DSG

Expand what? I don’t put any particular stock in the “Lost Cause,” but it was hardly a bloodless disagreement, and one that required careful reconciliation. And it carried the sympathy of many conservatives until roughly yesterday. Edit — I’ve been needlessly provocative, so I’ll let it go.

I wouldn’t call any state a shining paragon of anything. The ideological zealotry of the American elite, however, is uniquely insufferable and dangerous. If they’re willing to throw aside their fiduciary duties to promote a cross dresser, war isn’t far behind. We’ve already seen the application of “democratic peace theory” in the Middle East, and it’s been a bloody disaster. They are under no significant selection pressure and have a vast economic reservoir to draw on; their potential for further ruin is significant.

America doesn’t live up to its own values, made up or not. Which is fine — liberal pieties are dumb. I just have an allergy to self righteous hypocrisy, something which seems to be the stock and trade of our betters.

Claims made without evidence can be dismissed without evidence. Still, it’s striking that in America, it’s those that present themselves as “weak” that are the biggest bullies and thieves. Abroad, America has little moral leg to stand on, to put it mildly. Your appeal to reason lacks evidence and is non-falsifiable; there is no control group scenario in which America husbands its strength instead of “engaging.” I see an enormously powerful economic engine, powered substantially by inertia, that continues to dominate the world in spite of its government and foreign policy, not because of it. Not a libertarian statement, by the way. I believe government can play a commanding and positive role — ours just isn’t such an example.

“Reason” argues no such thing. “Ethics and morality” are made up.

The mere fact that such scenario is plausible is indicative of criminal incompetence among our policy “elite.”

The U.S. is in imminent peril of being ejected from the western pacific by a country that had a triple digit gdp per capita in recent memory.

And?

The greatest squandered hand in world history.

The psychology of emotional investment in this conflict is as bizarre to me as professional sports enthusiasm, but far more perverse.

It's the goal of a dog to catch a car, but that doesn't stop it from being dumbfounded when it succeeds.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2024/01/10/army-sees-sharp-decline-white-recruits.html

Few people contribute anything of value to society as it is. I don't know that hypothetical draft dodgers should be singled out in that sense.

The non-stop drumbeat of propaganda crowing Russia's (exaggerated) losses while never speaking of Ukraine's has gotten very tiresome. UAF are space marines that inflict casualties 30:1, yet they're chronically short of manpower and their average serving age is 45. Like, who actually falls for this? Can they at least be less annoying about it?

Are you under the impression think tanks are centers of disinterested scholarship?