USCE Winter 2023: change thread titles constantly, almost on a daily basis

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > USCE Winter 2023: change thread titles constantly, almost on a daily basis

«‹›201 »

Mooseontheloose: May 13, 2003

Byzantine posted:

The cancer tried to leave on its own and we refused, now it's too late to cut it out.

We need to be very careful about how we talk about this because that cancer wanted to spread and still enslave people. We hosed the treatment to be sure.

# ? Feb 20, 2023 19:58

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Jun 8, 2024 18:35

CuddleCryptid: Jan 11, 2013; Things could be going better

VikingofRock posted:

It's not as black and white as this. People, and especially marginalized people, keep getting murdered in California because the red states insist on allowing everyone to own guns, and we will never, ever fix this so long as the states remain united.

I have mixed feelings about balkanization, but every time there's another goddamn shooting, I support it a little more. And how many people are sacrificed to our awful healthcare system every year?

And yeah, both of these problems are hard to solve, even in The Hypothetical People's Republic of California. But at least we could start that work.

People want guns because they don't trust the police which isn't going to help when we start drawing ideological lines and then have to figure out how to enforce those lines.

And yes, it would be rather easy for there to be national Healthcare if you cut out all of the wealthy states to make their own society, since social nets are cheaper to maintain if you get rid of a lot of the poor people.

This all just makes me think of people who say that China could be rich and prosperous if they just acted like Singapore, ignoring all the reasons why Singapore is rich in the first place. If Kansas just adopted these social policies then they'd be able to act like California, what with being socially diverse, eco-friendly, having gigantic trade ports, and even bringing some tech firms into the big cities!

CuddleCryptid fucked around with this message at 20:06 on Feb 20, 2023

# ? Feb 20, 2023 20:00

Nenonen: Oct 22, 2009; Mulla on aina kolkyt donaa taskussa

CuddleCryptid posted:

I just want to sit down with them and ask what their plan is for Nebraska to transport its crops across several sovereign nations to reach someone who actually needs their exports.

How is your free market capitalism going to work out when you need to pay fees to His Lord Jesus' Sacred Foundation (formerly known as Missouri) to reach a waterway large enough to transport goods?

Divide the contiguous USA into 48 countries that stretch from sea to shining sea.

# ? Feb 20, 2023 20:04

Byzantine: Sep 1, 2007

Rappaport posted:

I wonder what that would have done for the Manhattan project. If there was a slave-holding Southern US, those dudes would have loved them some Hitler.

And yes it would have been dudes.

Hitler never comes to power because the diminished USA doesn't support and bail out the British and French.

Mooseontheloose posted:

We need to be very careful about how we talk about this because that cancer wanted to spread and still enslave people. We hosed the treatment to be sure.

True, but the Confederacy alone would not have the strength to actually enact their Golden Circle plans, while the presence of a hostile power in between would block the US from dominating Latin America either.

Then the CSA collapses to black revolution like Grant predicted.

Byzantine fucked around with this message at 20:11 on Feb 20, 2023

# ? Feb 20, 2023 20:05

Rappaport: Oct 2, 2013

Byzantine posted:

Hitler never comes to power because the diminished USA doesn't support and bail out the British and French.

So basically Kaiserreich? Not sure how to feel about that, living in a Russia-adjacent state.

# ? Feb 20, 2023 20:09

World Famous W: May 25, 2007; BAAAAAAAAAAAA

we go back that far and most people ain't being born because them one in a million sperms done been hit with the butterfly

# ? Feb 20, 2023 20:11

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; YOU CAN TRUST ME!*

_{*Israeli Government-affiliated poster}

With the recent invention of "modular" nuclear reactors, the White House is now starting a pilot program to push the adoption of these new nuclear reactors in coal communities as a way to transition away from coal, move to lower emissions energy, and keep jobs in the community.

These pilot programs and subsidies are being funded by the several billion dollars dedicated for zero-emission energy technology in the Inflation Reduction Act.

There's still concerns that local communities could block them and the traditional problems of nuclear energy (very expensive to get set up, building new plants is often not economically viable without public assistance, long-term plans on where to store waste, consumer electricity rates for nuclear plants are generally higher than coal, etc.) could prevent their widespread adoption.

There are two demo sites in Idaho and Wyoming that are under construction and the White House's goal is to expand it to double digits. They have worked with some states to make it viable. In West Virginia, nuclear power was banned until recently, but it is now being considered for a modular nuclear site.

There's also different versions and variants for designs and cooling that are still being floated and they haven't settled on a standard for how they should work.

https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1627512772694081537

quote:

Smaller, safer, cheaper? Modular nuclear plants could reshape coal country

WISE, Va. � As Michael Hatfield scanned the landscape from atop the abandoned mine where he once worked, he saw more than a patch of Appalachia left behind by an energy economy in transition. He saw a launchpad for the next nuclear age.

The nuclear power plants Hatfield has in mind are not what you think. No massive cooling towers, miles of concrete, expansive evacuation zones. The nuclear industry and the Biden administration are pitching coal communities on small, adaptable plants that promoters boast are safer, cheaper and capable of being deployed all over the country in the effort to cut the power sector�s contribution to climate change.

Whether small modular reactors, or SMRs, can realistically be built all over the nation is very much in dispute. The nuclear industry has a record of overpromising and energy scholars warn this new technology is straining to show viability. Two demonstration projects expected to break ground, in Idaho and Wyoming, are behind schedule and struggling with spiraling costs.

But as the United States seeks efficient alternatives to burning fossil fuels for electricity, these proposals for space-age plants that can be small enough to fit in a large backyard feature prominently. They are designed to look more like office parks than nuclear plants, with low rise architecture that replaces concrete with steel, and downsized reactors the administration compares to those the U.S. Navy uses to power ships and submarines.

U.S. climate envoy John F. Kerry said in a recent interview with The Post that the technology�s success is vital for meeting the world�s goal of avoiding the most catastrophic fallout from climate change by limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

�I don�t think we get there without it,� Kerry said.

Coal country is a ripe target for this experiment, with infrastructure that can be repurposed, capable workforces and communities eager to reclaim prominence in the energy economy. More than 300 retired and operating coal plants in the United States are good candidates for a nuclear conversion, according to a recent Department of Energy report that has touched off a frenzy of activity.

Communities that previously rejected nuclear power as unsafe or a threat to the coal industry are now clamoring to be a part of what might be branded nuclear 2.0.

�See that hilltop over there?� said Hatfield, a former coal company engineer who is now the administrator for Wise County. �If you put a nuclear plant someplace like that, it is not going to be near anybody�s backyard. This would keep us in the forefront of the energy business. We see it as our future.�

In January, billionaire Bill Gates, founder of an advanced nuclear company called TerraPower, toured a mothballed coal power plant near Glasgow, W.Va., with Joe Manchin III, the state�s Democratic senator. Gates was warmly embraced at a town hall following the plant visit. It was a notable turnabout in an area where the style of climate activism personified by Gates has long been met with hostility.

�The way nuclear plants were built, they were just very expensive,� Gates said at the event. �Unless we start from scratch with a new design, we won�t be able to have low-cost electricity.�

It was only a year ago that nuclear power was banned in West Virginia, under a state law intended to protect the coal industry. The state is among several to either lift such a ban or pass a law encouraging development of small nuclear reactors over the last few years. Political leaders see opportunities to boost regional economies and to get a piece of the billions of dollars in subsidies for generating �advanced nuclear� power available through the recently enacted Inflation Reduction Act.

These reactors are still very much a work in progress, with multiple companies pursuing dozens of designs in the hopes of achieving a breakthrough. Some of the designs build on the light-water reactor technology that powers legacy nuclear plants, while others go in entirely different directions. TerraPower would use �fast reactors� cooled with sodium instead of water, potentially enabling them to operate more efficiently and safely than existing plants. Other designs use helium as a coolant.

One glaring challenge with all of the designs: nuclear waste. Designers of the smaller plants vow each facility would produce only a small volume of it, requiring more modest evacuation zones and safety buffers. But scattering hundreds of plants around the country means every community they are in will need to be comfortable with some measure of spent fuel in their backyards, and some prominent researchers are challenging claims that these new reactors create less waste.

The developers are hoping plant designs that keep all the spent fuel contained in the reactor, which stays put for a number of years � even decades � before ultimately getting hauled away could be palatable to communities. But at the moment, there is nowhere to dispose of the used reactors.

�If you are saying, �we want to build on this site,� and the community is asking �how long will the waste be here?� and you have no answer, that is a big problem,� said Jessica Lovering, co-founder of Good Energy Collective, a group that advocates nuclear power as a climate solution.

Political leaders are forging ahead regardless, and officials in coal towns are eagerly pursuing advice from the Department of Energy on how they might draw a small reactor to their locale.

�When you get to a place like this that�s lost all these energy jobs, the talk is not whether it�s coming or not,� said Stephen Lawson, the town manager in Big Stone Gap, Va., a Wise County community where the regal brick building that once housed the Westmoreland Coal Company is now a pottery store. �It is, �Who is going to get it? And how do we keep from being left out?��

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin�s (R) energy plan calls for Southwest Virginia to build the nation�s first commercial small reactor. The governor was in Wise County in October promoting the plan at an abandoned mine site. Virginia is among at least eight states pursuing a small reactor. At least another eight have launched feasibility studies, according to federal energy officials.

That includes Maryland, where a nuclear energy innovation company called X-energy recently partnered with the state and Frostburg State University to show how one of the Maryland�s coal plants could be repurposed for nuclear energy. The final report, published in January, did not identify the specific coal plant studied. X-energy officials said it was because the owner of the plant asked for confidentiality. The omission of a location underscored how carefully proponents of this technology are treading at a time many communities still fear nuclear power is too big a safety and financial risk.

Some places are already reconsidering whether the technology lives up to the talking points. The Pueblo County, Colo., board of commissioners was initially all in, telling state regulators that a modular nuclear plant is the only zero-emissions option for replacing the electricity and economic activity created by the Comanche Generating Station, a hulking coal plant slated for closure in 2030. After a public backlash, the supervisors abandoned the plan.

�A lot of these communities are under pressure because they need to do something now to plan for the closure of coal plants,� said David Schlissel, director of resource planning analysis at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. �The marketers of these small modular reactors, who don�t even have products licensed yet, are of course going to tell them the other alternatives are bad. They say you can�t rely on renewables, you can�t rely on battery storage, so they can sell their products. The risk is these places end up with gigantic financial commitments to nuclear projects, some of which are nothing more right now than a Power Point presentation.�

But by the time the Nuclear Regulatory Commission last month approved the design of the plant � the first such approval in the United States � the expected cost of the energy had gone up more than 50 percent. Some communities pulled out, and others are anxious the costs could rise further by the time the plant goes online, scheduled for December 2029. The cost of the power would be even higher were the plant not so heavily subsidized by the federal government, which has already committed $1.4 billion to develop it and will offset the cost of the electricity it produces by about $30 per megawatt hour, which could cost U.S. taxpayers another $2 billion.

NuScale, which is also angling to build plants in Romania, Poland and Ghana, said in a statement that the cost increases reflect �external factors such as inflationary pressures and increases in the price of steel, electrical equipment and other construction commodities not seen for more than 40 years.�

�Hopefully, the prices won�t get any higher,� said LaVarr Webb, spokesman for the Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems, which represents power companies seeking to buy electricity from the Idaho project. �But that has not yet been proven.�

A project Gates is backing in Kemmerer, Wyo., is having its own challenges. The plant would be fueled by a highly enriched form of uranium that TerraPower planned to initially source from Russia. That plan fell apart with Russia�s invasion of Ukraine and the sanctions it triggered.

The company announced in December it was pushing back its target date for opening the plant by two years, to 2030. And it is now lobbying Congress to allocate $2.1 billion to subsidize facilities that could produce such uranium in the United States. The request comes after the federal government has already committed $1.6 billion to building the company�s Wyoming plant.

On an industrial plot an hour outside Houston, a much smaller modular nuclear company is trying a completely different approach � one that doesn�t rely on any government subsidies. The company Last Energy plans to use the same technology employed by legacy nuclear plants to create power as cheaply as a natural gas plant. The reactor and much of the core technology fits into a tidy, 30-feet-long-by-30-feet-wide-by-30-feet-high steel box that is mostly assembled off site and can be transported in nine truck trips. Last Energy is only selling its modules to industrial customers in Europe, where the regulatory hurdles are not as cumbersome for new reactor designs.

A sophisticated campaign to find communities that might be amenable to hosting the nuclear plants is underway, coordinated through a University of Michigan-based coalition called Fastest Path to Zero. It has built extensive databases that gauge not just technical suitability for building a plant and transmitting power, but also political suitability. Communities are rated on how amenable they might be to having a nuclear plant in their backyard, based on survey results and other data.

When it comes to finding sites for plants, said Gabrielle Hoelzle, the group�s lead data scientist, �we are trying to do things in a new way and get it right the first time. We cannot fall into the previous approach of deciding where they will go, announcing it and then trying to defend it.�

Back in Wise County, Mountain Empire Community College, which years ago dropped its underground mining major due to low enrollment, is now mapping out how it can revise course offerings to train a nuclear workforce.

�We�re looking at what are those jobs that are going to be needed if we do get SMRs,� said Kris Westover, president of the college. �We�re trying to make sure that we�re ready.�

# ? Feb 20, 2023 20:13

Captain_Maclaine: Sep 30, 2001; Every moment that I'm alive, I pray for death!

Byzantine posted:

Hitler never comes to power because the diminished USA doesn't support and bail out the British and French.

True, but the Confederacy alone would not have the strength to actually enact their Golden Circle plans, while the presence of a hostile power in between would block the US from dominating Latin America either.

Then the CSA collapses to black revolution like Grant predicted.

Careful, this way lieth Harry Turtledove.

# ? Feb 20, 2023 20:14

Name Change: Oct 9, 2005

Captain_Maclaine posted:

Careful, this way lieth Harry Turtledove.

You couldn't live with reconstruction, and where did that bring you? Back to fighting aliens alongside Mecha-Hitler.

# ? Feb 20, 2023 20:19

Main Paineframe: Oct 27, 2010

Byzantine posted:

The cancer tried to leave on its own and we refused, now it's too late to cut it out.

If they had been permitted to leave, then there wouldn't be a US anymore. It'd be the total end of federal power, because states could just make demands and threaten to secede if they don't get their way. And since the nature of the US requires states to make concessions and sacrifices for other states all the time, that would be completely impractical. The founding fathers already learned the hard way that an ultra-weak federal government doesn't work.

Realistically, a civil war was probably unavoidable. If it hadn't started in 1861, something would have kicked it off before too many years passed. A US with secession on the table is just too unstable.

# ? Feb 20, 2023 20:19

pencilhands: Aug 20, 2022

VikingofRock posted:

It's not as black and white as this. People, and especially marginalized people, keep getting murdered in California because the red states insist on allowing everyone to own guns, and we will never, ever fix this so long as the states remain united.

I have mixed feelings about balkanization, but every time there's another goddamn shooting, I support it a little more. And how many people are sacrificed to our awful healthcare system every year?

And yeah, both of these problems are hard to solve, even in The Hypothetical People's Republic of California. But at least we could start that work.

How do you think hypothetically for example, african americans would fare under a federally unchecked christofascist regime in a state like alabama?

# ? Feb 20, 2023 20:22

Rappaport: Oct 2, 2013

Captain_Maclaine posted:

Careful, this way lieth Harry Turtledove.

Can we do Charles Stross instead? Though I'm not sure which version of the US Cthulhu would prefer.

# ? Feb 20, 2023 20:25

Halloween Jack: Sep 12, 2003; I WILL CUT OFF BOTH OF MY ARMS BEFORE I VOTE FOR ANYONE THAT IS MORE POPULAR THAN BERNIE!!!!!

pencilhands posted:

How do you think hypothetically for example, african americans would fare under a federally unchecked christofascist regime in a state like alabama?

Obviously they'd just vote out the Christofascist regime and take over, like majority-nonwhite populations always do in these situations.

# ? Feb 20, 2023 20:27

GhostofJohnMuir: Aug 14, 2014; anime is not good

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

With the recent invention of "modular" nuclear reactors, the White House is now starting a pilot program to push the adoption of these new nuclear reactors in coal communities as a way to transition away from coal, move to lower emissions energy, and keep jobs in the community.

These pilot programs and subsidies are being funded by the several billion dollars dedicated for zero-emission energy technology in the Inflation Reduction Act.

There's still concerns that local communities could block them and the traditional problems of nuclear energy (very expensive to get set up, building new plants is often not economically viable without public assistance, long-term plans on where to store waste, consumer electricity rates for nuclear plants are generally higher than coal, etc.) could prevent their widespread adoption.

There are two demo sites in Idaho and Wyoming that are under construction and the White House's goal is to expand it to double digits. They have worked with some states to make it viable. In West Virginia, nuclear power was banned until recently, but it is now being considered for a modular nuclear site.

There's also different versions and variants for designs and cooling that are still being floated and they haven't settled on a standard for how they should work.

https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1627512772694081537

hmm, i'm just a layman on the topic, but intuitively it seems like this kind of distributed setup would help with the problem of other alternative power generation being located in remote areas our ancient power grid has trouble coping with

# ? Feb 20, 2023 20:32

Byzantine: Sep 1, 2007

I will take back many bad things I've said about him if Biden gets nuclear power rolling again.

# ? Feb 20, 2023 20:36

haveblue: Aug 15, 2005; Toilet Rascal

The main obstacle to using Yucca Mountain for waste storage has been removed, so just ship it all to Nevada

# ? Feb 20, 2023 20:40

Push El Burrito: May 9, 2006; Soiled Meat

haveblue posted:

The main obstacle to using Yucca Mountain for waste storage has been removed, so just ship it all to Nevada

There's a spot in Nevada that's perfect.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Hole,_Nevada

# ? Feb 20, 2023 20:43

PhazonLink: Jul 17, 2010

Halloween Jack posted:

Obviously they'd just vote out the Christofascist regime and take over, like majority-nonwhite populations always do in these situations.

I want to be in the timeline of least bloodshed and pain, where its only Texas that succeeds, and Musk has to llive through another white state collapse.

# ? Feb 20, 2023 20:55

Professor Beetus: Apr 12, 2007; They can fight us
But they'll never Beetus

I don't think balkanization would be a good thing but I think that it might be inevitable in the face of the continued rot and decay that seems to be grinding the bottom 50% of Americans into gristle for the mammon machine. The empire is failing.

Professor Beetus fucked around with this message at 21:00 on Feb 20, 2023

# ? Feb 20, 2023 20:58

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; YOU CAN TRUST ME!*

_{*Israeli Government-affiliated poster}

haveblue posted:

The main obstacle to using Yucca Mountain for waste storage has been removed, so just ship it all to Nevada

All the current Nevada politicians still hate it and swear to block it. Plus, Nevada is a swing state that nobody wants to piss off.

Some President should just organize a Nevada pride day at the end of their second term and then have the Senate and House vote on Yucca Mountain while the Nevada delegation is out celebrating.

# ? Feb 20, 2023 20:59

Normy: Jul 1, 2004; Do I Krushchev?

Nothing says America First like splitting up the country into several less powerful countries

# ? Feb 20, 2023 20:59

Rappaport: Oct 2, 2013

Professor Beetus posted:

I don't think balkanization would be a good thing but I think that it might be inevitable in the face of the continued rot and decay that seems to be grinding the bottom 50% of Americans into gristle for the mammon machine. The empire is failing.

But how would the balkanization happen in practice? How would the various federal offices, some of which hold considerable international prestige, be divvied up? Who holds the Treasury? Is there a new, Texan treasury?

America is failing its citizenry, that is for certain, but as a nation? There's a lot of Pentagon egg-heads who have strategized the poo poo out of any new civil war, and that is still fundamentally what you are proposing. Or Marjorie was, I'm sorry, but all the same. How would the modern division of the United States happen?

# ? Feb 20, 2023 21:06

Nenonen: Oct 22, 2009; Mulla on aina kolkyt donaa taskussa

Normy posted:

Nothing says America First like splitting up the country into several less powerful countries

Americas First through Fiftieth

# ? Feb 20, 2023 21:07

Mooseontheloose: May 13, 2003

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

All the current Nevada politicians still hate it and swear to block it. Plus, Nevada is a swing state that nobody wants to piss off.

Some President should just organize a Nevada pride day at the end of their second term and then have the Senate and House vote on Yucca Mountain while the Nevada delegation is out celebrating.

Also, maybe there is some hope on figuring out how to recycle nuclear waste?

# ? Feb 20, 2023 21:07

Queering Wheel: Jun 18, 2011; [url=https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3876906]

Mooseontheloose posted:

Also, maybe there is some hope on figuring out how to recycle nuclear waste?

We already know how to recycle nuclear waste. The US just doesn't do it for...some reason.

# ? Feb 20, 2023 21:19

PhazonLink: Jul 17, 2010

on the subject of nuclear waste, apparently the Indian Point plant in NY is trying to release some waste water into the hudson, and I assume this is just a normal boring industrial process thats part of decommissioning plans and its as safe as the engineers could get, but its getting push back from locals and the same anti nuclear lobbying groups.

Also similar lobbying groups are trying to stop new coastal win turbines and using a bunch of recent dead/beached whales as a cover.

# ? Feb 20, 2023 21:19

bird food bathtub: Aug 9, 2003; College Slice

Rappaport posted:

But how would the balkanization happen in practice? How would the various federal offices, some of which hold considerable international prestige, be divvied up? Who holds the Treasury? Is there a new, Texan treasury?

America is failing its citizenry, that is for certain, but as a nation? There's a lot of Pentagon egg-heads who have strategized the poo poo out of any new civil war, and that is still fundamentally what you are proposing. Or Marjorie was, I'm sorry, but all the same. How would the modern division of the United States happen?

It's important to properly interpret what people like MTG and other fascists mean when they say they want to break up the country, and how their audience internalizes that message.

They don't want to leave the country, because they're "real Americans". They want all the undesirables to leave the country. And if they don't get their way, then the undesirables will just have to be murdered.

# ? Feb 20, 2023 21:25

Professor Beetus: Apr 12, 2007; They can fight us
But they'll never Beetus

Rappaport posted:

But how would the balkanization happen in practice? How would the various federal offices, some of which hold considerable international prestige, be divvied up? Who holds the Treasury? Is there a new, Texan treasury?

America is failing its citizenry, that is for certain, but as a nation? There's a lot of Pentagon egg-heads who have strategized the poo poo out of any new civil war, and that is still fundamentally what you are proposing. Or Marjorie was, I'm sorry, but all the same. How would the modern division of the United States happen?

I mean it's death by a thousand cuts. Perhaps not officially balkanized, but the poo poo you're already seeing on a larger scale. Red states making more and more laws criminalizing LGBTQ communities, minority communities, etc. And of course these lovely laws will be upheld by the clearly stolen and partisan supreme court. More states forming interstate compacts to soften the effects of an increasingly weak and impotent federal government that has its regulatory agencies gutted every time a republican is in office. We're watching it happen in real time, that's what it looks like.

# ? Feb 20, 2023 21:27

Rand Brittain: Mar 25, 2013; "Go on until you're stopped."

Yeah, I feel like if we ever see "balkanization" it's going to look more like states announcing that they don't plan on obeying certain laws or cooperating in their enforcement until the system for passing those laws is fixed, and then... I don't know what happens after that.

# ? Feb 20, 2023 21:40

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; This does not make sense when, again, aggregate indicia also indicate improvements. The belief that things are worse is false. It remains false.

Rand Brittain posted:

Yeah, I feel like if we ever see "balkanization" it's going to look more like states announcing that they don't plan on obeying certain laws or cooperating in their enforcement until the system for passing those laws is fixed, and then... I don't know what happens after that.

You're describing cannabis.

# ? Feb 20, 2023 21:42

Professor Beetus: Apr 12, 2007; They can fight us
But they'll never Beetus

Discendo Vox posted:

You're describing cannabis.

Yes, and what happens when "cannabis" is replaced with "criminalizing the existence of trans people"? I don't know the answer but I think we're about to find out.

# ? Feb 20, 2023 21:44

Name Change: Oct 9, 2005

The union somehow survived Jim Crow, so it will probably limp on with its current and future yawning economic and social gaps between different states.

# ? Feb 20, 2023 21:48

CuddleCryptid: Jan 11, 2013; Things could be going better

Professor Beetus posted:

Yes, and what happens when "cannabis" is replaced with "criminalizing the existence of trans people"? I don't know the answer but I think we're about to find out.

I think this was settled with desegregation where it turns out the solution was to send out armed federal agents to shoot anyone who tries to stop kids from going to school.

But there are a lot of softer options. After all, most of the regressive states hate the government while also being utterly dependent on it.

Fritz the Horse posted:

im going to balkanize this thread

Please put me in the new thread where everyone is free and we don't have any social or economic issues because we kicked <insert group> out.

CuddleCryptid fucked around with this message at 22:04 on Feb 20, 2023

# ? Feb 20, 2023 21:48

Halloween Jack: Sep 12, 2003; I WILL CUT OFF BOTH OF MY ARMS BEFORE I VOTE FOR ANYONE THAT IS MORE POPULAR THAN BERNIE!!!!!

From what I can tell, the idea of balkanization is popular with two types of people. The first type is liberals who write magazine columns and/or tweet things like "The Carolinas deserve natural disasters because they voted for Trump." They aren't numerous or well-organized, so forget them.

The second type is radical right wingers who are looking forward to race war. They're relying on the knowledge that conservatives own all the guns and rule all the rural counties. They sincerely believe in racist ideology, to the point that they think social breakdown is good because it will result in "nature taking its course," i.e. white conservatives wiping out everyone who isn't white and conservative. They're too stupid to understand concepts like economic interdependency.

I, for one, can't wait to see how the Yugoslav Wars work out in a much larger territory with infinity billion assault rifles.

# ? Feb 20, 2023 21:56

Fritz the Horse: Dec 26, 2019; ... of course!

im going to balkanize this thread

# ? Feb 20, 2023 21:58

Ershalim: Sep 22, 2008; Clever Betty

bird food bathtub posted:

It's important to properly interpret what people like MTG and other fascists mean when they say they want to break up the country, and how their audience internalizes that message.

They don't want to leave the country, because they're "real Americans". They want all the undesirables to leave the country. And if they don't get their way, then the undesirables will just have to be murdered.

Yeah, this is the major takeaway I think people should take from this. Dogwhistles are extremely effective and heavily workshopped. Among her followers, they understand this to mean "they have to go," but for rational thinking people who are too online it's a reason to argue hypothetical minutiae. It works the same with "Critical Race Theory" or "JudeoChristian beliefs" - the words conservatives use have been meant to work this way since before most of us were born. It's easy to assume MTG is some kind of moron, because in all likelihood she is, but the owners of the media apparatus that puppeteer her are extremely good at their jobs.

# ? Feb 20, 2023 22:05

GhostofJohnMuir: Aug 14, 2014; anime is not good

i'm not super familiar with the history of the balkans, but from what i do know, going through a political crisis named after them probably isn't going to be great

# ? Feb 20, 2023 22:18

PeterWeller: Apr 21, 2003; I told you that story so I could tell you this one.

Queering Wheel posted:

We already know how to recycle nuclear waste. The US just doesn't do it for...some reason.

The US recycles nuclear waste. We turn it into depleted uranium ammunition to destroy enemy tanks and give cancer to anyone lucky enough to survive their tank getting destroyed.

Halloween Jack posted:

From what I can tell, the idea of balkanization is popular with two types of people. The first type is liberals who write magazine columns and/or tweet things like "The Carolinas deserve natural disasters because they voted for Trump." They aren't numerous or well-organized, so forget them.

The second type is radical right wingers who are looking forward to race war. They're relying on the knowledge that conservatives own all the guns and rule all the rural counties. They sincerely believe in racist ideology, to the point that they think social breakdown is good because it will result in "nature taking its course," i.e. white conservatives wiping out everyone who isn't white and conservative. They're too stupid to understand concepts like economic interdependency.

I, for one, can't wait to see how the Yugoslav Wars work out in a much larger territory with infinity billion assault rifles.

There's the third type who just want to see how completely cyberpunk we can make this place.

# ? Feb 20, 2023 22:49

Blue Footed Booby: Oct 4, 2006; got those happy feet

PeterWeller posted:

The US recycles nuclear waste. We turn it into depleted uranium ammunition to destroy enemy tanks and give cancer to anyone lucky enough to survive their tank getting destroyed.

...

The main threats from DU are heavy metal poisoning and being pyrophoric. The radiation is slight, at least compared to the cancer risk of everything else in a tank burning.

# ? Feb 20, 2023 23:02

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Jun 8, 2024 18:35

Captain_Maclaine: Sep 30, 2001; Every moment that I'm alive, I pray for death!

Queering Wheel posted:

We already know how to recycle nuclear waste. The US just doesn't do it for...some reason.

Ostensibly it's due to an element of one of the non-proliferation/arms limitation treaties we signed with the Soviet (fuel recycling, done one way, can yield weapons-grade material, to oversimplify things immensely). In reality, it's mostly inertia, post-TMI/Chernobyl reflexive fear of ATOMS, and NIMBYism.

# ? Feb 20, 2023 23:07

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > USCE Winter 2023: change thread titles constantly, almost on a daily basis

«‹›201 »