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[Arx]

I got them by walking into a tiny tech shop (literally a counter and two guys. Everything was behind the counter because there was no floor) and asking one of the guys for a pair of headphones that'd give nice sound and not break the bank.

How do you walk into a shop that has no floor?!?

(#ArxConfirmedAsMutant )

Well, I stood on the threshold.

I'm tempted to sig that. I might have to break out the rotating image again.

[IcyTea31]

How do you walk into a shop that has no floor?!?

Easy: have the shop set up on diamond plate on a scaffolding. It's technically not a floor, just a temporary support to walk on.

[sprinkled chariot]

Why people call G. Washington greatest general of all times? Really why?

[Baffler]

Why people call G. Washington greatest general of all times? Really why?

Being the greatest general ever to serve the greatest country ever, it makes perfect sense that he would be the greatest general in the world.

Honestly though, he's just an important revolutionary figure who certain people were far too enthusiastic about.

[i2amroy]

Why people call G. Washington greatest general of all times? Really why?

Because 'MURICA!

Honestly most of Washington's proof as a great general was not in his actual battlefield history, since he lost more battles than he won. It was more the other aspects (such as his ability to escape time and again, and his ability to win at a few of his key gambles) that win him any dignity he had as a great general.

That said I'd honestly not even rank him in the top 10 for best generals in the world, or even among necessarily the best generals in US history.

[TempAcc]

The argument could easily be made that the USSR would not have been nearly as shit if literally every other country on Earth didn't have it out for them.

Kind of hard to not be opposed to a highly expansionist political entity whose basic ideology boils down to "we know whats best for everyone, if you disagree we'll kill you and your family, because our will is the people's will, so we're not a dictatorship really lol. Also, give me everything you have and I'll ocasionaly give you some bread so you don't starve to death after working for me all day, because the people demand it, not us lol".

In practice, every communist regime worked as fascism, with the only difference being that the dictatorial government pretended to represent the people's will, and did everything in its power to maintain that illusion, which is pretty easy considering it also controls everything, and also systematically persecuted intellectuals and anyone with enough influence to create dissidence and dispel the illusion, something that Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union were both infamous for.

[Sirus]

Yeah, I always saw George Washington as more of a statesman than a general. He didn't do *too* badly, but...yeah. There's a reason the troops were on the verge of giving up and going home at at least one point.

[Flying Dice]

Erm, yea, what about countries with socialist leanings like the Northern European ones? They do occassionally seem to have, like, the best living standards in the world for actual countries, some of 'em, iirc?

They're soc-dems, which is generally the best approach: democracy as usual with a comprehensive social safety net and progressive taxation.

Is there something inherently corrupt about socialism and/or communism?

No, but they're functionally impossible to institute properly on a large scale due to the simple fact that there will always be enough people willing to spite the system for the sake of personal power and financial gain. Like presidentialist democracy, they're also poor choices for countries which have only recently thrown off authoritarian rule, as those authoritarian patterns of control and obedience are ingrained and easy to backslide into when the system makes it simple for a central executive to consolidate power.

The argument could easily be made that the USSR would not have been nearly as shit if literally every other country on Earth didn't have it out for them.

If the West hadn't been half-assedly backing the Whites during the civil war, the Bolsheviks would have consolidated power sooner. It wouldn't have changed their leadership, it wouldn't have changed their inherent ideological drive. Communism was wholeheartedly and explicitly devoted to overthrowing extant political and economic systems. It's hard to understand for people born more recently and away from affected areas, but pretty much all of Europe pre-WWII was heavily fractured ideologically. The fear of leftist revolution actually spreading as Marx predicted was one of the primary driving factors behind the dawn of the right-wing reactionary politics that birthed fascism. The USSR was locked into a fight for survival with the rest of the world, but it was one of their own making.

Don't idealize the USSR. I'm a dirty leftist, but I still think that it was a fucking travesty. They did as much harm to the working class as the empire it succeeded and the plutocracy which succeeded it. The PRC came out of things okay only because they could afford to waste absolutely obscene amounts of resources and sickening numbers of their own people brute-forcing industrialization and modernization in a selection of ways of varying stupidity. Cuba came out of things all right because it didn't go full crazy and had a dictator who was only a moderately oppressive ass instead of a murderous delusional paranoid self-aggrandizing moron.

[scriver]

Erm, yea, what about countries with socialist leanings like the Northern European ones? They do occassionally seem to have, like, the best living standards in the world for actual countries, some of 'em, iirc?

They're soc-dems, which is generally the best approach: democracy as usual with a comprehensive social safety net and progressive taxation.

Social democracy is socialism. The main thing distinguishing it is that social democracy chose to work democratically rather than through revolution. That's why it's called "democratic socialism".

[Baffler]

The argument could easily be made that the USSR would not have been nearly as shit if literally every other country on Earth didn't have it out for them.

If the West hadn't been half-assedly backing the Whites during the civil war, the Bolsheviks would have consolidated power sooner. It wouldn't have changed their leadership, it wouldn't have changed their inherent ideological drive. Communism was wholeheartedly and explicitly devoted to overthrowing extant political and economic systems. It's hard to understand for people born more recently and away from affected areas, but pretty much all of Europe pre-WWII was heavily fractured ideologically. The fear of leftist revolution actually spreading as Marx predicted was one of the primary driving factors behind the dawn of the right-wing reactionary politics that birthed fascism. The USSR was locked into a fight for survival with the rest of the world, but it was one of their own making.

Don't idealize the USSR. I'm a dirty leftist, but I still think that it was a fucking travesty. They did as much harm to the working class as the empire it succeeded and the plutocracy which succeeded it. The PRC came out of things okay only because they could afford to waste absolutely obscene amounts of resources and sickening numbers of their own people brute-forcing industrialization and modernization in a selection of ways of varying stupidity. Cuba came out of things all right because it didn't go full crazy and had a dictator who was only a moderately oppressive ass instead of a murderous delusional paranoid self-aggrandizing moron.

Did that come off as idealizing? That was hardly my intention, though I guess I can see where you're coming from. I've seen people say the same thing to try to paint them as victims of international bullying in order to make communism seem more viable. I am not one of those people. All I said was that chronic belligerence probably had a negative impact on their standard of living because of the lack of trade opportunity it caused, and excessive devotion of industrial resources to military rather than consumer goods.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Erm, yea, what about countries with socialist leanings like the Northern European ones? They do occassionally seem to have, like, the best living standards in the world for actual countries, some of 'em, iirc?

They're soc-dems, which is generally the best approach: democracy as usual with a comprehensive social safety net and progressive taxation.

Social democracy is socialism. The main thing distinguishing it is that social democracy chose to work democratically rather than through revolution. That's why it's called "democratic socialism".

But Comrade Scriver, don't you know that reformism is the ideology of the petite bourgeoisie, and is like putting bandages on a cancer patient? Only revolution and the eradication of the capitalist class can ever break the ductile nature of capitalism.

[Aklyon]

Erm, yea, what about countries with socialist leanings like the Northern European ones? They do occassionally seem to have, like, the best living standards in the world for actual countries, some of 'em, iirc?

They're soc-dems, which is generally the best approach: democracy as usual with a comprehensive social safety net and progressive taxation.

Social democracy is socialism.

And this is why the us can't have nice things

[scrdest]

Erm, yea, what about countries with socialist leanings like the Northern European ones? They do occassionally seem to have, like, the best living standards in the world for actual countries, some of 'em, iirc?

They're soc-dems, which is generally the best approach: democracy as usual with a comprehensive social safety net and progressive taxation.

Social democracy is socialism. The main thing distinguishing it is that social democracy chose to work democratically rather than through revolution. That's why it's called "democratic socialism".

The difference matters. It's kinda like the difference between an attenuated vaccine and straight up shooting someone up with Ebola. Technically, same animal. Realistically, one is more likely to wreck everything because it's too brute-force to have anything to oppose it.

Kinda the strength of democracy - you have people who'll yell at you if you try to starve a couple million citizens, be it on purpose or by incompetence.

[Akura]

Chrome seems to be displacing parts of webpages for me. It's been doing this on two seperate machines, too.

[NJW2000]

Fer flip's sake: trying to do History coursework, and the gadoids appear to have destroyed any easily accessed statistics about black voting patterns prior to 1930.