BodyButter's Weird Thread About Stuff Nobody Else Is Interested In | Page 4 | Vital Football

BodyButter's Weird Thread About Stuff Nobody Else Is Interested In

danvilla2 said:
It would be a fascinating experiment I’ll give you that, like the first series of Big Brother where it was actually an experiment. Who would be the biggest terrorists? The Taliban or American citizens with guns? Would the American citizens even be classified as terrorists if they're shooting down the Muslims? I’m sure it would be legal and defendable. Sounds a lot like the Middle East situation to me.
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From an academic point of view, it would be fascinating to see what a large group of Americans would make of one of the poorest, least developed countries in the world.
 
BodyButter said:
From an academic point of view, it would be fascinating to see what a large group of Americans would make of one of the poorest, least developed countries in the world.
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Didn't the Soviets kind of try your idea out? Many Russians ended up in Afghanistan on what was in part a civilising mission. It didn't end well.
 
BodyButter said:
From an academic point of view, it would be fascinating to see what a large group of Americans would make of one of the poorest, least developed countries in the world.
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They've already done it haven't they? In America? Wiped out massive swathes of native Americans and their fascinating cultures!

Your 'idea' would make an interesting, dystopian, film!
 
Pangloss said:
Didn't the Soviets kind of try your idea out? Many Russians ended up in Afghanistan on what was in part a civilising mission. It didn't end well.
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I didn't know that. I'll have to look that up. I'd imagine you'd need a whole lot of people and guns to make it work.
 
The Fear said:
They've already done it haven't they? In America? Wiped out massive swathes of native Americans and their fascinating cultures!

Your 'idea' would make an interesting, dystopian, film!
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Yes, that's what gave me the 'inspiration'. The Spanish claimed California and a lot of that side of what is now the US but could never hold the territory because they wouldn't allow their citizens to have guns. When America expanded westwards, they all brought lots of guns with them so they could "defend themselves" from the natives.
 
BodyButter said:
I didn't know that. I'll have to look that up. I'd imagine you'd need a whole lot of people and guns to make it work.
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I think it was covered extensively in one of Adam Curtis' documentaries, I'm going to say Bitter Lake but I'm not 100% sure it's that one.

Ultimately two major empires in the Soviet Union and the US have tried to effectively colonise Afghanistan and both have failed.
 
Pangloss said:
I think it was covered extensively in one of Adam Curtis' documentaries, I'm going to say Bitter Lake but I'm not 100% sure it's that one.

Ultimately two major empires in the Soviet Union and the US have tried to effectively colonise Afghanistan and both have failed.
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Don't forget good old Blighty.
 
CDX_EIRE said:
Wes Edens makes a little cameo in this video, I am a big fan of trains and its a bit of a bollocks that America doesnt have more.

I actually took a train across America from NY to SF and it was amazing.

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I skipped to the Wes part - that is really interesting about the trains being suitable for 200-500 miles versus planes for longer and cars for shorter. I bet you’d get trains packed with Europeans from Vegas to LA, or Orlando to Miami even before the Americans buy into it.
 
BodyButter said:
You know the way most subjects at university have "the textbook", the one textbook which is pretty much the bible for that subject? I'm wondering what "the textbook" is for political science or even where I could find out what it is. I know @thefear studied political science but it was a little while ago.
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I've just started reading Hannah Arendt "Thinking Without Bannisters", which is a collection of essays on her political science thoughts from across the 20th century. Her views on totalitarianism, be it fascism or Stalinism, are absolutely on the nose. It's tough going, mind, and I'm only doing it in small chunks. Arendt was a Jew and political philosopher, briefly in a relationship with Heidegger, forced to leave Germany because of the Nazis. She coined the expression "the banality of evil" in her writing on the trial of Adolf Eichmann.
 
BodyButter said:
From an academic point of view, it would be fascinating to see what a large group of Americans would make of one of the poorest, least developed countries in the world.
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The problem with Afghanistan specifically is all of the outside interests who it benefits to have as a buffer zone between established political powers. Pakistan, Russia, Qatar, Saudi, now the Chinese all are pumping money and weapons into the Taliban (note Saudi and Qatar are US "allies") and using Afghanistan as the battleground for their proxy war with the US. Only an ongoing, open-ended commitment to at least technical military support would have prevented this situation but the West has been made small by populism and insularity and so we're chucking all the women, gays, religious minorities, children and any moderate-thinking men of that country back to the dogs because it plays well with the voters back home. Or at least it did until the voters back home watched the scenes from the last ten days or so.

We're about to test the populists' theory that if we ignore the rest of the world, then it will ignore us. I'm not confident.
 
Platypus said:
The problem with Afghanistan specifically is all of the outside interests who it benefits to have as a buffer zone between established political powers. Pakistan, Russia, Qatar, Saudi, now the Chinese all are pumping money and weapons into the Taliban (note Saudi and Qatar are US "allies") and using Afghanistan as the battleground for their proxy war with the US. Only an ongoing, open-ended commitment to at least technical military support would have prevented this situation but the West has been made small by populism and insularity and so we're chucking all the women, gays, religious minorities, children and any moderate-thinking men of that country back to the dogs because it plays well with the voters back home. Or at least it did until the voters back home watched the scenes from the last ten days or so.

We're about to test the populists' theory that if we ignore the rest of the world, then it will ignore us. I'm not confident.
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I have a hunch that populism is just old peopleism. People who are old and grumpy and not interested in the world voting for policies which reflect their feelings.
 
BodyButter said:
I have a hunch that populism is just old peopleism. People who are old and grumpy and not interested in the world voting for policies which reflect their feelings.
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The world is complicated but people want simple answers. Unfortunately in my opinion that's wishful thinking.
 
Can someone explain to me why, on certain adverts, you see a caption at the bottom of the screen saying 82% of 96 women etc etc.

That works out to 78.72! Why can't they find 100 women, that say, 84% say etc etc.... that works out precisely 84!
 
Pride of Lions said:
Can someone explain to me why, on certain adverts, you see a caption at the bottom of the screen saying 82% of 96 women etc etc.

That works out to 78.72! Why can't they find 100 women, that say, 84% say etc etc.... that works out precisely 84!
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They have to qualify the sample size so it's not misleading. I find it quite funny.
 
BodyButter said:
No point in saving this until after I've kicked the bucket.

I had a weird thought last night while I was brushing my teeth. The Judeo-Christian idea is that this world is some kind of testing ground for souls to see who goes to heaven and who goes to hell. The Buddhist idea is that we keep returning to this world until we are good enough to move on.

What if there are a hundred of these Earths, good ones and bad ones? Say we are on Earth 57 and if we are good, we go up to Earth 45 or 53 or if we do badly, we get relegated to Earth 62 or 84. Earth 1 would be the best one, something very similar to heaven where we are all very nice to each other etc and Earth 100 is Small Heath.

Assuming all that is true, which Earth are we on?
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Just saw this thread and read this and I apologize if it's been mentioned before, but have you watched the show The Good Place? If not I highly suggest it, it goes right along with this thought.
 
SiggyBrownie said:
Just saw this thread and read this and I apologize if it's been mentioned before, but have you watched the show The Good Place? If not I highly suggest it, it goes right along with this thought.
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My kids used to watch it a bit but I never got into it. Maybe that's where I picked up the idea?
 
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