Zompist Bboard Again

The key thing is that the vast majority of Americans don't know what socialism is and confuse "socialism" with either social democracy or Soviet big-C Communism (not surprising consider that's what they have been told as being "socialism" their whole lives); actual socialism is ...

Man in Space wrote: ↑Mon Apr 08, 2024 2:32 pm Enjoy.

Thanks for the pictures!

I hope I can arrange a trip for the 2026 eclipse in Spain...

I get the annoyances of American bipartisanship; especially since the Democrats are best described at centrists. Especially since socialist-friendly candidates like Sanders have to work through the Democratic party machine. As a comparison with a multi-party system... right now voters just aren't in...

How is Paris? (It's been over 20 years since I was there.) (Also, re Ares Land: ‘there’? I got the impression that you live in Paris yourself…) As Raphael said, I moved to Southern France last July, though I lived in Paris for close to twenty years (so if you ever need any advice, feel free to ask.)

bradrn wrote: ↑Mon Apr 08, 2024 1:17 am

Ares Land wrote: ↑Sun Apr 07, 2024 11:31 am Macron is currently about as inspiring as Louis XVI on July, 13th.

Why, what happened on July 13th? I can’t find anything…

I meant, as inspiring as Louis XVI the day before the Revolution
(not that any revolution is happening any time soon!)

Elections for the European Parliament will take place at the beginning of June. It's expected that the EPP (center-of-right, think CDU) will win again, so not much excitement will happen at the European scale. Here in France (and I suppose in most other European countries as well), they're used as k...

It's also an illusion that some new name would be a) more popular than Biden, and b) stay that way. There doesn't seem to be someone who can be plucked from the sidelines, like Obama. Technocratically, the obvious choice is Kamala Harris, the VP. She would undoubtedly do fine as president. But her ...

About this, what’s quite interesting (from a dispassionate point of view) is that, even in those corners of the Internet which are normally violently pro-Israel, absolutely no-one is even trying to defend Israel’s actions. Everyone is disgusted. Will this be the event which finally gets Israelis to...

bradrn wrote: ↑Sat Apr 06, 2024 11:13 pm

bradrn wrote: ↑Fri Mar 15, 2024 9:22 am Big news on my side: I’m going to Paris!

And now I’m here!

Great news. Hope you like it there!

sooo... fellers.... is orange man gonna win ? The impression I get is that word leaders, at least, are expecting a Trump victory. Everybody seems to be working with that hypothesis in mind, at least. One question I have -- but that probably betrays my ignorance of American politics -- is why nobody...

This is an interesting question, what is Hamas trying to do , but we won't answer well it if we decide beforehand that they're mindless murder drones. Assume they're a rational semi-state actor that aims at what they say they aim, and that they are what I think they are: what's the logic behind res...

that's what's being mocked with the "do you condemn llamas" line. You think Hamas are freedom fighters, of sorts. I think they're just power-hungry thugs. I don't think either of us is going to convince the other and that's all right. But, no, journalists asking politicians where exactly ...

WeepingElf wrote: ↑Tue Apr 02, 2024 10:18 am I have a nice new computer!

Great!

And yes, they have done everything to squander their goodwill after 7 October and unite the world against them. Sadly, I don't think the Israeli government cares at all about international opinion, or goodwill. What they want is to achieve... whatever they hope to achieve(*)... and deal with world ...

Anyway, I mostly stay out of the "Libs discover world politics" threads, but geez, this one is bad. Not everyone is an American, and people you disagree with are not necessarily 'Libs.' I freely admit there are plenty of things I don't fully understand about the situation, but I don't thi...

Don’t fool yourself. There may be a few exceptions, but what they mostly want is a ‘one-state solution’ where Arabs are second-class citizens. If it really must be said, that’s not a sustainable solution for anyone. I should've been clearer, really :) I don't like the idea either and I'm not terrib...

but there are leaders of the world, and they are machiavellian. it's good to be skeptical of conspiracy theories and ideas what evil hath borne, but not to the point of ignoring reality. Agreed; but antisemitism is probably 80% ordinary human stupidity and 20% machiavellian dealings. While I'm here...

I'm also treated like a foreigner by everyone. Non-Muslims treat me like a Muslim, and Muslims treat me like an apostate. Why don't I get to kill someone? Where exactly did I say anything about 'getting to kill people'? You're right, the Zionists whom Einstein supported were legitimate. But most of...

Oh, that's fun. I did a bunch of tests, using an a posteriori conlang, and an alternate history Italian. The para-Italian was designed to be very close to actual Italo-Romance which will prove to have very interesting results. The first sample was a folk song; ChatGPT thought it was Sicilian (not a ...

I don't think it's an analogy. I honestly don't understand how it doesn't fit the definition of colonialism: "Colonialism is the pursuing, establishing and maintaining of control and exploitation of people and of resources by a foreign group of people." My best guess is that you don't thi...