I don’t know how that will affect my vote this upcoming election.
Like others have said re: Amash and his dalliances with the deep state are off putting, but to be real honest, i don’t want him to be the LP candidate, because i want Hornberger. This is a case of Meh and Better. I’ll take better over meh washed up GOP guy.
Like ‘racist’ the term ‘deep state’ has been debased through careless use long ago. I do not truck with ‘deep state’ equals ‘disagrees with Trump’. It is a matter of record that Amash has consistently proposed legislation and used his bully pulpit to advocate for ending the PATRIOT Act’s abuses and ending the surveillance state. That seems to be a more existential threat to the deep state than being willing to bend over for Trump when he wants to ram the CARES Act through Congress.
First of all Deep State is more than just the Patriot Act. I tried to choose my words carefully. It was his uncritical acceptance of the Russiagate narrative that put me off. That being said, i think i was being more than fair in saying that Amash was the “meh” vs Hornbergers “Better”. At this point the race is between who gets the LP nom, and he isn’t my choice. I understand why he is appealing to many in the party, but not to me. If he gets the Nom, i’ll agree that he is leagues better than Trump or Biden or whomever the Greens put forward.
Once again, Leon and I are the same person.
uncritical acceptance of the Russiagate – was it that or was it just politics?
It was a concrete example. As I’ve said to RC Dean on a few occasions, the concept of a secret cabal of civil servants fits too well into the populist ideology of “common people” vs. “elites” for me not to be skeptical of 95% of it. Of course there is collusion and cronyism in government – one need not develop a conspiracy theory to explain human nature. When someone tells me that Amash is excoriable because he too close to the ‘deep state’, it is like telling me that Amash is a garbage person because he is mean to pegasi and unicorns. I just can’t take it seriously.
That is a fair statement, but I’m more scratching my head at the subtext that Amash can’t be libertarian because he doesn’t like Trump. That’s such a bizarre claim to me. Particularly since Thomas Massie is now experiencing his time in the stocks.
They’re not so secret; watch Yes Minister or any president trying to advance his own foreign policy initiatives over an unwilling State Department.
I see. I wouldn’t say he’s not libertarian, there are plenty of libertarians whom have had very public disagreements with Trump to some level or another (Andrew Naplolitano for example, Massie is another). My opposition to Amash entering the race is purely party politics, of “I like this other guy more”. When I said “dalliances with the Deep State” i meant to mean that in a way where i wasn’t accusing him of being “Pro entrenched bureaucracy” but that he let his dislike of trump blind him on russiagate.
So, again, if a bureaucrat doesn’t immediately and uncritically implement the directives of “the son-of-a-bitch, who just happens to be our son-of-a-bitch of the moment,” that makes him or her suspect, untrustworthy, and potentially treasonous? Are you saying that Kim Davis has been the Grand Wizard of the
DeepKaren State all this time?I remember some here pissing on Judge Naps too. Massie hit too close to home for him to become persona non grata…yet. If need be, a few more Tucker hatchet-jobs and frog memes will do the trick if he steps out of line again.
Perhaps. But you can’t accuse him of not being one of the few people to have actually read the M report. If we grant him good faith, then we can discount the possibility that he read the report and came to his conclusion through reasoning. That reasoning may have been flawed, but that’s not just deciding Trump obstructed justice because he doesn’t like him.
Fundamentally then we are getting to the point that i disagree with his assessment. Granting him the good faith would still result in that we disagree with either the conclusion he came up with.
His conclusion requires a large leap of “well the FBI was just trying to do right”. I’ll admit that i could have mixed things up in the tumult of bad memories, but my recollection was that he was pretty on board with the narrative of Russia collusion prior to the release of the Mueller report, and so going with the obstruction of justice angle seemed to be him not willing to take the FBI to task for what they did. Which was string everyone in the country along on stuff they knew was not true. And we know that is the case because we have the IG report now.
The conflict gets portrayed as common vs. elite by both sides. I am not a populist by any stretch of the imagination, and am far from hostile to the concept of an elite, but the bureaucracy/technocracy/elite or whatever you want to call it are the most important current threat to liberty in this country.
At other times that has not been the case. William Jennings Bryan was a very real danger at one point, but today it is the Wilsonians that are taking us to hell.
And yet it was the same surveillance state that came up with the trumped-up charges against Flynn that set the whole investigation in motion which resulted in the impeachment, which Amash supported because Orangemanbad.
This entire thread is why I’m not voting.
Trump has pissed away any goodwill over the past couple months. The Democrat candidate, Biden or otherwise , is a non-starter. Amash’s actions during the impeachment caught my attention in a bad way.
Do I vote for a least bad candidate with exactly zero chance of winning? Do I hold my nose and vote for the slightly-less-bad-than-the-alternative incumbent? Do I find some other way to lodge a protest vote? Or do I just stay home and enjoy the chaos?
I choose the last option.
^ This. I lean agorist on voting:
https://www.glibertarians.com/2018/09/bob-boberson-ruminates-on-voting/
In principle I’m a Hornberger man. I like his platform and as longs as I’m voting I’d rather vote for someone I am fairly confident won’t try t enslave me. That being said I think Spooners logic on voting is rock solid.
Amash is a participant in the coup d’état to overthrow the democratically elected US government. His statements after the Trump-Putin summit in 2018 and after the Mueller report was released prove this. The FBI/CIA/NSA/etc starting from 2015 or 2016 fabricated the Russia collusion hoax. If Amash didn’t figure it out by 2019, he’s either an imbecile or the deep state fully controls him. Anything that he proposes in terms of the surveillance reform is either fine with the intelligence community or has zero chance of being passed. Otherwise his handlers wouldn’t have let him propose it.
Wow.
That kind of blew up.
For me, it’s simple. He’s no libertarian.
He’s good for a republican, but I don’t know what he brings to this particular race. He flaked out and went independent a year ago. Why the fuck not join up then.
Nah, the writing was on the wall for him in the House.
I’d rather develop the brand with someone who can sell the concept of tearing down the State, not gently massaging it.
As I said the other day, there is something close to a zero chance of a victory, but using the platform to stake a claim is a good thing.
I don’t claim any libertatian purity so:
It looked to me like Amash took the turn a couple of years ago when Trump went into trade-war mode with China. And it sure looked self-serving as it affected his family business.
When push came to shove – he voted to impeach a President on what were obviously false and ridiculous charges. Those charges originated from corrupt bureaucrats who should be the mortal enemy of anyone with the slightest libertarian leanings.
I think the guy is completely unprincipled, willing to be a stooge of the left, and is now looking for a second career collecting Koch donations. He’s the Nick Gillespie of libertarian candidates.
Way better than those ‘Essential Workers’ tik-toks.
Apropos of nothing: In case you need to chill.
Enjoyed the article. Looking forward to Part 2.
Thankee, DGWF. This was mostly just to have a common language for the second part, which is more the substance of my argument.
So the next article will explain how the monkeysphere both drives and limits cultural assimilation right?
*throws banana at kinnath*
Uhhhh…is the monkeysphere the internet? And now I have to go look at what I wrote because I can’t remember. Hold on a second.
https://www.cracked.com/article_14990_what-monkeysphere.html
That’s fucking great. He’s only mostly right, but it’s pretty good. He misses/ignores the way we can partition ourselves across so many different groups and empathize with people in those groups that are way beyond 150. He’s taken one aspect of something science-y and tried to use it to explain… everything. The exact thing he says not to do at the end, which I couldn’t tell if he was being intentionally ironic or not.
As I noted above, those of us who are sports fans will empathize with our fellow tribesmen – who number in the millions in some cases – as against others who number in the millions. And we do that across a slew of activities – from country music v. classical music lovers to Coke vs. Pepsi drinkers to people of the same age or from the same area of different ages and on and on infinitum. He ignores the millions of ways in which we selectively empathize and demonize that makes that 150 meaningless.
He’s taken one aspect of something science-y and tried to use it to explain… everything.
This was from 2007, when Cracked delivered snark to our desktops, not social justice.
So, short answer, No. The next one doesn’t do that.
Love me some Ozy articles. I look forward to them.
As RC recently pointed out to me the interplay between culture and economy is a bottomless pit. Never the less I intend to take a dive myself.
Very well put, Ozy. Will be looking for part two.
Might be time for me to thumb through “the Clash of Civilizations” again.
OT: Why is always the least technical people who complain the loudest and most incoherently?
Because more technical people have a better sense of the scope and difficulty?
Because they hate what they fear, and they fear that which they don’t understand.
Or they are just jerks.
In this case, I think it’s a little from column A, and a lot from column B.
even Vaudeville before that
Alice Cooper has a Vaudeville feel to his shows. I saw him perform live in Boston a few years ago. Yep. Some Vaudeville elements.
The First Amendment is unlike almost any other founding government charter or constitution, anywhere else in the world.
It’s a shame the First Amendment is void where prohibited by law.
Okay, I had a pretty good laugh at that last line. I may use that at some point in the future, but I promise to give you credit.
I can’t take credit for it. A long time ago in a LP flyer or Liberty magazine, I saw an advertisement for t-shirts with a picture of the Bill of Rights with a “VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW” stamp on top.
Alice Cooper is cabaret.
The First Amendment is unlike almost any other founding government charter or constitution, anywhere else in the world. – I think it is worth repeating the Romanian constitution basically says free speech unless it is against public mores which is helpfully undefined.
Ah don’t fret Pie….thats what ours says to according to our government actions over the past month or so…
OT: Why is always the least technical people who complain the loudest and most incoherently?
Where’s R C when you need him?
Something something the less you know…
because they can’t convert 5°C of super-heat to °F ?
Great article.
As a retired Marine, the Corps really is its own universe. I work with a lot of retired Navy people now and it is not the same at all.
I don’t miss being active duty any more on a big picture scale, but I miss something about being that close with a group of irreverent assholes. Our culture says you have to push through whatever it is and don’t be a wuss. (Part of the reason my ankle needed reconstructive surgery and my knees sound like popcorn)
In my mind the worst thing you could be was “that guy”.
When I got OC’d(peere sprayed) for training I had 2 thoughts:
They must have sprayed me with the wrong stuff. My God that hurts
Oh no, I better get going, otherwise I’ll be “That guy”.
If it weren’t for that type of indoctrination, I don’t know that I would have completed the course.
Pepper, not peere sprayed.
How did I miss that? I read it three times before I posted.
I believe you all make a strong exception for the “doc”.
I’ve worked with good number of former Marines and enjoyed all their company. I’m far from Corp material, but I never had any issues working with them and on a personal level. And that includes to Annapolis grads. 😉
Yep. “Docs” are “our guys” because they go to combat with grunts and take ungodly risks. That’s why they get to wear the same uniform and even have their own insignia (now).
Docs are almost like one of us.
Take some Motrin, drink some water and change your socks.
I’m reminded of a reddit thread a while back. It was a question for people who had fought against Americans in combat, what did they fear most. I expected it to be smart bombs or some other high tech stuff. The most common answer? Marines. Nobody wants to fuck with US Marines. You guys have a reputation, apparently.
Human behavior has a deeply ingrained authoritarian instinct – both for those that lead and those that follow.
Just let it slip to some random pontificating bystander that the “experts” are full of shit, and see how they respond.
I had a physics prof that was nearing the end of his career. He was a smart guy and a good teacher.
His daily habit was to drive to work, and his wife would take the car home. Every day like clockwork, the car pulls up in front of the building; he gives his wife a peck on the cheek; opens the driver-side door; and heads into the building. His wife would exit the passenger side; get in the driver side; and then head home.
One day, the prof’s wife was ill. So he drove to work; stopped in front of the building; opened the driver side door; and headed into the building. It was about an hour before some student thought to tell the prof that his care was running in the street with the door open.
Brooksed this because I thought it wasn’t so much a reply as a new idea.
In 2016, I “joked”* that the reason I wouldn’t vote for Trump is because he destroyed the USFL. Now, it isn’t a joke. His behavior during the USFL ownership days is a perfect indicator of how he would be as President. He couldn’t stand being a “minor league” owner. Everything he does has to be the greatest, the best, the largest. And that is why he fails so often. He is a bully who wont listen to (nearly) anyone else. After Bassett dies, there was no one in the USFL to stop him, Bassett was the only owner who would stand up to him. The funny thing is he gets things right, but isn’t patient enough to stick with it and let it be really, really right. He needs instant gratification.
*It was maybe 20% serious.
North Korea might possibly “win” out, depending upon what metrics one uses
How many foreigners does Iceland kidnap?
No one knows. They get a look at the <ahref="https://livescandinavia.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/nordic-blonde-1020×560.jpg"<women and decide they’d rather stay.
Another thought provoking Article, Thanks Ozy!
Rome didn’t fall in a day, or even a Century,
In short, the claim that the marketplace of ideas doesn’t exist – if it ever had any validity – has been OBT (overcome by technology).
**Suppresses urge to go full Winston** …
**Suppresses urge to go full Winston**…
**ah fuck it**…
I was told that The Media™ is a homogeneous mass of anti-American commies that control all narratives and if they don’t report on something nobody will hear about it.
Needs moar about the past people making bad optimistic predictions about the present day.
7/10
I think you may be conflating two ideas: I said there was a marketplace of ideas. I’m not sure that “The Media” = The Marketplace of Ideas. Indeed, I think I’d argue the great problem with corporate media is the dearth of differing ideas. Blogs, the Net, etc. however, have certainly made the marketplace much bigger, but it doesn’t mean that there aren’t particular big players that predominate in the market. The Media has voices in ALL of those areas, as well: video, print, online, TV, etc. while an individual blogger is definitely wading upstream to go against any particular media narrative.
But again, individual voices can rise above the fray. And then we see what the media does in response.
You and Winston both might want to take a deep breath and recalibrate your schtick.
Listening to the Indiana governor’s address. In the next week restaurants and stores can open at 50% capacity. Churches services allowed with some precautions. Meetings of up to 25 people allowed. Essential travel restrictions lifted. Everything should be open on July 4. This is all subject to number of hospitalizations and ICU capacity. They’re coordinating with surrounding states so I’m surprised they’re moving this fast.
Our Stasi cuntface is apparently making it the goal to have zero cases. She wants to hire 600 people for contact tracing.
Where’s antifa at? They want to bash the fasc, there’s plenty of opportunity at the governor’s mansion and in state offices. Have at it boys.
They have hired 500 contact tracers. That seems to be popular.
I just read up on some things here in Indiana. 80% of our ventilators are still available. only 8% are being used for COVID patients. ICU’s have 40% availability and only 17% are COVID patients. There is no reason not to fully open the state up fully . . .right now.
Also, that statist asshole swore to uphold the Indiana constitution: “Article I: Section 2. Right to worship
Section 2. All people shall be secured in the natural right to worship ALMIGHTY GOD, according to the dictates of their own consciences.
(History: As Amended November 6, 1984).
Section 3. Freedom of religious opinions
Section 3. No law shall, in any case whatever, control the free exercise and enjoyment of religious opinions, or interfere with the rights of conscience”
https://www.wishtv.com/news/medical/isdh-more-than-800-new-covid-19-cases-55-additional-deaths/
He’s going to get me to vote democrat for the first time in MANY years. That power tripping asshole needs canned. And that me being nice.
Scary thing is, he’s been toward the lower end of the power tripping scale. Things are going to go a lot slower in the surrounding states.
Agreed, but still unacceptable to me.
“Our master only whips us with his cane 5 times, Master Smith on the next farm over would whip you 10.”
But I suppose I should take the attitude of many here and just give up and let it all descend to hell. No sense getting too angry when there is no hope for change.
There really isn’t much we can do. You know any Democrat running against him would be in favor of locking down harder, and so far the Republicans have resisted running the economy into a ditch like Illinois.
Latest statistical garbage is to take a multi year average of deaths and call anything above that uncounted Covid deaths. Year to year variability, growing and aging populations, how the fuck do they work?
Latest statistical garbage is to take a multi year average of deaths and call anything above that uncounted Covid deaths
Huh? Are they including the error bars on that? because statistically speaking we have a 50/50 shot of surpassing the average each year.
Doesn’t appear to be. I’ve seen similar for other jurisdictions.
https://www.wweek.com/news/2020/04/29/oregon-has-hundreds-of-excess-deaths-suggesting-a-hidden-covid-19-toll/
Ah, Harvard recycling their Puerto Rico data analysis techniques?
Let me add another COVID death…
Hiker celebrating end of coronavirus lockdown falls to her death while posing for photo
At least she died free….
Of course perhaps the real reason there are more deaths now is because people who should go to the hospital now for other reasons, aren’t. And that is not a COVID death, but rather a death due to the lockdown.
The one I found most compelling was the piece entitled “Anybody’s Son Will Do” (and by the almighty miracle that is the Youtubez and the InterWebz, I can link right to it; never ceases to amaze me.) In the documentary, the PBS cameras follow a platoon of young high school kids who have just joined up and shipped off to Marine Corps boot camp.
You buried the lede! I watched the whole thing. At the end, “Governments cause war.”
TBH, it’s been a lot of years since I’ve watched it, and the proposition for which I remembered it (distinctly) was distinct from whatever else may have been its point. I was fascinated by its understanding and explanation of the psychology of making normal people into killers. That subject held a very personal interest for me at the time.
Well, the Canadian FedGov went ahead and passed an OIC (Order-in-Council) effective as of today, banning over 1,500 different types of rifles and variants. If it’s scary (i.e., doesn’t have a nice rosewood stock), black, and/or has that thing that goes up, you just got deemed to be a criminal in Canada if you own one of these. They’re only for “hunting humans” and you can’t be allowed to use them any more (unless you’re a native Canadian who uses them for hunting game, in which case, carry on [it actually makes this exception right in the OIC text!]). They ever-so-kindly established a two-year “amnesty period” during which all owners of the enumerated weapons + variants will be required to surrender them to the authorities, or to apply for “grandfathering” (which is nowhere defined in the OIC and is not guaranteed, so you take a risk that, if you apply for grandfathering and you’re turned down, local LEOs will be informed and you’ll get a knock on the door — assuming, that is, that the entire application process for grandfathering doesn’t start with you having to surrender your rifle “temporarily” while they consider your application).
And they used an OIC so they didn’t even have to have any debate in Parliament about it. I’m just livid about this. They’re hiding behind the COVID “crisis” to pull this authoritarian shit.
Assholes.
Canada is asshole! Hell…World is asshole!
Is that legal?
Or is it a FYTW order?
There are only two rules in life, what a man can do and what he can’t.
Oh, Orders-in-Council are perfectly legal, especially if they expand upon existing OICs that Parliament may have previously assented to as part of legislation that went through debate and being published in Hansard.
There will be legal challenges to it, but I suspect the Canadian judiciary will roll over and say “scratch my tummy.”
It would appear there’s only so many ways to stop this, and they all involve some form of state collapse.
Oh goody.
I read that. My condolences, although it would have appeared you were going to get that at some point regardless of that asshole’s shooting spree.
Sorry.
OIC? So that is where they route measures that would never pass constitutional muster?
Our Constitution neither mentions nor guarantees the right to bear arms, and even the Federal Criminal Code allows for legal self-defense in only the most narrowly-defined set of circumstances (which you are nevertheless required to prove in court, thus costing you years of your life and hundreds of thousands of dollars of your money, thus demonstrating that even if you’re found innocent of various assault or homicide charges because you were defending yourself in a way that our Betters approve of, you are nevertheless punished via the process).
This country blows chunks.
Sorry Beam. Bad enough you’re stuck with PM Zoolander.
It’s too bad there’s no Canadian equivalent of Wyoming. All the gun owners could move there.
That’s where I’m headed as soon as I get the chance.
As for practical advice, I had a grandfather who grew up in Kentucky and had a nice collection of rifles, which he hid behind a fake utility panel in his house because he lived in the People’s Republic of New Jersey. Fortunately, those rifles are now safely with his grandsons.
If you hide them in a safe place, there’s no need to worry. And hey, unfortunate boating accidents happen all the time…
There’s a faint possibility that Alberta may become the Canadian equivalent of Wyoming at some point in the future, although that would most likely involve some form of separation or UDI (Unilateral Declaration of Independence). Having watched Jason Kenney, our Premier, bugger up his way through the COVID kerfuffle, I no longer think that’s a viable solution (if it ever was).
Nice article, Oz.
The US military meets all the criteria for a cult, so I read somewhere. Although to me, cult simply means “small, unpopular religion”.
Money is a about a shared medium of exchange. Language is about a shared set of symbols. Culture is about a shared set of emotional reactions.
No culture, no tribe.
In the Amanda Knox case, I read that the reason she got treated so harshly was that she did not react to the murder of her room mate the way Italians thought was normal (lots of crying and screaming).
Instead of saying the US is multicultural, it would be better to say it’s multitribal. And we, unfortunately, belong to one of the smallest, least powerful ones. But that’s OK. Porcupines have been cruising along just fine for millions of years.
Although to me, cult simply means “small, unpopular religion”
In practice, yes…
So maybe more of a sect of the American culture would better describe it
I dunno. Scientology is pretty big.
“In the Amanda Knox case, I read that the reason she got treated so harshly was that she did not react to the murder of her room mate the way Italians thought was normal (lots of crying and screaming).”
During the Lindy Chamberlain case in Australia, one piece of “evidence” of her guilt was that she didn’t break down sobbing when she found out her daughter was gone. Plus, she too was part of a “small, unpopular religion.”
File under JFC:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8277645/Andrew-Cuomo-brother-Chris-revealed-New-Yorks-desirable-men.html
Charles Manson and Ted Bundy were also popular with de wimmenz, I suspect for similar reasons. That Ted was a real lady killer, so I read.
Since I won’t be around until later tonight, might was well throw in some odds and ends here.
-Miller’s non-alcoholic brew Sharp’s is overly fizzy. I open it, take a swig, and when I put the bottle down, a frothy gush spews forth.
-movie pitch – New Utopian Sci-fi Movie Depicts a Free, Prosperous US
-I think measuring reading speed might be a good proxy for measuring intelligence. The verbal SAT basically measures vocabulary size, and that is just a proxy for measuring how much someone has read. People who can read fast have probably read a lot.
-If we’re going to have a lockdown with everybody in masks, could we at least sound some of those cool sirens from The Purge?
-for no reason at all, a amusing moving sculpture (borderline NSFW)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB4Q7Rf4fAg
-Prince Harry is legit royalty, tall, rich, etc, and yet the best he could get for a wife is a 30-something divorcee? Seems odd. As for Bezos, he was the richest man on earth, and even that wasn’t good enough for his wife. Bezos cheated, but that’s probably because the wife stopped putting out. Few women would stay married to man who deliberately took a lower paying job just because he didn’t feel like working hard.
Oh, Derpy, you know I love you.
Then I have a 10 IQ, because in order for me to process nonfiction and Shakespeare, I have to read slowly and carefully
We know this how? We suspect this why? Powerful, rich men cheat. That’s what they do.
Yeah, I’m with you on that one.
If Bezos just wanted to sleep around, something that would be very easy for a guy that rich, I have to wonder why he got married knowing full when he’d lose a ton of money in a divorce.
So he got married in 1993 and started Amazon in 1994. He did not become a millionaire until 1997. He was married for 25 years before the split was announced and they’d been separated a long time.
It’s possible she wasn’t putting out so he had to go elsewhere, but that claim says nothing about a man who can’t keep it in his pants and flings it around anywhere hoping it’ll land in something soft, warm, and moist.
Adultery is bad. A man who withholds money from his wife is bad. A woman who withholds sex from her husband is bad.
What can I say? Me Derp. Derp cave man, ugh. Where put spear? Hungry, see mammoth, me go kill now.
Bring back the hide and I’ll tan it for you.
See? Teamwork.
If Bezos just wanted to sleep around
Sleeping around is not cost-less.
Cuz you don’t pay for sex.
You pay for them to go away.
Then I have a 10 IQ, because in order for me to process nonfiction and Shakespeare, I have to read slowly and carefully
Not only that, but often i have to read them 3, maybe 4 times to understand.
-I think measuring reading speed might be a good proxy for measuring intelligence. The verbal SAT basically measures vocabulary size, and that is just a proxy for measuring how much someone has read. People who can read fast have probably read a lot.
People with severe dyslexia have a sad.
Are there any written tests people with dyslexia usually do well on? It seems they would all be equally hard, regardless of the subject.
I read somewhere that dyslexia is a disease of English-speaking countries and is entirely due to the absurd spelling system.
Math for one. I only mention it because I’m classified as severely dyslexic, cannot spell and read rather slowly. I got diagnosed because when I was young, I read out loud in class like I should have been on the short bus, but my math scores blew the rest of the class out of the water.
Dyslexia is just a problem with understanding written langue. Problem solving, pattern recognition, memory, those types of things that normally are associated with being intelligent, they don’t necessarily correlate with being about to process information in that one specific way.
MacKenzie Bezos is on my pretty solid and honorable woman list. She could have created a shit-show after the affair, but settle promptly and quietly.
Given the payout I am sure her lawyers said just shut up and take the money. I would too
She did get 35 billion dollars, money she knew she would get in a divorce, especially if adultery was involved.
Seems fishy to me.
If she deliberately stopped putting out so that he would cheat on her, then she had a pretty good handle on what he’d do given the opportunity, which speaks to his character (and hers).
So that would make them both icky, but I’m not going to blame her for something that can’t be corroborated.
He stuck his dick somewhere it didn’t belong.
“-Miller’s non-alcoholic brew Sharp’s is overly fizzy. I open it, take a swig, and when I put the bottle down, a frothy gush spews forth.”
The Heineken NA is very good. I’ll take it over a soda any day, I buy it for situations where I can’t drink alcohol.
Yes. It has my seal and walrus of approval.
Latest statistical garbage is to take a multi year average of deaths and call anything above that uncounted Covid deaths. Year to year variability, growing and aging populations, how the fuck do they work?
They’re throwing out this bogus “needz declining infections” before you open, now. If your desired metric is no new cases, STOP TESTING. There; job done.
I fucking hate people.
I am very lucky that my job (Fed Contractor) is unaffected by the stupidity and I just had to listen to ANOTHER office lady (Fed worker) complain about how we shouldn’t open up when the cases are still rising.
She went to Lowe’s and it was crowded, no masks and people wearing tank tops and flip flops.(not sure what that has to do with anything, but she was very upset by it)
One of these days I won’t be able to be quiet and I might get in trouble here.
They already know I’m a “gun nut” but I try real hard not to talk about issues with any of them.
/end rant
Its about 80/20 in my office (at an ATCT). Controllers are bored outta there minds cause traffic is down 90% or so. Us technicians are sick of not being allowed to work on equipment without first running it up the chain.
Also, we are all big gun nuts here so I have that going for me.
I am very lucky that my job (Fed Contractor) is unaffected by the stupidity
Same. I was really disgusted by the CEO bragging that they had specifically worked with congress to ensure that the CARES act included that sweet filthy lucre for us. I mean i’m glad i still have a job, but still, we do nothing with health.
My daughter’s Montessori school just announced they are starting back, with limited enrollment, on May 11th, back to full on June 1.
Financial details coming next week (we pay in advance, so they owe us about 6 weeks), we may catch up in June or wait until August, depending on what they offer exactly.
With limited spots, we will let the people who need to get back to work guinea pig their kids. I would be okay with it on May 11, but let them work on the kinks on the new pickup/dropoff system (which was total chaos before and needed to be updated anyway).
The Deep State is like gravity. It really doesn’t care if you believe in it or not.
Thats a well that is hard to escape from
There ain’t no culture in America, it’s all appropriated.
OT: The local Walmart finally started putting in one-way markers on aisles — the grocery stores did that a while ago. So I want to get to the other side of the store and my conundrum is: go the right way down one aisle where there’s several people, or go the wrong way down an empty aisle?
Hint: I did the “wrong” thing.
We live in a mix neighborhood of ages…east of me is 55+ comminity and being built to west is mostly young families.
I went to our only grocery store within the area and was grumbled at by a very elderly gentleman “I guess young people can’t read today”. I immediately shot back with “You’re right but next time you have a complainant dont be a pussy and speak up!”
His complaint is I was going the wrong way in the aisle. If he would have said “You know son, they put down markers on how they want us to move through the store” I would have recognized that and moved on.
Istrad my wife got 30 minutes of me bitching about passive agressive old geezers with no balls to talk politely.
I’ve heard bits a pieces of this song over the years. It was cool to finally hear the whole thing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlYlPLxOKUE
I found it from a compilation of greatest guitar riffs. Whoda thunk a Hungarian band would make that list?
I’m amazed that the Hungarian government allowed them to play that in 1969.
I read somewhere that Goulash Communism meant Hungary was the happiest prisoner in the gulag.