Arguments I’m trying to stay out of, so I’m griping about them here, and also a dream report

[moon_custafer]

In a lot of what I’d consider moderate-left spaces, attitudes re the US election seem to have split into: 1. “Yes, it shouldn’t have been this close, but if Dems hold the House and win the presidency, that’s at least better than 4+ more years of Trump, and we have a chance of fixing some thing even if it will be the work of generations;” and 2. “The previous statement was gratingly naïve and saccharine in its optimism, why can’t you just admit that even if Biden wins, this is a Pyrrhic victory and America is doomed.”

I lean more towards the cautiously-hopeful-at-least-try side of things, but I also firmly believe you can’t argue someone out of a fit of depression, and I can’t stand watching the in-fighting; so I went over to a different forum and a different discussion, not directly about contemporary politics. Which is where I’m currently trying to resist answering someone who believes hunter-gatherer societies were if anything less egalitarian than agricultural ones because “their hierarchies would have been dependent on the ability to get along with other people,” with “oh come on how is that not true of all societies?”

What social skills I have are telling me I don’t need this kind of trouble, but the rest of my personality wants to construct arguments-- I mean, I think it’s one of the duties of a progressive society to build a safety net that protects even unlikeable or awkward people, but I also still think there are always going to be individuals who drive away everyone who makes their acquaintance, and you can do is try to find a balance between mitigating the damage and impinging on their freedom.

Anyway thanks for your patience (or if you skimmed over this, that’s ok too).

Meanwhile, one of my dreams last night involved working undercover as Hitler’s secretary in order to spy on him. In this dream, no doubt totally uninfluenced by current events, I kept thinking that while it was a good thing for humanity that Hitler kept making stupid decisions, it was also really painful to watch somebody constantly be that incompetent. srsly, he had a detail of highly-trained ninja bodyguards that he couldn’t resist showing off, so he ordered them moved away from their strategic positions so they could stand guard in front of his door, in full view and out in the open. Stupid dream Hitler.

Comments

[sovay]

For a not-very-strategic, non-military person, my subconscious apparently spends a lot of time pondering this.

It's a bit environmentally unavoidable at the moment.

(I have now had multiple arguments with people in person and online about the state of Nazi nuclear weapons development, otherwise known as the all-star team of Heisenberg and some heavy water. I don't know why that is the hill people choose to die on—I mean, I suspect it's because most of them are American and it assuages the guilt of our successful use of nuclear force if it's framed as an arms race rather than a terror weapon—but man, they do.)

[moon_custafer]

It's a bit environmentally unavoidable at the moment.

I know, it’s just—I couldn’t strategize my way out of a paper bag, I suck at games like chess, and I’m so absent-minded and scatterbrained I’ve begun thinking I ought to get tested for ADHD. The only thing I’ve got working for me in this area is that I know it’s not one of my skills and I try to avoid any situation that would require it. But apparently there’s some other part of my brain that goes “wow, you know what would be a grave tactical error to make when you’ve got a perfectly good commando team at your disposal?”

[kore]

I guess that is also the hill people want to die on now because history made it truly clear that, just as you said, their war effort was crippled by genocide, not enhanced by it (the number of books I read that described the Nazi state as a truly efficient machine....).

otherwise known as the all-star team of Heisenberg and some heavy water

I read that out loud to T and he cracked up!

[sovay]

I guess that is also the hill people want to die on now because history made it truly clear that, just as you said, their war effort was crippled by genocide, not enhanced by it

And it's just not as impressive if we didn't fight the biggest big bad! Augh.

(the number of books I read that described the Nazi state as a truly efficient machine....)

I mean, the Nazi state said it was. It's just, you want to take the Nazi state's word on anything?

I read that out loud to T and he cracked up!

Hooray!

[moon_custafer]

“Herr Heisenberg, where is your colleague the jar of heavy water?”
“I have no idea where it is.”
“...”
“But, I can tell you exactly how fast it is moving.”

[sovay]

“But, I can tell you exactly how fast it is moving.”

Well played.