There is a spectrum haunting C-SPAM. I, on the contrary,

The Something Awful Forums > Archives > Comedy Goldmine > The Goodmine > There is a spectrum haunting C-SPAM. I, on the contrary,

«‹›1217 »

namesake: Jun 19, 2006; "When I was a girl, around 12 or 13, I had a fantasy that I'd grow up to marry Captain Scarlet, but he'd be busy fighting the Mysterons so I'd cuckold him with the sexiest people I could think of - Nigel Mansell, Pat Sharp and Mr. Blobby."

indigi posted:

I realize you have to be lucky to win any conflict in general, but the soviets seemed to have a lightning-strikes-thrice level of luck

Well yeah why do you think revolutions are rare but revolts somewhat common?

# ? Mar 7, 2021 02:05

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 11, 2024 06:31

Hodgepodge: Jan 29, 2006; Can't post for 229 days!

any outcome in a complex system seems unlikely because of all the points which might have lead to another outcome had things been slightly different

# ? Mar 7, 2021 02:13

ToxicAcne: May 25, 2014

V. Illych L. posted:

the resume people also normally study something like international development or journalism or gender studies or the like - that is, paths without specific careers obviously laid out for them. i've never met anyone involved in volunteer work who was doing natural science stuff who was a climber - the formal skillset dovetails very poorly with the resume addition

ideologues are usually not resume people, but they're also often not the people you want in leadership positions because they tend to have hobby horses and hangups which makes everything take longer. some builders are also very obvious in that they don't care about talking to non-ranking (I.e. non-useful) people from other organisations

it's very difficult to discern a certain kind of sincere activist from most builders, though. the best defence against it is simply not letting new members have certain important positions imo - so chair, treasurer and whoever handles membership data should all be relative veterans, and you want someone without a formal position in charge of the nominating committee or equivalent to make sure that they don't get dazzled. once, my local chapter was almost totally taken over by a clique of charming guys who left basically overnight and it took months to fix the damage, retrieve logins, account for all funding, get them formally booted from their positions etc

at least two of those guys now work in politics, which makes me legitimately angry

What is a nominating commitee? The orgs I've been part of let anyone be nominated as long as they have someone seconding their nomination.

# ? Mar 7, 2021 02:37

Ferrinus: Jun 19, 2003; i'm finding this quite easy, i guess in part because i'm a fast type but also because i have a coherent mental model of the world

indigi posted:

I realize you have to be lucky to win any conflict in general, but the soviets seemed to have a lightning-strikes-thrice level of luck

althusser goes into it a bit here https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/althusser/1962/overdetermination.htm where he basically points out that every possible thing that could have "gone right" for the purpose of allowing a revolution happened, both in terms of general geopolitical context and more immediate tactical considerations

my takeaway is that this explains why revolution happened in russia first, rather than sets the conditions for it happening at all

# ? Mar 7, 2021 02:44

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

Ferrinus posted:

althusser goes into it a bit here https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/althusser/1962/overdetermination.htm where he basically points out that every possible thing that could have "gone right" for the purpose of allowing a revolution happened, both in terms of general geopolitical context and more immediate tactical considerations

my takeaway is that this explains why revolution happened in russia first, rather than sets the conditions for it happening at all

this is interesting as heck, thanks

# ? Mar 7, 2021 06:03

Victory Position: Mar 16, 2004

apropos to nothing posted:

dont put anyone with a polisci degree in charge of anything. worst case scenario theyre opportunists or careerists, best case scenario all of their political instincts are wrong because they studied polisci.

hello. full-time schemer and plotter here. got my degree in cloak and dagger. would you be interested in my services?

# ? Mar 7, 2021 06:46

AnimeIsTrash: Jun 30, 2018

https://twitter.com/vijayprashad/status/1367862082180382727

# ? Mar 7, 2021 07:16

e-dt: Sep 16, 2019

indigi posted:

were Mao and the CPC as incredibly, unbelievably lucky as Lenin and the Bolsheviks in terms of the circumstances and events leading to their successful revolutions? since reading October I keep thinking about how the Russian communists could have been defeated or severely reduced in power at several points during 1917 if not for the ridiculous incompetence of their opponents/a few very lucky coincidences

the Xi'an incident was pretty lucky I think, but a lot of it was just good strategy e.g. defeating 4 campaigns against them while outnumbered (they did lose the fifth one and have to go on the long march though)

# ? Mar 7, 2021 12:37

V. Illych L.: Apr 11, 2008; ASK ME ABOUT LUMBER

ToxicAcne posted:

What is a nominating commitee? The orgs I've been part of let anyone be nominated as long as they have someone seconding their nomination.

likely an organisational difference between countries - in norway, it's standard practice to put together a list of recommended candidates ahead of the annual meeting, and this is done by a committee elected at the last meeting of its kind. when it works well it limits drama and makes personal fights less acrimonious, but it doesn't always work out and i've seen whole recommendations get thrown out over political differences between cities and suchlike

# ? Mar 7, 2021 13:08

ToxicAcne: May 25, 2014

Victory Position posted:

hello. full-time schemer and plotter here. got my degree in cloak and dagger. would you be interested in my services?

I met a super woke hipster guy once who identified as a Democratic Socialist and then told me that Hilary Clinton was the true progressive candidate in 2016. I later learned he studied Poli Sci.

# ? Mar 7, 2021 15:31

THS: Sep 15, 2017

ToxicAcne posted:

I met a super woke hipster guy once who identified as a Democratic Socialist and then told me that Hilary Clinton was the true progressive candidate in 2016. I later learned he studied Poli Sci.

ah, the fishmech argument

# ? Mar 7, 2021 15:41

Dreylad: Jun 19, 2001

THS posted:

ah, the fishmech argument

how to sum up a whole era of d&d in one sentence

# ? Mar 7, 2021 16:03

dead gay comedy forums: Oct 21, 2011

indigi posted:

were Mao and the CPC as incredibly, unbelievably lucky as Lenin and the Bolsheviks in terms of the circumstances and events leading to their successful revolutions? since reading October I keep thinking about how the Russian communists could have been defeated or severely reduced in power at several points during 1917 if not for the ridiculous incompetence of their opponents/a few very lucky coincidences

while luck is always a factor in everything, liberal historians use that a lot against these guys as if they blindly stumbled into their success (and in the case of the USSR, jesus christ it was a disaster after another to get there, not exactly "luck")

Mao was an highly formidable leader, organizer and intellectual, standing with others just as formidable in their own right like Zhou Enlai. Pulling off poo poo like The Great March, experimenting with a new form of political thought in an extremely traditionalist and conservative culture, reorganizing from almost total defeat into an effective vanguard, then being capable to fight back a fascist foreign invasion? Then finishing off the civil war and settling the score after said invasion and in just a few years have a centralized, working state not seen since the end of the empire?

I do agree with the wisdom of taking everything in human history as "All is vanity", but to manage all these things is something that fundamentally requires quite a degree of competence, so it is surely more luck in the sense of right person at the right time too

(and it could be as easily argued that the course of the USSR was also one of the unluckiest ones: 'had Lenin not suffered his strokes', 'had Stalin not succumbed to paranoia', 'had Trotsky succeeded the leadership', thus the problem of arguing history by the measure of fortune)

# ? Mar 7, 2021 17:20

Larry Parrish: Jul 9, 2012; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

dead gay comedy forums posted:

while luck is always a factor in everything, liberal historians use that a lot against these guys as if they blindly stumbled into their success (and in the case of the USSR, jesus christ it was a disaster after another to get there, not exactly "luck")

Mao was an highly formidable leader, organizer and intellectual, standing with others just as formidable in their own right like Zhou Enlai. Pulling off poo poo like The Great March, experimenting with a new form of political thought in an extremely traditionalist and conservative culture, reorganizing from almost total defeat into an effective vanguard, then being capable to fight back a fascist foreign invasion? Then finishing off the civil war and settling the score after said invasion and in just a few years have a centralized, working state not seen since the end of the empire?

I do agree with the wisdom of taking everything in human history as "All is vanity", but to manage all these things is something that fundamentally requires quite a degree of competence, so it is surely more luck in the sense of right person at the right time too

(and it could be as easily argued that the course of the USSR was also one of the unluckiest ones: 'had Lenin not suffered his strokes', 'had Stalin not succumbed to paranoia', 'had Trotsky succeeded the leadership', thus the problem of arguing history by the measure of fortune)

liberals love to make excuses for themselves. i mean everyone does but the liberal world order, according to them, has never once had a competent enemy, except sometimes Hitler, who hilariously enough wasn't competent, but since he was part of the west I guess he needs excuses too. It's like how people say oh well we lost Vietnam because the public stopped supporting the war, as if we weren't massively overextended and fighting one of the greatest strategists of the last century if not the last millennium.

# ? Mar 7, 2021 17:25

mila kunis: Jun 10, 2011

indigi posted:

I realize you have to be lucky to win any conflict in general, but the soviets seemed to have a lightning-strikes-thrice level of luck

I wouldn't exactly call it "luck" to have kerensky attempt to betray the revolution to tsarist reactionary generals, find yourself in a civil war where the other side is flooded with massive levels of support, armaments and money from the outside, get invaded by BOTH the central powers and the anglo-french-americans who strip off vast amounts of your territory, suffer famine and total industrial and agricultural breakdown, get invaded again by the poles backed by the brits, etc. etc.

# ? Mar 7, 2021 17:57

Ferrinus: Jun 19, 2003; i'm finding this quite easy, i guess in part because i'm a fast type but also because i have a coherent mental model of the world

mila kunis posted:

I wouldn't exactly call it "luck" to have kerensky attempt to betray the revolution to tsarist reactionary generals, find yourself in a civil war where the other side is flooded with massive levels of support, armaments and money from the outside, get invaded by BOTH the central powers and the anglo-french-americans who strip off vast amounts of your territory, suffer famine and total industrial and agricultural breakdown, get invaded again by the poles backed by the brits, etc. etc.

, be stabbed in the back by your own leaders in the treacherous treaty of brest-litovsk,

# ? Mar 7, 2021 18:42

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

mila kunis posted:

I wouldn't exactly call it "luck" to have kerensky attempt to betray the revolution to tsarist reactionary generals, find yourself in a civil war where the other side is flooded with massive levels of support, armaments and money from the outside, get invaded by BOTH the central powers and the anglo-french-americans who strip off vast amounts of your territory, suffer famine and total industrial and agricultural breakdown, get invaded again by the poles backed by the brits, etc. etc.

from what I know most of what happened post-October was inspired strategy and support from the working class, but even Kerensky�s attempted betrayal led to fortuitous events in the Bolshevik�s favor

dead gay comedy forums posted:

(and it could be as easily argued that the course of the USSR was also one of the unluckiest ones: 'had Lenin not suffered his strokes', 'had Stalin not succumbed to paranoia', 'had Trotsky succeeded the leadership', thus the problem of arguing history by the measure of fortune)

yeah that poo poo sucks. it makes what they accomplished all the more impressive

# ? Mar 7, 2021 20:45

Pomeroy: Apr 20, 2020

Ferrinus posted:

, be stabbed in the back by your own leaders in the treacherous treaty of brest-litovsk,

Is this meant to be a joke?

Pomeroy fucked around with this message at 02:32 on Mar 8, 2021

# ? Mar 7, 2021 21:28

Ferrinus: Jun 19, 2003; i'm finding this quite easy, i guess in part because i'm a fast type but also because i have a coherent mental model of the world

Pomeroy posted:

I this meant to be a joke?

# ? Mar 7, 2021 21:52

AnimeIsTrash: Jun 30, 2018

https://twitter.com/yungneocon/status/1368084105527693314

The term settler is now cancelled. :negative:

# ? Mar 8, 2021 15:26

thotsky: Jun 7, 2005; hot to trot

s-words II is one of the best strategy games ever made

# ? Mar 8, 2021 16:11

gradenko_2000: Oct 5, 2010; HELL SERPENT; Lipstick Apathy

READ ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS BY J SAKAI

# ? Mar 8, 2021 16:17

dead gay comedy forums: Oct 21, 2011

thotsky posted:

s-words II is one of the best strategy games ever made

elaborate, I am hankering for some grand strategy

# ? Mar 8, 2021 16:29

GalacticAcid: Apr 8, 2013; NEW YORK VALUES

gradenko_2000 posted:

READ ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS BY J SAKAI

# ? Mar 8, 2021 16:30

Dreddout: Oct 1, 2015; You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.

gradenko_2000 posted:

READ ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS BY J SAKAI

# ? Mar 8, 2021 17:14

thotsky: Jun 7, 2005; hot to trot

dead gay comedy forums posted:

elaborate, I am hankering for some grand strategy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Settlers_II

It was a joke (although the game is good, especially https://www.gog.com/game/the_settlers_2_gold_edition)

There's a mod that's making some noise, although I've not played it yet: https://www.siedler25.org/

# ? Mar 8, 2021 18:22

dead gay comedy forums: Oct 21, 2011

thotsky posted:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Settlers_II

It was a joke (although the game is good, especially https://www.gog.com/game/the_settlers_2_gold_edition)

There's a mod that's making some noise, although I've not played it yet: https://www.siedler25.org/

lmao yes I played the settlers, I was trying to one-two the joke further but my attempt was lame af sorry haha

# ? Mar 8, 2021 21:53

Dreylad: Jun 19, 2001

Larry Parrish posted:

liberals love to make excuses for themselves. i mean everyone does but the liberal world order, according to them, has never once had a competent enemy, except sometimes Hitler, who hilariously enough wasn't competent, but since he was part of the west I guess he needs excuses too. It's like how people say oh well we lost Vietnam because the public stopped supporting the war, as if we weren't massively overextended and fighting one of the greatest strategists of the last century if not the last millennium.

yeah ho chi minh and his leadership do not get nearly enough recognition because holy poo poo that is not a fight they should have won

# ? Mar 8, 2021 21:56

Larry Parrish: Jul 9, 2012; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

general giap will became a napoleonic figure eventually when the west stops needing to make excuses and allows themselves to learn from the master of assymetrical warfare. you think the US would be doing this already considering colonial allies like afghanistan plus our forces is basically exactly the same kind of confused mess the vietnamese were working with

# ? Mar 8, 2021 22:55

ToxicAcne: May 25, 2014

Too bad Hollywood has completely succeeded in rewriting the Vietnam War.

# ? Mar 9, 2021 00:04

namesake: Jun 19, 2006; "When I was a girl, around 12 or 13, I had a fantasy that I'd grow up to marry Captain Scarlet, but he'd be busy fighting the Mysterons so I'd cuckold him with the sexiest people I could think of - Nigel Mansell, Pat Sharp and Mr. Blobby."

ToxicAcne posted:

Too bad Hollywood has completely succeeded in rewriting the Vietnam War.

Hollywood only follows Western forces as the protagonists for obvious reasons but the Vietnam War films I can think of don't exactly portray the US forces as winners or heroes. They avoid the subject by focusing on the savagery and inhumanity of war on and of individual soldiers and sometimes communities but it's not really rewriting it.

# ? Mar 9, 2021 00:08

Spergin Morlock: Aug 8, 2009

namesake posted:

Hollywood only follows Western forces as the protagonists for obvious reasons but the Vietnam War films I can think of don't exactly portray the US forces as winners or heroes. They avoid the subject by focusing on the savagery and inhumanity of war on and of individual soldiers and sometimes communities but it's not really rewriting it.

For me this was one of the best parts of the Wolf Warrior movies. Great action and the bad guys are American mercenaries

# ? Mar 9, 2021 00:31

Larry Parrish: Jul 9, 2012; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

i dont think ive seen a single vietnam war movie where an american wasn't the bad guy or at least made to be clearly a piece of poo poo who didn't deserve to make it out. even tropic thunder follows that. i think forest gump might be the only one that breaks the mold, if you count that as a war movie

# ? Mar 9, 2021 01:57

GalacticAcid: Apr 8, 2013; NEW YORK VALUES

I�ve seen The Green Berets which is insanely jingo

# ? Mar 9, 2021 02:19

AnimeIsTrash: Jun 30, 2018

US Propaganda has already rewritten WW2 as the US basically doing all the heavy lifting.

Which is very funny considering the soviets took the brunt of the nazi war machine, and were responsible for so many nazis being killed. Also if they're mentioned their strategy is entirely described as throwing bodies at the enemy. :whitewater:

# ? Mar 9, 2021 02:40

Larry Parrish: Jul 9, 2012; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

AnimeIsTrash posted:

US Propaganda has already rewritten WW2 as the US basically doing all the heavy lifting.

Which is very funny considering the soviets took the brunt of the nazi war machine, and were responsible for so many nazis being killed. Also if they're mentioned their strategy is entirely described as throwing bodies at the enemy.

this is your weekly reminder that the black book retards count nazi deaths in ww2 as victims of communism lmfao

(USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)

# ? Mar 9, 2021 02:42

Dreylad: Jun 19, 2001

Larry Parrish posted:

this is your weekly reminder that the black book retards count nazi deaths in ww2 as victims of communism lmfao

they got funding to build a "memorial to the victims of communism" up here, and only glorious covid stopped the build.

honestly they should have built it right beside one of the memorials to nazi soldiers we already have

# ? Mar 9, 2021 03:58

i say swears online: Mar 4, 2005

Larry Parrish posted:

i dont think ive seen a single vietnam war movie where an american wasn't the bad guy or at least made to be clearly a piece of poo poo who didn't deserve to make it out. even tropic thunder follows that. i think forest gump might be the only one that breaks the mold, if you count that as a war movie

iunno full metal jacket made boot camp look really cool

# ? Mar 9, 2021 04:01

Larry Parrish: Jul 9, 2012; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

i say swears online posted:

iunno full metal jacket made boot camp look really cool

a good friend of mine in high school watched that movie constantly and thought it was insanely badass and quoted it all the time and later became a marine, was suuuuuch a green weenie after basic and tech school when we met up at christmas after we both enlisted

within one year he was rivaling me for massive 'rather kill myself than report to work one more day' dirtbag energy lmfao

# ? Mar 9, 2021 04:06

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 11, 2024 06:31

Dreylad: Jun 19, 2001

gwynne dyer's "anybody's son will do" is the FMJ bootcamp irl

# ? Mar 9, 2021 04:11

The Something Awful Forums > Archives > Comedy Goldmine > The Goodmine > There is a spectrum haunting C-SPAM. I, on the contrary,

«‹›1217 »